HDD LED not working :(

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Thread: HDD LED not working :(

  1. #1
    Expensive Sushi
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    HDD LED not working :(

    I just put together a new system... everything is working perfectly except for the HDD Activity LED. It's not coming on at all.

    My motherboard is an MSI K8T Neo-FSR. My case is a Lian Li PC-61. I am running 2 Western Digital 7200RPM 80GB drives in RAID 0 via the motherboard's onboard RAID controller.

    I'm pretty sure I have the 2-pin HDD LED lead from the case connected properly. I tried reversing it, and instead of getting nothing it all, it would turn red for a moment and then give nothing afterwards. I've stared at the mobo manual until my head hurts, but I'm pretty sure I have the lead from the case connected properly to the motherboard.

    Perhaps I'm overlooking something stupid, or perhaps I'm expecting it to do something that it's not. My power LED it's a nice blue color... I can see some of it reflecting into the HDD LED, but the only lights I've gotten from the HDD LED have been the red ones I explained earlier.

    If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. I can't seem to figure out what the problem is, unless it's the lead coming from the case or LED bulb itself, or if it's something to do with the RAID array (or maybe something even more obvious and stupid =P).

  2. #2
    Sleeps with the Fishes tweakerpc's Avatar
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    Jan 2005
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    is this a new harddrive, if it used, then maybe one of the pins off the harddrive is broken off, i have 4.01 westerndigital, in which that is the case where it has a borken pin on the hdd, the harddirve works fine without it, but the hdd light does not work, i am sure your case is different, i am just telling one case that it could be.
    Also you could have HDD led and the power led in the reverse places,
    Last edited by tweakerpc; 02-10-2005 at 06:00 PM.

  3. #3
    Expensive Sushi
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    Feb 2005
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    I suppose it could be a problem with the SATA cables, but I'm almost positive the lead from the case is on the right pins.

  4. #4
    Expensive Sushi
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    Feb 2005
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    And yes, they are both brand spankin' new (but they are both OEM) WD800JD 80GB 7200RPM SATA disks.

  5. #5
    Reef Shark
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    I think the HDD LED connectors on this motherboard only show activity on IDE controller. Since you are using SATA drives the IDE controller does not show any activity. I have the same issue with my office workstation. I think the only way to see activity on SATA channel it to connect this LED to hard drives themselves, but I don't know how to do this...

  6. #6
    Catfish
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    Sep 2000
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    Durham, NC, USA
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    An LED will only ever work in one direction -- that's just the physics behind how an LED operates. If you plug it in one way & it works, that's the *ONLY* way that it'll work.

    I don't think that IDE hard drives have an LED connection on them. The activity light is a function of the chipset that controls the drive. I've seen some SATA / PATA PCI cards that have a connector for the drive activity light. I don't suppose the SATA chip has it's own activity connector on the mobo?

    -Bash

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