Hard drive went down in flames, literally. Any idea why?

[JacksonVFR]

Ok guys, I'm using my "trusty" backup computer from hell to post this. I started up my main computer today and heard a loud spinning. Thinking it was a clogged fan I peered into the side clear window and saw one of my two Maxtor 80GB hard drives releasing a yellow-orange glow. I quickly hit my surge switch and turn everything off.

Windows had been loading and all, which is on the second drive. Saddened, I unplug the toasted drive and try my master by itself only to discover the same mysterious loud spinning and that it is yet another non-working drive. I still don't know if it was my fan or drive making the initial noise. My question is what could cause such a problem?

I used the hard drive from this backup computer in the main and it began to load fine. The case fan is also now fine. I tried running the non-burn-to-a-crisp drive in this backup computer, but it is completely dead, not a sound.

My biggest fear is that another component could be causing failures, like my power supply? I hope this is not the case and that I just need to get a new hard drive. Most of my data was backed up, so I'm lucky there. Just mad to lose two hard drives in the process.

 

[G0AOZ]

From what you've described so far, I'd definitely point the finger of suspicion at the PSU. Be prepared for other failures. Floppy, CD-ROM, and possibly the motherboard, CPU, plug-in cards, memory etc. It's possible the board might have been protected, but any or all of the remaining components will probably have been highly stressed by what sounds like over voltage. Be ready for a short life expectancy on these parts, if they're still working. You need a power supply tester or at least some passive load on the low voltage rails, in order to carefully check volt outputs. Usually the fuse pops pretty quickly if the mains voltage is incorrectly set at say 115v for 230v supply. Glad that most of your data is backed up...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[edfair]

It is possible that the PS took the drives out but it is also possible that there is nothing else wrong. I would normally expect the CD to go if there was enough of a spike to take the hard drive.

It is also possible that the problem has nothing to do with the power and whatever started the cascade went through the ribbon cable.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[JacksonVFR]

Thanks for the replies so far. My power supply is about 8 months old at this point and is a SkyHawk 520watt which I bought from Newegg. It has detachable power cables (for easy management) and the drives that blew as well as a couple case fans were all on the same cable. Here is a page with some more info on it (voltage readings, etc):

http://www.shg.com.tw/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=62768

Do you guys really think I may need a new power supply and that I have to worry about early equipment failures? This is pretty scary.

The hard drive that caught fire had one bay space between it and the other hard drive, which was below. My friend suggested that because it was below, it could've got taken out. My motherboard, processor, fans, video card, dvd drive and cd burner still work. I'd like to pick up a Western Digital 250GB and be done. Hope that's all I have to do...

 

[BadBigBen]

I have a question or two...

1.) how old where these drives?

2.) do they run 24/7, such as in a P2P apps (eMule Torrent etc.)

3.) are they Serial ATA or Parallel ATA?



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[JacksonVFR]

Hi BigBadBen, thanks for offering your help. Hopefully you can share your insight on what you think went on.

1.) how old where these drives? The up-in-flames drive was new in 2004 as far as I know, put in by CyberPower Inc. in Baldwin Park, CA. They build it for me, it's out of warranty now. The second drive was purchased in 2002 and has been used heavily, I'm not suprised it's a goner. I'm suprised that they both failed at the same time though.

2.) do they run 24/7, such as in a P2P apps (eMule Torrent etc.)? I run them about 15+ hours per day, often using them for file transfer (no torrent, but I'm on P2P often). My activity light does stay busy, yes.

3.) are they Serial ATA or Parallel ATA? Parallel ATA

 

[JacksonVFR]

I just ordered myself a new hard drive today, a 250GB Seagate Baracudda. I'm still using the backup computer and am running it with the SkyHawk power supply that was previously in my main machine. So far, it is running just fine. I opened the PSU up earlier and airdusted it. I did NOT notice anything strange inside, leaking capacitors, stripped wires or any odd smell.

So, in a couple of days I'll have my new hard drive. If anybody has any advice about the power supply, please let me know. I'll open it up and examine it again if I know what to look for. Still don't know what caused the initial dual hard drive failure...

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there JacksonVFR,

1.) at that age it is not normal at all... sorry to hear that your warranty is already gone, I guess we are lucky in the EU, since they (business) has to give a 2 yr warranty on all sold items... about them going up together, well that can be attributed to the fact that they both where on the same IDE cable and the one took the other with it... I think someone mentioned that a spike in Voltage could have caused this, if it was PSU related then mostlikely it would have damaged the IDE PORT with it (though not necessarily, it is an iffy)...

2.) The reason why I had asked if they where up and running 24/7 and a p2p environment, was the fact that some drives due conk out... every drive has a max hour run per month, which most will already have attained in 2 or 3 weeks, so sooner or later they will fail, especially if the cooling is neglected or not thought off at build time... (my system runs 24/7 and I have drives that are pre 2002 and one 160gb that is 2004 and no failure, cuz I have two fans blowing cool air on them from the front, precautionary meassures)...
the only drive I had failing was a an old Fujitsu/Siemens that had a bad chip on it, that would melt out the glue at certain temps and that one was not cooled!...

