No POST

MB: New A7N8X-X

I'm getting the same results with my new Asus board as I did with a
new Epox board (sent back per Epox support).

Boards won't run POST, no beep. After power is turned on, case fans
run, and monitor goes into sleep mode after about 8 secs.

If I take the IDE cable from IDE 1, place in IDE 2, the board POSTs
and boots completely. Then, on reboot, same failure occurs.

If I place IDE cable back to IDE 1, failure occurs again.

Then placing IDE cable from IDE 1 to IDE 2, again, board POSTs and
computer boots completely.

That is the pattern.

I've tried a different new IDE cable and get the same results with or
without the CD-ROM attached to the cable.

I'm stumped, at this point. Could it be the hard drive? It seems weird
for the HD to be bad if it boots up at any point during the pattern
above.

Any wisdom here, from the wise, is appreciated... .