How NOT to Install a New Drive

[BJ_M]

i think he got the point by now

[draganong]

@greymalkin

Interesting. Connecting an LED lead to the jumpers or even IDE pins should have had no effect. Surely nothing that would cause anything to smoke or catch fire. You may have burned out the LED but that's about the only damage which should have happened. The hard drive should have been fine as well.
.

This is the cable that goes to the MB, not the LED itself. Pay attention. If the LED gets a 5V signal to turn on when the disk controller initializes at power up and it is plugged into the IDE M/S selector block that usually would assert that bit by connecting to ground, then you have a 50% chance to short a 5V signal line to ground.

If the LED is negative driven, then it has a 5V always on side. Then also the 50% chance exists to short this lead to ground via a small cable that would melt due to the high current load, since probably the LED does not have a limiting resistor.

People like you or the original poster should not ever open a computer.

/dragan

[SingSing]

If the fans are loud, lights on the MOBO, and beer are lite. It will help to aviod it.

[rallynavvie]

it's like waxing your modem to make it go faster.

What's wrong with that?

I've unplugged stuff while the machine was still running. The only time I've had a drive fail I noticed the error messages for "delayed write failure" popping up ever so often and thought it was rather strange. Opened up "My Computer" and noticed my storage drive had disappeared. Then suddenly it reappeared. This lasted an hour and then it dropped off again to those same messages. I saved what I was working on but since there was an encoding project in progress I flipped open the case and swiftly yanked the IDE cable from the failing drive. Nothing failed though, but I had to reboot eventually to get the burner that was on that channel to work again. At the time I was more concerned about the long encoding job that was in there that I took the chance yanking that thing out. I don't really recommend it to others unless you're being fueled by anxiety

[ROF]

@greymalkin

Interesting. Connecting an LED lead to the jumpers or even IDE pins should have had no effect. Surely nothing that would cause anything to smoke or catch fire. You may have burned out the LED but that's about the only damage which should have happened. The hard drive should have been fine as well.
.

This is the cable that goes to the MB, not the LED itself. Pay attention. If the LED gets a 5V signal to turn on when the disk controller initializes at power up and it is plugged into the IDE M/S selector block that usually would assert that bit by connecting to ground, then you have a 50% chance to short a 5V signal line to ground.

If the LED is negative driven, then it has a 5V always on side. Then also the 50% chance exists to short this lead to ground via a small cable that would melt due to the high current load, since probably the LED does not have a limiting resistor.

People like you or the original poster should not ever open a computer.

/dragan

You can't be serious?

Anyways..i was having trouble and called my friend..he told me i had to set the jumpers and he kinda described over the phone where they are...i said OK..hung up the phone...got the hard drive in and then found the "jumper" I thought he was talking about...what i actually had in my hand was the peice that is supposed to plug into the motherboard and powers the HD LED. I stuff that into where the jumpers are supposed to go...the girl shows up just in time to see me flip the switch...smoke starts coming out of the computer..she laughs at me..and i turn off the computer. The HD LED cable had melted..

OK! Pay attention. I do not know of a single cable that runs from the motherboard to the LED. It is always the reverse where the cable runs from the LED on the front case panel(soldered and usually hot glued) to the motherboard(terminated in a pin connector). Can you show me a single motherboard that has wires attached to it which must be attached to the front panel LED?

While there maybe the chance of a short by connecting as greymalkin did there is a greater chance for a brown out.

Now, Pay Attention Draganong, If you can not show a single motherboard setup where a cable runs from the motherboard to the front panel case contacts and you still believe these exist I suggest that it is you that should not open a computer until you learn about standard connections that have existing since people like me first began assembling computers in the early 1980's.

[draganong]

In many computer cases, the LEDs are actually connected into a 2 connector cable that has exactly the same connector at both ends (going into the LEDs in the front and the MB pin header).

Case in point, starting from the design pioneered by Everex in 1988, many Taiwanese companies used that, besides the soldered setup ypu mentioned.

You are still not paying attention. Never once did I say the cable was soldered to the MB. I am a EE, I have seen quite a few motherboards in the last 20 years.

Have you ?

Check the Everex Step 386/25 generic setup, not the proprietary case and the 50% or so generic white cases since 1992 and up CAREFULLY.

[draganong]

It is quite likely that the original poster while rummaging in the case pulled the connector going to the LED from the front panel, while the other end was still connected to the pin header on the MB, then inserted this connector into the pin header on the HDD, hitting the 50% chance of a 5V/GND connection, thus a large current was generated, melting the cable.

Incidentally, that connector would be closer in a standard mid tower case and the proper orientation to plug neatly into the HDD rather than the end going to the MB pin header.

Funny that the driver circuit did not pop first.

How else would ROF explain this story ? Unless you believe the OP is making this up, in which case the discussion is irrelevant.

[draganong]

Now, Pay Attention Draganong, If you can not show a single motherboard setup where a cable runs from the motherboard to the front panel case contacts and you still believe these exist I suggest that it is you that should not open a computer until you learn about standard connections that have existing since people like me first began assembling computers in the early 1980's.

I can, as I did above. Virtually all MB mfg after 1988 have pin headers (Tyan, Abit, ECS). The discussion is really about cases, if they have a soldered end to the LED or a pin insertion. About 20% have this slighly more expensive setup that enables them to use various size LEDs in the front without having specialized soldered cables for each model. Many high end tower cases (like mine, having 8 drive LEDs) use this setup.

[draganong]

since people like me first began assembling computers in the early 1980's.

FYI. I have been designing systems since 1982. My first build was a Soviet clone of a Sinclair Spectrum based on a Z80 CPU running at 3.5 MHz (overclocked). I do know a bit about circuits and motherboards.

If still confused, take a look at your join date on this board, compare it to mine, review some of my postings, compare to yours and then please go back to sleep.

Case closed.

[otpw1]

@Soopafresh
Maybe its time to request a lock?
This has gotten beyond your original intent & turned nasty.