[Ferrari]

I have an old Gateway I am doing some upgrading on, mainly to mess with and use for light internet and word processing. So, I have a used CD RW and I thought, well since the existing one doesn't work, I might as well put in the other one.

I replaced it and everything went smooth until I powered the system on. Smoke went everywhere and I looked inside and the audio wire that goes from the CD RW to the hard drive was glowing orange and burning.

Did I put the audio wire in upside down or something? It was the same wire hooked to the same place as the old CD RW. The connector peice looked the same from both sides so I may have put it in upside down...does that matter?

Is it just Coincidence?

I have more wires, but now I'm afraid to hook it up again LOL

Let me know what you think. The old wire was pretty small and dainty looking. The other ones I have seem to be thicker or newer.

Thanks,

[Advertisements]

audio wire that goes from the CD RW to the hard drive was glowing orange and burning.

i'm hoping this is a typo....do you mean from the CD drive to the motherboard? there are NO connections between CD drives and hard drives

[dsenette]

audio wire that goes from the CD RW to the hard drive was glowing orange and burning.

i'm hoping this is a typo....do you mean from the CD drive to the motherboard? there are NO connections between CD drives and hard drives

[Ferrari]

Not a typo, That was how the old one was in there LOL. Don't ask, I feel stupid as it is. Anyway, I am new, obviously, so where exactly do I look on the motherboard to hook it up? Would it be in a similar spot as the DVD Rom? The DVD Rom goes to the video card. I hope thats right! It's an old Gateway Essential 450.

Thanks for your time,

Edited by JAR300, 13 January 2009 - 08:14 AM.

[dsenette]

.....then it was hooked up wrong before...there are no connections on a hard drive that should be connecting to anything other than the motherboard and the power supply...which may explain why your old CDrom wasn't working....

there SHOULD be a connector on the motherboard somewhere near the sound card (we'd really need to find a manual for your motherboard to be sure...) that the cd audio goes to.....

as a side note....i've put together quite a few machines...and i've done so multiple times without using that cable at all and i could still play music CDs directly from the computer.....those cables (if memory serves correct) were for back in the old days when the CD would play directly to the sound card instead of being played via software like winamp or whatever....winamp or windows media player or any other music program actually reads the files on the disk and plays through your soundcard instead of directing sound directly through that cable to the sound card

[Ferrari]

This computer is from like the late 90's. So, would that mean I need the wire then? Or, do you mean older than that? Gateway Essential 450

I don't see a name of the motherboard on the board...cause its standard???

And, I meant to say the DVD is connected to the sound card not video card...That was a typo this time LOL.

There is 1 or 2 connections open next to where the dvd connects to the sound card...would that be where I connect it?

Thanks,

[dsenette]

that's PROBABLY where that cable would connect...near the sound card...if it's a header that looks the same as the other ones...

and no...you probably still don't need that cable

[Ferrari]

I have some time free this afternoon...I'll test it all out and let you know to close or not. Thanks a bunch,