I think my hard drive(s) are turning back on and off (during Prime95 test)

A

Axsuul

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
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During a Prime95 Torture Test (Small FFTs) after about a minute into the test, something kept clicking in ~7 second intervals. I opened my case, and noticed that they were coming from my two hard drives (80GB EIDE, 250GB SATA). Apparently it seemed like they (or maybe it was just one of them?) were turning on and off (whirling, click, no whirl, click, whirling, click, no whirl) and while they weren't whirling, my computer screen would lock up including mouse control, but when the hard drives started to whirl again I regained control. ANyways, the reason why I ran the Prime95 test was because while using the computer, I would get a click and my computer would lock up. Does anyone know what the problem could be? I just replaced my 80GB hard drive too since I thought that was the problem but I guess it wasn't. Could it be the processor (Small FFT test stress tests the processor right)? THanks
 
sup yo... run some HDD diagnostics on those drives. Are the drives running hot?
 
What kind of power supply are you using? This probably isn't the problem, but I am curious. Perhaps it could be. I can't think of any other reason that they would be doing this.
 
You arent using that 20GB, are you? Do you know which drive(s) is/are clicking? You could also run memtest and try other HDD cables. Also, what driver are you using for the EIDE controllers? If you're using nVIDIA's, try uninstalling them. BTW, time for an upgrade bro, lol.
 
I'm running a 430W power supply, I ran HDD diagnostics and no problems, I uninstalled the IDE controller for my nforce board and we'll see how it goes. Any other ideas?
 
The clicking is pretty common for a dying hard drive. Back up your data.
 
Which brand of power supply. How many amps on the 12v rail?

Sounds like it may be killing your HDDs. I'd advise to backup data now also.
 
if your bios has a SMART status built into it for the harddrives, turn it on, and then get speedfan, install it and then goto the tab that will allow you to read the smart status report from your harddrives, if the numbers are alot lower or higher than what the safe numbers are then you may get an inclination of a problem.

Example, if it gives you 120 points for your harddrive spindle in the baseline column and 120 = the best it can be, if it says 1 or whatever in the next column for the spindle which would be the actual state of your harddrive column, then you know there is a problem somewhere that is affecting your harddrive spindle thus it will result in the harddrives death .

basically, 1 column is what the harddrive healthy status should be, and the next column is what the harddrive is there and then, if there is a massive difference between any of the column numbers, then you have found your problem.

also, if your bios has a smart status, then when its turned on and you next boot the pc, your post screen might warn you of an impending harddrive failure if you drive/s are faulty.

P.S.

There will/might be some small discrepencies between the healthy numbers and what your harddrive state is at present, maybe like 1-5 of a difference, so dont worry about that if you see some columns not matching up, but the overall state of the drive is marked as healthy.
if the drive is marked as healthy, then it should be ok, dont worry about it, but if its marked as healthy and there is a major difference in some columns, then back up your data ASAP just incase.
 
I ran Speefan and there are no discrepancies at all, both drives are marked as healthy (though my 80GB has 4 pending sectors). My PSU is Antec TruPower 430W. How do I check my amps on my 12V rail?
 
By reading the label, going to the manufacturer's website, or with a multimeter. If you have the TruePower2, you should have 17A x2 (dual +12V rails). If you have the TruePower1, you should have a single 26A +12V rail. Both models are well equipped for your system. If your drives are clicking, RMA them.
 
Problem solved: it wasn't my hard drives, it was the memory controller driver in my Forceware. :p It took me many hours to finally diagnose this. Hopefully it saves other people the trouble.
 
Hello, it appeared to be a dying motherboard. I replaced mine and got an EPOX EP-8KRAI and it works perfectly. Hope that helps.
 
This really sucks, I've gone through 3 hard drives already thinking that was the problem. Last year I had an almost identical situation when I put in a new HDTV card but when I replaced the PSU everything worked fine until now. Is there anything I can do to make 100% sure that the motherboard is causing the problem? My situation is identical to yours except in mine happens randomly in regular/gaming usage. Some days it will do it once other days 3-4 times. My specs are as follows:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred
RAM: 2x512MB DDR PC 2100 (I've had these for a while and only know one is Samsung)
Mobo: ASUS A7N8X-LA (from a Compaq PC)
Video: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (with a Zalman cooler)
Sound: Santa Cruz Turtle Beach
PSU: Antec TruePower 430 (I'm pretty sure it's the older revision)

My last problem with this PC was my screen getting all jarbled in games and we fixed that when I found out the cooler on the video card stopped working and replaced with a big Zalman one, HardForum don't let me down now!
 
If the problems are random and sporadic, it's most likely your motherboard. Not only would I get the problems from the hard drive, but my video card would go blank occasionally, and my operating system installation would go corrupt. I would suggest going that route rather than trying to fix something that doesn't need to be fixed (and wasting more money). Of course, you can always RMA the motherboard if that doesn't turn out to be the problem :) How old is the motherboard btw?
 
It's about two years old. What I'm going to do is just wait it out and build an entire new system in a week or so.
 
I got frustrated yesterday when it froze on me again, and bought a new motherboard at a local computer store. The Biostar M7VIZ, I don't know if it has a good reputation or not but all the problems I were having are gone! I'm so happy :D
It only cost $52 after tax too.
 
That Biostar board uses the via KM400 chipset instead of the good ol' nF2 like you're old board. It's an ok chipset, especially considering how hard it is to find a cheap nF2 board now. I used that board to replace someone's ECS E-machine mobo not too long ago... its been stable for a few months now.

Axsuul, are you still using that CPU you won a few years ago? lol. Time for an upgrade man!
 
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