Bad Motherboard or is it the power supply?

[DonKlein]

Intel CA810E motherboard, P3-433 or so
ATX power supply
Monitor
WD hard drive

With just the MOBO, power supply, and Monitor connected, the machine will run through the POST routine. it is also fine with a floppy, zip or cd-rom connected.

When I connect power to a WD hard drive (regardless of whether the the hd is connected to the MOBO with the ribbon cable), the machine will not run POST. The fan in the power supply will start to spin, but within a fraction of a second everything stops.

I have tried this with two different WD hard drives, both of which are ok in other machines.

Any opinions?
Don

 

[Snickle]

It sounds a lot like a power supply I had to replace for a client the other day. The load on it was causing a capacitor to break down and shut down the ps.

 

[mscallisto]

Yes It does sound like power supply but may happen if your IDE cables are improperly installed.

Many cables are "keyed" and can only go in one way but some are not and can be put in reversed pin order.

In most cases the RED wire on the ribbon cable must be facing the power connection cable.

Also you may try resetting the BIOS to default settings.

 

[edfair]

power supply is crowbaring from the load. Time for replacement. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
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.

 

[DonKlein]

Thanks guys for the responses. The machines worth another power supply and I will give it a try. The ide cable is keyed and was connected and working properly when the problem surfaced. I then started disconnecting components to isolate the issue.

Thanks again,
Don