HD spins up repeatedly making OS pause for 20-40 seconds??

[GuyGadbois]

I hope someone can help here, I'm about out of ideas. Quick background info. I just sent two WD drives (60 and 120GB) back for replacement after they both died within a few days. In the mean time, I just bought a WD 250GB drive to use and am already having problems.

HERE IS THE CURRENT ISSUE. The WD 250GB drive is the only HD in the system, running WinXP Pro SP2. The drive seems fine once I've been using the computer for a while, but whenever I boot the computer or come back after a while and launch a program the HD will 'click' and 'spin up' (I never hear it spin 'down'), then repeat that cycle 5-10 times about every 5-8 seconds. The entire time this is going on, the OS is just 'hung', nothing moves around, but the mouse... then (about 20-40 seconds later) suddenly everything catches up (so if I had double clicked MY COMPUTER or the start menu a few times, it all opens together).

NOW, just to backpeddle for a second, one of the old drives I sent in for replacement was clicking, spinning up, then spinning down; doing that cycle several times before dying.


Any ideas what might be the issue? I'm about to return this new drive, sell the two other drives when I get them back and not buy another WD drive ever; unless I figure out that something else is the culprit, but I can figure out what.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[dbData]

Sounds like your power supply is inadequate or about to die. Would need more info 'bout your equipment to be sure. Good bet though, considering the repeating symptoms.


Rick

http://www.howtorecoverdata.com

 

[GuyGadbois]

Good point. Well I have an Antec Sonata case (about 8 months old) that has the Antec True 380s power supply (380 watts).

The components in the case are as follows:
Epox 8k3a+ MoBo
AMD 1600+ CPU
768Mb Ram
DVD Drive (*** currently unplugged from power)
DVD Burner
ZIP drive (*** currently unplugged from power)
Floppy drive
250GB WD drive
Nvidia GeForce Ti 4200 (64Mb) AGP w/factory fan
Nic card
USB2.0/Firewire card
SCSI2 card
3 case fans

Is there a way to test the power supply?

 

[ftechguy]

That Antec has special fan-only power connectors which run at reduced voltage to keep fans quieter. Are you sure you're plugging in one of the standard connectors into the hard drive?

 

[GuyGadbois]

I just ran SiSoft Sandra and found these reading from the voltage sensors:

Category Actual

CPU voltage 1.74v
+3.3 voltage 1.52v
+5 voltage 4.38v
+12 voltage 11.73v
-12 voltage 1.38v
-5 voltage 0.28v
standby voltage 4.90v
battery voltage 3.14v

Some of these do look rather low but I don't know what is 'acceptable'. Do hard drives run off the +12v rail?

 

[GuyGadbois]

Yes, I am aware about the "fan-only" connectors and I am not using those except for the fans.

 

[micker377]

I've run Sandra many times through the years, and never seen all the voltages correct!

 

[tomaso11]

Well a cheap multi-meter will show voltages more accurately than software.
Did you try swapping IDE connections?

 

[GuyGadbois]

Well, after contacting Antec, I found the 5v rail was below the minimum needed. (4.8v was as low as they liked to see). Since that is the rail that drives the hard drives, that would make sense. After plunking down some $$ for a new 400w power supply, all the issues with the drive have disappeared.

On a side note, I am still returning the WD 250GB drive as it is apparently too slow for Pinnacle Studio to capture video on! I will probably spring for a SATA drive this time.

Thanks to all for the advice!