Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz/ Motherboard: Asus P4C800-E Deluxe

[Mergz]

CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz
Motherboard: Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
RAM: 2x 512 MB Kingston
HIPRO Power Supply
OS: Win XP Home Edition

I was testing three hard drives with a USB hard drive enclosure by installing the drives in the enclosure and then connecting it to a USB port on my motherboard. When I got to the third one, the computer froze. I couldn't move the mouse. After several attempts of rebooting, the computer stalled at the motherboard startup screen. I shut down the computer to let it rest. When I pushed the startup button, nothing happened - no noise, nothing. The green led on the motherboard is lit, when the power supply switch is on. I disconnected everything, shut off the power supply power switch, grounded myself, etc, went into the computer and reseated the power supply cable to the motherboard. Still no power when I press the on switch on the front of the computer. The green led on the motherboard does light up though.

Problem 2: While digging around inside the computer, I inadvertently knocked the top two SATA connectors off the motherboard, where my two SATA hard drives were connected. I tried reseating them on the little tines that stick out but I then broke off one of the tines on the 2nd SATA port. Can I use the bottom two ports for my drives (assuming I get the computer back up and running)?

Why do they make the SATA connections so flimsy and so hard to pull off without destroying them? (UGGGHHH!)

As always, any advice and help is always greatly appreciated.

 

[bikinistud]

Have you tried shorting the power switch with like a flathead screwdriver? (be careful as you might break off the pins and only short the pins until the fan moves and if it doesn't move for > 5sec, lift off the screwdriver anyway as to not cause any more damage)

That and unhook everything but key/mouse/video/power... even the internal hard drives, cd-rom, etc. you may have a bad device somewhere

 

[Mergz]

What about the SATA problem?

I walked away from the comp for a while and when I returned it was booting up. It didn't recognize the hard drives though because they were connected to the bottom two SATA connections since the top two are broken. How do I get the comp to recognize the bottom tw SATA connections. I found some screens relating to setting up a ?chain? or something. I don't remember exactly.

 

[pscout]

I walked away from the comp for a while and when I returned it was booting up. It didn't recognize the hard drives though because they were connected to the bottom two SATA connections since the top two are broken. How do I get the comp to recognize the bottom tw SATA connections. I found some screens relating to setting up a ?chain? or something. I don't remember exactly.

The sata connectors at the bottom of the board are for the promise raid.

you can probably run them as non raid ... not sure if you need the promise driver but probably do.

I haven't reinstalled mine in over a year, but i think you may need to do the promise configuration in bios before you get to the windows boot ... i think you need to configure the 2 drives each as unmirrored raid 0. I have never configured this way so not 100% sure on this.

You make the promise driver diskette from the asus cd or download them from asus.
Then you can hit the F6 when prompted right at the beginning of a boot from winxp cd ... and feed it the diskette when it asks for them ... follow the instructions in the manual.
When windows discovers your old c drive, select "repair windows". This will install the promise drivers and all you apps should still be there when it finishes the repair/re-install.

Make sure you put your old c drive in the #1 promise sata connector.
I have never done exactly this scenario, but think it should work.

I have the same mobo and run the promise as a raid 1. I think you can run each drive as an un-mirrored raid 0 to get back to where you were.

Better be gentle with those remaining sata connectors!

Also, If you don't have the manual, you can download it from asus then read it.
If you do have the manual .. read it!
The manuals aren't very good as a how to guide, but I find they do help

Good luck.