HD sometimes not being detected and freezing.

[rainmagnet]

My Hard drive locks up intermittently. This is usually preceded by a slight double beep and an audible slowing down of the pc fans. At this point I must reboot, and most of the time, my hard drive will not be detected at this stage. This has been the prob since I first booted up the pc six months ago. I built the pc myself, this is the only HD, it has a 250w power supply, a matx motherboard, one cdrw drive, a celeron d 330 processor, 256 ddr ram, xp.

First I thought it might be power, so I disconnected my cdrw drive and unneccesary pci devices, no luck.
Then I installed HD and case fans to see if it was cooling...

I built the pc myself, this is the only HD, it has a 250w power supply, a matx motherboard, one cdrw drive, a celeron d 330 processor, 256 ddr ram, xp.

Im completely lost as what to do next. I badly need help.

 

[tuco7]

rainmagnet

When the fans slow down and your drive quits its a sure sign there is a power problem.
I havent seen a 250w power supply in many many years, that would be the first thing to check out.
If it is old as it sounds might be time to try a new one

 

[garebo]

You could check in your bios and see if you have s.m.a.r.t. If you do have smart make sure its enabled. smart keeps an eye on your hard drive, runs a few small tests when you boot up, makes sure the drive is good, and it will tell you in advance if your hard drive is going to fail soon so you can get your data off the drive.
If you have smart and its enabled and you dont see a message in dos on bootup then your hard drive is likely ok.

but, as tuco7 pointed out, your power supply is likely suspect. Standard power supplies that come in $40 cases are worth about $10. They may work ok for a while but when they are cheap to start with and then have some mileage on them, their efficiency goes down quite a bit. So you might consider an older 250w to be more like a 150w. Either way, by the look of your setup, you should have at least 300 watt power supply and 350 would be better. Beware of the cheap power supplies boasting 650 watts, they are basically lying. A decent power supply should cost around $40 if its not on sale. So, again, when you can buy a whole new case and power supply for $40, how good is the power supply in it? The answer to that is: "no good".
I buy the case and power supply separate if i can and if not i take out the power supply and put a good one in and keep the original for a spare.
Maybe a friend will have another power supply you can install in your pc to make sure, but i dont even think you have to go that far, just get another power supply.
Newegg.com is a good place to go for one online.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I forgot, directron.com is another good place to get a power supply.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[rainmagnet]

It was a case and fan deal. cost 50 euro, so yeah $40. I thought it might be that. Since i have a micro atx case, do i need a m-atx fan or are the atx fans the same size?

 

[garebo]

I do believe a micro atx power supply is smaller than a standard atx power supply, pretty certain on that.

I think you have too much of a system in there for the power supply to handle. You need to get an atx case and put your system inside that instead of inside an matx case.

It could also be that the matx power supply you have is defective but i think its just too small for the motherboard and cpu you have. but again, you dont have to have an matx case, you can put your matx setup inside a standard atx case and thats what you should do. That would at least give you a 300 or more wattage power supply.

Even better would be to buy your power supply separate from your case. You can often get a better deal buying a case with a power supply than a case alone. But still buy a separate, better power supply and take the power supply out of the new case and keep it for a spare or sell it.
Plus you can sell your original matx case and power supply.

I have an matx motherboard with a P2 2.4 cpu in a very small case but the case is still an atx, not matx.
You can put an matx motherboard in either an matx or atx case, but you cant put an atx motherboard in a matx case.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[mainegeek]

rainmagnet,
It could be a bad power supply, but I would be more inclined to suspect a failing hard drive and/or a weak cmos
battery.

 

[garebo]

One way to know for sure would be to borrow an atx power supply from someone and test it out on your system.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[rainmagnet]

I thought i'd add this.. i put my HD in my brothers pc. he's got the same motherboard and cpu and power, a dvd/rw, agp graphics card, firewire card and modem in an matx case, and it ran perfectly all night. That wouldnt happen on mine. I can only assume from this that the amount of power is not an issue. 250w power is quite common in matx systems, and mine is a basic one. I also know now that the HD works ok. So it has to be a faulty power supply as far as i can see. Im going to contact the vendor since the case and fan are still under warranty. thanks for the advice.

 

[garebo]

With having the same motherboard to test with, thats a good assumption.
I guess i shouldnt be so down on a 250 watt matx system, my bad. I've seen them with 150 watts and less, so 250 is pretty good. So i should have guessed that it was faulty.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips