HDD light on front panel

[Cavalier90]

Built a system that is working fine. I followed the MOBO instructions to connect the wires from the case to the MOBO. The USB sockets work fine, the power light works fine, but the Hard disk LED does not light up as the disk is accessed. I connected +ve to +ve and ground to ground as instructed. What could the problem be?

Reading "How Stuff Works" describes diodes as normally capable of operating with power moving in one direction only. Does this rule apply to a Light Emitting Diode? There are only two wires so I suppose this could be true. If I switch the +ve and ground connection to the MOBO to check if the LED was soldered in the wrong way by the manufacturer, do I risk any damage?

The reset button also does not work despite being wired apparently correctly to the MOBO. Any clues, though I suppose bad soldering again may be the problem? Looks like a job for the multi-meter. :confused:

[Cavalier90]

I took the plunge and switched wires. The Hard Drive LED now works. The connections obviously have to be correct for the LED to work, just like an ordinary diode. Just to note, the wires from the LED were not marked +ve and -ve, they both went into a two holed plug with no markings other than HDD LED. I turned the plug around and that was it.

[Whyzman]

You didn't mention if you were able to find out what's wrong with the reset button??

Your knowledge of diodes obviously helped with fixing the first problem. :) That, seems to happen a lot when first hooking up the motherboard...not enough juice to blow the diodes...just reverse as you did to fix...

However, the reset and power switches are not polarity sensitive. On some cases I've actually had to move the leads of the case connector to match the pins on the motherboard header. You might want to have a closer look especially if it's a three wire connector used with only two wires...

[Cavalier90]

No, I've not looked at that yet. I'll post the results when I find a spare 5 minutes to check the system.

[Cavalier90]

Turns out the reset button just needs to be pressed in further. It is a very thin button that I tried pressing with just the fleshy part of my finger, then with my finger nail, but neither worked. I tried tonight with a small screwdriver and hey presto it rebooted.

I now have a fully working system.

[Whyzman]

As always, thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem. :)