My Adventure Continues...

[robc638]

My wife and I went to the computer parts store over the weekend to see what was what; we had originally though of getting another hard drive for our P4 and maybe a new Flat Screen.

Well, after looking around, my wife wants a new machine instead of the P4 that we have (whatever it is):

Intel D945GTP Motherboard
Intel P4 Dual 3.4GHz
1GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive

I would be salvaging the CD-Rom and the Floppy from the present machine.

Any special precautions I should know before I tackle a SATA installation? As you may read by following my previous posts, I only built one previous machine: A PII.

Thanks,

Robert.

[Staren]

You should be good to go. I coudn't find the chipset that the SATA ports are on for the motherboard, doing a quick search. But I guess it isn't that big of a deal. The BIOS should pick up an SATA hard drive no problem. A good number of newer boards do, but just don't freak if it doesn't. That's why there's a driver floppy.

Other then that, you should be fine. The port / slot configs have changed since the PII, but the basic process hasn't.

[robc638]

Yesterday we went out and picked up all this nice new stuff, even a brand new case and it's own PSU. Put all together, and when we went to power it up, it failed to fire up. Even the fan on the PSU didn't turn on at all. I checked all the connections and everything looks right. Is there a way of checking a PSU? A way of making a "load" that will trigger the switching the of the PSU? Is there a way of checking the connector of the mother board?

Thanks,

Robert.

[freakitchen]

Follow the steps detailed in this thread:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

FK

[robc638]

I didn't know you could do that. I thought you needed to ground the Motherboard at all the little mounting holes to the case, and have a hard drive and some kind of operating system installed to run.

I also tried the PSU on the other computer and it too failed to fire, so I think it is the PSU that is KAPUT; but I don't know if it was killed by the Motherboard or some other component. Must have been some kind of short to kill a 400W (P=IV : P/V=I : 400W / 12V = 33.3A !) Power Supply.

Robert.

[flanzig1]

to check PSUs, there are testers that you plug into the PSU that tells you if voltage is present. They cost about $10 at Compusa. If even the fan in the PSU doesn't run, check; the power switch on the PSU/voltage select 110v for US/case power on switch leads connected to the correct header on the mother board/ATX plug is fully latched in.

[freakitchen]

Attaching the motherboard via mounting posts actually prevents grounding on the metal tray, so putting the board on a cardboard box does no harm at all. You don't need a hard drive attached to run those tests, you're simply seeing if the system can power up and POST. It eliminates a lot of variables, basically.

At any rate, you seem to have found the culprit. Make sure you replace it with a quality unit.

FK

[robc638]

Just finished talking with someone at work, (a colleague who knew someone, who knew someone else, who knew someone else and saw me), who says that if I jumper the green wire with any black wire (ground), it will trigger the PSU into running. Then I will be able to take readings from all the other pins with a voltmeter and see if the PSU is good. I should be getting 3.3, +5, -5, +12, and -12 Volts.

Can anyone tell me if this is correct before I get home and try this on a new PSU?

Thanks,

Robert.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by robc638 if I jumper the green wire with any black wire (ground), it will trigger the PSU into running. Can anyone tell me if this is correct before I get home and try this on a new PSU?

Yes, that will work to simulate being connected to the mobo.

[robc638]

Since the PSU was part of the case, I took both back to the store and had them replaced on warranty. Before I assembled everything back together, I decided to test this one first, so I tried the jumper trick (figuring that if something went wrong, i'd blame it on another faulty PSU); This one came alive properly.

I assembled everything back together, powered up the machine, and everything worked.

Now I just have to figure out how to copy the 80Gig into the 250, and how to tell MICROSOFT that I am the sole owner of this copy (XP) and all I did is upgrade the motherboard and processor.

[robc638]

I have a question concerning the hookup of the two drives for transferring of the contents:

The new Motherboard supports 4 SATA drives and also has 1 IDE slot for 2 Drives. I have wired the 250Gig Hard Drive into SATA 0, and the CDROM into the IDE connector as "Master" (1). If I hook up the 80Gig (also an IDE drive) as "Slave" (2), will the Motherboard recognise it as a secondary drive, since I am using two different types of drives (without conflicting)?

I know that there is a neat little utility from WD that will format and clone one drive into another, so I will make a disk of this before I remove the drive from the present machine.

Anyone know anything about Microsoft and transferring XP to another Board?