Hard disk ticking??

[Teikoshen]

I have a brand new Maxtor 200gb 16mb cache SATA2 hdd, brand new, just installed vista on it.

While i'm running tests on vista still. iT suddenly started giving ticks at intervals of roughly 1-5mins. each tick the system freezes up for like 30sec or so. But it only does 1 tick then things go back to normal.

Do i have a faulty hdd? or ineduquate power supply? or driver not good enough?

I'm running Vista x86 (32bit)
mobo: ASROCK DUAL VSTA
CPU : Intel Core 2 E6400
2x512mb ram DDR
2 x 200gb Maxtor Hdds
7800GS AGP video card
1 DVD drive
1 CD drive

no other cards and anything else. My power supply is old though, been with me for 4-5 years now.. i heard that if not enough power this could happen. But this specifically happens only to that hdd. Nothing else, my video card runs smoothly.

 

[1Tanker]

I have a brand new Maxtor 200gb 16mb cache SATA2 hdd, brand new, just installed vista on it.

While i'm running tests on vista still. iT suddenly started giving ticks at intervals of roughly 1-5mins. each tick the system freezes up for like 30sec or so. But it only does 1 tick then things go back to normal.

Do i have a faulty hdd? or ineduquate power supply? or driver not good enough?

I'm running Vista x86 (32bit)
mobo: ASROCK DUAL VSTA
CPU : Intel Core 2 E6400
2x512mb ram DDR
2 x 200gb Maxtor Hdds
7800GS AGP video card
1 DVD drive
1 CD drive

no other cards and anything else. My power supply is old though, been with me for 4-5 years now.. i heard that if not enough power this could happen. But this specifically happens only to that hdd. Nothing else, my video card runs smoothly.

You could try disconnecting one HD,and both optical drives to lessen the load on the PSU. Then retest, and if it continues, then your drive is probably headed for trouble. GL

 

[truromeo4juliet]

I have a brand new Maxtor 200gb 16mb cache SATA2 hdd, brand new, just installed vista on it.

While i'm running tests on vista still. iT suddenly started giving ticks at intervals of roughly 1-5mins. each tick the system freezes up for like 30sec or so. But it only does 1 tick then things go back to normal.

.................

Do i have a faulty hdd? or ineduquate power supply? or driver not good enough?

what kind of power supply do you have? if it's 400W or higher, you shouldn't be having this problem...

chances are your drive is just defective... i would return it and avoid the hassle altogether...

also, as an employee of a computer repair computer that has a data recovery lab for failed/crashed hard drives (electronic and mechanical), i highly recommend backing up your data to an external harddrive solution... cheers

 

[Ranman68k]

At least for me... HDD ticking = Scary

 

[1Tanker]

At least for me... HDD ticking = Scary

Makes me think of a timebomb ticking down.

 

[misry]

Commodore SX-64
1MHz MOS 6510
64Kb RAM
170KB 5.25" Floppy
5" Color CRT

Do we know each other from ebay?

 

[Teikoshen]

hi all thx for the reply

my psu is 400Watts

does the PSU loose it's "watts" over years? coz of all my cpu parts, the PSU has been with me for approx 5 years now. dusty, but still runs.

So vista does not in anyway affect the hdd ticking?

 

[Teikoshen]

Another question is, i have actually 3 200gb SATA hdds, my pc only has 2 SATA ports, is tehre anyway to connect the 3rd SATA up? internal or external? i have alot of PCIe available, just no controller card.

 

[Teikoshen]

Alittle update about my ticking problem.

It's becoming quite frequent and extremely annoying.

I checked my event log, and it doesn't say anything at all..

Tried swapping power cables for the SATA hdds, same thing happens to the same drive.

I'm almost 100% convinced that my new SATA hdd is physically damaged.

One thing is however, my sata drive is mounted vertically, not horizontally, dose it matter?

I've already backed up everything, monday i'll probably bring the drive and get it replaced.

My last concern is insuficient power. i'm thinking of actually unplugging my DVD and CD drive.. will it give me more power to my hdd?


Here's a surprising update:

I took my hdd out and it's in vertical position, i changed it to horizontal position.. and it nolonger makes the sound.. not since then at least.. Now i'm realyl thinking my hdd has somethign physically wrong.


Correction, problem is still there. 1 hdd on my right ear, and 1 hdd at my left ear. 100% the sound is coming from that particular hdd.

 

[truromeo4juliet]

I checked my event log, and it doesn't say anything at all..

it usually won't... if it's a failing harddrive with an electrical or mechanical problem, especially if it's your O/S drive, events can't be written at the time due to the drive not being writable...

Tried swapping power cables for the SATA hdds, same thing happens to the same drive.

as I expected....

One thing is however, my sata drive is mounted vertically, not horizontally, dose it matter?

