Hard Drive vs PSU

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naruto1988

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2004
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so i got a seagate 120gb barracuda SATA150. it slowly died over 4 months (the windows installation kept messing up so i had to keep reformatting). finally it died and i sent it to seagate for a replacement.

meanwhile, i used an old seagate 8gb HDD on IDE. worked fine.

2 weeks later, got a replacement from seagate. i forgot to mark it so i don't know if it's the same one or not. today, a week after using my new HDD, i press the power button and i get a BSOD saying "registry_error". i tried to reformat and it gave me that BSOD during windows installation! frustrated, i had to boot into my 8gb HDD, format the C partition on my SATA, and then i rebooted and installed windows on my SATA.

i'm typing this right now on my SATA, but i'm wondering what could be causing this. my computer works fine if i leave it on forever. but if i turn it off and on a lot, hard drive seems to die? this is just a wild guess. could it be my PSU or something is cutting the power to my HDD too early and so my bootable partition is suffering problems?

sorry for the long post. hope i can get some answers.

CPU: AMD AMD64 3000+ 2000MHz
Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R
Memory: 512 MB of Geil DDR PC-3200
Video Card: Sapphire 9800 Pro ATI Radeon
Hard Drive: Seagate 120.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Monitor: KDS-USA 17-SX
DVD R/W: NEC 8X ND-2500A
Storage Interface: SATA
Sound Card: Realtek ALC655 6-Channel Audio Codec
Internet Connection: Comcast Cable @ 3.5 megabits
Operating System: Windows XP SP1
 
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Sonic587

Golden Member
May 11, 2004
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I'd start eyeing it as the culprit since you've already RMA'd your Seagate. Everything else in there looks quality, and you're only having problems at boot? Sounds like the low 12A on the +12 line is getting sapped upon power-up.

I'm pretty surprised you were able to get a rig like yours running on just that 350W junker. I don't trust Turbo-Link PSUs at all. What would be your budget for a new PSU?

EDITed for spelling.
 
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naruto1988

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2004
1,028
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any way i can test my PSU? i guess my budget for a new one would be something less than $100. and i'm also thinking of flashing my pro to an XT in the future and adding a DVD-rom.

edit: does it matter if a PSU has an extra fan and there's no opening for it to blow out of? like the top of many PSUs have a fan yet there's no hole in my case for it to blow out.
edit2: does this look good to anyone? http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-148-005&DEPA=1
 
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piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
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Maybe it is your motherboard or your memory.

I think you need about a 400w power supply. Antec is a good brand.
 
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naruto1988

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2004
1,028
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i tested my RAM w/ memtest86. works like a charm.
how would i go about testing my mobo? right now, i think it's my power supply that can't keep consistent voltages during heavy loads. can anyone recommend me a good one or should i get the aspire 500W one?
 
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Sonic587

Golden Member
May 11, 2004
1,146
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I wouldn't trust that Aspire PSU either. They are also on my bad list. It's not wattage we're looking for here, it's the quality.

I'd suggest a Fortron. Their 350W model is a cheap, but very high quality budget option. I've seen plenty of people running setups like yours on them.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-966&depa=0

If you want to go for something a little higher in wattage, check out their 530W PSU. It's not fancy, but it will beat the pants off any other name-brand PSU when it comes to price/performance.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-968&depa=0

Even if it turns out your PSU isn't a problem, you should get something quality in there that you don't have to question.
 
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