New build problems

[rjwalker21]

Hello all. I assembled my new computer with no problems and it worked fine for 2 weeks. I have a Thermaltake Xaser III V1000+ case, Core 2 duo E 6600, Geforce 7900gs, 2 gigs G Skill ddr2 800 ram, Seagate barracuda 320 gig HDD, an Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard, and a Lite-On dvd rom and Lite-on 20x DVD burner (not the one with lightscribe). Everything was fine but I couldn't orignally figure out how to hook up the control panel included with the case so I just left it unhooked. Then yesterday my buddy found a site with directions on how to hook it up so I did. In the process when I was hooking up the CPU fan to the control panel, one of the wires came unhooked from the top of the fan itself (The green wire). The fan still powers on and all that happens is that I get a CPU fan error and it won't display the RPM speed in the BIOS, but the temperatures are where they should be. The second problem is that after hooking everything back up, the two dvd drives wouldn't power on. I had the DVD Rom set as master hooked into the IDE cable on the black connector and the burner set as slave hooked into the gray. Then the DVD rom drive would power on but not the burner so I just took out the burner after double checking the connections and using multiple cables. So I don't know what happened to the burner but it won't even power on now. The DVD Rom powers on and gets recognized in the POST and Bios, but it won't read any discs now.

The CPU fan isn't a big issue because I'll just order a new heatsink like I wanted to to begin with. But does anyone know anything I could do about the two DVD drives? Is it something I can fix or should I send out for a replacement?

[flanzig1]

Since the IDE cable your using is an 80 wire cable, the drives should both be set to CD(cable select). The drive on the end(black) will be master and the one in the middle(gray) will be slave. This is determined by the cable and not jumpers.

CPU fans should be connected to the CPU header on the mother board and not a aftermarket fan controller. Some BIOS's will not allow a boot if it doesn't detect a CPU fan or at minimum error out.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by rjwalker21 In the process when I was hooking up the CPU fan to the control panel, one of the wires came unhooked from the top of the fan itself (The green wire). The fan still powers on and all that happens is that I get a CPU fan error and it won't display the RPM speed in the BIOS, but the temperatures are where they should be.

Did the wire break or was the pin (at the end of the wire) pulled out of the fan? You might be able to repair it.

Originally Posted by rjwalker21 The second problem is that after hooking everything back up, the two dvd drives wouldn't power on. I had the DVD Rom set as master hooked into the IDE cable on the black connector and the burner set as slave hooked into the gray. Then the DVD rom drive would power on but not the burner so I just took out the burner after double checking the connections and using multiple cables. So I don't know what happened to the burner but it won't even power on now. The DVD Rom powers on and gets recognized in the POST and Bios, but it won't read any discs now.

Did you try connecting the drives one at a time? Sometimes if one optical drive goes bad it affects the other drive on the cable. So connecting them one by one will tell you which one is bad.

Did you try another IDE cable yet?

Are the jumpers on the optical drives set properly?

Cricket

[rjwalker21]

Originally Posted by flanzig1 Since the IDE cable your using is an 80 wire cable, the drives should both be set to CD(cable select). The drive on the end(black) will be master and the one in the middle(gray) will be slave. This is determined by the cable and not jumpers. I had the DVD rom jumper set to master and connected it to the black connector. The DVD burner was set to slave and connected to the gray one and they both worked perfectly for 2 weeks. After removing the Burner since it wont power on, I still have the Rom set to master and connected to the black end. So is that causing my problems? CPU fans should be connected to the CPU header on the mother board and not a aftermarket fan controller. Some BIOS's will not allow a boot if it doesn't detect a CPU fan or at minimum error out.

I could boot and everything when I connected to the controller and would get the fan error message but it would display the RPMs in the Bios on a different section. But after having all these problems with the dvd drives I removed it to get some room to work and didnt hook it back up and plugged the fan into the header on the MB. In the process the green wire came unhooked.

"Did the wire break or was the pin (at the end of the wire) pulled out of the fan? You might be able to repair it."

It broke at the point where it connects to the fan itself on the top of the fan. The DVD rom by itself will power on but won't read discs, and it'll do the same thing when both drives are connected, but connecting the DVD burner by itself still causes it to not even power on. I'll also have to purchase another IDE cable somewhere to test it, but would that cause the DVD burner to not power on at all?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by rjwalker21 It broke at the point where it connects to the fan itself on the top of the fan.

Look closely at the place the wires go into the fan...some use a small 3 pin connector that you can remove and redo the wiring on. If it doesn't have the small connector then it probably means the solder connection broke...if you peel the label up you might be able to resolder the wire.

Originally Posted by rjwalker21 The DVD rom by itself will power on but won't read discs, and it'll do the same thing when both drives are connected, but connecting the DVD burner by itself still causes it to not even power on. I'll also have to purchase another IDE cable somewhere to test it, but would that cause the DVD burner to not power on at all?

A defective cable might be the cause, but I would try the optical drives in another computer just to be sure they're working properly or not.

And you could try a working optical from another computer to see if there is possibly a problem with the motherboard IDE controller.

Cricket

[rjwalker21]

I had the same problems with another IDE cable in my other computer. So does that mean its the optical drives? I doubt its the MB controller because it recognizes the DVD rom drive, but the drive just wont read discs. It doesn't even sound like its trying to.

[rjwalker21]

ok i guess both of my drives take a dump because I had another drive work on my computer. Too bad I can't find the manual for my DVD rom so I just ordered a new one and RMA'd the dvd burner. I also ordered a Zalman heatsink instead of going through the hassle of repairing the wire on the stock heatsink. Thanks everyone for the help and tips, everything should be up and running again.