If you have the cable upside down that will cause them not to open, He said if he unplugg's the IDE cable they will open. The first thing you need to do is reset the cmos, and remove the battery. Check your manual to find the jumper pin. Unplug both drive's and try it. Also you are using a sata hard drive you will need to install the sata drivers, before you can install windows.
If reseting the cmos does nothing and you don't have another video card to try, do you have another computer to try the x1900 in?? Do you have the pci express connector plugged into the card? The Mobo is probably toast!