Hardware

Ok, there are a couple of issues here...

The "small square connectors" as you describe "connect certain pins on the circuit board", and "determine master drive or a slave drive" are called Jumpers. Improperly placing them on the motherboard (you called it a circuit board) can and will cause issues.

Your power supply is a 250watt (Output: 250W Max) and that sound it makes is very bad. It needs to be replaced.

Did you try using the Hard Drives in another computer?

yes. i did. they worked in other computers, but when i put them in this one, they stopped. i already found a new power box. i'm pretty sure the jumpers are on right, placement is labelled right on the motherboard. but the popping power box, is the now only good part the fan? i put in a 110 watt power box, is that okay? or do i need to put in my 350 watt power box?

but is the power box what was causing all these problems?

I would go with the 350W Power Supply if not something bigger.

As for the fan well it depends if it works they it's OK to use but you do need to know that if you mess things up when you connect it to a Working Power Supply you run the risk of destroying the Power Supply. Most PS Fans are soldered tot he Circuit Board in the Power Supply and Do Not have connectors on them so you need to solder them to a suitable plug.

Col

yeah, i figured i'd have to do some soldering, and the fan works fine, probably the only part in the power box that did.

Those are Jumpers used to set the M'Boards settings. Though I'm lost when it comes to the Jumpers disappearing off the HDD's as they are something completely different. Sounds as if someone removed the jumpers deliberately.

As for the Power Supply it's shot and needs replacing. These are Switch Mode Power Supplies and if they are making any noise the Electronics inside them are on the way out at the very least they will not be supplying Clean Filtered Power at the right voltages and current.

Also as it's a 250 W Peek Value Power Supply that means that it can only produce 250W for short periods of time and then needs to fall back to a lower Power Output till the Electronics inside it cool down and and for a short time be overloaded again.

If you need to use a No Name Power Supply use one with at least 500W Capacity or if you can afford one something like a Antec 350 W Earth Works will do the same job but the Antec can produce the rated 350W 100% of the time without any problems.

As for the HDD's provided that the wires where not pulled out of the White Plugs there should be no problems there but to double check try using them in a different computer or open the BIOS and see if they are being shown there.

Also you can test these with their Makers testing Utility to see if they are functional You can get the Makers Testing Utility from this Web Site just click on the Makers Name and you'll be prompted where you want to save the downloaded file.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Col

in replacing parts if you dont?