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Plugging in CD-RW - 12v is Red or Yellow? 1

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palval

Technical User
Apr 6, 2003
2
US
I goofed. Moving Sony CD-RW from old, dead PC to current PC, thought I made note of this, but my short-term memory is faulty. The CD-RW case indicates the little 4-prong plug that leads into the PC's power supply has a 12v-neutral-neutral-5v set-up, but I don't know which side is which. The colors of the wires to the plug are red-black-black-yellow (or the other way around).

Anybody who can tell me which end is 12v and which is 5v? Red or Yellow?

Thanks in advance,
palval
 
Doesn't matter. The amp plug is keyed so it only goes in easily in one direction.
Red normally is 5 but I've seen power supplies with all sorts of colors. Somewhat like the manufacturers were using left overs or liquidated stock. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
 
Hey, edfair, thanks. I tell friends all the time, go ahead and do "whatever" on your PC, it's hard to mess up, because you can hardly find anything that will plug in the wrong way. So, of course, when it is me, I forgot that hint and panicked.

You are correct, and it would only plug in one-way! Thank you again.
 
Well, I like to say they will only plug one way, but I fried a seagate drive that with just a little pressure went in backwards. Just so happened that there wasn't enough light to see the keying and the shell deformed with less pressure than some new connectors require. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
 
Which is why you should always carry a small flashlight in the tool kit ;-) Help us to help you, please post back and tell us if this helped.
All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.
 
The 4 pin Molex should NOT go in backwards if the drive/device and plug are keyed correctly and in good shape. This 4 pin has been used in PC's since the original 5150 PC and only a smaller connector has come out for the 3.5" floppy, which many times can be reversed using force.

The biggest problem with the molex is broken pins on the device/drive or forcing poorly shaped female connections and they smash or pop out of their locks.

Incidentally a diagram of the Molex is here on Hardware Book:
 
Well, first off it is not a molex plug. And the mating connector isn't always the same plastic as the plug itself and some of the integrated power/signal will deform with moderate amounts of pressure.

The 4 pin amp special industries plug was in use before IBM thought of PCs. They used it because that was standard on Tandon floppies, which only followed the design of the Shugart drives.

Mulga has the right answer. Unfortunately the batteries were dead or my brain was, and it cost a 1gb SCSI. Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
 
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