# Not getting enough power?



## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

It had been awhile since the inside of my case had been cleaned out so I used some compressed air to give it a much-overdue cleaning. Since I had it opened up, I decided to switch out one of my non-working SATA drives for an IDE drive I had laying around. 

This would give me this setup: 1 SATA drive, two IDE drives and one DVD-rom. When I first put this computer together, this is how I had it set up and had no problems.

So I made the switch. When I rebooted, I checked the bios and only one HD was listed (the SATA) - neither of the two other drives nor my DVD-rom were there. My DVD-rom wouldn't even open up.

I went back to the setup I had before I cleaned it out (2 SATA drives) and it still wasn't recognizing the DVD-rom and the system was running really slow. I decided to plug in just the components necessary for it to run. It's ok now, but any kind of cpu-intensive process slows it down to a crawl.

I'm perplexed b/c I did nothing to the inside other than switch out a HD. Any ideas of what's causing this?

Antec 550W
AMD Athlon 3200 64
socket 939


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

What motherboard do you have. Then, tell us how you have your ide setup. Like what drives (including brand name) are on IDE #1, what is on IDE #2, how are all jumpered and where on the ribbon cable. You are using 80 connector cables where there is a hard drive, aren't you....please be sure they aren't the older 40 connector cables which look much alike the newer ones.


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## carsey (Aug 19, 2006)

What is the size of your power supply?? 

This is a common cause of problems as you described above.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Mobo: Asus A8V-E SE
IDE setup: NEC ND-3500AG DVD-R on one cable, Maxtor 6Y120M0 on another, both masters and plugged into the black connector.

I've had this computer for almost a year and have had an extra IDE and a SATA hard drive (in addition to the DVDR and HD above) hooked up w/o any problems. Only now, since I cleaned out the interior and swapped out HD's, am I having any problems.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

I am still a little confused on this one unless you took the one drive out again:



> This would give me this setup: 1 SATA drive, two IDE drives and one DVD-rom. When I first put this computer together, this is how I had it set up and had no problems.


 You listed the following:



> NEC ND-3500AG DVD-R on one cable, Maxtor 6Y120M0 on another


 Are you sure you didn't mix the cables so you have a hard drive on a 40 connector cable instead of the newer 80 connector cable?


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

The IDE cable that the DVD-R is connected to did not change. When I switched out the drives, I slaved the 2nd IDE drive to the IDE drive that was already in there.


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Here is what I want you to look at. First of all, make sure the drive that is already in there is set to MASTER, because it is possible it is set to Cable Select. Then, make sure the one you put on the ribbon is set to slave. The Master always goes on the end connector of the ribbon cable, and the slave goes on the middle connector.

Try not to place an Optical drive on the same cable as a Hard Drive. Therefore, I am assuming the optical drive is on the cable alone.

You did not mention the 40/80 cable situation. An 80 connector cable usually has a blue end (to motherboard), and a black and blue connector on there. Did you check that?

Go into the BIOS setup menu and make sure drives are set to AUTO.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Both DVD-R and HD are set to master and are on the end connector. Both are 80-pin cables.

My setup right now is 1 SATA drive, 1 IDE drive and one DVD-R - all on separate cables. Up until two days ago, I had the same setup, plus another SATA drive, and had no problems.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Is there a Windows program like Sandra that could possibly figure out (or at least help us figure out) what the problem is?


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Hi,

Let's do a memory check on this one. Seems like you have everything hooked up right unless I missed something. Here is a great program (takes a while though) to test memory:

Memtest Program

Memtest86 - Memory Diagnostic Page


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

No memory errors.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

go to your hard drive makers website and download the hard drive diagnostic testing utility to check the mechanical health of each drive (make sure to perform the extended or full tests)

also reset your cmos (read mobo manual) or ask for "how to"

I would remove all cards and memory and check for dust in slots 


post back with the results of your inspection


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

use Everest (free in my sig) and post your system voltages in here for evaluation


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Voltages:
Voltage Values:
CPU Core......1.28 V
+3.3 V........3.36 V
+5 V..........5.59 V
+12 V.........12.28 V
Debug Info F..A3 68 FF
Debug Info T..38 45 40
Debug Info V..BC E7 D0 D0 FF CA CA (01)


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

I also think a cmos reset might help as well,
I would also consider leaving just your SATA drive and add 1 other component at a time. So remove the DVD rom and just connect 1 IDE drive, then if that works add another then another.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Ok - cleaned out my case, removed all components, reset cmos - and hooked everything back up... and its still in the same condition. So I unplugged my DVD-R and IDE drive and rebooted and while it was still a tad slow, it didn't grind to a halt with any 100% cpu activities. When I attached my IDE drive, it took awhile to get to the Windows loading screen and right before it did, it had a white progress bar go across the bottom (the same one you see when coming out of standby). Any heavy CPU processes cause hiccups.

So I guess we've got it narrowed down to my IDE drive? I did a full diag scan on it and it came up with no errors (although on Speedfan it has that drive at 50% fitness).

Anything new spring to mind now?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

in your first post you stated the dvd tray does not open
check you have the power plug in the right way round
red next to the ide cable
there is a problem with the power cable try another plug
there is a problem with the drive ask a friend to try it in their computer


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

The DVD drive is connected properly. Whether it was opening or not was dependant on what other devices I had hooked up.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

OK - I've changed power cords and plugged it directly into the wall, rather than going through a surge protector and it still isn't back to normal. Are there any tests I can run to see what is possibly causing the slowdowns?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

You may well have a BUM ide controller you could install a PCI slot IDE controller card there are cheap models as well as the top of the line Promise brand units which are $35.00 to $40.00


its worth the shot



sounds to me like a mobo problem



which mother board do you have anyway????????


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Asus A8V-E SE

Could be an IDE controller, even if when I unplugged all IDE devices it still ran slow?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

first of all its a very customary configuration to use a mix of sata & ide that should be a guaranteed no conflict situtation


i am alittle confused now how you tried your set-up without the DVD drive ????


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

linderman said:


> first of all its a very customary configuration to use a mix of sata & ide that should be a guaranteed no conflict situtation
> 
> 
> i am alittle confused now how you tried your set-up without the DVD drive ????


I just unplugged that and the IDE storage drive I have, leaving just my SATA drive - still wasn't at full strength.

My system pre-problem: 2 SATA, 1 IDE, DVD-R, PCI-16 video card, 2 gig ram
My system now: 1 SATA, 1 IDE, DVD-R, PCI-16, 2 gig


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check they are still running in dma mode


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' in Device Manger, I have two Primary IDE Channel listings and two Secondary IDE Channel listings.

1st Primary IDE Current Transfer Mode
Device 0: PIO

2nd Primary IDE Current Transfer Mode
Device 0: Ultra DMA Mode 6

1st Secondary IDE Current Transfer Mode
Device 0: Ultra DMA Mode 2

2nd Secondary IDE Current Transfer Mode
Device 0: N/A

So it looks like I have one device running on PIO mode. But would that slow my system down if I have no IDE devices connected?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

1st Primary IDE Current Transfer Mode
Device 0: PIO
this is a problem change it to dma 
click on the properties tab in the device manager for it and enable dma


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

In the drop-down menu for transfer mode, the options are 'PIO only' and 'DMA if available', and DMA is selected. There is no other option to change it to DMA.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduck/itserviceduck/udma_fix/
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

I tried the methods in the above links (the vb script and editing the registry) and that IDE channel is still on PIO mode. Speedfan's SMART section says the drive's fitness is at 50% and Nero says the speed is 2,315 kb/s, compared to 35,865 kb/s for my SATA drive that has XP installed on it.

If I unplug the drive completely, the computer is still slow so I'm not sure that it's the drive itself that's slowing the computer down (could be completely wrong though). If I try to plug in additional IDE drive to transfer my files, the BIOS will not detect any drives at all (which led me to believe it was a power issue in the first place).


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I am leaning towards a bum controller on the mobo but I cant think of anyway to test that other than motherboard swap ?????

a high grade PSU would be a great idea too >>>> most likely that what made this whole mess


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Are you saying that a bad IDE controller would cause major slowdowns on my system, even though my OS is on my SATA drive?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

see if this ms one fixes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472/


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

if Dai's last suggestion doesnt work have you considere da fresh install of your OS 


you definetly arent gonna find any easy fix to your situtation! it wont be just a simple clear the cmos fix! 

with all devices removed from the IDE controller you can rule out the controller being a bum but you cant rule out a registry nightmare


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

No luck. I guess its a reformat for me.

Upon booting, after the ASUS intro screen, the screen goes blank for about 30 seconds and then a white progress bar (similar to the one when resuming after standby) appears then the Windows loading screen shows up. Is this emblematic of having a drive set on PIO?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

run
chkdsk /r


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

When attempted to run chkdsk on the drive in question:

Chkdsk cannot run b/c the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume?

I consider myself fairly computer literate but have never seen this before so I thought I'd ask - yes or no?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

reboot


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Ran chkdsk on reboot - took about 24 hours to complete, and when it did, it didn't do anything.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

download and run the hard drive manufacturers dionostic utility on the hard drive


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Done - no errors reported.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

I reinstalled Windows, instead of reformatting and reinstalling (which is what I wanted to do, but didn't follow the instructions properly). Anyway, the slow boot up times and other slow issues are gone now that I've disconnected the IDE drive, which seems to be the cause of it all. I've run diag tests and chkdsk on it and nothing came up, so I'm still at a loss as to why that drive (which is just a storage drive) slows down my whole computer.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I would make a drive image of the hard drive which you just did the fresh install (see snapshot in my sig)

then you are bullet proof after making an image (to a diff drive then the one you made the image for!)

then trying connecting the drive again and see if it does it again >>>> if it weirds out >>>> then just restore the image and your back to the "good" life again


if it doesnt weird out, then your cleared for take off :laugh: 

but I am not a gambling man, so the *KEY* is in the drive image back-up


if this interests you; also see driveimagexml (free)
http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

I removed what I thought was the offending IDE hard drive, formatted and reinstalled windows. Everything seemed to be okay, but I tried to burn a CD and the buffer continually ran out and then when there was a high CPU load, the system slowed down to a crawl.

My system as it stands right now: 2 SATA, 1 DVD-R, 2 Gig RAM. I am becoming very frustrated since I am running out of ideas as to why this is happening.


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Are we out of ideas (I know I am)? What is my next step, contact ASUS, maybe?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

Gord: if I were in your shoes I would be asking asus for an RMA #


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## gord (Apr 8, 2005)

Just to give some closure to this thread, I thought I'd post what came out. Turns out it was a bad SATA port on the motherboard. When I changed out HD's, I plugged my Windows drive into the bad port, causing the massive slowdowns. I didn't realize this until after I RMA'd the board and ASUS didn't find anything wrong with it, so I'll have to send it back again and maybe they'll send me a new one. 

Thanks all for the help in this most confusing situation.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

happy to hear you got your problem nailed down! nice job


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