fried hard drive

[nickejoe]

Just installed a maxtor 200gig hard drive. Got it up and running for a day and transfered lots & lots & lots files to it. It is a third drive, so I installed it with a sabrent pci controler card. Also have 2 cd-dvd player\burners. computer is a Dell 8200 p4. Have an gforce 4600 nvidia video card w/on board fan. Because the card produced so much heat I installed a cpu fan and another fan on the case to bring in air. When I installed the new maxtor there was not enough power plugs to run all. I unpluged the case fan so I could give power to the new drive. All went well until I installed a y connector and hooked up the fan. About 60 seconds and the comp shut down and a burning smell filled air. An inspection of the hard drive showed a black/burned/smelly spot on the drive circuit board.
Question 1: (most important) I have seen other threads about data recovery by changing the circuit board and Have ordered a identical drive form same supplier. Any helpfull comments regarding the data recovery & circuit board repair?
Question 2: Was hooking up the case fan the cause of the hard drive failure or was it just a coincidence? (need the case fan but don't want to fry a new drive) Any thoughts?

 

[micker377]

Unless the "Y" is wired wrong, I would say coincidence. Of course, it's possible that overloaded the power supply and caused a regulation problem - but that would affect other parts of your system. What size/brand power supply are you using? Does everything else work OK without the "burnt" drive? With all you have crammed into that case, I'd check that nothing could touch the HDD board. As for changing the HDD board, just do it slowly and carefully. Don't use metal forceps to plug in the ribbon cables (if any), as this can bend and "break" the ribbon internally. (I read this in a book somewhere - "I" wouldn't do this!)<grin>

 

[RealJMan]

I had a similar incidence as yours, except that my PS was out too. I learned from Seagate (my HDD manufactuer) that control board damage would be most likely related to power regulation. In your case, if you anticipated a weak PS, the only thing I can guess is that they are somehow related.

I ordered a part, but has not arrived yet. I will warm my hands up and do it as soon as comes, and post my progress here when I have any, even if my HDD explodes .

 

[paparazi]

Nearly always down to a cheap power supply failure spiking and taking out hardware (quality branded PSU's generally don't cause other hardware damage)
Don't mean to lecture but yours is yet another thread that emphasises the importance of a good quality power supply.
I've read others putting down comments like mine as scare mongering but untill you have had a failure on these proportions you just cannot appreciate the importance of that little silver box that we all take so much for granted.
Recommend:
Zalman, Antec, Enermax, FSP, Fortron source, Sparkle, Tagen, CWT, Thermaltake.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[nickejoe]

Got some info on my PS...DELL mdl# NPS 250GB B, output 250w max., 620160, combined power +5v and +3.3v output, made in Thailand
Don't know if this means anything.

 

[paparazi]

OK, I'll take some of that back, Dell PSU's are usually pretty good quality, it seems in this instance that you just overloaded the poor thing.
At 250watts hanging three HDD's 2 writers and a power hungry 4600Ti of it was asking for trouble.

Recommend 400watts plus, be careful, some Dell PSU's can have proprietory wiring (extra white wire I believe) not exactly sure if a standard ATX would work.

Martin





We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[technome]

Slight possibilty the "Y" connector was wired incorrect or the connector was inserted in reverse which should not be possible but there are crap parts out there making it possible. I would definitely check the wire sequenance on the "Y" connector verses another connector in the machine. Actually, I would check the connector for shorts with a VOM or get a new one.

Hopefully your drive electronics acted as a fuse, and the heads were not affected. Replacing the electronics board is fairly easy, as noted elsewhere in this forum. I agree with Martin, a lowly 250 watt PS is not enough power.

 

[satrow]

be careful, some Dell PSU's can have proprietory wiring"

I think this refers to a spell (1998 - 2000?; P166 - P366ish). All the Dells of PIII and later that I have worked on recently have had standard ATX PSU's.

Andy.

 

[nickejoe]

Got on the Dell fourm and found that Dell PS are ATX standard, but most PS will not fit w/o case mods. Found an 425w PS made for Dell boxes @

http://pcpowercooling.com/.

Cost more $ but no mods. Got the HD today and will have the PS on friday. Thought I would wait until I install the PS before taking on the HD. Any Ideas on the PS install?
Also think I will Transfer the OS and programs that are on my "c" drive to a new larger drive so I can eliminate the third HD. Any ideas on the transfer?