2000xl screen lights up but there's nothing on it! help..

I swapped the floppy drive for a zip a couple weeks ago but didn't have a disk to test it. the load screen read no scsi device 0 - 6 (or 7 cant remember now) and no floppy device.. in fact the only thing that didnt say there was no device was the F-rom..

finally got a disk but it continued to say the same thing. i figured i installed the drive wrong so i tried flipping the 40 pin ribbon cord around. now the main lcd screen lights up but thats it. there's nothing on the thing... not to sure what to do at this point.

open the bottom.. unplug the data cable (I am guessing you are using an IDE zip? or is it using the scsi port?) now when powered on, does it still do it?

You need to upgrade the os for the Mpc to recognise the drive.

Disconnect the cf and see if the Mpc boots correctly.
If it still fails to boot check:

All cables are seated correctly

Make sure the jumpers on the motherboard have not become disconnected when working on it