OT: hardware question

[koder]

I have seen this happening because of a software issues.

Test to see if the tray will open as the computer boots up just before
Windows starts loading. That will distinguish between software and
hardware. A hardware failure will not open under any circumstance.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vaughn Treude <vltreude at deru.com>
Reply-To: Main PLUG discussion list
<plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: OT: hardware question
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:47:37 -0700

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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