HDD only works every 5 seconds !!!

[wtech]

I have an Acer 1610 P1-100 running W98, with an upgraded Seagate ST3 841 0A HD. Though the computer boots and recognizes the HDD parameters with autodetection, it's VERY slow. You can see the HDD activity LED turned on 1 second and then off for 5 seconds. The problem remains when already in Windows, and it's a matter of time till you get a blue screen with "Error writing in C:" and the computer hangs. (BTW: I have removed all booting-time programs with msconfig, removed all the programs with icons in the task bar, run a exhaustive surface scandisk without damaged sectors reports, and the HDD is defragmented...)
Please, what do you think?? is a BIOS problem?, a controller/driver problem? .... please help !!

 

[Daveyboy2]

Been there, done that. Sounds like the motor in your hard drive is going out.

Hook another hard drive up to your system, and see if it works - spins and stays spinning. If it doesn't spin, it may be your power supply or even check the connection to the power on the back of the hard drive.

Worst case scenario - I swear this actually worked once. I took the handle part of a screwdriver and hit the hard drive near the power connecter - and the hard drive started to spin up again. (saved the company thousands of dollars in recovery $$ - they didn't do any backups). It will ruin the hard drive if it doesn't work, so check your warranty. -= Beer is food! Is it suppertime? =-
If ya like the info on the posts - rate them helpful!

 

[wtech]

Well, I connected the HDD into another system (P3-500MHz) and it did function well, it was fast...
So I'm thinking the problem is the old processor, or maybe I need to upgrade the BIOS, but the problem is I haven't been able to find and upgrade for Acer BIOS. Anyone knows where I can find it?

 

[DavidDCSA]

To find Acer BIOS updates, you might try using the GOOGLE search engine with "Acer BIOS Updates" as your search string.