Second IDE Drive - Power on Fails

[nevets2001uk]

Hi all,

I have just built myself a new system and all is well except when I plug in a secondry IDE Drive.

I have one master IDE drive and a SATA drive working fine, but if I plug in a second IDE 40GB HDD as a slave the PC will start to power for perhaps 3-5 seconds before shutting off. The HDD Error light is displayed during this period.

I've tested the drive as a primary in another system and it tries to boot as normal. Previously the drive was working correctly as a slave.

Any ideas on why it's 'shorting' out the PC?

Cheers,
Steve

Steve G (MCP)

 

[G0AOZ]

If you disconnect the master IDE drive and the SATA drive, and just have this secondary drive connected, does the machine then POST ok?

Check the 12v/5v power connector to this drive. Are the wires connected in the correct sequence (compare to other known good ones).

Maybe your PSU is just not powerful enough? More Watts needed...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[nevets2001uk]

Thanks for the reply Roger

I'll have to check this evening but I'm pretty certain the drive worked okay in the system on it's own. It certainly worked as the only IDE drive because I copied data from it to the SATA drive at one point.

I have a 500w PSU.

I've tried using different power connectors as well.

Cheers,
Steve

Steve G (MCP)

 

[edfair]

This is probably an indication that the power supply has gone over the limits of the 12v supply.
Try it again with one of the other drives disconnected as a test. That should give you an indication of whether my supposition is correct, or not.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[cdogg]

Also try it on the other IDE channel as a test. It might not be playing well with the other device on the same channel.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[stduc]

Unplug the data cable - but leave the power cable plugged in. If the PC comes up OK and that disk is spinning then it kind of indicates it's unlikely to be a PSU issue. If the PC fails with this arrangement, then before you condemn the PSU, check that power lead - or use another one, even swap it with the 'good' disks one.

After checking and eliminating power - I would suspect the data cables or something being wrong with the MOBO or the IDE subsystem/connectors on the MOBO. It could be worth checking that they are 100% clean?

 

[nevets2001uk]

Firstly apologies for the delay in replying, I've been away for a while!

I tired various combinations of the above suggestions and all seemed to suggest that the various elements were working, just not when used together!

I was near to giving up and decided to have one more try with everything connected again. To my surprise the system started. Having tried a few times since it seems to work with only one cut out so far. I have changed nothing from how I was connecting it before and can't see why this is now more or less working.

I do notice that the HDD access light stays on for about 8-10 seconds when the system starts which it doesn't do with a single IDE drive attached but it doesn't seem to cause a problem. The drive is accessible in Windows XP and I've run a complete error check over it.

I will keep an eye on this but for the moment things seems to be okay.

Thanks for all the advice. I just wish I could workout which suggestion (if any) was the solution.

Cheers,
Steve

Steve G (MCP)