3.) about me asking if they where SATA or PATA, was the fact that at an office a friend of mine is covering, they have had nothing but problems with the SATA drives going out, once a year they have to replace them...

My opinion, I think that the PSU is fine and that the problem was that the one HD took the other one with it... as mentioned by Edfair...

besides that I can not be much of help here, since the damage is already done, and all I have to add would be the cause of things...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[fidleid]

I have seen ribbon cables short out and cause similar problems.

 

[micker377]

Definately use the new IDE cable that will come with the new HDD. I'd change the other IDE cables also, just to be sure!

 

[rcs2749]

Dust buildup can cause arcing if some metal is close enough to the bottom circuit board.

 

[firewolfrl]

Ok, I live in an area with unstable power at times.
first you need a battery backup so the power is a constant same.
What kills harddrives is a power drop. at the beginning of Febuary there was a big wind storm and both brown outs and power surges.
I have replaced multiple CD/and or DVD drives that the power killed for my clients. I was suprised that no harddrives died.
I have seen harddrives die before and they usually take out more than one component. usually the PS faults and the computer shuts down.

you are problably going to lose your optical drives too. they seem to be more sensitive to power issues.

check and make sure your outlet is correctly wired and the ground is functioning.


good luck

 

[JacksonVFR]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sorry that my update is late, but I've been setting up my new hard drive (250GB Seagate) and recovering from this problem from hell.

BadBigBen: thank you VERY much for supplying your opinions and info. You opinion that it doesn't sound like my PSU gave me a little more confidence to just buy a hard drive and go with it. Maybe I shouldn't rely on wishing for luck, but so far so good.

fidleid/micker377: The new HDD was OEM, so I didn't recieve any extras. I'm currently using a different IDE cable though (just a "single" hook up one, sorry I don't know the term), but it's from a 8 year old computer. Would the age matter, should I get a new cable?

rcs2749: Excuse my ignorance, but what is arcing? I airdusted my computer just about montly. I have a clear window case so I get paranoid when I can see dust. It was fairly cleaned.

firewolfrl: I actually switched outlets in my bedroom. This outlet and the previous are both grounded. It could be coiencidence, but in the year I've been hooked up to this outlet I've had my processor fail (a year old at the time) and now two hard drives. As the hard drive was burning Windows was starting up on the screen. I didn't give a chance to see what would occur had I not hit the power switch just then. My DVD-RW and CD-RW are on a different IDE cable than the hard drives. Would this matter? Do you still forsee me losing them premature? Thanks.

 

[Freestone]

I'm not sure when 80-conductor IDE cables were introduced, so I don't know what type your 8 year old cable is, 40 or 80. You should be using a 80-conductor cable.

Here's a link discussing 80 and 40-conductor IDE cables, with a photo distinguishing the two:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html

I note you state your cable is single-ended. You'll see the picture showing 2 connectors. It's not the number of connectors that's important in your case (unless you want to add another device later), but the number of conductors. Your drive may work with an older cable, but its performance will probably suffer.

 

[firewolfrl]

JacksonVFR, I suspect you have external power issues that are causing component failure. if you don't use a battery Backup (UPS) then you may continue to have to replce failed components.
It does not matter what IDE cable the optical drives are connected to for them to fail. It has to do with the power coming into the computer and the PSU correctly regulating the power to those drives and the motherboard

 

[felixc]

I you can afford buying a cheap multimeter, you can measure the 12 volts supply line that goes to the white molex power conenctors to your hard drives. The 12 volts isn't used by the mobo so it's saved. The graphics card, which might have a connection to the 12 volts through a molex connector too, has a better power supply range than the hard drive motor and drive circuits.
The + and - 12 volts are secondary voltages derived from the 5 and 3 volts in the PSU. They will frequently have a bad voltage, either too low or too high if the primary loads are not within specs.

 

[JacksonVFR]

freestone: It's a 40 wire cable. I have a couple more 80 wire IDE cables laying around, but they're all dual connection and I'm only hooking one hard drive up. Is it ok to use an 80, yet leave one connector unhooked? Also, besides performance is there any difference in 40 and 80 (i.e. safety for the component being hooked up)?

firewolfrl: I just looked one of these up on Newegg. It might be best to purchase one, but it's too bad that so much money goes into my hobbies right now. I'm also a guitar player and I have a LOT of expensive amplifier gear. I may have to buy a power conditioner for that as well to be safe. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

felixc: When my processor failed 6 months ago, it failed with a different power supply in use. It was only a year old processor too. I doubt it's the power supply here, but it would be smart to give everything a good look over, yes.

 

[edfair]

felixc,
Amp connectors to the hard drive, not Molex.
12 volts is used by the motherboard for RS232 on the serial.

JacksonVFR,
Use the 80 and jumper the drive as master or CS and put it on the end connector with the blue to the M/B. Latest drives you can buy are capable of high speed and 40 conductor cable generates noise from adjacent lines that makes drive flaky.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.