loose cable

Can anyone help? I installed a new card (firewire) on my machine.
Everything seemed to be working normal (didn't use it though, the card
that is). Windows said that it detected new hardware configuration and
I had to reactivate XP. Did that. Then kaboom. Computer stalled, I
shutdown and now it wont boot, nuthing. It wont even read the floppy
drive ( i put in a system disk, hoping it'd help), wont read cd's
either. The power light comes on, thats all. The monitor is blank, not
receiving a signal. Soooo, I opened the back and found a cable
labelled P8 loose. Is this supposed to be plugged into something? I in
the process of pulling out all my cards and reseating them (without
the firewire one) Anybody got some advice?

(jetorbit) wrote in message news:<. com>...
> Can anyone help? I installed a new card (firewire) on my machine.
> Everything seemed to be working normal (didn't use it though, the card
> that is). Windows said that it detected new hardware configuration and
> I had to reactivate XP. Did that. Then kaboom. Computer stalled, I
> shutdown and now it wont boot, nuthing. It wont even read the floppy
> drive ( i put in a system disk, hoping it'd help), wont read cd's
> either. The power light comes on, thats all. The monitor is blank, not
> receiving a signal. Soooo, I opened the back and found a cable
> labelled P8 loose. Is this supposed to be plugged into something? I in
> the process of pulling out all my cards and reseating them (without
> the firewire one) Anybody got some advice?

Power supply cables are usually labled P1, P2, etc. I don't know
where one could come from that would cause such problems, certainly
not optical drive, etc. I don't think you are dealing with the
motherboard cable (20-odd pins) either, because I have only ever seen
that labled P1. Maybe that cable was never plugged in. Often there
are one or two PS cable left over.

You might want to check your CPU fan. If that is not operational,
then I think what you described would happen. One last thing, it
isn't reading from harddrives or anything, is it? If so, then it
would probably be video card problem. But if it doesn't make any
noises, we'll forget about that.

Aaron

I now know that it's a power supply, but to what? Dont know where on
the motherboard it connects to. It's a HP Pavilion 8637.

(jetorbit) wrote in message news:<. com>...
> I now know that it's a power supply, but to what? Dont know where on
> the motherboard it connects to. It's a HP Pavilion 8637.

What does the plug on it look like? Does it have 4 connectors on it?
If so, then it probably wasn't used, as there are usually a few extra
of these.

Aaron

On 5 Jun 2004 18:04:15 -0700, (jetorbit) wrote:

>I now know that it's a power supply, but to what? Dont know where on
>the motherboard it connects to. It's a HP Pavilion 8637.

It's been awhile since I looked at an old AT motherboard, but I'm
suspecting you've got a power supply with both AT and ATX motherboard
connectors. P7 and P8 were the two connectors for an AT board IIRC.
That loose connector probably hadn't been connected to anything.

RWL


******* Remove NOSPAM to reply *******

RWL <bobpartner_NOSPAM_@evenlink.com> wrote in message news:<>. ..
> On 5 Jun 2004 18:04:15 -0700, (jetorbit) wrote:
>
> >I now know that it's a power supply, but to what? Dont know where on
> >the motherboard it connects to. It's a HP Pavilion 8637.
>
> It's been awhile since I looked at an old AT motherboard, but I'm
> suspecting you've got a power supply with both AT and ATX motherboard
> connectors. P7 and P8 were the two connectors for an AT board IIRC.
> That loose connector probably hadn't been connected to anything.
>
> RWL
>
>
> ******* Remove NOSPAM to reply *******

Hi, Newer power supplies have a small square connector with 4 wires.
It's for mother boards that have a matching connector to supply the
processor. It is connected to the +5 and +12 at the same place in the
power supply as the normal ones. It's to beat the IR losses in the
main connectors. Most MBs I have seen have the MB 4 pin connector
connected to the main connector on the board so they don't really
have to have the 4 pin connector. Looks like the Mother board
engineers don't agree with the Power supply engineers. A newer PS may
also have both AT and ATX connectors. Jim