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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot because I'd
decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
Are you talking the IDE ribbon cable, or the four wire power lead? The four
wire power lead is trapezoid shaped and doesn't have a "tab" to break off. It would take a LOT of forcing to get it to fit reversed. But the IDE ribbon cable does have a simple "tab" to "key" it so it fits only one way. -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot because I'd decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
If at first you don't succeed.......
Get a bigger hammer. I know a few people that have managed to get the power connector on in reverse. "Steve Reinis" wrote in message ... Are you talking the IDE ribbon cable, or the four wire power lead? The four wire power lead is trapezoid shaped and doesn't have a "tab" to break off. It would take a LOT of forcing to get it to fit reversed. But the IDE ribbon cable does have a simple "tab" to "key" it so it fits only one way. -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot because I'd decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
I'm talking about the four wires with trapezoid lead. The tab that broke off is
on the hard drive. Correct me; the tab is nothing but the base of the trapezoid. Assuming a trapezoid without a base would eventually allow the lead to go in any direction. The male prong inside the trapezoid on the hard drive is flexible and will bend slightly to become devilish. After putting it back to it's correct power voltage (before it had been 12V into 5V and 5V into 12V) I'd notice the hard drive acted strange as the data pickup arm jerk back and forth like a tail of a fish out of water. I'm still wondering what would happen if I had instead reverse the ribbon cable instead of the power cable. -Wd Are you talking the IDE ribbon cable, or the four wire power lead? The four wire power lead is trapezoid shaped and doesn't have a "tab" to break off. It would take a LOT of forcing to get it to fit reversed. But the IDE ribbon cable does have a simple "tab" to "key" it so it fits only one way. -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot because I'd decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
"DaveW" writes:
If at first you don't succeed....... Get a bigger hammer. I know a few people that have managed to get the power connector on in reverse. And one where a Y adapter from a major parts supplier was wired backwards. --- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/ Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/ +Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm | Mirror Site Info: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html Important: The email address in this message header may no longer work. To contact me, please use the Feedback Form at repairfaq.org. Thanks. |
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
"techforce" bravely wrote to "All" (19 Aug 03 15:52:07)
--- on the topic of " Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way" The hd circuit did not get a reverse polarity but rather 12 volts on the 5 volt logic circuit supply. Think about it, the plug is symetrical. Ordinarily the supply filter caps "if large" should have absorbed the overload and held down the 12 volts. If the overload was brief then perhaps a prolonged rest to allow junctions to discharge internally may be all that's needed to restore operation. I've seen this "let rest then it works" behaviour before. OTOH if power was applied for a long time then some logic IC or line driver got very hot and turned to toasty carbon letting the smoke out. Reversed power plug happened to me once with a wd drive. The line driver IC was visibly puffy, cracked, and fried. Took one from a defunct wd and the drive worked perfectly! In hindsight I guess it bravely sacrified itself to save the mctlr... snif! te From: "techforce" te If you reversed the IDE cable, the PC would not power up more than te likely , until you corrected the problem. Some older PC's would power te Up, but would not see the drive. te As for the Reversed Polarity, more than likely one of the SMD Chips te Fried when it was applied. I have seen other items designed with a te Diode accross the Power pins to soak up the power. But I guess the te amount of current it drew was still within the safe limits of the te output of the main PS, otherwise the PS would have tripped off and te saved the drive. te "Wdyorchid" wrote in message te ... I'm talking about the four wires with trapezoid lead. The tab that broke te off is on the hard drive. Correct me; the tab is nothing but the base of the trapezoid. Assuming a trapezoid without a base would eventually allow the lead to go in any direction. The male prong inside the trapezoid on the hard te drive is flexible and will bend slightly to become devilish. After putting it back to it's correct power voltage (before it had been 12V into 5V and 5V into 12V) I'd notice the hard drive acted strange as the data pickup arm jerk back and forth like a tail of a fish out of water. I'm te still wondering what would happen if I had instead reverse the ribbon cable te instead of the power cable. -Wd Are you talking the IDE ribbon cable, or the four wire power lead? The four wire power lead is trapezoid shaped and doesn't have a "tab" to break off. It would take a LOT of forcing to get it to fit reversed. But the IDE ribbon cable does have a simple "tab" to "key" it so it fits only one way. -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot te because I'd decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I te reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd .... The current limits placed are based on resistance |
#8
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Compaq Computer dead -install HD wrong way
Yes I will do your advice and a few by the others.The compaq hard drive that
came with the computer had also fried months earlier when I'd a tiny speckle of lead from my solder gun flew directly onto the hard drive circuit board. I'm jst an unlucky person. Correction to my first post: the hard darive wasn't connected in reverse polarity, instead the power supply was reversed. -wd I see what you are talking about now, but I don't think I would classify it as a tab. It's more like a female recepticle. But I do understand that if it's somehow broken or missing, you are then left with four prongs in a row that can easily mate with the wrong/backwards connector. In any case... Reversing the ribbon cable isn't such a terrible thing. In many cases, the BIOS will stall at the IDE auto-detect stage, but no harm is done to computer or the hard drive. Many computers sometimes fail to even POST with a reversed IDE cable, but again, ho harm done. If you have data on the hard drive you MUST get back, first of all, stop powering it up and allowing the arm to slam around in there. Then, find yourself another identical drive and swap out the pack of electronics on the underside of the drive. If no severe damage has been done to the platters and the only thing that fried were the external electronics, you should be up and running again and able to retrieve data. Of course, I'd salvage the data and then trash the drive. I would never count on it being reliable again... -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... I'm talking about the four wires with trapezoid lead. The tab that broke off is on the hard drive. Correct me; the tab is nothing but the base of the trapezoid. Assuming a trapezoid without a base would eventually allow the lead to go in any direction. The male prong inside the trapezoid on the hard drive is flexible and will bend slightly to become devilish. After putting it back to it's correct power voltage (before it had been 12V into 5V and 5V into 12V) I'd notice the hard drive acted strange as the data pickup arm jerk back and forth like a tail of a fish out of water. I'm still wondering what would happen if I had instead reverse the ribbon cable instead of the power cable. -Wd Are you talking the IDE ribbon cable, or the four wire power lead? The four wire power lead is trapezoid shaped and doesn't have a "tab" to break off. It would take a LOT of forcing to get it to fit reversed. But the IDE ribbon cable does have a simple "tab" to "key" it so it fits only one way. -Steve Wdyorchid wrote in message ... My computer stops loading the operating system and will not boot because I'd decided to install my hard drive's power supply in reverse polarity. The hard drive is fried. But I'd like to find an alternative way to boot my computer with a fresh hard drive. You're wondering how in the world can I reverse polarity on my Maxtor 20G. Easy, the tab that's supposed to prevent reverse polarity broke off. Fumbling in the dark, it's an accident waiting to happen. Price of Computer $1,200 Compaq Presario 2256. HD Maxtor $100. Monitor not included. I'd assume people don't diagnose motherboards, do they just replace the board? What's an alternative way to boot unless it can be fixed? -Wd |
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