Hello, I recently bought a second internal hard disk (WD 1TB Caviar Green SATA) for my Acer desktop. I physically installed it inside the second HDD tray (making sure to ground myself and unplug the power cable). Then, I plugged the two required cables: the SATA ATA cable (from a free slot in the motherboard to the drive) and the SATA power cable. There were two SATA power connectors on a same wire in my computer case (the first one connected to the main HDD and the second one unused), so I used that second connector for the second HDD. However, when I connected the power cable and pressed the power button, the computer lights turned on and the fans started working, but that's it. There wasn't the initial boot-up beep and the screen was blank. Installing 2 Dvd Drives Computer MonitorsWhen, I disconnected the second HDD (to see what would happen), everything was back to normal. Today, I tried again a few times. Out of the many tries, most of the time I got the same issue as the other day, but twice, the computer booted (there was the beep sound) and I got access to the BIOS which has detected the second drive. However, when reaching the Windows 7 loading screen, the computer froze and turned off. From the way my computer is reacting, my gut feeling is that it's a power supply issue (not able to supply enough juice). However, I really don't understand why, because the power supply in the computer (bought in 2010) is rated at 500W/450W (peak/max) and this second HDD is the only extra component I've added other than a USB 3.0 PCI-E card. When using one of those online power usage calculators, I get about 350W. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! ------------------------------------ In case it can help, here are the main components of my computer (Acer Aspire M5811): Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz 35 °C Clarkdale 32nm Technology RAM 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24) Motherboard Acer H57M01 (CPU 1) 40 °C Graphics W2361 (1920x1080@60Hz) 1024MB GeForce GT 320 (Sapphire/PCPartner) 42 °C Hard Drives 977GB Western Digital WDC WD10EADS-22M2B0 (RAID) 40 °C Optical Drives DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device ATAPI DVD A DH16AASH Audio Realtek High Definition Audio. First off: The CPU and the GPU are the two biggest power components. Yor system shoud be less than 300 Watts, probably closer to 250 Watts when playing a game. A HDD is generally less than 10 Watts (under 1 Amp). A 500 Watt PSU should handle a 2nd (3rd and 4th) HDD with NO problem. That said, I did NOT see which PSU you have and there are some PSUs out there that are pure JUNK. Junk PSUs 1) They only really supply about 60% of what they claim. 2) You have to look at the +12 V capability, NOT the total as the +12V is where most of the power consumption is. 3) When you first power on you have what is called InRush current that is generally much higher than what is drawn after it is on. This Inrush current could trigger the PSU to shut down. 'Good' PSU with 500 Watts would be NO Problem for your system. Adding a second hard drive to your computer can give you extra storage or the option of using a second, different operating system. Second hard drives can be either internal or external and both are easy to set up and use. I have a friend who installed 2 dvd/rw drives and 1 dvd-rom drive into the same computer, now the rw's wont run the software! Can someone tell me if this is bec. Installing monitor drivers. How in Windows 7? Ask Question. In dialog that appears choose to specify location and select the DVD / installed driver (if on HDD already) Should auto-update and find the new driver. Check out the comment in the original question. Since I use one computer and two monitors (the laptop's and this external I'm. Hi guys and girls, I am getting a Mac mini which doesn't have a DVD cd drove in it, I was wondering if i could use my monitor cd dvd drive to work on the mac. Your configuration, during power on could have been on the borderline and the added surge with the 2nd HDD pushed you over the edge. IF that was the case you should have replaced the PSU when YOU bought it. Then again you could have a defective HDD that is drawing excess current (doughtful). Added: Meoricin has a valid point. Your +12V is normally split between what called rails, And the +12V rail you are using is just not enough for the 2 HDDs and what ever else is on the same rail. Would help if you identify the PSU and what the +12V1 and +12V2 are. I have an older PSU that has a +12V3 that is limited to ONLY 4 Amps. SO TRY a different power connector. Hello again and thank you for your swift replies! SofaMonster: Indeed SATA drives don't need the master/slave distinction and I made sure to set the correct order in the BIOS (actually, it was correct by default). Meoricin and RetiredChief: Your explanations make a lot of sense, I never realized that the power supply splits its rated power along the different wires. I connected the second HDD to another connector (a molex connector) using a molex/sata adapter. At first, no luck. However, I waited for a few hours and came back, and it seems to have done the trick. High Rocks Vista. Tory Road, Ralph Stover State Park, Pipersville, PA 18947. However, we find it a very cool part of Bucks County. Studio Apartments for Rent in Doylestown, PA. The seat of Bucks County, Doylestown embraces the future while preserving its past with castles turned museums. City of Doylestown, PA - BUCKS County Pennsylvania ZIP Codes. Detailed information on every zip code in Doylestown. Doylestown, PA ZIP Codes. Doylestown is the actual or alternate city name associated with 3 ZIP Codes by the US Postal Service. Select a particular Doylestown ZIP Code to view a more detailed map and the number of Business, Residential, and PO Box addresses for that ZIP Code. Vista travel agency doylestown pa zip code. Wherever you plan your vacation Doylestown Travel will offer you a better price. Tours and Activity Ideas from Around the World! Check out all the. The computer turned on and Windows 7 booted correctly! So right now, on the first wire, there's just the first HDD connected and on the second wire, there's the second HDD and the DVD reader/burner (there should also be the USB 3.0 card but I removed it for now). I still need to test and see if everything's going to hold if I use the components more heavily than right now (for example burn a dvd while copying files from an external hard drive to the second HDD while watching a video). But at least this improvement removes a defective HDD off the list of possible culprits. Two things I still don't understand: 1) I'm adding the information about the power supply as requested at the bottom of this post, but shouldn't a single wire with two connectors specially placed for this type of configuration be able to handle two HDDs (both of them being from the energy efficient Caviar Green family)?
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