hard drive wont spin up unless disconnected from MB

[tabbott]

When I hit the power button I get no hard drive spin-up or light. When I disconnect the Drive from the MB and power on I can hear it spinning then. The smae thing occurs with the Cd rom drives. when they are connected to MB they wont open. I changed power supplys, all cables, etc. Any advice? AMD processor.

 

[sh00der]

Check the Master/Slave/Cable jumpers are all correct. Connect just the hard drive and set it to Master or Single and see if you can get that going.
Does it get detected in the bios?

 

[tabbott]

I have no way to get into the system. BLACK screen. I have checked all jumpers and tried different cables. THe hard drive wont even start spinning at all when i hit the power button (unless its disconnected from the motherboard.) the cdroms doe the exact same thing. Im leaning toward adding a PCI IDE card to see if that works. Seems like the ide ports on MB are BAD????

 

[sh00der]

If you can't even access the bios then you're motherboard sounds like it's shot! You should get something like a memory check or at least the initial logo on the screen before it tries to access any drives.
Do you get anything on the screen at all, with or without drives attached?

 

[tabbott]

I get nothing. the HD light is on solid put no power light or screen of any kind. I have since tried the pci ide card with no results. Do motherboards just all of a sudden stop working? I have tried all the hardware in another computer and its all fine. I guess Ill replace the MB.

 

[satrow]

Double check all other wiring - I've had similar 'dead' machines - one turned out to have a floppy power plug misaligned!

Can you get into the Bos without any drives connected?

Andy.

 

[sh00der]

tabbott, what kind of motherboard is it? Does it have on-board graphics? If not is the graphics card alright? If it does, have you got a graphics card you could try?
You need to get something on the screen before you can sort out hard drives or anything.
I think satrow has a good point, just to make sure, I'd be tempted to start from scratch - disconnect everything then connect the bare minimum i.e. just have the power to the mobo, check that the CPU is in properly, connect up the monitor and nake sure the memory is in place. Then see if you can get something on the screen.

 

[tabbott]

I have tried everything. I even took the M/B out to make sure it didnt have anything behind it shorting it out or something. I have only the hard drive, videocard, and Powersupply hooked up with no results. K/B and mouse Ive tried plugged and unplugged. Ive tried different ones too. As soon as I disconnect the hard drive from the ide port it starts spinning but no screen. I have tried other Ram chips etc. I work on computers for a living so I have many parts to test with. I have looked over the M/B and see no noticable burn marks or anything. The other issue is I dont know what kind of M/B it is. It is intel socket 478 cpu. My first post says AMD by mistake. there is no label of any kind or numbers that I can search for on the internet. It is "Rev C made in taiwan" on the back it says "yang-an. ya-4" "e114139 94v-0" I have tried using this number to find the make with no luck. No screen at all means bad M/B is what Im guessing from all your advice. THanks for all the help. I will break the news to the owner gracefully.

 

[Davethedunce]

I read this thread with interest because I was having much the same problems - drives only working when ribbon cables were disconnected, etc. I tried all advice offered but no luck then I decided to replace the CMOS battery on the motherboard as a last hope and it cured all the problems.