OT: hardware question

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Author: Vaughn Treude
Date:  
To: plug-discuss
Subject: OT: hardware question
Hello, everyone. Here's an OT question that is at least
computer-related. :-)

I'm trying to resurrect an old 300 MHz PC I was using to run an ISA
scope card, and to run an old test suite that only works on - get ready
for this - Windows 95. (It worked fine for that.) I was having trouble
with the CD-ROM drive. I replaced it with four others from my "old
hardware" supplies in my closet, and none appeared to work. The drives
would power up and the BIOS would recognize them but none wanted to
eject the tray. (Actually, one one of them, the tray would work a couple
times and then be stuck closed until I cycled power.) Could all these
drives be bad, or could it be that the old generic 300W power supply was
flakey?

I happened to have a relatively new Antec supply; I'd swapped it out on
a newer machine on which I'd suspected supply problems. Well, the
problem wasn't the supply, but I was too lazy to return the new supply
to Fry's, so I kept this one as a spare. So I thought, good opportunity
to test my theory.

Turns out that is is an old PC Chips M565 motherboard, sort of an AT/ATX
hybrid. It has both types of power connectors, so was able to hook up
the Antec. Then I discovered that the little switch connector on the
corner has NO remote power switch pins. It has suspend, reset, turbo
LED, etc. But no pins marked power or PS or RPS. I even downloaded the
manual, which was no help.

So this is weird. They _have_ an ATX power connector, but no switch
pins. The Antec has a rocker switch on the back, but switching that does
nothing, as I expected. Do I now have to swap the old supply back in and
hope the problem was something else? (Like four bad drives? Perhaps the
IDE2 port is malfunctioning and somehow confusing the drive? Maybe,
though I was actually able to access the CD during the brief time the
tray worked on one of them.)

Or is there some sneaky way to make the Antec power up?
Thanks for any help I can get from the hardware hackers among us.

Vaughn


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