Hi all!!!

Yesterday i decided to change the case of my pc to a Thermaltake Damier series, and all the changing of the motherboard was pretty ok, and hdd and so on, but when i booted up again the pc, i found out that none of my usb ports are working, neither the secondary IDE channel.

I cannot see any of my devices on the secondary IDE channel (dvd and burner) and i cannot connect anything on the USB ports (neither in Linux nor Windows XP). My motherboard is an ASUS p4s8x-x, and I am pretty scared i have to change the mobo....

I checked all ide cables, enables USB Legacy in the BIOS and nothing worked. The USB have power, as i plug the webcam, the power led is on, and dvd and burners have power as well. I have also checked that they were master and slave, so no conflict may happen.

Maybe i'm just forgetting to power something on the mobo?? (now i have the ATX and the P4 connectors pluged in).
If i update the BIOS, will this problem be solved?? And, in the worst case i have to change the mobo, will i have to reinstall everything?? (linux and windows).

I'm pretty scared of that symptoms of my mobo, any help is more than appretiated.

Thanx in advance

It is possible to destroy the motherboard with static electricity or by accidently damaging a circuit board trace. Personally, I have destroyed two motherboards. I doubt updating the BIOS will help but resetting the CMOS might.

Recheck everything again. Verify the ribbon cable strip is next to pin 1 on the IDE connecter etc etc..

michaelk:

Thanx for the tips. I rechecked everything (i even changed the ide cables just to make sure the cable was not the problem) and i'm 100% sure they're pluged the right way. The thing of damaging the board with static electricity is really shit, btw...

I'm completely noob at hardware (specially mobos), how do i reset the CMOS?

Thanks a lot

One of two methods. Check the motherboard manual

Remove the battery for a minute and then replace.

If you can not remove the battery there should be a 3 pin header with a jumper located somewhere near by. Move it from one side to the other for about a minute.

BTW The best method to prevent static electricity damage would be to use a ground wrist strap connected to the metal structure of the computer case. Lacking a wrist strap touch the metal chassis of the case before touching any components.

Ok, thanks a lot. I'll do that and i will report results. Hope it gonna work.... wish me luck!

OK, i reseted the CMOS moving a jumper that was close to the battery. Booting again the PC i just entered the BIOS and left all IDE channels on auto, it detected the 2 HDD i have on the first IDE channel, but it didn't work....DVD and burners are not recognized and USB not working at all....

I guess i'll have to buy a new motherboard...

Thanks for the tips and help. If anyone has another suggestion, please feel free.

I would echo michaelk's advice about the connections: in addition to verifying that the ribbon cables are seated properly to the mobo, are they also seated properly to the hard drives? Did you also connect the power cable to the drives? Are the drives jumpered correctly? It may well be that your mobo is fried (I've killed one myself) but I'd urge you to check every possibility first before deciding to buy another. No sense in throwing away a good mobo just because something wasn't plugged in correctly. -- J.W.

Many thanks for the advice. The drives have power (i can eject the tray) and i know they're propperly connected, as there's only one way to connect them. I already checked the jumpers and the ribbon is well seated in the mobo.

I'm starting thinking seriously to change the mobo, just because none of the 6 USB ports (4 on the back, 2 on the front) are working (besides the secondary IDE channel). They have power (the webcam power led is lit), but are not recognized by Linux nor Windows XP.

In addition to all this, i will rebuild the PC again, taking extreme care on making sure all connections are well pluged. If that fails as well, i will buy a new mobo.

I really thank you for all the advises

That's too bad, it does sound as if the mobo has died. Do purchase one of those wrist straps though, it's a cheap insurance policy that will minimize the chances that you'll have any static buildup. -- J.W.

Purchase a wrist strap? Why?

Find some soldering wire and make a loop. Place hand in loop. Tie tight, but not so much that you cut your vein. Cut about a foot of wire beyond your hand. Tie end of wire into case. Voila! Also, works better if you use regular protected wire, but expose parts of the loop with wire strippers.

PS: Be sure that you have the case plugged in. Otherwise the case is not grounded, and so it serves as a lightning rod for static, rather than a conduit.

Why not just use the proper tool for the job? I'm not sure whether this response was intended to be humorous or not, but a wrist strap isn't expensive, and should be part of anyone's tool chest if they will be adding or removing PC components, in the same way that having a set of small, good quality flat-head and Phillips-head screwdrivers is important. As they say, you can do it right, or you can do it over. -- J.W.

Static electricity is way overrated IMHO - changed about a hundred mobos,IO-boards,scsi controllers and the likes and nothing ever happened.
Did you ever try to connect the cd drives to the channel that works with the hdd's?I know - it won't boot but you can check if they are detected by the BIOS.

Have u checked the asus website for jumper settings for usb connectors... are the usb ports on the top using separate wiring to the ones at the rear (usually the case with ASUS) are the ones for the top of the case `loose` wires red green white black etc. in which case the wiring setup described on ASUS for top/front usb ports has two of the wires the wrong way round on their information...let me know and I will give u the correct wiring colours for pins. It is not very likely that u have fried ur motherboard if everything else is working ok. If ur secondary ide slot doesn`t seem to be working can u get an ide cable that u can attach to mobo hard drive and dvd from ur primary slot? Have u got a spare HDD that u can use in the secondary slot with your first HDD in the primary slot to check that it is definitely not working....maybe try putting ur burner on cable select instead of slave..... I have had this problem myself with ASUS mobo`s and after changing things about everything worked fine.

Build it outside the case, put everything on the kitchen table and use a screw driver to short the 2 power swtich pins. Start out simple just ram, processor, and video, then start adding stuff in. Get it working then put it into the case.

I have the mobo manual and there are 3 set of jumpers, but are only for voltages (+5V or +5VSB). I havent changed anything on the mobo, so, just changing the case shouldn't affect the way the mobo works. For the front 2 USB ports, i have to connect some wires on the mobo and i made sure they were connected as in the previous case. Coult it be, though, that a wrong disposition of wires in the front USB ports would affect all of them?
Next step i'm gonna do is to put burner or dvd as slave in the primary channel (i'll remove one of the HDD) and see what happens....

OMFG!!!!!!!!!
I just opened the left pannel to check the wires that were connected to the front USB, and just because i cannot see the colors of it (The thermaltake case protects 'em with a grey cover) i just removed 'em, and now USB ports are working!!!! I really don't get a s***t on how the mobos work...really.
So now i must suppose that the problem of the secondary ide channel has something to do with something pluged wrong....(or not plugged)....any ideas of wth can be?

Many thanx to all of you, at least u solved me one of the problems i have ^___^


EDIT:

Excellent news!!! I just notice now that the floppy disk drive led is always on, so i put a diskette inside and it sounds like hell, so i just unpluged it from the mobo, and now the secondary ide channel works!!! Everything works great now, i just have to discover how to plug the floppy (although i never use it....).

Once again, many thanks to ALL of you, really, you're the best.