Hard drive turns on and off during cold boot...

[boulez]

Hi folks,

This is a new one for me.

My computer runs for weeks with no issues. But after being off for a while, upon the next cold boot the primary drive will simply lose power during the boot process and stop spinning. Sometimes it will turn off and stay off. Sometimes it will turn off for a second and then start up again. Obviously, this locks the machine, requiring another cold boot. After restarting 5 or 6 times, it finally seems to be "warmed up" enough, and will complete the boot process. And from this point, everything behaves completely normally.

Drive going bad? Bad IDE cables? Bad power supply? Bad motherboard? Something else?

Any ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[montag451]

Try the simple things first.

Cables: swap them around and see if the same thing happens with the hdd.
Drives: unlikely [but possible] for the drive to be acting this way = Check by putting them in another machine
What PSU are you using?
How old is the system?
How many drives have you got in the system?
When did the prob start?
COME ON - more information please if you want any help

 

[boulez]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, you're right, I didn't really provide enough info.

The problem only surfaces after the system has been off for a while - at least an hour or so. I'll try all of the low-level cable swap stuff after leaving it off overnight and will report back on this tomorrow.

The PSU is an Antec True 380SP. I'm guessing this is a Euro-only model number, since that's all I can find when googling it.

The system is homebuilt, and so the parts vary in age from several years to today (new vid card):

- Asus A7S333 (about 2 years old)
- Athlon XP2000 (about 2 years old)
- 512 MB DDR-SDRAM (about 2 years old)
- Matrox Millenium G550 (one day old)
- WD1200JB 120 GB HD (about 2 years old)
- WD2000JB 200 GB HD (about 1 year old)
- 2 realtek ethernet cards (several years old)
- Antec "Sonata" case w/ Antec True 380SP PSU

I first noticed the problem about a month ago, although I rarely turn off the machine for longer than a few minutes at a timeso it's difficult to say when it could have really started.

I'll do the cable/drive swaps tomorrow morning after letting the system sit. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[boulez]

Ok, a bit late, but I've now done some more tests:

- if the drive is moved to another machine, it seems to work with no problems. I've only tried this with an external firewire enclosure on a laptop, however - not in another tower.
- no other drives attached to my tower have this problem. I've tried 3.
- if the power for the problem drive is attached but not the IDE cable, it never spins down. So it seems to have something to do with access, not just the motor.
- It seems to work if I remove the master/slave jumper, which sets this drive to Master mode. The jumper had previously set the drive to cable select mode.

If the jumper was the problem, I'll certainly be pleased. But it still seems a little weird...

Anyway, and other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

BAd PSU or bad Mobo. I have an EPox 8RDA+ on my bench that was doing the same exact thing and it turned out to be low voltage on the 5 volt rail (4.5 volts). Swapped out the PSU and it hasn't done it since.

 

[boulez]

Yeah, I was thinking a PSU issue as well. But it seems strange that it would only affect ONE drive. If I swap this drive out and replace it with any of three others I have access to, it never spins down.

 

[montag451]

Maybe, cos it is a bit old, it is slightly more delicate/frail/precious and wants to be a diva. If the voltage ain't to within 2%, I ain't gonna work. So there!

 

[airfoil]

Have you tried switching the Molex power connectors? That would seem like the most obvious culprit.

 

[boulez]

Yes, I did try using different power connectors. The behavior was the same.