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Maxtor... burning up the competition!!!

I

isaacmacdonald

Platinum Member
When I got my 160gg/8mb maxtor the other week, I couldn't believe how fast the thing was. It clearly outpaced my WD1200jb, and it was also dead quiet @ idle. Today after reinstalling some drivers, I reset my bios and powered on my machine.

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD--The goddamn maxtor caught on fire, literally.

Needless to say I quickly cut the power, but my hd bay was already scorched. luckily my 1200 jb was sitting 2 spaces on top, and -judging by the fact that the bottom of the maxtor was pretty much fused to the bay- the fire had come from the ciruitry on the bottom of the new drive.

I've got to say that while I do appreciate the extra 7-15% performance edge maxtor has on WD, I'm a little wary of risking my life and my home. The plus side of this whole thing is that with this new definitive end of service, I shouldn't have any problems getting it rma'd. In the past they'd always have me run cluster tests, and would ignore the audible clicking over the phone. This time I will just email them a picture and everything should be resolved.

But what's weird is that nothing else had a problem. I thought it might be my PSU, but the maxtor was on the same line as my WD, which had no problem at all. A well... chalk it up to random chance I guess.

Update-
Here are pics:
Close Up
the whole bottom

It doesn't look like it would do that much damage, but the entire bottom of my hd bay is scorched. Too bad my case won't fit on the scanner 🙂
 
:camera:?

This sounds kinda spectacular...are you sure you didn't do somethign else? Got any voltage mods on the mobo?
 
Nope. Didn't even touch the ide cables. I just turned off the atx power to reset cmos, turned the thing back on and saw some kind of yellow spark/flame that lasted for about a second (I turned off the atx power quick).

My PSU is an antex true power 320watt. I just had a p4, dvd, cdr, wd1200jb and the maxtor hooked up.

The only other wierd thing that happened was that my secondary nic stopped working. the maxtor was hooked up through a promise pci card. I don't know what happened, but for some reason that specific nic card won't work anymore, and causes my computer to not see any pci devices when connected. before the fire it worked fine.
 
Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
Nope. Didn't even touch the ide cables. I just turned off the atx power to reset cmos, turned the thing back on and saw some kind of yellow spark/flame that lasted for about a second (I turned off the atx power quick).

My PSU is an antex true power 320watt. I just had a p4, dvd, cdr, wd1200jb and the maxtor hooked up.

The only other wierd thing that happened was that my secondary nic stopped working. the maxtor was hooked up through a promise pci card. I don't know what happened, but for some reason that specific nic card won't work anymore, and causes my computer to not see any pci devices when connected. before the fire it worked fine.
Click to expand...
Must have been some kind of surge through the mobo. When you e-mail them the pic, make sure you post it!

Kk
 
Well, I called in this morning, played a bit dumb and didn't mention the spark/small fire. I assume that if the case was closed, an average user wouldn't notice it. I did try to power the drive up on another computer and thankfully it didn't catch on fire again... so I figure I'm safe as long as I just keep it simple. I didn't want to start talking about fires and surges because I was afraid the guy wouldn't let me rma it.

Anyway, success. I told him the drive wouldn't spin up, even when my computer guy tested it on his computer. RMA no problem.

---

no pics yet, my boss took his digital camera today so maybe i'll scan the bottom in. It actually doesn't look that bad. There's a little melted thing and some scorched circuitry. Hopefully it was some sort of weird MFG defect, maybe something got shorted... I don't know.
 
Originally posted by: bluemax
I think playing up the fire might have gotten you a free upgrade. 😉
Click to expand...

But then he might have been "burned twice". 😉

rolleye.gif


"Cool" story.

😀
 
Dude we gotta see some pictures!

I had an older 5 1/4" drive catch fire once when I plugged in the power connector backwards. Back-in-the-day those power connectors weren't keyed so you could plug them in wrong. When I powered on the system, the powered wires running to the drive immediately flash fried and melded together. Since I had the case pulled apart, I was able to watch the wires melt beginning from the power supply to the drive and then proceed to catch the circuit board inside the drive on fire. I turn the power off at the power supply and was able to blow out the fire inside the drive. I pulled the drive and cut the burnt and melted wires from the power supply. Nothing else got fried!

techfuzz
 
I think anyone that had their hd burn would definitely mention that when they rma the thing.... I suggest you have an attorney send a letter to the company as well as have a reputable computer tech look at the case. Get all the pictures you can... and any witnesses.... include all reports in the letter to maxtor.

This is a serious deal... most people leave their computer on while away.... if there is indeed a problem, you should point that out... not only will you probably benefit financially, you might save some lives.
 
Have you plugged another HD into that same cable and booted up on the same computer to verify that the PSU/power connector was not at fault ?
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Have you plugged another HD into that same cable and booted up on the same computer to verify that the PSU/power connector was not at fault ?
Click to expand...

I used the same line as my WD, so I assumed it would affect all the devices. Nonetheless, I'm a little too scared to plug in my WD, so I just hooked that molex up to my cd-r. Hopefully my house hasn't burned down while I'm at work 😉.

 
How are the voltages and rails on your powersupply? Just proves that Maxtor isnt a decent company.
 
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