No, orienation of a drive does not matter... flat (label side up), vertically (on it's side), on edge (label facing front/back of case), or upside down... orienation doesn't matter

I've already backed up everything, monday i'll probably bring the drive and get it replaced.

live and learn glad you didn't lose any data though... data recovery is expensive

My last concern is insuficient power. i'm thinking of actually unplugging my DVD and CD drive.. will it give me more power to my hdd?

no it won't... the CD/DVD drives only require power for a little bit, then the drives basically power-down and 'sleep' until needed again... to free up more power to the rest of the system, you have 2 options: disconnect a device that uses power all the time (harddrive, fan, CCFL light, power hungry graphics card, etc)... or upgrade your PSU (power supply)... the PSU replacement route is almost 100% better a choice, unless you can't afford the electric bill at the end of the month

I took my hdd out and it's in vertical position, i changed it to horizontal position.. and it nolonger makes the sound.. not since then at least.. Now i'm realyl thinking my hdd has somethign physically wrong.


Correction, problem is still there. 1 hdd on my right ear, and 1 hdd at my left ear. 100% the sound is coming from that particular hdd.

i was about to say "r u sure you're not just fooling yourself into thinking it's not there anymore?"

glad you narrowed it down... good luck to you - Cheers

 

[Teikoshen]

thx alot indeed

I'm still quite surprised that my brand new drive is defective.. things happen i guess. Everything is backuped.. phew.. now i'm gonna get it replaced on monday.

Thx guys

 

[Teikoshen]

Alright i think a new problem is comign up... now my other old HDD is beginnign to tick to. now i'm really scared not sure if it's something else that's the root of the cause.

lemme explain abit more

My old hdd - Maxtor 200gb 8mb cache, SATA I (Win XP installed)
my new hdd - Maxtor 200gb 16mb cache, SATA II (Win Vista Installed)

my mobo - ASROCk DUAL VSTA - doesn't have SATA II capability, but i heard that SATA II is backward compatible.

Usually teh ticking sound comes strictly from my new HDD while i'm testing vista, however, just now after switching SATA cables aroudn so i can get it to boot up from XP, both drives were takign turns to tick.. new hdd tick first.. tehn old hdd tick.. then new one does again.

Now i totally unplugged the new hdd out and my old one is running smoothly atm.

Unfortunately i dunno of anyway of trying to make my computer go power hungry so to test out if it is the lack of power that's the reason for all this ticking..

Could the new hdd be ticking because of lack of power? (it is an upgrade from 8mb cache to 16mb cache + SATA II instead of SATA I)

my psu is 400Watts and 5-6 years old.


update:

Alright i did a bit more test.

i took off my new hdd, and ran just with the odd hdd, Went into XP without any problems, no more ticking sound.

did some stuff in XP for about 30mins, then i did the same with other drive.

Shutdown pc, unplug the same SATA cable to the new drive, ran Vista. So far, i haven't heard a tick, it's been only 30mins though, however by now usually by just browsing through my C drive, i would get 1 or 2 ticks.. especially picture intensive folders.

Will run more test, but could the problem really be because of lack of PSU?

Update 2:

Still no clicks from my new hdds, could there be another reason for the clicks besides the PSU being insufficient? my video card is very power hungry.

 

[ara]

unless you can't afford the electric bill at the end of the month

are you stupid?

 

[Teikoshen]

I hope i'm not spamming, but just a little update.

When running only 1 HDD(either new or old), the ssytem is very stable.. no problems at all

So i decided to unlpug my CDrw and DVDrw drives, right now my system is running both HDD without those 2 burners. and no more ticking sound.. so far...

But i heard that insufficient power usually leads to the entire device can't even boot up. Could it be a side effect of insufficient power?

 

[JakFlaUsa]

Try not overclocking your CPU. This worked for me.

 

[mpjesse]

Possibly. I'll give you this anecdotal evidence:

I have 2 external hard drives... one is a "DIY" SATA external kit and the other is a Seagate SATA external. Both drives do the "ticking" thing that you describe in your thread. It appears to have nothing to do w/ my system because one is hooked up to my PC and the other is hooked up to my HDTV DVR (for extra capacity). They both very briefly just shut off every 20 or so minutes IF they aren't being used heavily. Now if I'm downloading a torrent to one or recording a hdtv stream, they never shut off.

I believe the issues with both are the external power bricks... they aren't cutting the mustard when the drives are in idle. So the problem could be your power supply.

 

[1Tanker]

Alright i think a new problem is comign up... now my other old HDD is beginnign to tick to. now i'm really scared not sure if it's something else that's the root of the cause.

lemme explain abit more

My old hdd - Maxtor 200gb 8mb cache, SATA I (Win XP installed)
my new hdd - Maxtor 200gb 16mb cache, SATA II (Win Vista Installed)

my mobo - ASROCk DUAL VSTA - doesn't have SATA II capability, but i heard that SATA II is backward compatible.

