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General discussion

Power Supply Issue?

Jun 22, 2005 3:14AM PDT

Recently decided to shoot for a RAID array with two WD800JB hard drives, but I've been having problems ever since. Now, I just want to get the computer back up and running.

Here's the conundrum...as you can see below, I have a 420W PSU, which may or may not be a POS, up until I replaced my second hardrive with a WD800JB instead of a WD800BB to setup a RAID array, everything worked fine.

Now, when everything is properly jumpered, to the best of my knowledge, and forgetting about the RAID attempt, as I've abandoned it, I have two main power cables that can supply two devices and an a: drive (pardon my non-technical jargon). I have the HDs and the a: drive on one power cable (let's call it A), and the dvdrom on another (B). Under this setup, HDs show up fine in the BIOS with correct Master/Slave designations, but the DVDRom (jumpered as Master) does not at all, and its power light does not come on. If I switch the power cords A and B, so that the HDs and a: are on B and the DVDRom is on A, then the HDs do not show up at all in the BIOS, but the DVDRom does and its power light is on.

The only other problem that makes me hesitate to get a new PSU is that I can hook the bad power cord (B) up to the side fan and aux fan, and they both run fine. So there is some juice flowing through the B.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Sys Info:

-EP-9NDA3+ S 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra ATX AMD MB
-AMD Athlon64 3500+ FSB Socket 939 ADA3500AWBOX
-KINGWIN MTX425SW ATX Mid Tower Case w/ 420W PSU
-RW57LE-256D Geforce FX5700LE 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X
-2X Kingston ValueRAM 512MB 184 DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered
-OptoRite 2-Tone IDE DVD Burner Model DD1205
-2X WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100

Discussion is locked

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Simple, try another PS,
Jun 22, 2005 6:49AM PDT

to try and troubleshoot disappearing drives when the molex connector is switched is done best by a swap.

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Thanks
Jun 22, 2005 7:16AM PDT

Thanks, Michael. I was pretty sure that was the case, but wanted to make sure. Is there a power supply you'd recommend based on my specs?

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Just to test,
Jun 22, 2005 7:30AM PDT
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Thanks Again
Jun 28, 2005 12:40AM PDT

Hey, Mike. The new PSU saved the day. Thanks for your input.

Regards,
Brad

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worth a look
Jun 22, 2005 7:38AM PDT

Cool, Quiet, Solid as a rock and it has nice sleeved cables to keep the inside of your case tidy. Also Fortron gets solid reviews in regard to building quality Psu's. I have been using it about a month now and it is very stable PSU.

http://www.actbuy.com/details.asp?item=FS17500%2D2%2E0

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(NT) (NT) Nothings better than PC Power and Cooling psus
Jun 22, 2005 9:33AM PDT
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(NT) (NT) Can't go wrong with Antec PSU's
Jun 28, 2005 8:59AM PDT