Another thing:

Based on your symptom (replaced drive and the new drive doesn't spin up at all)...

Are you sure the IDE cable is plugged in correctly at both ends of the connection? (i.e., it's not plugged in off-by-one-pin in either the X or the Y axis?)

You can often get the thing plugged in and *looking* right, but it can still be off-by-one.

Really really double and triple check this. Both ends of the cable.