Computer wont do anything???

[Overdriven6]

My Dell computer wont boot anything. I have access to the BIOS, and can rearange the boot order of everything, but it makes no difference. When i try to boot from the hard drive all i get is a black screen with a white flashing cursor. The same thing happens when i try to boot from a CD like windows Xp. I reset the BIOS to no avail. Ive done everything i can think of except beat it with a hammer until it works! Please help!!! thanks

 

[Nitestick]

does it detect your hdd or cd drive? if not i think faulty ide controller/cable has worked its way loose. remove all unecessary parts until you have just your main hdd, ram, motherboard and cpu powered. then start trying to eliminate causes