If someone set the jumpers on a slave hard drive wrong (not even set to master or cs enabled) could this destroy a motherboard?

Please see :- http://computing.net/hardware/wwwbo...

I can't see how that is remotely possible. The jumpers just control the relationship between hard drives on the same cable. They do not control voltage, and setting them incorrectly should not cause any damage to a motherboard or anything else.
Ed

Huh?

First of all if you suspected the hard drive,you would simply power on without
it being hooked up.

Give your motherboard a good visual inspection with a flashlight.

http://www.tecnopolis.ca/tecnopolis...

From reading the other post, would suspect that the hdd is bad, drawing to much current and then takeing out the power supply and maybe even the mother board.

replace the power supply (DO not connect bad hdd) and if it then works , trash the bad hdd befor it is put into a comp to blow.

Thanks for reply.............yes the HDD is probably faulty; however I have changed every single part inluding the power supply (HDD, graphics, CPU, RAM etc) and this bloody motherboard wont boot up

Check your hard drive.
See the latter part of response 1 in this:
http://www.computing.net/windows95/...

If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer.

Think you have missed the point here or I have misunderstood you..............the Motherboard will not boot up here.

Did you try the "minimal hardware" method that I suggested in your other post?

Yes I did, even changed RAM and Graphics to PCI ...........still no joy

I just reread your previous string. In each case, the computer was working until your friend went into to BIOS to do something.

I'd try to get the details of EXACTLY what he did in BIOS each time. I wonder if BIOS is corrupt in both MOBOs.

Just wanted to answer your original Question. NO it will not damage your motherboard if you set the jumpers wrong.

http://www.windowvistarepair.com offering free computer support

ok i have a simalar problem
mb-matsonic ms9158e
cpu-p4 2.8ghz
ram-768mb ddr
hd/master-20gb maxtor quantum fireball
hd/slave-250gb maxtor diamondmax 21
cdrw drive
floppy
galaxy mx4000 128mb/64bit w/tv graphics card

i had removed 250gb slave for use in a old sytem i was messing around with and set the jumpers to master. anyhow on wed i replaced it as slave back in my system as laid out above so obviously i had to change the jumpers back to slave, now theres no details on the hard drive to show witch these are only a picture for master & cable select so i googled it and in no time had found the info i needed, unfortunatley it was late at night and i must have used the wrong picture so instead of shorting pins 1+2 i shorted pins 3+4 whitch is not a valid jumper setting for this hard drive.

not realizing my error i put hd back in my system and booted up, booted past bios screens then froze after a few seconds there was a slight smell of warm electrics so i switched off at plug, pulled out hard drive and reallised my blunder, i corrected jumper settings and replaced. powered on,nothing happend no whiz of fans there was a slight flash of led from on led fan i have but that only lasted a split second, on closer inspection i noticed the red hdd led on the computer case was constantly on but very faintly its usually brighter it stays like this as soon as theres power to the case without pressing the start button.

so i removed slave drive and rebooted with just master hd, the pc case fans came on and nothing else light on monitor screen didnt turn green no signal at all. also on closer inspection red hdd led on pc tower is constantly on even when not switched on only goes off if you unplug power cord.

iam resolved to buying a new motherboard and hdd as after trying both hdd in another computer the 20gb drive boots to bios but is not recognised by bios at all and if you try to boot past bios you just get a message saying boot media not found please replace and press any key even if i put the cd rom in with xp on it and set boot sequence to boot from cd rom it cant find it and iget the same message. the 250gb hdd responds the same as it does in the other tower no action at all when you press the start button.
the mother board wont boot to bios even with out eiether of the hdd in.
so iam at a loss as to whatelse to try ive cleared the motherboards cmos settings with the jumpers to no avail . looks like ive blown one motherboard and two hdd by using the wrong jumper settings iknow people are saying this isnt possible and i hope they can tell me what im doing wrong as i really could do with some help with this and iam not coming up with any answers
many thanks gnel57
p.s. sorry for my babling post i couldnt work out how to make it more structured

I would not think the manufacture would make it so a simple mistake of jumping the pins wrong would blow up the system, I have done so with no problems. You could email the hdd manufacture and find out.

Very likely you put the power plug in wrong or it was just ready to go. The problem is likely the Power Supply and not the mother board but can not say for sure it is not both. Would say the hdd is toast.

yeh ive messed jumper settings up before when i was younger with no ill efects but this time im down at least 2hdd i will try motherboard with a different psu tomorow and see if it boots to bios but im not hopefull.
will email maxtor tonight see if i get any answer from them and will post their response if i get one.
seems bizare that both hdd dont work in a different system that was working fine last week i could understand the slave with the jumper mishap having blown but to blow the master on the same cable aswell thats a expensive mistake.
ive ordered a new motherboard today should be here middle of next week will find out then if theres any damage to the cpu.think il have to buy a lotto ticket tonight but with my luck is it a wise investment?

power supply was only 6 week old and the 250gb hdd was only bought after christmass, the 20gb hdd was a few years old and could of been ready to go as there were a few scraping sounds coming from it ocasionaly.
power lead for hdd will only fit in one way so cant see how i could of screwed that up.

ok tried a different psu on the motherboard it didnt work, pressed the start button and nothing happened, the red hdd led on case is on very faintly all the time only goes off if i unplug power cord to psu.
no response from maxtor email yet but it is the weekend so il give that a few days.

so in response to eagles original question id say yes using the wrong jumper settings can destroy your motherboard.

ok got a response from maxtor/seagate regarding using the wrong jumper settings.

Hello Graham,

I can only speak for Seagate and Maxtor drives. Assuming there are no
other electrical issues in the system or controller, incorrectly jumpering
a hard drive should NOT physically hurt the drive. I will forward on your
suggestion regarding adding a jumper diagram to our drives again.

Mike H.
Seagate Technical Support

========== Customer's original message ==========

========================================================
hi just thouhgt id let you know that i have blown a complete system up by
setting the jumpers wrong on a slave hard drive. i didnt think this was
possible as anyone i speak to says this isnt possible, but ive blown 2hdd
one set to master and the one mentioned above (the one i set the jumpers
wrong on) set as slave on the same cable, one matsonic ms9158e+
motherboard , cant check if cpu is ok as no other motherboard skt 478.
i would like to know your thoughts on this as its an easy mistake to make
and for it to cause so much damage. ive spoken to many people who have
messed up jumper settings, so it seems to be a common mistake but most
brands of hard drive dont cause this damage when set wrong.
the setings i used were if you call the top horizontal row of pins
left-right 1-4 and the slave seting being pins 1+2 well i shorted pins
3+4
maybe you could start printing the full jumper setings on the hdd case
again this would help greatly
i look forward to hearing your thoughts on this problem
many thanks graham.

not much help to me as iam still convinced it was the wrong jumpers that caused my problem i guess next time i have an old motherboard and hard drive knocking arround i will try to reproduce what i did and see what happens, or anyone out there with a 250gb maxtor diamondmax 21 hdd and a motherboard they fell like trashing, give it a go and let us know what happens