HDD led always on!

[Silverbird]

Hi everyone,

Maybe it's not that important, it's weird though since it's the first time it happened. Like every other day i booted my PC today, it loaded normally into Windows XP Pro, but the HDD led was on all the time! I could browse in Windows Explorer (folders etc). Loaded Nero to test the drive speed in cache-preferences tab, i waited to see the result but there wasn't any this time. Before switching off the computer i got a memory error programm about nero.
Checked all cables in mobo,hdd etc...restarted and everything was normal again! I cannot find what caused this weird behaviour. Any help or ideas could be usefull!
Thanks in advance.

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
1x512MB Kingston RAM
Abit NF7-S V2.0 (Nforce 2 chipset)
Club3D Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Cat 3.9)
SATA connected Seagate Baracuda IV 60GB 7200rpm(silicon 3112)
Windows XP Pro

 

[tjchino]

i'm not exactly sure what is happening - but when my hdd light stays on, it was a sign that my hdd wires that connect the light to the mobo were reveresed.

 

[grafixmonkey]

The pins that connect the IDE activity LED are held at the same voltage when it is off, and when the light turns on one of the pins is dropped to zero volts allowing current to pass. It's impossible, if the pins are behaving correctly and only dropping one to zero when there is IDE activity, for the LED to be constantly on. If the plug is reversed, the light will be always off.

What's probably happening is that you've placed your LED connector on the wrong two pins. Some of the pins are defined to be Ground at all times, so if you put the LED connector between the pin that is always high and one that is reserved and defined as Ground, the LED would stay on all the time. If you put the jumper between the pin that drops to zero volts when there is activity and one that is defined as Ground, then the light would stay on all the time but would turn off whenever there is HDD activity.

If what you meant to say is the HDD LED is always flashing, you most likely have a large program loading that you don't know about (like Gator) or your system is performing maintenance in the background. Check the following:

Check if you have File Indexing on for your hard drives. Windows will spam the hard drive constantly, adding files and contents to its index until it's satisfied, if this is on.

If you have an antivirus, especially a newer one, check and see if it is scanning your drive. Some do it in the background, and it can take a very very long time for a slower PC with a big hard drive to scan all its files. Maybe you're rebooting before it finishes, and it's just starting over.

Check for tasks running or folders in Program Files or registry keys that look like Gator. It was making my parents' PC spam its drive a lot.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Grafixmonkey on 02/15/04 07:06 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

It's possible that when you booted up that time, your BIOS didn't seen the entire module and you ended up with less usable RAM. That could be caused by an intermittant contact. It could also result in your computer caching many of the OS files to the hard drive since it can't find the RAM it needs.

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[arkus]

On a similar note. does anyone know if my h/d light should work on an IS7-G when only using SATA drives and no standard IDE drives, 'cause at the moment it doesn't, and it did with a previous mobo on standard IDE (and yeah, I've tried the connector both ways round).

 

[Crashman]

If it's connected to one of the Intel SATA ports, it should (since those are on the chipset, they should use the same LED). If it's connected to one of the add on chips SATA port, it may not.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[marneus]

That HDD light is not for the HDD, it is to indicate general traffic on the IDE bus... if it ALWAYS on (ie isnt pulsing as if it actually doing something) double-check the connections on the Mobo & compare it to the manual

Trust me I know what I'm doing... ooops, grab the cat...

 

[kelly1974]

hi marneus my hdd led in on hole the time
wen i start my mobo whit out hdd its on also
notting conect to the mobo only ram cpu and video card
is my mobo gone die?????
hope u can tel my the problem
thx kelly

kellyhoek@msn.com