Both optical drives failed

[kmillerusaf]

Well,

In my latest saga, I believe I just shorted both of my optical Drives. One is an NEC ND 3500A and the other is an ASUS DVD-E616A. I was removing my 3800+ and putting my 3700+ back in when I hit the drive bay with the side panel while trying to put it back on the case. Add to that I went directly into BIOS (don't remember if the drives were recognized at this point) and tried to overclock my CPU. I then got a corrupted Windows error message. So I tried to open my CD-rom drive to repair XP via the disc but it wouldn't open, neither would. So my last hope was a clearing of the CMOS which I did and it allowed me back into windows. Drives still were not recognized in BIOS or Windows.

So I checked the jumpers to make sure they were master/slave and tried them vice versa for the drives, I tried just using each individually, I tried using the HDD IDE cable since I knew it was working for the HD, I tried using the HD controller with the CD IDE cable and HD cable, I tried using the CD IDE cable with the HD (which worked) so that rules out the controllers and the cable. I must have shorted (killed) my drives, correct?

Keith

[Lespaul20]

Try the drives in another system. Did you switch around the power plugs to rule that out?

[kmillerusaf]

All I have is a Compaq as another system with an ultra mini case that the drives will not fit in... By power cables do you mean the IDE cables? If so, I tried the HDD IDE cable with the optical drives and they didn't work

[kmillerusaf]

Well I am officially an idiot.

I was so much in a rush that I never plugged in the 4 pin molex power connectors to both drives :( WOW! At least I know how to troubleshoot problematic optical drives now. Thanks and sorry for wasting your time!

[Lespaul20]

I've done it before. Thats why I thought I'd ask about it.

[kmillerusaf]

Thanks again LP

[Cricket]

I was so much in a rush that I never plugged in the 4 pin molex power connectors to both drives :( WOW! At least I know how to troubleshoot problematic optical drives now.That's why I try to stress the importance of not rushing when working on a computer...there's a very good chance you'll forget to do something.

After I build a computer for someone I take a few pictures of it for my records. I built the computer in the attached image way back in 2003 and after I took the picture I closed it up and delivered it. After setting it up and powering it up we got the infamous "no bootable device found" message...the attached picture tells you why.

:) Cricket