A problem and a question

[fetus]

After installing a y-splitter cable so i could hook up my cd-rom/cd-rw drives I received an error at startup that read somehing like: "floppy drive seek failure". Does anybody have any ideas as to what could have caused this? Also, I'm curious as to whether cd-rom/cd-rw drives constantly draw power from the power supply, anyone know?

 

[rdcmmnst]

sounds like you can't get ahold of your floppy maybe you lost a connection anyways see if you can set your hdd to master that should fix it. I would think that would draw a little power not much tho. Actually i don't think they would.

 

[lurkswithin]

1) a floppy drive seek failure notice means that on boot a bios service that checkes for the floppy drive failed to find it.

This could be just a error and nothing to worry about as it does happen from time to time..Or it could mean a complete floppy drive failure caused by a loose connection or the powere cord disconnection to the floppy drive or just a bad cable .

All optic drives draw a minimum amount of power constantly...

 

[fetus]

Hmm...have any idea exactly how much power these cd-rom/cd-rw dvd player drives would use?

 

[lurkswithin]

when in use they will draw from 10 to 30 watts depending on the type of drive and brand...Just being in the computer while not being used I would think less than a watt.

just curious...why would this be a concern?

 

[fetus]

when in use they will draw from 10 to 30 watts depending on the type of drive and brand...Just being in the computer while not being used I would think less than a watt.

just curious...why would this be a concern?

I'm a little concerned because I just installed a 6800GT video card in my system and I can't change the power supply because it's a dell. Furthermore, since I didn't have enough free cables I disconnected both my cd drives so that I could plug the connecters into my video card. The card worked fine, no problems whatsoever, until I used a y-splitter cable so that I could reattach my cd-rom/cd-rw drives. Since then I've gotten a couple messages about a lack of power for the video card. It may just be a coincidence that I received the messages after reattaching my drives or maybe the little bit of wattage they consume is the straw that broke the camel's back. It was also after I plugged in my cd-rom drives that I got the floppy diskette seek failure.

 

[CrossCech]

thats Dell for ya. You're absolutely sure that a new psu would not be compatible and fit within your Dell case? I realize that Dell stuff is very proprietary, but you might get lucky with a psu swap out. If anything, perhaps Dell has a psu upgrade option to purchase.

 

[fetus]

I'm fairly positive that no other psu would be compatible with this computer and there are no Dell to ATx converters that are compatible with it either. I've called Dell and they don't have any more powerful psu upgrades for this thing which is retarded.

 

[CrossCech]

dont you mean we-todded? Retarded is very "non-PC"

 

[fetus]

yes...rather...um sorreh suh