Hey Guys! got the reset switch fixed!!
Took the console apart but everything seemed fine. I detached the ribbon cable from the ZIF socket and reseated it and the short seemed to go away. Wish i had tried that first before removing the surface mount push button. I had to destroy it to get it out (assumed it was bad). Well just resoldered a new one here from work and it fuctions the way Bighap said. Awesome! can't wait to get home and test some backups!
knew it wasn't the install- I do micro-soldering for a living and did it under my microscope workstation to make perfect connections that i checked. Thought maybe a wire couldv'e been shorted by a screw or something though as i read in a previous post.
Just got my HP 300i DVD burner in the mail which comes with recordnowmax and i'll try some verbatim +R backups tomorrow maybe. Learned everything from this forum- Thanks for all the tips guys- Anyone in S. Florida need a messiah 2 pro installed?