Weird ide problems - just kick it

[BustedAvi]

hey guys whats goin on

ok im workin with a p3 800 runnin winxp pro wit a geforce ddr

ok around this time last year the peice of crap would only pick up the hard drive on boot-up (just out of nowhere, like it worked fine for 3 months then bam) and not the 2 cdroms (cdrom n burner).

Now we tried everything from technical to mechnical (if thats the proper term, im only 15 so help me out ). We swtiched stuff up in the bios, changed up ribbons, switch power cables, formatted... nothing

Now my genius cousin got a little frustrated and decided to just go all out and kick the comp. Guess what happened on boot up... IT WORKED

I kid you not it worked, great too, fans were all workin, everything was runnin smooth.

Now the peice of garbage did it again, stopped pickin up the ide drives again. So i swtiched around the power cables n got a new ribbon (tha one was kinda old) and it picked them up. So everythings all good butr now my onboard usb plugs arents working once winxp is loaded (keyboard is usb, and it works in bios but not to get into bios).

I would literally pay someone to help me fix this problem (well i would if i had any spare money )

thanks

[HeadBand]

make sure they are not disabled in the cmos or by a jumper on the motherboard and also they may need a driver you forgot to install since you formatted

[Bovon]

When a "kick" or other hard disturbance of the system and it comes back to life can only mean one thing. Somewhere in that case is 1) a bad connection, and the kick made the connection work properly or 2) there is a short somewhere around the motherboard or power supply.

You said after the kick..the fans started working?...they were not working before?...nothing seemed like it had power coming to the system?..if that is correct, then the problem is most likely the power supply flaking out.

If the computer was mine, I would begin with the bare basics by removing the motherboard, set it up out side of the case on an old phone book..or something kinda soft, put in one stick of RAM in the 1 or 0 DIMM socket (DIMM RAM is very hard to seat down good mash it until the latches on the ends latch themselves..don't help them), whichever your motherboard calls the sockets (0 or 1 to start with) remove and inspect the CPU for bent or misaligned pins...replace and being sure the CPU is set solid all the way in the socket, latch it down..reinstall the heatsink..being very very careful to never allow any hear sink thermal paste (Artic Silver possibly) out on the base of the CPU anywhere at all..Install the video card and connect the monitor..no drives connected...no keyboard or mouse..no other plug-in cards..just the simple basics. Connect the power supply and turn it on by taking a small screw driver and shorting the two pins where the case switch normally connects to the motherboard.

Visually inspect all connecting pin on the board and on the drives..if any are found bent (even slightly, straighten them carefully)

If the system POSTS..begin adding stuff back into it, but do not replace into the case yet..be sure all of the normal stuff is connected and the machine will boot before replacing in the case.

Some recent cases are coming out with stamped out and drilled/tapped motherboard standoffs (better cases have brass hex shaped standoffs that screw into the case backplate)...most (maybe all) of this type of case motherboard mounting stand off will short the motherboard because the diameter of the head of the stand off is too large, and can touch a circuit trace...we usually have to use plastic or fiber washers between the motherboard and these case stand offs.

[Xtreeme]

Go through what bovon mentioned and update us. He pretty much covered all the normal possibilites.

[BustedAvi]

sorry guys my power has been out for a day now,

but im thinking its the drivers... since the keyboard is usb and it works in bios and all? im not gonna try the whole put your motherboard on a old phone book thing, it would probobly help but im not sure of myself on that one, id probobly break something,

i remember something now, it was when i formatted that i ran windows update to get all the critical updates (one was for the mobo) and thats the day it crashed... weird huh, i never used too install those drivers for my mobo because i never got around to it, i always had these old ones from their site... kinda weird huh?

[Ritalin Kid]

Those things happen when you have an unstable computer.. especially if the voltage to the motherboard is unstable and/or the motherboard is slightly grounding somewhere on the metal chasis.

This is why the phone book method was suggested. A driver is a piece of software that help an operating system (i.e. Windows) communicate properly with your hardware. The actual recognition of your hardware by the motherboard does not require drivers and if kicking the computer helped the motherboard recognize the CDROMs again it sounds like you have short or ground somewhere on the motherboard or power supply. Worse case scenerio the chipset is damaged and unstable due to a short, ground, or kick.

[John Prophet]

what do you have showing in the device manager? that is your main place to start when trying to find out about hardware not working. You look in the device manager and see if the usb ports show up at all....if they do maybe they have yellow question marks beside them or something like that.

right click "my computer", properties, hardware, device manager.

JP