I hooked up my DVD drive and lost power to my entire system.
My CyberPowerPC already had a DVD drive installed, but it wasn’t working. I checked inside the computer and discovered the reason. There were no cables hooked up. No wires to be seen, even.
I managed to find a spare SATA cable for data. Now I had to take the back off the computer to see if there was a power cord to fit. Digging through the tangle of cables at the base of the computer, I finally found one.
With data and power finally hooked up, I assumed that it would be a simple matter of putting the case sides back on and resuming using my computer. You know what they say about assuming things. My computer would not even power on after that.
My first thought was that I accidentally disconnected a cable in the back, but a thorough check dismissed that idea.
I unplugged the DVD, both wires, but it didn’t make any difference.
Did I just short-circuit and/or burn out my system? Was there a reason that the DVD wasn’t connected in the first place?
I tried the usual troubleshooting. Removing drives, memory, and the video card. Unplugging everything and anything that could be unplugged. And, Nothing.
Finally, I noticed towards the bottom of the computer a very tiny thin plug that had the words “POWER SW” stamped on it. I must have pulled it loose trying to free the power cord from the back. I couldn’t see any labels on the motherboard that corresponded to what was on the plug.
I went online and was lucky enough to find a manual for the specs on this system. I plugged in the “POWER SW” to its proper place and … IT LIVES!
Since I’m a glutton for punishment, I again decided to try hooking up the DVD. I had it all unhooked at this point. And yet again, my system failed to power up.
I was going to give up on the DVD.
One of the problems I had hooking up this DVD was that the plugs for the power and data cords were tight up against the power connector cord attached to the motherboard. And I noticed that the four-pin connector on the main power connection was very loose and came out way too easily.
I took out the 20-pin connector. Then put the 4-pin one in first, and then replaced the 20-pin one again. That tightened it up. I kept the DVD hooked up and decided to test the system.
I’m relieved to say everything is working again with a fully functioning computer and DVD drive.
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Looks like your PC is even older than mine!
Probably is. 🙂
Haha – that PC cabling looks like it has been maintained by an Indian street telephone technician. No wonder the wiring keeps coming loose when you have that rats’ nest to work with. My suggestion is buy some cable ties, tidy it all up and whilst you are at remember “dust” is not your friend – I’d be checking and cleaning any internal fans as well as blowing off all that accummulated dust because it looks like it’s been running outside during a Saharan sandstorm !
This makes a good case for proper wire management. I do have one concern that enough less than careful probing around inside a case would lead to this Power on plug becoming unplugged in the first place. One of the first classes I had to take in my NAVY Avionics class way back in 1973 was proper wire management and part of that was learning how to probe around inside a black box. this looks like a good place to start a training video.
Did you ever find out the reason the installed dvd was not functional?
Yes, originally because there were no wires hooked up. Now it’s getting power, but it doesn’t show up in Windows. Probably a bad data cable. I have an external burner that I can use if needed, so I may or may not try to fix this again. 🙂
That was my guess Terry… Thanks for the interesting write up!