HDD LED Light Lit Solid 100%

[Bobsy]

Hello,

I just finished putting together my upgraded PC with parts I purchased on Black Friday. Yay! But two issues remain. One has to do with cooling (not discussed here) and the other is related to the HDD LED light.

The motherboard is MSI Z97M Gaming and the storage configuration is:

SATA1: Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB
SATA2: WDC Caviar Black 2 TB
SATA3: WDC Caviar Green 1.5 TB
SATA4: ASUS DVD Writer
SATA5: empty
SATA6: empty
M.2: empty

The HDD LED light just stay on with no "pulsating" or "flashing" showing drive activity. I have tried reversing the polarity, but that just shuts down the LED (as expected). I also tried reconnecting all four drives from SATA1-4 to SATA 3-6 respectively. This has no impact.

The case has not changed, it is still Antec Solo II, and the HDD LED light worked fine with the old parts (five-year old Gigabyte H55 motherboard).

Any idea why this is not working as expected? I just hope I don't have to replace the motherboard as this means reassembling everything again.

 

[AntonioHG]

Well, three questions for you:

Did you check to see if there is actual HDD activity in the Task Manager?

Are you sure you have the leads plugged in correctly?
Video on the connection setup from the manual on MSI's site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPELIdVNZUI&feature=youtu.be

Have you tried disconnecting all or some of the drives and turning on the system to see what happens with the LED?

That's all I can think of asking.

 

[ElFenix]

fourth option: just unplug it and don't worry about it. definitely not worth returning a board for.

 

[Bobsy]

I have replaced my computer's motherboard and CPU, so I have reinstalled everything on my SSD. I formatted it, installed Windows 8, then all the drivers, etc. I have used the computer for a few hours with the case open just beside me. The Caviar Black is quite noticeable, so it was obvious when there was some activity. I did use the task manager a bit also.

I had reviewed the MSI video also, but thank you for pointing that out.

I have not tried disconnecting some of the drives. I will try this over the weekend. It's definitely worth it.

Unplugging the LED is another option. I would do it in a heartbeat if still using HDD, but the LED is the only way to know if your SDD is active. I agree that I will simply unplug vs. return the board though.

 

[ElFenix]

i wouldn't be shocked if something is using the drives basically all the time. chrome likes to read/write from its cache file even when it's just sitting there

 

[scannall]

Since it's a new build it is probably indexing that drive.

 

[Bobsy]

I have unplugged the LED for now and will try plugging it back in the next time I open the case. I still suspect it's a motherboard defect, but it's no big deal. Thank you very much all!