How to assemble a windows 98 desktop?

Question

I recently took apart my very old desktop to see what was inside and now i cant put it back together! I can put the mother board in, the video card, sound card, hard drive, floppy, and dvd, but the wires are killing me. I dont know where the flat wires go or the other yellow, red, orange, and black cable things go. All i know is they go in the dvd, hdd, and floppy. Without the wires in when i boot it up it performs a scan and says primary slave none, secondary master none, secondary slave none and floppy drive failed and master hard disk drive failed. Please help

Answer 1

CD-Rom and hard drive - look at the back of them carefully.  You will see that the power wires can only go in one way (without extreme force).  The red wire is on the inside.  The flat cable, normally called an IDE cable, has a red stripe on one side.  That stripe should be next to the red wire.  Look at the motherboard carefully.  You will see that the IDE cables are designed to fit one way only - the mobo connector has a cut-out and the IDE cable has the corresponding raised piece.  Your floppy drive is handled the same way.  That should solve your problem.  You may want to pick up a "Computers for Dummies" book as the pictures in it would help.

Answer 2

Sounds like you don't have the cables (the flat most likely grey ones) hooked up right. You need to have at a minimum one grey cable and one 12v (the little white plug with the four different colored wires coming out of it) cable hooked to each drive. The floppy drive has another much smaller white ended cable hooked to it instead of the slightly larger colorful one.

Now the grey cables are tricker and this might get hard to explain so try to stay with me. The cables most likely have three ends, two ends closer to each other and one farther away. Plug the farthest end into the motherboard, plug the farthest at the other end into the master drive. (this master/slave is denoted by the little plastic jumper on the pins on the end of the drive. You may need to pull the drive back out and look to see which one is which.) The final of the three ends goes in the slave drive. Make sure that you connect the optical drivers (cd/dvd) together and hard drives together. Don't mix and match there cables or you will loose some performance. Do what was said above for both the dvd and hard drives. ( just noticed that you may only have 1 of each so just plug in the farthest end into the motherboard and the the other farthest into the drive itself. Master/ Slave setting shouldn't matter if they are alone and you didn't mess with it.)

Finally the floppy is a little different. The little cut and twist at one end of the cable means that end goes into the drive itself and the other goes into the motherboard. Make sure you have the cable in the right way or the floppy drive wont work. Without getting deap into it just try it one way and if the light on the front stays on all the times flip it back over. Many are made not to go in wrong. Hope that I didn't confuse you to much and helped you out.

Answer 3

ask ALEX BRANSON

or TOM FARKASH

Answer 4

98 system, I haven't seen one in years. I built my own system this year but, it was a Core2 system. I'll try to help as best as possiblew but, I have only worked on P4 systems. On the motherboard there should be labeled floppy or IDE1 or it should. The IDE cable (grey cable red strip) should be pluged into the floppy port and to the drive itself. IDE1 or primary IDE should be plugged into the hard drive. Secondary IDE cable should plug into the hard drive. If your motherboard is labled differently consult a professional. It should have primary, secondary etc or IDE 1 or 2 etc. Hope I helped.

Answer 5

That's okay! This is how we learn!

There's an issue I must bring up first, before I explain those power connectors, and interface cables.

1. STATIC! Your body contains static. Static is an unseen 'killer' of delicate computer components. You have to DE-Static your body, before you reach in, and touch those computer parts! If you have, cool!

If you haven't, I don't know if the computer will work again. You MAY be lucky! All you have to do, is touch the metal frame of the computer case. That's it! Touch it before you reach inside. Touch it before you handle any computer parts. Also after you get up, and walk away, then return to your computer build. Work on a table! On a bed, a couch, or directly on a carpet floor is a No-No! STATIC! (Even when you plug those power cables back in, and the flat ribbon interface cables, touch the metal frame!)

2.The four pin Molex connectors have a two Black wires, a Yellow wire, and a Red wire. These are Power Supply connectors, that supply power to the Harddrive, and CD drive. They look like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Molex...

