2000 Kia Spectra Speedometer

I recently tried to locate the electrical problem causing my blower motor to not work. To do so I had to take out the dashboard, and remove the connections to the speedometer, odometer, etc. I drove the car from my driveway into my garage with these wires disconnected. After reconecting these, the speedometer/odometer, gas gauge, and temp gauge no longer work. I'm guessing that there could be some sort of computer control which disables these gauges if driven disconnected (to avoid people cheating others by falsifying mileage). Could this be the case, or is something else wrong?