6800Go short circuit?

i have similar problems with my 7800gtx.. it takes a while to seat it in such a manner that it works... just open her up so that you can access the videocard during boot and try applying different amounts of pressure in different places until you can get it to boot (assuming you reassembled everything correctly..) my cards just dont seem to fit right in the motherboard and it takes some time and effort to get it working.

good luck.

one more thing, loosen the screws (not the heatsink torx screws but the ones that attach the card to the MOBO). Sometimes i can get it to work with all of the screws, but i generally have to keep one or two loose in order to boot.. I broke something, but its not a big enough deal to try to fix it as long as i'm able to get it working..

sometimes my card gets confused and I can't adjust the brightness of the LCD.. when this happens, the videocard's temp gauge reads 255c. Have you ever experienced such an issue?

I'm sure you didn't ruin anything, so dont worry too much yet. do you have a warrenty through dell still? if so, play around with it for a bit, then have them send you a replacement videocard or motherboard.. If you have easy access to one (through a friend or relative), you may want to try another videocard in the computer.. maybe an x300 or something.

sorry for going on soo much, but i keep thinking of things.. also, i think you're right in the problem being a short.. if you fried something, i dont think it would know to shut down right away. if you killed any one component, the system would try to POST and either get an error or lock up. Since it shuts itself off right away, i'd imagine a short. Electricity is flowing somewhere it doesn't belong, or isn't reaching certain components, preventing POST altogether.

here's some other stuff to try.. probably wont help, but some of the 9300s are very animated and have a mind of their own..
-try booting with just AC, just battery or both.. maybe it's related to the battery or your power brick for some reason
-disconnect the lcd from the videocard and see if it stays on longer then with it plugged in..
-reseat your ram (very unlikely to do anything, but i have heard of ram unseating itself..)
you get the idea.. try everything you can think of.. and see if you can atleast get it to POST.. if you can get it far enough to not shutdown right away, we may be able to figure something out.

good luck.