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New Power Supply - Hard Drive won't work

L

legocitytruck

Senior member
I recently followed the anandtech advice for replacing a failed power supply and it worked well:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2280847&highlight=

The new power supply was split between IDE and SATA power connectors. The computer has two disc drives, a floppy drive, and a single hard drive, all IDE. I can't connect power to them all which is okay because I only need to connect the hard drive. When I connect the hard drive to just the IDE power cable and not the IDE data cable, I can hear the hard drive powering up when I turn the computer on. However, if I connect an IDE data cable, slave or master, the hard drive does not turn on. The motherboard has three connections for IDE data cables. Is there a certain way I need to connect a IDE data cable in order to allow the hard drive to power up?
 
How long do you wait? The IDE controller on your motherboard has the capability to tell the drive to not spin up its motor until later in the boot process (staggered startup).
 
I waited about two minutes. It didn't spin. It is currently the only device connected to the motherboard. I disconnected the 2 disc drives and the floppy drive.
 
Your motherboard does not have three IDE connections. One of them is a floppy drive connector. Likewise, your floppy drive is not IDE, it is floppy. Floppy pinout is 34 pins. IDE pinout is 40 pins. Cables and connectors are similar.
 
Nothing is shown on the screen without the hard drive. I'll update this evening with the hard drive model number. The machine is about 8 years old.
 
OK, that means that this isn't a hard drive problem. I looked through the other thread and I don't think we conclusively ruled out a motherboard problem.
 
You really should bench test the motherboard outside of the case.

Example:
benchtest.jpg
 
legocitytruck said:
mfenn thank you for your help. Is there anyway to determine if it is a motherboard failure?
Click to expand...

The only really conclusive way is to swap in a known-good board. I'm betting that you don't have something like that on hand given the vintage of the machine you're working with. A bench test like AnonymouseUser will help you rule out any case-induced shorts, but don't expect a miracle.

Given the age of the machine, I suppose it doesn't matter if there is a problem with the motherboard, CPU, or RAM because replacing one would mean replacing them all.
 
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