dell pc

[Nick]

i have an old dell dimension and i wanted to install xp on it once again as my dad is keen on having a network with three pcs and a laptop

anyways i brought an ide cable off ebuyer.com but it broke (the bit that connects the cable to the mobo snapped in half, doubt you can picture it but its not important) so i got a knife o lever the broken [art of the cable out of the port but two of the ppins on the mobo bent slightly

im now using another ide cable as my currnet computer uses SATA II. i bent the pins back up so they are upright but the pc dosnt recognise the IDE HD or the CD-RW drive and the dvd drive. i doubt its due to the fact that the pins bent but they are not wobbly. help would be cool.

here are the dell's specs:
384MB Ram
1.7 GHz Pentium 4
40GB IDE HD
1x CD-RW drive
1x DVD drive
ATI 9550 256MB AGP (thats the best part of the computer!)
and some ATX mobo which i dont know what brand it is

thanks for any kind of feedback

 

[networkgeek]

if you double checked the cable and tried it on a different ide channel then the only thing I can think of it that maybe something shorted .
either when the cable broke of when you tried to straighten the pins.

was the computer plugged in at all when you tried to repair the pins?

I ask because the mobo might have still had some residual power in it

 

[Nick]

err no it wasnt on when i repaired the pins

 

[networkgeek]

just checking

honestly I dont know. damaging that cable had to have done damage to something else then it seems

 

[Nick]

ok im going to take a look at it

 

[saltynay]

1. tut tut you have a dell pc shame on you
2. Do you have many techy friends ask around to borrow a pci card with ide controller and test that on the comp

 

[Nick]

umm no and secondly this pc is about 6-7 years old

 

[saltynay]

excuses excuses lol dw my mum still has a dell pc they do good deals when on the sub £300 market just because the quality of parts is so awful that you would never be able to buy them retail