I have no power to my CD-ROM's drives, what could be the problem?

Question

I am upgrading my computer. I got a 333 celeron, 36 mb ram, 4mb video, 40x cd-rom, 2x8 CD-R, zip drive, 13.6gb hard drive, MIDI ATX Case with an Intel 440BX Chipset (4 PCI, 3 ISA, 3 SDRAM) board. The power supply is failing to give power to my 2 CD Drives. There is an extra combo red/black chord hanging off the end of the power strand. If that is not plugged in, would it affect the power along the whole strand? Please help. All connections have been checked and rechecked. please help.

Answer

This question was answered on June 17, 1999. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Make sure that the ribbon cable "data cable" has the red stripe lined up with pin 1 on the motherboard and on each drive. Double check the power connections. If you still do not get power to the drives you might have a bad ribbon cable. Replace the ribbon cable making sure that the red stripe is lined up with pin 1 on motherboard and both drives. Good Luck!!

Author

Posted by Ken of Data Doctors on June 17, 1999