hi everyone, thanks for the responses.

i have had it all apart and cannot see any damage whatsoever. it looks in mint condition.
someone in another forum had the same problem and they solved it by removing the cmos battery and then replacing it after 15 mins. i tried this but sadly it did not do anything for my situation. does anyone know if it would make any difference if i put a new cmos battery in, just in case the present one is completely dead? or would the cmos battery not have anything to do with it and the other guy just got lucky!

if anyone does have any more thoughts or ideas then please let me know,

cheers, scott