XFX nforce 680i LT SLI - Hard Drive wont boot

[matt_helgren18]

I just purchased a barebones kit with an XFX nForce 680i LT motherboard, Pentium Dual core E2180, 2GB RAM, GeForce 8600 GT video card, and a 250GB Seagate Barracuda Serial-ATA hard drive.

I've got the whole system put together, it loads me to the initial start screen, and tells me that no drives are recognized. (short of the DVD drive I have plugged into IDE). I've left all settings to default.

Whats really strange is that the hard drive itself wont even spin. So it's as though no power is getting to it. I also tried plugging in a known working hard drive (IDE) and no luck. But the power supply must be working, because I plugged the DVD drive into the same power connector as I did the IDE hard drive.

This has got to be a simple solution, at least I'm hoping. Please help.

[Miles]

What power supply are you using? Just because it powers some things doesn't mean all rails are working properly.

[matt_helgren18]

Ultra ATX 750W supply. everything appears to be functioning correctly, the only issue here is the hard drive not initializing.

[foxmobouser]

Only thing i can thing of is: are your jumper's for master/slave on the IDE HD set properly? I use sata connector for my stuff so dont really remember how the IDE thing works.

[matt_helgren18]

Thats irrelevant right now. I have a SATA drive I want to hook up. I just used the IDE one because i knew it worked and was a good stable for comparison. Both hard drives wouldnt start. :-(

[Miker]

Ok, you have the same drive as I do, stock, they come with a jumper on the back to set them to 1.5G/s, you need to move that to 3G/s so it will work with your MoBo.

[matt_helgren18]

Ok. I just tried that, and I am still in the same boat. It's not just that the hard drives arent recognized, its that they dont even power up. No spinning, no nothing. It's as though there is no electricity running to it. But seeing that every other component is recognized and fine, I dont see that being the issue.

[matt_helgren18]

Also, I tried taking the SATA power cable off and hooking it up to the motherboard via 4 pin power connecter (convert). Still nothing. That tells me that its not a power supply problem. sort of.

[matt_helgren18]

Ok, in reading other forums, I am going to take a shot in the dark (and Miles' Advice) that it could be the power supply. Off to Best Buy, will report back this evening with my results.

[srpeters18]

Also, I tried taking the SATA power cable off and hooking it up to the motherboard via 4 pin power connecter (convert). Still nothing. That tells me that its not a power supply problem. sort of.

Wait, what? There's no power output on a motherboard. You have a SATA output from the PSU and a SATA connector from the motherboard, you need both. I don't know what you've got plugged into your mobo to try and get power to a hard drive...
but stop it.