> You mention a short but don't have anything to confirm that.
you're rignt,i didn't measure it. i myself didn't find anything wrong on the board, so i gave it to a friend of mine who is much better at fixing things. he suspected this capacitor. he'll unsolder it an check then if there's still a short.

>It doesn't look like a bypass cap
what makes you think so? it's right on the corner of this SAA...-chip and i think the pcb-traces to it are wider than normal...

>The clicking is probably the hard drives trying to move heads or spin up.
i disconnected everything, so no hd connected, no frontpanel, no lose screws lying around
and as i said the clicking is _very_ faint. you have to put your ear right above it and the red led on the mainboard is off. so i really think there's no power.

>Are you sure your power pack is OK?
no, but the symptoms started in the car, then i took it home and it's the same with the ac-adaptor. i think, it's unlikly that both power sources are broken.

thanks for your hints. we'll measure things, so we're shure what we're talking about