Modded case problem?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and several
fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I noticed that
sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't work.
I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra drives
for video on the secondary controller.
About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it was
intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the drive
had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Eventually
it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA controllers
on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out some of the lit
fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
kept working OK.
Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering, and
the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at startup
and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a bad status on
the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive still works.
I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
after getting one of these lighted cases.
Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted columns
and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could harm a
hard drive?
Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
gone bad on their own?
Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives that
were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
Has anyone had a similar problem?
Thanks a lot for any advice.
I have win xp as the operating system.

 

[Jerry]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

My first guess would be your power supply is not large enough to drive all
your stuff. What"s the rating of the one you have?

"Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
newsYvMd.835$tE4.516@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...
> Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
> winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
> I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and
> several fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I
> noticed that sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't
> work.
> I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra
> drives for video on the secondary controller.
> About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
> hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
> find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it
> was intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the
> drive had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring.
> Eventually it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
> I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA
> controllers on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out
> some of the lit fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
> The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
> kept working OK.
> Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
> was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering, and
> the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at startup
> and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a bad status
> on the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive still works.
> I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
> after getting one of these lighted cases.
> Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted
> columns and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could
> harm a hard drive?
> Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
> gone bad on their own?
> Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
> So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives that
> were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
> Has anyone had a similar problem?
> Thanks a lot for any advice.
> I have win xp as the operating system.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
time it happened.

"Jerry" <NoSpamChiefZeke@MSN.com> wrote in message
news:OMTOEIjCFHA.444@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> My first guess would be your power supply is not large enough to drive all
> your stuff. What"s the rating of the one you have?
>
> "Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> newsYvMd.835$tE4.516@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...
>> Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
>> winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
>> I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and
>> several fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I
>> noticed that sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't
>> work.
>> I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra
>> drives for video on the secondary controller.
>> About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
>> hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
>> find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it
>> was intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the
>> drive had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring.
>> Eventually it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
>> I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA
>> controllers on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out
>> some of the lit fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
>> The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
>> kept working OK.
>> Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
>> was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering,
>> and the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at
>> startup and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a
>> bad status on the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive
>> still works.
>> I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
>> after getting one of these lighted cases.
>> Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted
>> columns and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could
>> harm a hard drive?
>> Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
>> gone bad on their own?
>> Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
>> So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives
>> that were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
>> Has anyone had a similar problem?
>> Thanks a lot for any advice.
>> I have win xp as the operating system.
>>
>
>

 

[steveh]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:SdwMd.385$RF4.115@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...
> It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
> time it happened.
>
What make? QTec by any chance?

SteveH

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Luis ORTEGA wrote:
>
> Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
> winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?

Yes.







--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:37:40 GMT, "Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com>
wrote:

>Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
>winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
>I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and several
>fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I noticed that
>sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't work.
>I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra drives
>for video on the secondary controller.
>About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
>hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
>find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it was
>intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the drive
>had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Eventually
>it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
>I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA controllers
>on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out some of the lit
>fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
>The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
>kept working OK.
>Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
>was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering, and
>the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at startup
>and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a bad status on
>the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive still works.
>I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
>after getting one of these lighted cases.
>Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted columns
>and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could harm a
>hard drive?
>Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
>gone bad on their own?
>Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
>So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives that
>were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
>Has anyone had a similar problem?
>Thanks a lot for any advice.
>I have win xp as the operating system.

My kid did it with his car. Different lights all over the place
Had to put in a high output alternator.
You might consider that. And a good amp.
Seriously, the HD problems may be coincidental.
To troubleshoot, you might plug in the lighting to a second power
supply, and the HD into a PCI controller.

--Vic

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:37:40 GMT, "Luis ORTEGA"
<lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
>winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?

Typically no. If there was something faulty about the
wiring then who-knows-what was actually doing on, but a
properly implemented bunch of LEDs will not harm the drives.
Since you've not given any details of the specific parts or
their electrical configuration we can't be very specific...
and still might not be able to if you had a defect or frayed
wire shorting out.


>I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and several
>fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I noticed that
>sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't work.

That could mean anything, simply that the electrical
connection wasn't good. Could also/instead mean the power
supply had major problems.


>I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra drives
>for video on the secondary controller.
>About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
>hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
>find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it was
>intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the drive
>had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Eventually
>it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.

Were the drives getting hot?

>I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA controllers
>on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out some of the lit
>fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
>The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
>kept working OK.
>Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
>was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering, and
>the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at startup
>and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a bad status on
>the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive still works.
>I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
>after getting one of these lighted cases.
>Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted columns
>and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could harm a
>hard drive?

"lights" in themselves wouldn't but the prior comment about
power or connections might still apply. In other post you
mentioned "650W" PSU but is it a decent PSU or just one of
those junky ones that they polished up and pasted a
high-wattage label on? A good 650W PSU would typically cost
in the neighboorhood of $200 + They could cost less once
higher volumes, buyers make it more of a commodity item but
that is still a rare wattage for actual user needs.

>Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
>gone bad on their own?
>Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
>So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives that
>were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.

I had a couple of 40GB Maxtors fail, might've been Plus 60
series (one of the first Maxtor generations with 7K2 RPM).
If it were those then perhaps it was just bad drives.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Hi,

Sounds more like a bad power supply to me. The flickering tells me your
voltage output is probably not steady and regulated properly. Either it's
underpowered (perhaps less than 350W) or simply a bad unit (my guess). This
is probably the cause of the drives' early demise, the lights draw very
little power and are unlikely to be an issue.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
newsYvMd.835$tE4.516@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...
> Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
> winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
> I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and
> several fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I
> noticed that sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't
> work.
> I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra
> drives for video on the secondary controller.
> About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
> hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
> find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it
> was intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the
> drive had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring.
> Eventually it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
> I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA
> controllers on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out
> some of the lit fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
> The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
> kept working OK.
> Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
> was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering, and
> the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at startup
> and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a bad status
> on the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive still works.
> I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
> after getting one of these lighted cases.
> Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted
> columns and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could
> harm a hard drive?
> Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
> gone bad on their own?
> Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
> So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives that
> were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
> Has anyone had a similar problem?
> Thanks a lot for any advice.
> I have win xp as the operating system.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
time it happened. That one was a 550 watt power supply.


"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:eOKBW4qCFHA.2608@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> Sounds more like a bad power supply to me. The flickering tells me your
> voltage output is probably not steady and regulated properly. Either it's
> underpowered (perhaps less than 350W) or simply a bad unit (my guess).
> This is probably the cause of the drives' early demise, the lights draw
> very little power and are unlikely to be an issue.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> newsYvMd.835$tE4.516@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...
>> Can a modded case with lights cause a power glitch to a hard drive that
>> winds up ruining the drive? Has anyone else suffered this problem?
>> I got a case with clear sides with lighted columns on the front and
>> several fans with little lights on them inside about 5 months ago. I
>> noticed that sometimes the little lights on the fans flickered or didn't
>> work.
>> I have a C drive and a CD drive on the primary controller and 2 extra
>> drives for video on the secondary controller.
>> About a month after I started using the new case with lights, I started
>> hearing a screeching sound at startup sometimes and the computer couldn't
>> find one or both of the drives on the secondary controller. At first it
>> was intermittent, but the computer started reporting at bootup that the
>> drive had a bad status based on something called S.M.A.R.T. monitoring.
>> Eventually it wouldn't recognize the drive at all.
>> I replaced it with a SATA drive and put that on one of the SATA
>> controllers on the mobo. I also replaced the power supply and took out
>> some of the lit fans and disabled the column lights on the case.
>> The problem went away and the remaining drive on the secondary controller
>> kept working OK.
>> Now the same thing is happening again. I noticed that the fan with lights
>> was acting up and the lights were sometimes not working or flickering,
>> and the drive on the secondary controller has screeched a few times at
>> startup and a couple of times the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring has reported a
>> bad status on the drive and advised a backup and replacement. The drive
>> still works.
>> I find it unusual that I should suddenly have these problem on two drives
>> after getting one of these lighted cases.
>> Is it possible for a case with poor implementation of these lighted
>> columns and fans to cause some sort of power glitch at startup that could
>> harm a hard drive?
>> Or are the two events coincidental and the drives are the ones which have
>> gone bad on their own?
>> Could the secondary controller on the mobo be at fault?
>> So far the problem has only involved a couple of 40 gig maxtor drives
>> that were on the secondary controller and none of the other drives.
>> Has anyone had a similar problem?
>> Thanks a lot for any advice.
>> I have win xp as the operating system.
>>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

This reminds me of the old days when we started seeing car stereo amps in
magazines listed as "1500 WATT AMP, $79.00". While you looked at a
reputable dealers prices and you couldn't even get a 60 watt amp for that
cheap. I mean, 650watt power supply? Thats just ridiculous.

--Dan

"Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:SdwMd.385$RF4.115@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...
> It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
> time it happened.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

> It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
> time it happened. That one was a 550 watt power supply.

Well, clearly you need 750 watts.
(Yes, I am joking.)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:nLOMd.205$E41.56@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net...
> It's a 650 watt quiet power supply. I did change power supplies the first
> time it happened. That one was a 550 watt power supply.
>
> "Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:eOKBW4qCFHA.2608@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Sounds more like a bad power supply to me. The flickering tells me your
>> voltage output is probably not steady and regulated properly. Either it's
>> underpowered (perhaps less than 350W) or simply a bad unit (my guess).
>> This is probably the cause of the drives' early demise, the lights draw
>> very little power and are unlikely to be an issue.
>>
>> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
>> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>>
>> "Luis ORTEGA" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>> newsYvMd.835$tE4.516@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...

You are not by any chance using those pass through molex connectors
to go into the HDD. Those pass throught for fans and lights are usually
only two wire instead of the usual four.