Power tower lights

[Gav]

Yeah the red hard drive light doesnt work on my tower to show hd is active..The bulb is ok as my disk drive is wired to it,so why does it not work?

[KennyR]

Be more specific. Is it an IDE disk or SCSI, is the light staying on all the time or not coming on ever, and what exactly is the light wired to?

"It dun werk" isn't exactly good if you want people to help you. ;-)

[iamaboringperson]

:lol: lol   i laughed out loud when i saw the title of this forum!  i thought it sounded funny!

[Brian Hoskins]

Have you got a PowerFlyer inside that PowerTower installation by any chance??

If so, you've forgotten to connect the extra lead that taps off the HD indication status from the Amiga's standard IDE Bus.  Pin28, if memory serves.

BrianHoskins

[Gav]

Its a ide hd wired to a powerflyer,the light doesnt come on at all only with floppy access.Its wired to the motherboard.
Thanks

[Gav]

Nah the little blsck lead is on that pin,i think its to do with the red a white lead that connects to the motherboard.But how do i find out?

[Brian Hoskins]

Alright so you've got a PowerFlyer in there as I suspected.

There is an extra lead that comes from the PowerFlyer hardware which connects to the standard Amiga IDE port.  I *think* it's pin 28 if I remember correctly.  The HD will still work perfectly without this lead connected - you just wont get any visible indication of it's activity via the Power Tower lights.

One thing I do need to clear up here, you say that the lights come on when the floppy drive is active?? I hope you're not saying that HD activity light comes on when the floppy is active? Becuase that can't be right at all surely.  What you're probably saying is that the floppy drive activity light works but the HD one doesn't, is that right? If so, check the lead I was just on about - it's almost certainly the root cause of your problem, provided that the indication light itself isn't faulty that is.

BrianHoskins

[Brian Hoskins]

Hmmm Im just trying to remember now.  I've never owned a PowerTower but I own it's successor, the Mirage.

On mine, there IS a lead which connects to the motherboard for the indication lights.  This connects into the socket where your old standard A1200 indication lights would have connected when it was still a desktop machine (right next to the floppy drive power connection)

Check this... it's the only thing left really

BrianHoskins

[Gav]

The floppy and hd are running off the same light on the tower..When a disk is in the drive it lights up,when the hd boots or loads whatever there is no light.It was fine until yesterday?

[Gav]

Yeah thats right,ive checked over and over,yesterday i removed the cable then put it on again.Still nothing,then i moved it and it came on.So i put the tower together again and no light?

[Brian Hoskins]

I dont suppose you've still got your old A1200 indication lights have you? I've got a few of them bouncing around here.  You could connect those to the motherboard instead and see if the activity lights work then.

Give me a bit of backround to your problem.  Have your PowerTower HD activity lights EVER worked or have they only recently decided not to work? If the latter, have you done anything recently (like dismantled your Amiga) which may have caused the problem? Or has it gone faulty all by its self?

I would think it's probably something really simple, I've never heard of this sort of problem being down to a genuine fault - it's usually a lead not connected, or connected in the wrong place.

Have you disconnected that black lead from the PowerFlyer at all? If so, did you put it back in the correct place on the correct pin?? Double check because this is still highly suspect for me...

BrianHoskins

[odin]

Reeks of a faulty cable. Can you replace it?

[Gav]

Thats what i was thinking@odin,im not sure?it goes behind the face plate of the tower.So id have to try and remove the plate if i can to see if it is removable?

[Brian Hoskins]

God this is terrible - everytime I post a reply you've already answered what I was going to ask and it's then making my questions look quite silly hehe.

Yeah it could be a faulty lead as Odin suggested.  I've never had this myself but hey, you never know.  If you have your old standard A1200 indication lights to hand you can try those and that will at least point you in the right direction.  If it works with the standard lights in then the lead to the front of your tower must be dodgy.  If it still doesn't work with the standard lights connected then you're back to the PowerFlyer and that little black lead.

Which lead was it you said you were removing and sometimes you were getting it to work???

BrianHoskins

[Gav]

Yeah ive checked the lead on the flyer,yesterday i fitted another floppy as my 1st was broke.This has happend once but on another motherboard,i thought the board was faulty so i changed it.Now im thinking therewas nothing wrong with the board.