WD hard drive powers off and on by itself while computer is on

[bruincal]

I have a 40GB Western Digital 7200rpm 2mb cache hard drive. Its is about 3 months old. This drive was a RMA replacement drive from WD. However, recently, its been acting strange. When I use it for long periods of time, the drive powers off and back on by itself. For example, if I'm playing a game or burning a CD or doing some hard drive intensive task, the whole system stalls for a second and you can hear the hard drive spinning down. Right after its spins down, you can hear it spin back up again! What's the deal!? Thanks!

I used the Data Lifeguard tools to check the drive, and it returned an OK code. Because this was an RMA replacement drive, WD only puts a 3 month warranty on it, so I no longer have warranty coverge from WD.

My system is a:
Gateway 700X
250 W PSU
Intel 850MV mobo
256 MB RDRAM
40 GB WD
100 GB WD
DVD/CDRW/TV tuner/ etc
Windows XP Pro, with all patches and SP1

I think I might be putting a strain on the PSU with all these components but this problem never happened with my original 40GB drive .. so I don't know ..

Thanks!

 

[EF9]

That means its failing and might die. If it makes a clicking noise then thats what happens when it dies. RMA it, sell it, then get Maxtor hard drives.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: EF9
That means its failing and might die. If it makes a clicking noise then thats what happens when it dies. RMA it, sell it, then get Maxtor hard drives.

back your sh!t up, rma
sell if you have no faith left in WD drives, ive had a few and not one problem with em, oh well

 

[Motero]

I've had that happen before and it turned out to be the power connector to the drive. Check this first...

 

[Slammy1]

Originally posted by: Motero
I've had that happen before and it turned out to be the power connector to the drive. Check this first...

I'd also check your voltage regulation to make sure your 250W PSU is up to the task.

 

[congaboy77]

My 80GB WD HD does the same thing. Ran the Quick and Extended tests from WD and they didn't show anything. It's an intermittent problem and when it does happen, the system hangs during scandisk. I also checked all the connections and nothing is wrong. A few other symptoms I was seeing was that the system was slow at times and that a lot of downloaded files were "corrupted." Anyone have any other suggestions? I advance RMA'd already. Ran virus scan numerous times, looked for updates for everything as well.