Hard Drive Light Not Working

[pup91575]

While installing a new internal hard drive onto my existing hard drive, I accidentally pulled a thin double-wired cable with two female pins on each end from somewhere on my motherboard and computer. The hard drive still works but the indicator light that shows that my hard drive is spinning isn't working. I placed the cable onto two places on the motherboard that the pins fit, and I think I'm at least in the right place because I can get the light to either stay on, off, or continuously blink depending on the way that I insert the pins. I can't find anywhere on my hard drive where the cable would go. I have a Gateway Pentinum II Motherboard (part number 4000434). It's not a big deal, but if someone knows where I went wrong on pulling the plug, I'd appreciate it.

[hapoo]

My first suggestion would be to not connect the wire to ANY place if you don't know what the connections for. Secondly, the lights are actually LED's, so it matters which way you connect the wire.

[seqiro]

Here's the overhead view of your motherboard:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/JABIL/m00434/m0043401.shtml

Way down at the bottom center of the board there is a row of pins for the front panel connections. Clicking there will bring you here:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/M00264/m0026422.shtml

Now this is where it gets confusing, because it looks like you should have a keyed adapter that has all the wires for the front panel connections in one 2x8 header. Are you using SCSI drives or an external IDE controller? Perhaps those wire connects to the two SCSI LED pins at the right?

Not sure, but perhaps this is a start.

[ribitch]

Originally posted by hapoo
My first suggestion would be to not connect the wire to ANY place if you don't know what the connections for. Secondly, the lights are actually LED's, so it matters which way you connect the wire.

hehehe yeah, i would definitely advise you NOT to plug in a connector anywhere. simply shorting the wrong set of pins can give you major headaches.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by ribitch


hehehe yeah, i would definitely advise you NOT to plug in a connector anywhere. simply shorting the wrong set of pins can give you major headaches.

Or burn out the entire MoBo... :angry:

[pup91575]

Originally posted by seqiro
Here's the overhead view of your motherboard:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/JABIL/m00434/m0043401.shtml

Way down at the bottom center of the board there is a row of pins for the front panel connections. Clicking there will bring you here:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/M00264/m0026422.shtml

Now this is where it gets confusing, because it looks like you should have a keyed adapter that has all the wires for the front panel connections in one 2x8 header. Are you using SCSI drives or an external IDE controller? Perhaps those wire connects to the two SCSI LED pins at the right?

Not sure, but perhaps this is a start.


I don't have a SCSI drive or external IDE controller. I just have the initial hard drive that came with the computer.

A few questions that the answer might help me out are:
1) How does the LED light connect with the hard drive to know that the HD is spinning? Is it connected by the IDE cable?
2) If I wanted my new 2nd hard drive to be connected with the LED, how can I do this?

Thanks for all of your help. (And I have disconnected the cable for now.)

[seqiro]

Originally posted by pup91575



I don't have a SCSI drive or external IDE controller. I just have the initial hard drive that came with the computer.

A few questions that the answer might help me out are:
1) How does the LED light connect with the hard drive to know that the HD is spinning? Is it connected by the IDE cable?
2) If I wanted my new 2nd hard drive to be connected with the LED, how can I do this?

Thanks for all of your help. (And I have disconnected the cable for now.)

Well, usually your case will have a bunch of wires coming from the front panel somewhere that are responsible for things like your power switch, reset switch, internal speaker, power light, HDD activity light, etc. They usually all connect up to various pins located near each other toward one of the sides of the motherboard.

Any hard drive activity from the onboard IDE connector is handled by the motherboard. So when you install a new hard drive onto the onboard IDE, it should automatically be "connected" to the HDD activity light on your case.

[Tommy Boomfiger]

Originally posted by Ladogaboy


Or burn out the entire MoBo... :angry: can we assume that youve had a personal experience with that happening?:P

[pup91575]

Originally posted by seqiro


Well, usually your case will have a bunch of wires coming from the front panel somewhere that are responsible for things like your power switch, reset switch, internal speaker, power light, HDD activity light, etc. They usually all connect up to various pins located near each other toward one of the sides of the motherboard.

Any hard drive activity from the onboard IDE connector is handled by the motherboard. So when you install a new hard drive onto the onboard IDE, it should automatically be "connected" to the HDD activity light on your case.

Ok so the wire I've got that I can't figure out where to go was attached from the SCSI prongs (http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/M00264/m0026422.shtml) to the WOR pins (http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/m00402/m0040207.shtml). One end of the wire has a bigger square white plastic piece on the end that seems to fit perfectly into the WOR end, and the other end of the wire is a rectangular flat black end that I placed into the SCSI end. Depending on which way I inserted the black end, it either caused the LED to be continuously on or continually off. If no wire is attached, the LED continuously blinks. If I only have the black end in (and not the white end connected to the WOR), it continuously stays on.

So far, my motherboard is still in good condition.

Any thoughts?

[seqiro]

Originally posted by pup91575


Ok so the wire I've got that I can't figure out where to go was attached from the SCSI prongs (http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/M00264/m0026422.shtml) to the WOR pins (http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/intel/m00402/m0040207.shtml). One end of the wire has a bigger square white plastic piece on the end that seems to fit perfectly into the WOR end, and the other end of the wire is a rectangular flat black end that I placed into the SCSI end. Depending on which way I inserted the black end, it either caused the LED to be continuously on or continually off. If no wire is attached, the LED continuously blinks. If I only have the black end in (and not the white end connected to the WOR), it continuously stays on.

So far, my motherboard is still in good condition.

Any thoughts?

Well, for one the WOR pins should not have anything to do with the hard disks, as those are for "Wake on Ring": http://support.gateway.com/s/motherbd/intel/M00402/m0040210.shtml