Fried Hard Drives

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by chriser, Dec 11, 2003.

  1. chriser

    chriser Geek Trainee

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    This is a long, sad story, so I apologize up front for the length.

    I recently purchased an ASUS A7V600 motherboard, intending to build a new machine with the following (some of it transferred from an older machine, some of it new):
    AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83 GHz 333FSB Processor (new)
    Corsair VS512MB400 512MB DDR400 PC3200 Memory (new)
    Radeon 9200 SE AGP 8X 64MB DDR Video Card (new)
    IBM 12GB HD (as master, already had Win XP loaded)
    Maxtor 30GB HD (slave)
    Floppy drive
    CD-Rom drive
    New case with 400 watt PS

    When I powered up the system the BIOS locked up while searching for the HD. It could not detect either drive and the master drive was somehow damaged during this process. I know it was damaged because when I put it back in my old computer, it wouldn't work there either. I then removed the Maxtor slave drive (which seemed to be OK) and installed an old Western Digital Caviar 2.5 GB drive with Win 98SE on it. The system powered up fine, recognized the drive and Windows started up OK.

    I figured that maybe I had damaged the IBM drive in moving it from one machine to another, so I went out and bought a new Seagate 120GB 7200RPM drive and installed it as the Master with the Maxtor drive as slave. Had the same problem as before with the BIOS not finding the drives. I turned off the machine and turned it back on, but the system wouldn't power up, the power would come on for less that a second and then it would shut off. Somehow the Seagate drive was damaged because when I installed it in my old compter it would not even turn on, acted like it was completely dead.

    I figured that the MB was faulty so I sent it back to ASUS. They sent me a new MB without any explanation of what was wrong with the old one. I didn't suspect the power supply since the machine seemed to work OK with the old Caviar drive.

    Got the new MB and reassembled everything. I bought a new Seagate 120GB drive and installed it as the only drive in the system. When I powered up, the same thing happened - the power cameon for a < 1 sec and then shut off. Needless to say, the new Seagate drive was also fried. Removed the drive and it booted to the CD OK. Also, the system booted OK up using the old Caviar drive.

    Here's where I need help! Any ideas of how to proceed? I'm now thinking that there it might be a problem with the power supply, but why does it work OK with the old Caviar drive (or booting to the CD)? I think its less likely to be the MB now since the same thing happened with two different MB's. I'll probably try to replace the PS, but I hate to risk another HD in case there is a problem elsewhere.

    Sorry again for the message length, but I would appreciate any ideas.
     
  2. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    The PSU seems to be the logical choice. I'd go with Antec or Sparkle/Fortron. Generally, the PSU's that come with cases aren't the greatest. Not the crap of the earth, but generally not as good as a separate, high-quality PSU.
     
  3. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    another vote for the psu.

    the older Caviar may need less power to operate so maybe that's why it's working with this one and not the other ones.

    Once you get your new psu, try the other hdds, I bet they're gonna' work.
     
  4. chriser

    chriser Geek Trainee

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    Problem Solved

    I've finally gotten time to work on this. I turned out that it was the PSU. I replaced the one that came with the new case with an Antec 400W and everything works great now. The Seagate HD that I thought was damaged is working fine, but the old IBM HD still isn't working (its pretty old though, so no big loss). The Antec cost $30 more that the case did, but was well worth it. Another lesson learned . . .

    Thank you all for the advice, it solved my problem.
     
  5. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    I'm glad it all worked out in the end :)

    Have fun !
     

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