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Very odd dilemma...

K

Kiljaedon

n00b
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Messages
7
Before I begin my story I'd like to list my specs-
Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz w/HT
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Antec True550 550W power supply
Sony DVD player 16x
Sony CDRW 48x24x48
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Corsair XMS Series 2x512 MB PC3200
Western Digital 72GB 10,000 RPM Raptor
Windows XP Professional (bootleg =/ )

Anyway, a few months ago I did not have the raptor that is in my PC right now. Then, I had a WD 160 GB 7200 RPM hard drive...I had had it for about two years and it began clicking on and off. This started happening whenever my OS booted up...the XP splash screen would come up and after it was done with the splash, it would take about 5 seconds to finally get to Windows. Not only that, it would take a bit longer to start up applications, and on top of that...whenever I would play a game, my hard drive would click on and off constantly. For instance, if I were to boot up World of Warcraft, it would come to the login screen, and the hard drive would immediately click off, and the application would stop, while the music played on. The hard drive would click back on, and click back off. It would keep doing that until I left the game. Once I was back in Windows, the hard drive would stay on. I decided that perhaps my hard drive was finally dying. I couldn't RMA the hard drive because it was out of the warranty time, so I just decided to keep the hard drive and buy a new hard drive. I decided to go big with a hard drive and I invested in a Raptor. For a month my rig was doing nicely with the raptor, but then the same problem started happening...the hard drive would begin to click on and off...in games it would click on and off...my OS would take forever to boot up because the hard drive would just keep clicking on and off. So I decided that by some odd chance, I might have gotten a faulty raptor. I decided to RMA the raptor. While I was waiting for my replacement raptor to come, I decided to bring out my 160GB hard drive again (the very same that I thought was faulty) as a temporary hard drive for my computer until the raptor came. The 160GB had NO problems. I didn't have any clicking problems with it! When the raptor came, I immediately hooked it up and I put my 160GB into an external enclosure. A day went by without problems, and then the next day the same problems came up again with the new raptor! The OS took ages to start up because the raptor was busy clicking, and I didn't even bother trying games on it. I've tried replacing the SATA cable, to no avail. I've tried multiple XPs which all were guaranteed by my friends to work, to no avail. I realize that it can't be my harddrives at fault...the problem lies else where, but where? I have no idea what's wrong with my computer. :rolleyes: Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
My first guess is power supply, but a True 550 *shouldn't* cause problems like that. If all of your devices that pull on +12 (vid card, optical drives, HDDs) are on one lead from the PSU, that may cause issues. Another possibility is poor current from the wall. It's worth at least a little investigation.

I would also look at the motherboard, or BIOS. I know I've had storage related issues on ICH5R that were fixed by a BIOS update.
 
Power supply was also immediatly my first thought. Do you have a multimeter that you can test what your +12v and +5v rails are running at?
 
DougLite, I don't think the problem lies with the way I've connected power because my hard drive had been working for two years before with the same setup, but could you perhaps elaborate on that anyway? There's good current from the wall, but what's this ICH5R thing you're talking about? I've heard of it before, but can put my finger on it. Vertigo Acid, what do you mean by having a multimeter for testing the voltage? In any case I can use my motherboard probe to find out the voltage being ran at. What should I look for when I'm monitoring the voltage?
 
ICH5R was Intel's first southbridge with integrated SATA (at least for consumers). No product that introduces new features like that is going to be free of teething problems :( My two Samsung SP1213C's required a BIOS update to the mobo before they would run on my ICH5R system, even though the WD360GDs on my dad's system worked fine on the older version of ICH5R firmware. On the older version with the Samsung drives, I would get "A Disk Read Error has Occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Restart" This was caused by, and I think this might be related to your problem, but your drives respond differently, an error synching between the SATA host built in to ICH5R and the drives. If the host is issuing commands to the drive in a pattern that the drive can't understand or can't handle, you may get bizarre problems like what you describe. Once again, see if there are any BIOS updates for your mobo, as any changes to the ICH5R firmware/BIOS will be rolled into the mobo's BIOS image.

Also, there is a common thread of using Western Digital drives. This may also further support the host synching problems theory. You said this problem takes some time to develop - have you tried a drive from another maker?
 
Well, I looked through ASUS' motherboard BIOS site, and theres nothing for my motherboard with an update for the ICH5R system. I haven't tried another brand with my rig, but the thing is, my 160 GB WD had been working perfectly well for about year until the recent problems. I'm interested with the power supply being the problem...how could I check up on this?
 
A few places there might be a problem:

Power. I'm not talking about your PSU, but the actual electrical system. If it's not reliable, that can make for all kinds of trouble. Best defense there is a good UPS; the battery creates a buffer and gives your system a reliable current.

Power supply: I love Antec PSUs, but even the best can still have problems. Get a multimeter (any hardware store will have a decent one) and test the leads that are actually being connected to the drive.

Power configuration: Put the drive on a lead of its own. Take everything but the motherboard and that drive off the power supply and see if you get the same problem.

The drive: If it's not the power, it's probably the drive :(

edit: and Doug has a point about the hard drive controller. I don't use SATA much so I'll leave it to him to help you there :)
 
Hm...when it comes down to the power supply and checking the values, what should I look for? Because even now when I look at my motherboard power values, all of them are slightly below than needed. For 3.3V it fluctuates between 3.1 to 3.2. For 12V it fluctuates between 10 to 11. Is this normal?
 
GAAAAA!!!!1one
Jesus fucking christ that +12v is low enough to be dangerous indeed. You don't want to see it much outside of +/-5%. However, before I scream anymore, those numbers are from BIOS or a temp monitor program, right?
The sensors onboard the motherboard are notorious for being poorly calibrated. You need to get a multimeter and actually test it yourself before jumping to conclusions. However, given your situation, I'd say it probably isn't that off. Get a new PSU and don't turn the computer back on until you do, for the love of hardware
 
Yooowzaaahh!! If +12 is that low, or even below 11.6 as Vertigo said, your going to kill every hard drive you put in it. Your CPU, Vid Card, etc can simply pull more current through their VRMs to at least half way make up for the drop in voltage, but hard drives have very precise voltage and amperage requirements. You should be within 5%. Mobo voltage sensors are notoriously inaccurate, but I've never seen one that has been that far off on a system that was working normally.
 
Hm...I guess that 12V was a little low, but I checked a few times a day now, and for my 3.3V i have 3.18V. For 5V I have 4.8V. For 12V I have 11.97V. This what it fluctuates between. What do you guys think?
 
Just stumbled across this thread when i was looking for answers to my own problem.. And our problems are very similar!

I also suspect the power but on my 12v rail i get a constant 11.98v with a Levicom 500W.. The 3.3v rail though is at 3.12v idle and can goes as low as 3.02v when fully stressed, and that's when the problems occur! Clicking, Read Burst Speed goes to 3.2 mpbs sometimes and im 100% sure it's not the harddrive.. Got an Abit IC7 MAX3 and the problems occur with the drives jacked in SATA Channel 1, 2, when i tried to plug in a drive i got in 3-6 in SATA 1 it was the exact same thing and visa versa! Im desperate for a solution to this..
 
Recently, I put up my CPU fan speeds to the highest they can get. And for some reason, the problems don't come up. Right now, I'm under the influence that my CPU temperature might have been the reason I've had a lack in performance. But I'm curious, Mojo_69, what's your problem? And how is it similar to mine?
 
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