Hard Drive always running-Light shows busy 1

[gannon33]

I just installed win2k on a p2 350mhz(I was running win98). I have 2hd installed, a 20gb(C and an 8 gb(D, as well as a dvd-rom and a cd-rw. I have checked the master/slave settings, IDE Cables, etc. and all seems to be configured properly. The C: drive is the one I am having problems with. The HDD activity light will not go off, it doesn't even flicker. I can hear the drive spinning, and it seems to be running hot. Is it possible that the IDE controller is bad? Is it the drive itself? Any help on the subject would be appreciated.

 

[edfair]

Drive will be spinning all the time anyhow.
The activity lite circuitry is an addon to the drive activity circuits in the hard drive and I've seen that part go bad without affecting the anything else. Run the manufacturer's diagnostics and if everything checks out you can ignore it.
It can be the hard drive or the M/B.
Heat may be related to the drive speed, or it may be a hot drive. I've seen some that ran very hot. And if you have a hot one, the only solution is to get some airflow past it to take the heat away. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[gannon33]

Ed,
Thanks for the info. I initially suspected what you posted, but someone with more "experience" in the field steered me in the wrong direction. I forgot to mention that the Hard Drive activity light stayed on after the initial boot. The next day, it worked fine, no problems. Since then it has stayed on, like a "dummy" light in a car. Thanks again.

 

[adale]

There is something similar happening on my PC. I've just upgraded to XP from Win98. First off it wouldn't install at all so I had to upgrade the bios. All seems to be well, but the HD light just stays on all the time. Except when the PC is busy crashing from me trying to run a game (Battlefield 1942 or Nascar). These things drive me nuts and after 3 weeks of upgrading drivers and fiddling nothing has changed.
I currently suspect something weird in the bios as I seem to remember the HD staying on when the bios was being edited.

I'd be grateful for any other ideas I could chase up ?

The PC specs are:-
MOTHERBOARD - ABit 8363 KT7[A] Version v1.0 ~ v1.2
BIOS Award - Version VT8371 - 42302e31 6.00PG 11/07/02
Processor - AMD Athlon(tm) 1.2Ghz Socket A
Memory - RAM 256 MB [Pagefile 384 MB]
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 64 MB [Driver 6.13.10.4072]
SOUNDCARD - Creative Audigy
MONITOR - Dell D1226H
OS - Microsoft Windows XP Ver 5.1.2600 SP1
HARD DISK - Maxtor IDE 32049H2 19.08 GB
DVD - LG DVD-ROM DRD8160B
CD/RW - Creative CD-RW RW2024E

 

[edfair]

Is it the HDD light that comes from the M/B or is it a real HD light that is staying lit? Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[adale]

Its the one from the M/B.

 

[adale]

Has anyboy else experienced this problem, and is it related to Windows XP ?

 

[roamer1]

SORRY FOR THE REPOST FOLKS!! I am new here and haven't figured out how to thread yet. Won't take long.

ALRIGHT, I AM STICKING MY NECK OUT HERE- I have run into this a time or two, but I don't know if it applies to you. The instances I have experienced came with the drive getting really hot and making noticeably more noise (rattling)and being noticeably slower than it did in Win98SE. If these things apply to you, then maybe this is the ticket.

The reason for the rattling and heat is that your ATA66 (or bigger) drive is stuck in PIO mode instead of ATA66

Here's some stuff to try:

!!!!! MAKE SURE SURE SURE you are using Proper drivers for your MB rated for 2k or XP !!!!!

Dwnld a utility to access the IDE controller Sorry, I can't remember what I used but probably there is something that will work in the Utility disk / website for your MB. look for readmes,RTFM,etc. You should then be able to determine if your HDD is indeed in PIO mode. If it is, change it to the proper ATA mode it should have. If it won't go there or goes back to PIO after a cold boot, look to see if that HDD is SL or MSTR to any ATAPI device as they can cause this. Remove the ATAPI device and try again. if it works after a cold boot you are fixed, but can't use ATAPI against your OS drive anymore. VIA's utility will run TSR and allow ATAPI to be on the same IDE port as ATA66 (I believe it is an install feature in the Autorun). Don't know about others. this is really common on Athalon slot boards running a VIA southgate.

If that don't work disable SMART in CMOS and try again

Hope this works for ya. Lemme know too. I got a half a bag of Cheetos (Puffy, slightly stale)invested in this

Bruce

 

[HddGuru]

Hi guys and girls

If the LED on your computer stays on the I would look at your cable, if your running UDMA 66+ and have a duff cable this could be the cause. HDD and MB will have communication problems (CRC errors) and will cycle through the same problem... This causes hang after a while in Windows for no apparent reason with the HDD system LED on.

If you have a Quantum LM AS etc type drive and you cannot see it in the BIOS and the actual HDD PCB LED is on your stuffed "

A good company for recovery of the AS LM etc is

http://www.easydatarecovery.co.uk