Question : Problem: Do motherboards have two "sections" or powered parts?

Hi there,

A few days back, I opened up my tower and plugged my cd/dvd drive in to my motherboard closed the tower, then turned the machine on.... nothing.

The lights came on but the USB's were not working and the monitor was showing nothing, after many hours of "wt& !?"?$" I gave up and used my other motherboard.

Worked fine, but of course now it wont boot in to windows because the motherboard drivers are different, e.g. I get the blue screen of death everytime I start the machine.

Im sitting here thinking... hang on, what if I knocked the power cable out?  Then I thought that couldnt be the answer because lights came on and the keyboard lit up but no mouse or usb or monitor.

Then I remembered that there are two "plugs" if you will in the motherboard for power, a small square plug and a large rectangular plug.  The CD/DVD rom I plugged in was right next to the big "rectangular" power source on the motherboard.

Is it at all possible that this "big rectangular" powersource could have been unplugged while the small powersource was running the leds and the keyboard?

Otherwise I am going to have to format my HD (Unless I buy a new hard drive and install vista on it).

Thanks very much

Answer : Problem: Do motherboards have two "sections" or powered parts?

The main power supply for your motherboard is the big 20 or 24 pin rectangular plug.  The smaller 4 pin square plug is to provide more current for today's processors.  What is more likely is that you forgot the small plug and hence the system would not boot up.  Some devices might work, but since the cpu didn't get enough current, the system did not boot.