Here's the rundown, basically I am putting using my old parts my old desktop so my parents can use it and so that a certain person can play call of duty on it and not pester me and play on my computer.
(The thought of a 40 year old man kicking me off my own computer to play a FPS should be embarrassing for most people)
However it seems that I have 2 problems, my motherboard isn't recognizing my IDE hard drive (it doesn't have a SATA port to it--the hd that is) and my dvdrom drive won't open, which is weird.
I am assuming I probably do not have the hard drive set to Master/Slave whatever it is needed to work but the despite beign plugged in DVD-Rom drive not opening when the computer is on puzzles me.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
When you say it doesn't POST, do you mean it doesn't power on at all when you hit the power button?
And have you checked the usual physical suspects- bent pins, dust accumulation, etc.?
Are you certain the DVD is receiving power? Does its front LED light up?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Thats the thing I cant tell if its actually getting power, everything else works powerwise. It does POST but there's no beeping I'm used to at least one bleep.
AFAICT there is no physical damage to any of it. I have a single IDE ribbon going from the MOBO to the Harddrive and then goes on to the dvd-rom drive.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
You have a single IDE ribbon, you say. Do you also have power cables connecting your drives to your power supply?
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
I can tell you're an experienced troubleshooter Tom. Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
yes of course, I have separate cables going to the dvd rom drive and one going to the hard drive.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
what about when you go into the BIOS setup? Does it recognize the drives?
-Check to ensure the master/slave switches are set properly. You said you thought they might not be set properly; so go make sure.
-May not matter, but make sure your IDE ribbon is plugged into IDE 0 on the mobo, instead of IDE 1
-Make sure the IDE connector is oriented correctly on the drive. Most likely there is a key on the connector preventing you from installing it upside down, but not always. Also check the power connector. (Believe it or not I managed to insert a MOLEX connector the wrong way once.)
Regarding no beep: is there a speaker in the case? Is it properly connected to the PC SPK header on the mobo? Polarity probably matters there.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
The BIOS recognizes no drives, except the floppy which isn`t plugged in at all, further cementing my belief that floppy drives are evil contraptions.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
I checked and apparently polarity doesn't matter for the speaker. Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
What about the rest of scifibum's questions, Blayne? All of them are cogent.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I haven't had he chance to look over the pins.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
There's an old saying. Never let a programmer touch a soldering iron.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
That explains the futility I experience whenever I attempt to use a soldering iron... Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
:from my linux machine:
Okay I solved the issue with the cdrom drive.
the power connector didnt seem tomwork, i tried a different one and now it opens and closes.
Its set to cable select so what should my hard drive be set to? master? slave? or master&slave?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Cross that! Okay whenever the IDE ribbon is plugged in it doesn't get power, if I unplug the ribbon it gets power.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Here's a question: have you plugged the IDE cable in backwards? This was actually possible on many older machines.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
thatis possible, theidea cable doesnt havethemissingpin. Which sideshould the side with the little ridgebefacing?
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Whichever way it wasn't facing before, if Tom's hypothesis is correct. Or in other words, just try it both ways, eh?
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
The red cable goes to pin 1 on the drive.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Usually, IDE cables have a colored wire that indicates wire 1 (which should connect to pin 1, which is often indicated by an arrow or other marker on the mobo, and is usually the pin closest to the power connection.)
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Well, if his CDROM is set to Cable Select and his HDD is set to Master or Slave, that'd pretty much screw it up.
You have a couple of options, Blayne. You can set the HDD to Master and the CDROM to Slave, or you can set them BOTH to Cable Select and plug the HDD into the end of the cable (this is assuming you're using an 80PIN ATAPI5/UDMA4 cable) and the CDROM in the middle position. The positions on the cable will dictate whether they are Master or Slave.
Posted by Steve_G (Member # 10101) on :
Primal Curve is right. Also there is a misconception with the Master/Slave terminology. They are equals, one is not preferred to the other. Setting cable select on both drives should be the first thing anybody does, than if that doesn't work set one to master, the other to slave. It doesn't matter which is set to which.
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
You're right that their position (Master/Slave) doesn't really matter, but I used to build computers and we always had the HDD as Master otherwise it would fail the QC check, so I've always made my computers that way.
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