Yes, it absolutely sounds like a power supply issue. I've experienced it
before. Ideally one should have a 300W model, particularly if it's an AMD
processor.




At 02:56 AM 6/6/2003 +0100, Michele wrote:
>Had a similar problem recently when I removed a rewriter from a system my
>son had been using.
>It was fine when I restarted, and then the C drive just seemed to disappear
>gradually, as though it was dying out. It started off by becoming sluggish,
>so I scanned it, restarted, and it disappeared completely.
>My first thought was a virus, but I have an antivirus installed with up to
>date definitions.
>I changed cables, thinking that was my problem, and eventually began to
>think the hard drive had seen better days. It hadn't given any trouble until
>the time I removed the rewriter.
>The cdrom was showing at every boot, but it was just the hard drive which
>wasn't registering.
>After alot of thinking, I decided to give it one last try, and changed the
>power supply cables around, and it worked.
>Both drives now register every time as they always did before.
>My conclusion is that I must have knocked the power cable loose when I
>removed the r/w, and not realised.
>I would suggest that you double check the power supply by rearranging the
>power cables, as I had already tried wiggling the cables myself, and for
>some reason it still didn't do the trick until I changed them round
>completely.
>Hopefully your problem is as simple as this.
>Michele Sayer
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Derek McBride" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 1:19 AM
>Subject: [PCBUILD] Missing Drives
>
>
> > I have had a sporadic problem for 3 months on this system. (700MHZ Celeron
>370, 384Mb RAM, 20GBt HD, CD-ROM, CD-RW:-Win98SE)
> > One, or other, or both of the cd drives disappear from the My Computer
>panel.
> > If I wriggled the IDE cables, they came back, so I replaced the cables
>with the round sort.
> > All was ok for a week or two, then, LO! my E drive wasn't there.
> > I switched off and LO!, the E drive had gone, but the D drive was back.  I
>wiggled the new cables and LO! they are both back.
> >
> > Do IDE sockets give trouble?  Never heard of it.
> >
> > Is it the mother board or the BIOS?  It might not be the cables, but the
>re-starts that alter something.
> >
> > This isn't the first time I have come to a forum with this problem but
>everybody thought it was the cables.
> >
> > Any more help out there.
> >
> > Derek McBride
> >
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Daniel A. Dias
Tech, Computer & Network Support
Innovative Business and Information Services (IBIS)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
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