Usually teh ticking sound comes strictly from my new HDD while i'm testing vista, however, just now after switching SATA cables aroudn so i can get it to boot up from XP, both drives were takign turns to tick.. new hdd tick first.. tehn old hdd tick.. then new one does again.

Now i totally unplugged the new hdd out and my old one is running smoothly atm.

Unfortunately i dunno of anyway of trying to make my computer go power hungry so to test out if it is the lack of power that's the reason for all this ticking..

Could the new hdd be ticking because of lack of power? (it is an upgrade from 8mb cache to 16mb cache + SATA II instead of SATA I)

my psu is 400Watts and 5-6 years old.


update:

Alright i did a bit more test.

i took off my new hdd, and ran just with the odd hdd, Went into XP without any problems, no more ticking sound.

did some stuff in XP for about 30mins, then i did the same with other drive.

Shutdown pc, unplug the same SATA cable to the new drive, ran Vista. So far, i haven't heard a tick, it's been only 30mins though, however by now usually by just browsing through my C drive, i would get 1 or 2 ticks.. especially picture intensive folders.

Will run more test, but could the problem really be because of lack of PSU?

Update 2:

Still no clicks from my new hdds, could there be another reason for the clicks besides the PSU being insufficient? my video card is very power hungry.

What about a bad SATA cable? Got any spares?

 

[truromeo4juliet]

um... between my roommate and I, our computer rigs use about 1.7Kilowatts an hour... it's not illogical to think that some people won't be able to afford their electric bills at the end of the month, especially if their computers are running 24/7...

don't insult me -_-

 

[cisco]

As you have probably figured out it is probably the PSU. Even though it is a 400w you really need to look at the 12v rail too. Being that old it probably is not that high. Running a decent video card, dual core processor, and 2 drives may be pushing it a little too much. I have never been a big fan of skimping on the PSU anyway, it usually leads to instability and more problems.

 

[Teikoshen]

thx for the replies,

CPU is not over clocked. but my video card is an OC one, super OC if i'm not wrong. i bought one of those SUper OC ones.

i have 2 more questions though

1. Why does it only happen to my HDDs? and nothing else/ like the video card being unstable and such, it's surprisingly stable even with the lack of juice.

2. Is there anyway to hook up 2 PSUs? to 1 PC?

Finally, after unplugging both my CDrw and DVDrw, it seems my system is working fine even with the 2 HDDs, i think i'm at bare minimum or something i guesss.. in terms of power supply

 

[AZHeat]

As cicso mentioned, it's not just the PSU wattage, but the 12V rail limits... and yes, as per an earlier question of your, PSU's do degrade over time (and dust helps build up heat and degrade them even faster...)

But most likely your issue is a low 12V rail current limit on the PSU - you're 2 HD's, DVD/CD drives, video card, and potentially other components draw some or all power off the 12V rail.

Go buy a new 500+W PSU and you'll be fine.

also - check out the PSU pages in this forum to learn more about what to get (i.e. look for dual 12V rails 16A or more each, etc...)

 

[Teikoshen]

Looks like that's my solution so far.. gotta go check out the shops around my area.

I'm reading through the PSU forums atm, good tip

1 question though, does brand matter for PSUs? OEM versions of PSU seems to be so much cheaper compared to those branded ones..


Update:

I used the http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

here's a rough PSU watt i needed

System Type: Dual Processor
Motherboard: High End - Desktop
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2130 MHz Allendale
CPU Utilization (TDP): 100% TDP

RAM: 2 Sticks DDR SDRAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS AGP
Video Type: Single Card

SATA HDD: 2 HDDs

CD-RW Drive: 1 Drive
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive: 1 Drive

Fans
Regular: 2 Fans 80mm;

Keyboard and mouse: Yes

PSU Utilization: 100 %

Total: 323 Watts

Considering my Video card is actually super OCed, and there's no option to increase there.. i'd say most likely my PSU is at it's max.. looks like 500watts to go..

what bugs me the most though is why does it only happen to my HDD and not my other parts.. (well i guess it's good it didn't happen to my fan.. else something on my system would have been burnt..)

 

[blue68f100]

I know on IDE controllers MS some times changes the IDE controller to PIO mode. When it does this it makes all kinds of noise. It should be in DMA mode. I do not know if SATA has this option. May be worth while to check.

 

[Teikoshen]

SATAs have this option too, but i checked before, they aren't in PIO mode. both running on UDMA

 

[cisco]

Brands definitely matter when it comes to PSUs. However in most cases the difference in OEM and retail of a specific brand is nothing other than packaging sometimes the retail comes with a better warranty. Stick with a good brand, they cost more but it's worth it. I've personally had really good luck with PC Power, SeaSonic, and Enermax. I try to buy enough power to last me thru 2 builds. I upgrade about every 18 months. So usually I keep a power supply for about 2-3 years max. I am actually considering buying a new one if I get another 8800.
Hard drive take more juice to run than people think especially when they are spinning up.




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