<snip.
>
> Have I completely killed this computer, did I kill the motherboard
> because I pulled the IDE cable out with the system on, or is the power
> supply broken? Is there anything that I can do to salvage any of it if
> I have blown the motherboard? It has dual processors and a lot of ram
> and I don't want to just throw it away. I am really annoyed with myself
> because it was a decent computer that I was going to use for learning!
>


Then the computer sure did the job...
you have learned a lot already!