Question on 4-pin power voltages

[ArcticFox]

A woman here at school asked me if I could fix her Dell as it wasn't reading any of her kids' game Cd's. Easy enough I thought, probably a dead drive as the machine was 3-4 years old (Win98se, anyone?) and the thing had never been worked on. So what I did before ordering her a new drive is take a cheapo from my desk and put it in, said that her kids should try their games out on it and I'll take her drive and test it in my rig.

Long story short, her drive would only read audio discs and DVDs, but not games. So I get the report here Monday morning asking how it went, and she said (keep in mind she's a technophobe somewhat) that the screen was black, stuff was on it, and she couldn't open Word or anything. Duh, if the screen is black and there is stuff on it, you probably arn't in Word unless your a DOS-lover.

Now I'm worried that I completely fscked her PC, and my question is that Dell re-wires their power supplies, but I don't think they mess with the CD and HD connectors (aka 12v/5v), but I need to be sure. The markings on her drive are:

5v GND 12v
-- -- -- --

With "--" representing one pin. It worked as much as it can on my comp, but I need to make sure. I probably bumped a cable loose in her comp, but I want to make sure. I'll know at lunchtime if I owe her a new PC or not... Good thing I can just give her one of my eMachine mobos if it is indeed dead.

My question is, is this the standard pin-layout of a 4-pin connector?

[MaxVal]

If you're referring to the standard four pin Molex power connectors, they are the same.
Dell utilizes off the shelf components in their systems so pin outs are the same.

[ArcticFox]

Hate to say it, but your wrong. Some time ago Dell started re-wiring the main ATX connector for some reason, partly because they needed more power than it would provide. So you can't use a Dell power supply in a standard mobo or vice versa, otherwise I don't really know what would happen.

[jmichna]

AF,
Other than the unique PS-to-Mobo connector wiring config of the Dell PS'es, I'm pretty darn sure their Molex connectors are standard. I had an old (late '97) Dimension XPS-300D15 and added non-Dell CD-ROM drives and an extra (non-Dell) HD to that old box.

[bailey]

just check them to be sure, the yellow wire is 12 v
and the red wire is 5 v
measured to the black gnd.

[electric]

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter.html

The power supply that came with your Dell computer manufactured since September of 1998, may look like a standard ATX power supply. A standard ATX power supply will even physically fit into the Dell computer and the electrical components will look like they line up, however if you don't use a proprietary Dell power supply or a Dell to ATX Power Supply Converter with your standard ATX power supply, your computer will not work and damage may occur to the motherboard and/or the standard power supply.

http://www.sysopt.com/articles/PSU_Perspectives/


http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com/news/18.html

may help

[ArcticFox]

Yeah this is another reason Dell sucks. I'm facing a problem with this machine that is forcing me to take it home and rip it apart, as it turned on for the lady but gave her an error message. Now I wire it up to a school monitor, keyboard etc, and nothing happens when I hit the power button.

Not to jump to conclusions, but it is possible the throwaway Foxconn power supply died, though I'm not sure how. Hell, maybe the button just broke.

Thanks for all y'alls help, I'll report back later today once I get it into my dungeon.