Question : Problem: What can cause computer to self test, post and then go to blank screen, blinking cursor? Please help~~

Hi,
  I've had good luck with my IBM NetVista X41 17" all in one.  It was working flawlessly until just this week when it won't boot into windows.  It will post with no error messages, I can get into BIOS and change all the settings.  It reads my internal devices properly (IDE drive, DVDRW)  At startup I can hit f12 which takes me to boot selector and I can boot to CD with a bootable CD.  I've removed the hard drive and put it in another computer and I can read the drive fine.  I've tried using XP Pro recovery console to fix the boot sector and have done a inplace repair of the XP system files and still no luck. It completes post, goes to boot to the hard drive and you hear a quick chug of the hard drive, the screen changes and I'm left with a blinking cursor.  I've removed and replaced the RAM, I've removed the BIOS battery and tried booting after replacing it.  All the fans seem to be working.  I even took another drive that had XP loaded on a primary partition (like my current drive is set up) and tried booting to that and after post message, I get black screen and blinking cursor.  I suspect there is a step in the boot process where the motherboard tells the hard drive to start loading system files and it seems to be getting stuck here.  
  Any way to test the motherboard?  I assume the CPU is good if I can boot from CD and run the recovery programs from the CD?  The ram tests out OK on the Post self test.  I assume the power supply is good.  Any other ideas?  I haven't erased my hard drive and done a fresh install but I figured if a inplace install of the system folder didn't fix it that erasing and starting over wouldn't be any different?  Any other ideas or experience with this computer?  I watched for a while on ebay to find this computer as it is a few years older now and I noticed several other X41s in the 15" and 17" model that were listed as booting to blank screen and cursor so apparently others have had this problem as well.  

  Thanks for taking time to read this far and offer any advice you can give!!

Answer : Problem: What can cause computer to self test, post and then go to blank screen, blinking cursor? Please help~~

Try a different IDE cable, and less likely to help but switch the hard drive to first in the boot order.  Otherwise I'm liking what you said - fresh install, new partitions, and no quick format (let the format scan the drive for errors).  At that point you'll be looking at either bad hard drive or the mobo IDE controller (usually can be replaced with add-in card).