TR Forums

My system has been running pretty well for more than 3 years now but for some reason, after I tried to install an additional hard drive, it will not post at all. Here are my system specs:

Duron 900mhz
Abit KT7E
512 mb PC133 total (2 x 128mb, 1 x 256mb)
Ensoniq sound card
ATI Expert 2000 32mb
generic Realtek NIC
250w Antec power supply
20GB IBM hd
120GB Hitachi hd
120GB Seagate hd (this is the one I tried to add)
32x Sony CD-RW
Windows 2003 Server

So my system turns on but does not post. I've tried a different (and working) video card and it still does not post. I've cleared the CMOS and taken out all but one of the memory sticks but still not luck. The system does not beep either. I'm hoping the motherboard or processor isn't fried. The only thing that I haven't tried yet is a different power supply or a PCI video card. I'll probably try that tomorrow.

/since you mentioned everything else did you try taking out the "new" HD?

I just had a board randomly eat on me and all I did as switch the CPU.

Have you tried getting it to post without the new drive and will it? What are the jumper settings on the drive? Master and Slave or Master and CS? Try one or the other on the second drive..Master then CS..if it doesnt work..try taking the jumper out all together..ive also found the older boards can be picky on which molex connector you are using..check the connector to see if power is getting to the drive...i wouldnt think the cpu would be bad just by adding a drive..there is a possiblility it could be a PSU problem..if you have another to try ..do so.

It is possible that your PSU was right on the edge, and the new drive pushed it over. 3 hard drives will draw a huge amount of current when they all try to spin up at once; an older 250W unit may be unable to cope with the load.

Try disconnecting the new drive, and see if you can get the system to POST.

If it still won't POST, you may have killed the PSU...

The hard drive seems to power on so I don't think it's the hard drive. I've even tried disconnecting the cd-rw and the other other hard drive and it still won't post. I don't think it's the jumper settings either since I didn't have to change it at all when I installed the hard drive. I'll try and disconnect all the drives to see if it posts. just brew it might be right about the fact that my power supply probably crapped out since it has too much devices connected to it. I'll let you all know after I've tried all those options. I might have to take it to work since we have extra equipment there.

Have you checked the board for bad caps yet? It may7 have been on the edge and just happened to die when you added in the drive.

Weird, I took my pc to work, plugged everything in, and everything worked fine. I'm thinking there's something wrong with my kvm switch (which I failed to mention in my specs). Thanks again for all your help.

aristheo wrote:

Weird, I took my pc to work, plugged everything in, and everything worked fine. I'm thinking there's something wrong with my kvm switch (which I failed to mention in my specs). Thanks again for all your help.

Could even be something as trivial as a loose KVM cable. Sometimes it's the little stuff.