power to motherboard

[bill smith]

hey folks great board you have here :-)

On to my prob
  I got a C1641 Emachines from a friend that said it no longer works. I plug the comp in and nothing happens. It has power to the board because the cpu fan spins but no power to the hard drive or the cdrom. while looking inside i pulled off the ide cable from the cdrom and then it had power so i tried the same to the hard drive and i could hear it boot but nothing shows on the moniter because the ide is unpluged..... in short no power to hard drive or cdrom with ide pluged in. power to hard drive and cdrom with ide unpluged. Any help would be great is the board and cpu screwd ?? or just the board..............

[dl65]

 bill smith......your post is just a bit confusing ......
you say you unplugged the IDE cable from the cd drive and then it had power .......?   What had power .........
The cd rom or the IDE cable ?
The power supply for the cd rom is a 4 pin plug located just to the right of the IDE socket ( when looking at the cd drive from the rear ) .  Then you said you removed the IDE cable from the hard drive and you heard it boot up ......   How do you know it was booting up .......  and again the power supply for the hard drive is supplied by a 4 pin plug that plugs into the rear of the hard drive on the extreme right hand side of the hard drive ..........
Is there one IDE cable or two ..........if there's only one IDE cable , does it plug into the motherboard in the Primary or secondary slot in the motherboard ?
I hope when you were unplugging the IDE cable that you had the pc shut down........it's not a good idea to be working in there when its "HOT"
What I would do is remove the cd drive and try it in another pc .......
I would then remove the hard drive and try it in another pc as a slave .....   This will let you know if these components are ok or not .

Is there any Ram in this pc ?
Is there a graphics card in this pc ?

Remember to remove any possible static buildup in your body before working on the interior of a pc ..........

Do not touch any of the contacts or chips in the pc with your fingers ......use the edges of cards or Ram when handling them ....( to avoid possible damage )

Let us know ......

dl65  

[bill smith]

ok lets try this again lol sorry..

step one
i turn the computer on with everything pluged in.all ide cables and power wires are connected. nothing happens other then the cpu fan spins.

step 2
i trun computer off. i unplug the ide cable from the cdrom and the hard drive but leave the power wires connected. when i push the power button on the computer i can hear the hard drive spin so i try the cdrom eject button and it opens.

now with the ide and powers wires connected i get nothing no spining sound from hard drive and the cdrom will not open almost like there is no power to them.

yes there is ram in the comp and i have tried diffrent ide cables as well as another power supplie.

and have also tried the hard drive and cdrom in another computer and they work fine

I am at a loss. brain is starting to hurt lol
with power and ide connected eject button on cdrom does nothing unplug ide and push the eject button and it opens............
Please  help me someone lol

[dl65]

bill smith...... Ok .....so we know that both the cd rom and the hard drive seem to be ok , given they work in another pc .........

Which Ide socket is ( was ) the IDE cable ( cables pluggued into on the MOBE .....Primary or Secondary ?

BTW ......when you tested the herd drive ...does it have an o/s installed and what is it ?

Inspect the ide sockets on the MOBO and see if there are any bent pins or the plug is sloppy in the socket ( it must be good and snug)


let us know

dl65  

[bill_smith]

with both hard drive and cdrom on same ide and hard drive as master and cdrom as slave other end of ide is pluged into the primery ide slot on MB and is tight. Yes hard drive has windows xp on it but that should not make a diffrence.

even if you have no hard drive installed on your pc and try to boot it should still go to dos and tell you there is no hard drive installed but i get nothing .......... I think it may be the mother board

[Raptor]

Replace IDE cables and retry.

[merlin_2]

It nomally is on emachince>>......hard drive<master> on a double ide cable > the dvd rom drive <master> its the first one nearest the harddrive bracket=.....<<<<<
.if you have for instance a cd/rw drive  is goes on its on ide cable as a slave. Have you tried on boot up holding down the del key bios and chose ......setup defaults<f9 key> f10 >save and exit..

[bill smith]

no it will not boot at all. when ide and power cables are pluged into the hard drive nothing happens when i push the power button on the tower. if i unplug the ide cable from the hard drive you can hear the hard drive start to spin................. i have tried hard drive on it's own cable in primary slot and dvdrom\cd-rw on it's own cable as slave in secondary slot and I get nothing it's realy wierd......... I have even taken the ide cable out of the computer I'm on now and tried that and nothing.

[Computer_Commando]

Have you tried to get to the BIOS?  On eMachines, it's usually DEL-key.  If you can get to BIOS, there is hope.  Try to boot a floppy disk.  Create a boot floppy disk, use Win98, Win95, not WinXP.  Just try to get the computer started.

Try a complete BIOS reset.  Remove CMOS battery for 5-10 minutes.  Go to BIOS and set first boot device as FDD.

[bill_smith]

no i get nothing when i power it on . I can't get to anything no bios setup not a thing. thats why i think the board is fried. I tried changing the battery and nothing well thanks for all the help ....... looks like this time i will have to break down and take it in somewhere ugh i hate to do that lol or i buy a new board and cpu and try that  

[bill_smith]

PS. Thanks for the help you have a great baord here I will let a few friends know about it  

[merlin_2]

Disconnect all the power cables from the cdrom drives....and  leave the hard drive one intact.....does it boot..does it beep or show the post screen....was wondering if you have a flakly psu..

[bill_smith]

i thought that as well and put another power supplie in and still nothing i think i will just put it away for now untill i cant get a new board and cpu and try that

[riccbhard]

Are the power connectors connected to the motherboard properly? If I remember correctly the fan is not polarized, it can be run backwards.

[Computer_Commando]

no i get nothing when i power it on . I can't get to anything no bios setup not a thing. thats why i think the board is fried. I tried changing the battery and nothing ... 

If you can't get to BIOS setup and have removed and replaced the battery, there's nothing else you can do.  CPU is probably okay.  CMOS is probably shot.  If a 3-V battery keeps it going, it doesn' take much of a power surge to kill it. You should be able to enter Setup with everything removed except for any amount of memory and a FDD.  See if CMOS has shorting pins to clear CMOS memory.  Usually removing battery for 5-10 minutes is enough.
BTW, this is your computer:
eMachines C1641