Cheetah dying or what?

[LunarMist]

Over the past few weeks one of the hard drives in my PC has been spontaneously spinning down and then quickly restarting. I think it is the Cheetah 15k.3 (C: drive) because the BSOD is immediate but there are three other hard drives too. I switched around the molex plugs from the PSU in case there was bad connection but the defect remains. It is hard to diagnose because the computer runs for 1-2 days without a problem and the spindown occurs at any time, whether the computer has been on for 5 minutes or five hours.

It could be a bad PS, but wouldn't that be more likely at startup, affect more than one drive, or more evident when 6 drives are running then when only 4 drives are running? I connected up to 8 hard drives and the intermittent defect continues. The PSU is Antec Truepower 550W, so it should be strong enough. The mobo, case and the drives are cool so heat is not a problem.

Thank you for any advice.

 

[P5-133XL]

See if you can cause the problem by wiggling wires. Also install a MB monitor program with voltage alarms. Always Check the event logs!!!!

Please note that it is more likely the PS than the drive because of the immediate BSOD. Most drive failures don't cause immediate BSOD but simply failed delayed writes or other such HD/Controller errors. Eventually they will cause BSOD but it will be associated with corrupted data and not the spin-down. However, a drop in the voltage will very often cause immediate BSOD as well as spin-downs.

 

[LunarMist]

I played with the wires and I see nothing unusual in the event logs. The Asus probe was running last week and did not alarm. The failure must be fast. This is the P4 system so a drop on the 12V rail could cause all sorts of errors. Assuming it is the PSU, that would be the least expensive fix but still a PITA. The PSU is less than year old. At the time Antec Truepower was considered a good brand. Has anything changed that should dissuade me from changing like for like components?

 

[sechs]

I used to have a True430. At about a year, the +5 and +12 volt rails started to slide. If you've been stressing one of the rails, I'd be inclined to believe that you may be dipping below necessary power levels.

 

[LunarMist]

It has 22A on the 12V rail. The video card is old cool one that has no fan and there is only one P4 CPU. There should be should be power left for four hard drives I think.

 

[ddrueding]

I am still a fan of the Antec PSes, though I recently ordered of of those nifty "silent" ones with the single 120mm fan...

I would be inclined to set up Motherboard Monitor 5 to log your voltages (High/Low) at a very high update rate, possibly also the interval log, just to see what's going on.

I would have no issue replacing the PSU with another identical (except for not broken) part. IIRC, your current one should still be under warranty.

 

[LunarMist]

It probably is in warranty. It is not worth the time and effort of shipping to Antec, receiving the replacement and then selling and shipping that to someone else.

I found no antec 550W PSU with 12mm fans. I will order this. I was wrong about the 12V rating. It is 24A.

Thanks again.

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry if I was misleading, the 120mm fan PS is not from Antec, nor is it 550W. But it is pretty darn quiet.

 

[LunarMist]

I forgot to update this thread. After receiving the new PS there were no further problems. I never needed to install it. So now I have another space-consuming $100 object. But if I throw it away, no doubt my current PS will fail or something. :eekers: