HP notebook hard drive problems

Hello from Killeen, TX. I have a HP zd7101us 6 months out of warranty. At first I got the "so fast I couldn’t read them" blue screens followed by shutdown. I managed to get everything backed up before it died completely. The power lights come on so I know the ac adapter works. The hard drive light was never lit up at all. After looking at the HP maintenance manual online, I figured it was the hard drive. Got a new one from Best Buy and now I have all of the same symptoms but the hard drive light flickers once and the drive clicks once when I try to start the notebook. It will not boot from the CD/DVD driive when I try to get the recovery CD to load. I am afraid I may be looking at a new system board. While I feel confident I can change it out my self, I see prices around $500+ for a new board. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Vic Feldman