Hardrive prob.

Hi, I recently tried a 20Gb hard drive in my machine, it got really hot and after about 3 hours it locked up. On re-boot the HD was not recognised and was not picked up again until it had cooled down.

When I try the HD in my friends pc it runs a lot cooler and doesn't seem to have a problem.

Both machines are 750Mhz Athlons and both have 240W power supplies. So does anyone have any idea why this is so?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Sky

Reply to
B.L. Zebub
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Look at the 5 and 12 Volts at the connector of the HD, preferably with an O'Scope. Something is probably going on there! If you don't have the equipment, try swapping out you power supply.

Reply to
scada

it

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I don't have access to an O'scope. I measured the 12 and 5 Volt pins with my meter and they measured 12 and 5V. This was on a connector without a load. Do you know what sort of voltage should be present when plugged into a hardrive?

Cheers Sky

Reply to
B.L. Zebub

I've seen HDs get really hot because of a simple problem. The PS fan isn't sucking the hot air out of the case. Also the HD should have some room around it for air circulation. No air = hot hard drive.

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Reply to
Lizard Blizzard

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The voltage should not change basicaly, under a load. Maybee a few milli volts, but that is all. The reason I suggested an O' Scope would be to see if there was excesive ripple (AC component) or something else out of the ordinary! The Power Supply in your PC may be overloaded, and can't supply the current to the HD. The best way would be to try a new Power Supply that is larger, say a 300W supply. If that is not practicle, try disconnecting the power plug on something else to lighten the load, FD, CD Rom. It almost certainly has to be a power supply problem. Another post suggested it may be a temperature problem! This can certainly be, if the problem arises after some time, although I don't think so if it happens soon! Does it happen with the case open? If so, I don't think it is a heat problem! In any case, you don't want to do it to often!

Reply to
scada

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I've had the hardrive on with the case open and a house fan right next to it and it still gets hot. I thought that my 240W power supply was probably inadequate but why would the hardrive get hot if the power supply was too low? I thought that it would be the other way round , that it would get hot if it was drawing too much power. cheers

Reply to
Sky

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