It's hard to see in this photo, but there are rounded corners on one side.

This makes it so the Molex connectors go in, in one direction only.

Match one of them up, with the power socket on back of the harddrive, and push it in. Match another one up with the CD drive, and plug it in. Sometimes they are stiff going in. Make SURE the plug is lined up correctly! You might see letter/number combo's on them. P1, P2, P3, and so on. Doesn't matter which one you put where. Just as long as it reaches. Tie the unused ones up out of the way. Use a plastic zipstrip.

Wire ties, like bread wrappers are a poor substitute, they have a metal wire inside. Will work temporarily.

Bottom of this photo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hdd.j... ,shows you the back of the harddrive. The Molex power connector plugs in on the right corner. See how the corners are rounded on the top? (Not trying to insult your intelligence.)

2.You can see where the Flat Ribbon interface cable,(IDE cable) plugs into. There are 40 pins on the back of the harddrive where it plugs in.

There is a notch in the harddrive case in this 'port'. There should be a protruding piece of small rectangular plastic, on the Flat Ribbon cable connector. This lines up with the notch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ATA_P...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ata_2...

IF your IDE Flat Ribbon cable's connector does not have this plastic 'bump', read this,

The Flat Ribbon cable has a faint red stripe on one side,(And one side only!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_... ,scroll down this page to see what I'm 'talking' about.

This red stripe, or line, is on the side that Number 1 pin is on. (There are 40 sockets in the Flat Ribbon cable. They all have a Pin number. It isn't listed on the cable. Just things you will learn. They match the 40 pins on the harddrive)

When the Flat Ribbon cable is plugged into the harddrive, the RED stripe goes towards the Power plug, on the back of the harddrive.

Always!

The same for the CD drive. 'Bump' to the notch, in the CD drive.

The Floppy drive has a smaller connector. Doesn't look like the four pin Molex connector. I'll bet by now, you can guess which one it is.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnect...

Top row, all the way to the right. This one is a little tricky. The connector looks like an upside down T. The top of the T, goes down when plugging it into the floppy drive. The pins on the floppy drive are small, and can be bent easily! I suggest patience, and take your time. Two tries? Four? Whatever! It will go in.

Your computer power supply may be the old AT version.

If so, it will have TWO power connectors that plug into the motherboard. Again, this may seem tricky, but after I explain, it's no sweat!

They look like this, http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnect... Top row, all the way to the left. 'Original PC main power cables'

See the plastic lock on the side of each connector? Looks like a U-shaped piece of plastic? This locks over a plastic 'bump' on the motherboard connector. It can only go in one way!

Now there are two of them. Which order do they go in? When they are plugged in right, the Black wires on each connector, are in the middle.

There are Two Black wires on each connector. They will be facing each other, when both connectors are plugged into the motherboard.

There is one more small cable,(Unless I forgot any! Don't think so! lol!)

This is the AUDIO cable, that plugs into the back of the CD drive also.

http://www.atozincomputer.com/catalog/cd...

Just thought I'd throw this in: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/comput...

Edit: Yep, did forget sumpthin! My Bad! The Floppy drive-> flat ribbon cable. It's the smaller flat ribbon cable of the three.

Also where the Harddrive flat ribbon cable plugs into, and the CD drive flat ribbon cable plugs into.

On your motherboard, where these 40 pin connectors plug into, are two sockets that are the right size. 40 pin. (The Floppy drive plugs into the smaller socket. 34 pin. No mistaking this one!)

The Harddrives header,(Socket), will have IDE 0, or IDE 1 next to it. Will probably be REAL small letter/numbers!

OR, it may have PRI, or Primary.

The CD drive header will have IDE 2, or SEC, or Secondary.

If you don't see the IDE 1,(Or the others above), and you see where the CD drive header is listed, you know the other header is for the Harddrive.