not able to ligate PCR product into a vector... - what do you suggest? (Jan/16/2006 )

hello all again,,,,,so i am not able to get colonies of transformants....
i attached hindIII and ecoRI sites to PCR insert 4 additional bases at each site (not enough) and after PCR purified by chloroform/phenol...
digested both vector and PCR product and purified again by chloroform phenol...
ligated by using a good kit in the lab....and trasformed by electroporation...no colonies....
should I try chloroform again, because last time i had problems in checking pcr insert concentration so dont really know what ratio i have inserted...
should i try cutting from the gel ....???
should I try blunt cloning and then cutting?
should I try T cloning here they have T vector but it maybe lost its T tail.....so?? what should I do?? thanx lot

First of all, have you included positive control in your transformation such as intact plasmid. The positive control will tell you if your competent cells, LB plates and transformation procedure are OK. Every transformation should have such positive control.

If possible, why not try TA cloning which is much easier. What do you mean by saying that "T vector maybe lost its T tail"? A T vector kept at -20C should be good for years.

thanx a lot for your reply...yes i have included positive control and i had a lot of colonies....so i think it is not E coli problem.....regarding T vector i dont know here they said they have done some cloning with it and when they sequenced it it appeared not to have all Ts in it.... ....so they just adviced me not to use it.....