scarykitties on 7/10/2009 at 22:04
So, as I've mentioned in the SATA Woes thread, my computer has a problem of hard drives randomly dying. One is brand new, one is maybe a month or two older, and one is as old as the computer. All the same brand (Western Digital), all 640Gb. It's unlikely that it's hard drive failure.
I thought that maybe it was the motherboard, but if there was a hardware problem, wouldn't they never work, instead of work for maybe a few days on end, then die when I'm in the middle of something somewhat computer-intensive?
I also considered heating, since the drives had initially been bunched together in a tight stack. I set them quite a bit further apart, about 2-3 inches between each, with a large fan blowing directly across them, so it is unlikely that heating is still an issue (plus, they're only warm to the touch, but not hot).
My final thought is that maybe my 640-Watt power supply is having too large a drain on it, thus causing drives to become power-starved and turn off when the computer's really drawing on resources.
What do others think? Which of these seems most likely?
Keep in mind, the failures don't happen at regular intervals, and the only thing they have in common is that they seem (note: seem) to happen when I'm using the computer, not when it's just idling. Furthermore, when the hard drive stops, it won't get to working again until I open up the computer and un-plug, then re-plug the SATA cables (or possibly just opened up the case fixes it, or waiting for the few moments it takes to fiddle with the SATA cables). I've already replaced all the SATA cables, so I don't see why cable failure would be a possibility.
If it's of any import, I had had all three hard drives plugged into a single power line (that is, a single line from the power supply with three plugs, one going into each of the hard drives), but now split it up so that one of them is plugged through a separate line. I've yet to see what difference it makes, if any.
Any suggestions?
theBlackman on 7/10/2009 at 22:12
Not that it helps, but a 640 Watt Power supply is usually more than enough.
I run 7 HDD, 2 DVD/CD, Iomega Zip, AIW video card, Audigy Sound card, 4 GIG ram, and the CPU/MOBO with power to spare, on a 450.
scarykitties on 8/10/2009 at 00:02
Shucks. Power supply would have been the easiest thing to fix.
I've got 3 HDDs running, a DVD RW drive (which rarely gets used), a Radeon HD 4800, Audigy Xtreme Gamer, Intel Duo @ 3.16 Ghz, and 8 Gb of DDR 1066 (I believe) RAM.
Do you actually use that Zip drive for anything?
theBlackman on 8/10/2009 at 00:58
Quote Posted by scarykitties
Do you actually use that Zip drive for anything?
Yes. At 100 MB its good for text and doc backups, and can be read by any of my machines (all have a Zip drive). These things don't get obsolete. They just get bigger and fancier. :p
The Brain on 8/10/2009 at 07:01
Have you tried to change your PSU to different model? Corsair and Enermax are good ones. Also you should consider getting a good UPS, too.
How often you turn your computer off?
scarykitties on 8/10/2009 at 13:06
I'm not certain it -is- the power supply. For instance, yesterday, one of my hard drives stopped responding while the computer was running, but since it wasn't a core drive, it just vanished from the list. I restarted and the computer wouldn't boot because all drives weren't being recognized at first. Then, after turning it off and waiting for a few minutes, that single hard drive was still not showing, so I opened up the case, re-plugged all the SATA cables, and plugged the hard drive that quit through a different PSU line. Something I did fixed it, though I'm not sure what.
I only turn my computer off if it's been on for what feels like a long time (say, over a week), or if an update is necessary, or in the rare cases that it's begun slowing down.
Matthew on 8/10/2009 at 13:11
The last time that happened to me, it was because of a damaged SATA data cable that had a connector that would move in and out of place. You might want to inspect yours closely.
scarykitties on 8/10/2009 at 14:31
I'll try replacing all the cables again when I get home.
