Power Supply Bad ?

[Stealth]

I think I maybe having power suppy problems. I was wondering if there is a test tool to check the power supply for an AT Board without having to go out and buy a new power supply. I have a tester for the ATX Boards that I paid approx. $15.00 for but haven't been able to find one for the AT Board.
Thanks in advance Stealth

[Randy_tx]

I dont know of one......when the power supply fan fails to come on, I replace it. The cost of a 300 watt power supply is less than $25 where I buy them and the cost of testing(labor) and trying to "repair" a power supply is just too high to warrant. If the PS fan doesnt come on when you push the power button, it's almost a cinch that AT LEAST the fan is out...that alone is more in labor and parts than a new supply.

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Put an Electric Screwdriver in my hand and I'm REAL dangerous!

[Stealth]

Thanks for getting back to me Randy TX. The fan does spin, so maybe it's not the power supply.
The problem that I'm having is this:
I'm putting together a old comp of mine using all the same parts that it had. When I try to fdisk using the boot floppy. On the boot-up screen it recognizes 1 drive (my CD-Rom) but it's telling me that it's my "C"drive and it's NOT. My BIOS does not recognizes my hard drive unless I unplug the wires off the CD-rom...then I can Fdisk...but then I reboot to do the format....type Format C: /s and it tells me disk error. Iv'e tried three hard drives and the same thing happens. It's driving me nuts http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif
any ideas?

[Stealth]

I forgot to mention, when it boots up to the "A" prompt, I can type "Dir C " and it actually reads the info on my CD-Rom. I only wish it was reading my CD-Rom as my "D" drive instead of my "C" drive.

[cromwell]

Maybe check the master/slave jumpers on the HD and CD-Rom???

[Dinosaur]

If you only have one Hard Disc & one CD, you should have them on separate IDE connectors, rather than having them master and slave. If they are master and slave, the Hard drive should be master and be at the end of the connector, not in the middle. If on separtate connectors, neither should have a master/slave jumper (or put both jumpers in neutral position). The Hard disc should be on the primary connection. Do you know which connector is the primary on that motherboard?

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.

[Dinosaur]

Another thot: Was the drive from the other system compressed?

If that is the problem, a bootable diskette from the other system would help if it had the compression program on it.

I never used Disk compression, which I always thought was a bad and potentially dangerous idea. One dumb mistake or one little glitch and you lost everything on the drive. If compression is the problem here, post and maybe a compression guru can give some advice.

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.

[Paleo Pete]

fdisk should work even if the disk is compressed. I think the configuration is the first thing to check. Dinosaur has explained pretty well what the best setup would be. If using both drives on one IDE channel, the Master does not absolutely have to be on the end of the cable, but it does make it conform to the standard procedure. That way if anyone else ever has to work on it, they can be pretty sure the Master drive is the one on the end.

One thing I don't think had been covered. Check the ribbon cable and make sure it's plugged in completely and corectly oriented. If it's not fully plugged in or backward that could cause similar problems.

After you make sure the jumper settings and cabling are correct if you still have problems, try the drive on another machine, or try a different drive in that machine. Might just be a bad drive...

Check the drive specs too, some drives when used in dual drive setups have to have a separate jumper set for that. One for Master, another setting for Master in a two drive system.

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So many idiots, and only six bullets...
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Paleo Pete]

Decided to put this in a separate post. You can also check voltage on an AT board with a multimeter.

BE CAREFUL! Voltage is low, and not necessarily harmful, but you can easily create a short circuit and damage components. Even a 12V shock isn't exactly comfortable either...

With the motherboard plugged in you can use the black wire on one of the drive power cables as ground, to avoid a short due to close working conditions. The two main power cables are marked P8 and P9. The orange wire in P8 is the Power Good wire and #1. Consider them numbered 1-12 starting with the orange wire. You can number them if you want with a fine point marking pen. The 4 black wires ALWAYS go together, not at opposite ends of the plugs when plugged in.

With the ground probe in a black wire from one of the drive power cables, (all black wires are ground), voltages should be:
#1 (orange) Power good-don't worry about that one
#2 not used
#3 (yellow) +12VDC [+8.5 to +12.6V]
#4 (blue) -12VDC [-8.5 to -12.6V]
#5 (black) Ground
#6 (black) Ground
P9
#7 (black) Ground
#8 (black) Ground
#9 (white) -5VDC [-4.5 to -5.4V]
#10 (red) +5VDC [+2.4 to 5.2V]
#11 (red) +5VDC [+2.4 to +5.2V]
#12 (red) +5VDC [+2.4 to +5.2V]

That's straight out of the book, without the neat pictures...Those sure help! Voltages listed in are acceptible tolerances. Within those ranges it should be good. You'll want it to be close as possible to the proper voltage, of course...

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So many idiots, and only six bullets...
[b]Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[ez]

Well, say that you have two hard disks. Both of them with three partitions. Then:
- 1st partition of master disk = C:
- 1st partition od slave disk = D:
and:
- 2nd partition of master disk = E:
- 3rd partition of master disk = F:
- 2nd partition of slave disk = G:
- 3rd partition of slave disk = H:

From your message, Stealth, I assume that your CD ROM is connected at the end of the cable and is set to be master, and HDD is connected in the middle of the cable (probably set as a master, also). Your computer accesses CD-ROM and thinks that it is C: - even if you fdisk-ed it differently.

Of course, I could missanderstood your original message, but your problem is not in power supply.

You should double check what disk is connected to the end of the cable, and settings for both disks (master-slave).

HTH
ez
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[tjaymadison]

I think you may have connected the CD to the primary IDE controller, and the HD to the secondary. Sometimes there are silk-screened notations on the motherboard. They might be "P" and "S", or 1 and 2, or maybe even 0 and 1. In any case, can you just leave the CD drive completely disconnected until you have the FDISK and FORMAT procedure done? Set the jumper on the HD as required -- some drives have a neutral setting for when they are the only drive and some drives don't. If you are using an IDE cable that has connectors for more than one drive, use the one at the far end. Set drive to "Auto" configure in BIOS. Boot from floppy. FDISK, FORMAT and shut down. Set CD jumper to master, connect data cable from CD to IDE secondary controller, and connect power cable. Boot from floppy with CD-ROM support. Install Windows.

[Stealth]

Problem found... But first of all I want to thank everyone here that helped me out. I think it's also important to post what the problem was so we can all keep learning from each other's experiences.
This computer is an old IBM. At least I think it's an IBM. It has IBM CORP 1993 stamped on the motherboard. It also only has one place for an IDE cable (not two like most). I had it set up with my hard drive being first primary master and my CD-ROM set as primary slave, with the jumpers set in the same order.
The problem turned out to be a bad ribbon cable. Don't ask me why or how something like this would quit working because I have no clue, but when I pulled one off another computer and hooked it up on this one it worked.
Paleo Pete, the chart you posted will be quite helpful in the future (I just need to learn what to set my voltage meter setting to). I'm going to copy and paste the chart and save it to my files.
Again thank you all for the support.
Stealth