HD led out- diagnostic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BP
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BP

Nagging little problem. The LED on my Antec Sonata case does not work when
the hard drive is working. Do these things "burn out"? What would be the
best way to test/fix it?
 
Did you just build the system?

If so, try reversing the LED connector where it plugs into the motherboard
it's polarity sensitive.
 
BP said:
Nagging little problem. The LED on my Antec Sonata case does not work when
the hard drive is working. Do these things "burn out"? What would be the
best way to test/fix it?
Click to expand...

Seems like the most common causes of this:

cable to the led not connected to the motherboard
cable to the led shifted sideways, only connected to one pin
cable to the led connected to wrong connector on motherboard
cable to the led connected backwards on connector on motherboard

Check those and see that they are not the cause.

Yes it is possible for leds to burn out, but the only time I've ever
seen that was thirtyfive years ago when Monsanto was selling samples
of their amazing new invention, the led. I bought one and after a
while fried it with my home-made power supply.

You can replace them, even with other colors or with bigger ones.
I'd be a little cautious about picking one needing too much voltage,
maybe blue would be a bad choice, but otherwise you should be ok.

With a bit of circuitry you might even be able to substitute a lazer
diode for the led, but that isn't just a drop-in replacement.
 
Sorry for not being clear:
This system has had a working LED for months. Just stopped working recently.
No changes inside the box. I pulled out the filter to clean it. Maybe I
knocked something loose.
 
Don Taylor said:
Seems like the most common causes of this:

cable to the led not connected to the motherboard
cable to the led shifted sideways, only connected to one pin
cable to the led connected to wrong connector on motherboard
cable to the led connected backwards on connector on motherboard

Check those and see that they are not the cause.

Yes it is possible for leds to burn out, but the only time I've ever
seen that was thirtyfive years ago when Monsanto was selling samples
of their amazing new invention, the led. I bought one and after a
while fried it with my home-made power supply.

You can replace them, even with other colors or with bigger ones.
I'd be a little cautious about picking one needing too much voltage,
maybe blue would be a bad choice, but otherwise you should be ok.

With a bit of circuitry you might even be able to substitute a lazer
diode for the led, but that isn't just a drop-in replacement.
Click to expand...

I need to test it.
 
BP said:
Sorry for not being clear:
This system has had a working LED for months. Just stopped working
recently. No changes inside the box. I pulled out the filter to clean it.
Maybe I knocked something loose.
Click to expand...

I was going to ask about any case intrusion, almost can guarantee that's
what happened, too easy to do.
 
LED's rarely wear out. More likely the wire on the motherboard that shows
harddrive activity is disconnected or backwards on the pins.
 
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