HDD spining up & down

A

ashrack

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
145
Lately I've been having some problems with HDD. Yesterday when I was just idling thru some web pages in linux HDD just spined down and up 5 times but the machine didn't freeze and I could normally continue working. Today I booted windows, lunched skype, and typed email in gmail's web interface when the HDD spined down and the machine froze.

Later I tested PC in MEMTEST86+ and also PRIME95 for a few hours without errors.
This HDD is only a month old since I RMA'd my previous HDD which gave me the COD after 2,5 years of usage and I also noticed on my previous HDD that at times it would also just spin down and up again for no reason.

I am leaning towards a problem with my 400W PSU which is pretty old by now.

ps. This problems I've also noticed when I have put my system back to stock FREQUENCIES so it wasn't OCed.

What do U thing?
 
Spin downs can be just a way of saving power, start by checking your power profile.
Also check to see if you have the acustic settings on in your BIOS.
Then run the drive manf. test suite and see if any problems show up.

If you really think it's your PSU, run the PC with minium components (1 stick of RAM, no optical drive, 1 hdd etc. and see if anything changes.

You could also buy a $15 PSU tester or just buy a new Corsair 520HX.
 
Power saving is disabled also in BIOS.

I already thought about trying to test the computer using just bare bone install but the problem is that this problem rarely occurs. Sometime it can pass days B4 the HDD will start speening up&down again. And what is even weirder is that I have never seen this error when PC was under heavy load. So I am kinda sceptical about the PSU being the problem...

Will try the manufacturers test, but since the same thing occasionally happened on my previous hard drive and this one is brand new I don't think it is the hard drive.

ps. Also tried switching the HDD to another molex connector but didn't help.
Could the problem be with the ribbon cable????
 
I'd lean toward power supply issues as well. Do you have another one you could drop in to test with? Do you own a voltmeter? What's your current system setup?
 
I would say it's a power supply issue; I've had instances where some of my SCSI drives would spin up and down for no reason; these were solved with better 80 to 68 pin power adapters. Can you check the +12 and +5V rails in the motherboard BIOS?
 
unhappy_mage said:
I'd lean toward power supply issues as well. Do you have another one you could drop in to test with? Do you own a voltmeter? What's your current system setup?
Click to expand...
I don't have another one :( and I don't have a voltmeter.
My setup is in the sig. Plus I have
2 external 80mm fans.

Phoenix '97 said:
I would say it's a power supply issue; I've had instances where some of my SCSI drives would spin up and down for no reason; these were solved with better 80 to 68 pin power adapters. Can you check the +12 and +5V rails in the motherboard BIOS?
Click to expand...
I should note that my mobo doesn't use the 12V cable. So its sucking juice thru 5V rail.
3.3V .... 3.21 V
5V ...... 4.78 V
12V .... 12.35
 
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