hard drives, mobo, or psu?

[Demalii]

I've had the longest and hardest time with this computer, months ago i replaced my c drive, which "i thought" went bad.. well like 2 months after replacing it, it sounded like it was going bad again, I let it slide for a while, about a week ago i tried installing windows on my d drive and running it on there, hell that drive was doing the "click, spin-up" thing also.. so now both drives apparently are doing it.

At first it was only happening when I would turn off the computer for a while, it would have the hardest time getting the hard drive to run stable, but it would at least. So that led me to think it was the motherboard's controllers, well I tried to get another hd in there to test it, but my dad's wouldn't come out, so i'm waiting to find an extra drive up at work to use as a test subject, muwahaha.

I checked my bios just by chance earlier and saw the 5v rail running at 4.30, 4.35, 4.25; although averaging 4.3v. Now Asus probe says it's running exactly at 5v. So I was wondering, is that weird? Could it possibly be my PSU? I got the Antec Truepower 550w about.. back in january I think, and I've taken it apart to sleeve it, so no luck on the warrenty.

So anyways, now my hd's are crashing like at random times, but usually once an hour, one drive will click and spin-up and do it like once every 10 seconds. My computer won't crash immediatly, because I'm guessing it's all running from memory, but if I try to open anything, it's a goner

Thanks for reading this guys, I know it was a long one. And yes I've checked all connections, changed cables, etc...

 

[Demalii]

I had a file in windows that got corrupt due to power going out, set up as primary ide, c is master and d is slave, on the same cable. I've formatted enough reinstalled enough, doesn't seem like a virus or anything of the sort that has stuck to my drives. So it's not even typical lockups, it's like just the typical sound of a drive going bad, but it doesn't do it like every 3 seconds, when it happens I can still use whatever programs were open, ie. if aim is open i can still open IMs chat with other people and my hd will keep clicking winding up like it's trying to relocate to where it was.

they're ultra ata 100 drives also

 

[Demalii]

Yea it happened again, I came home and the hdd led was solid, so i restarted, been 30 minutes now... during the post, when it detects the hd, that's when it first "clicks and spins-up" I'm getting really pissed off, but the likely hood of both hds going bad is... very slim. I'm just almost positive it's my mobo

 

[Demalii]

K i stuck my c drive in another computer this morning, it's been running perfect for nearly 15 minutes already.. when i tried to turn my computer on, it booted and crashed about 2 minutes afterwards, second time, crashed midway through startup.. and now in this other pc it's running great, so i'm thinking it is my mobo?

 

[Demalii]

i already had all my lights unplugged except for 1 fan grill.. which shouldn't have brought the 5v rail down like that.. i'm gonna put my computer all the way back together but i've had my hd in this other computer all day long, so i'm gonna be so happy when i have to pull the motherboard out again to send it.. i talked to my boss today and he said he's had something like this happen with a customers computer before and it was the mobo controller screwing up.

 

[Demalii]

here's a website i found:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000446.htm

Well i've done everything except put another hd in my computer, but i've moved my hd's to other computers, and it works fine.. so likely to be my motherboard, case closed

 

[Demalii]

No worries, sorry for the spam on this thread but i feel it's kinda necessary rather than editing... Anyways, so I took my whole case apart today and cleaned it out.. dusted it, etc. Reapplied the AS5 like i've been wanting to, to my 9800xt and my chip, temps went down like i had hoped.. anyways, so i had my hd running in another computer for roughly 6 hours today, with more than 5 times shutting down (and waiting for 5-15 minutes) and over 10 restarts, and it worked perfectly every single time.

So i put my case back together and used another psu, 400w psu. I plugged in the 2 hd's and my motherboard, and it started up beautifully and i thought to myself, there's no way that it could have been the psu doing that.. just didn't seem right..

So I changed back to my original psu and my hd's started their crap again! doing the click, spinup routine. So i change back to the other psu and it sounded even worse, it sounded like the hd was dead.. so i pulled the hd out and stuck it back in the good computer, and look *does a 20 second river dance*.. it works like charm.

So I'm going to get my other hard drive in here in a few minutes, and have them running through out the night, with shutdowns periodically, and then i'll leave 'em on all night, the past couple nights i've waken up to a solid hdd light on my case and a locked up computer.

I'll let everyone know about my findings in the morning, as i'm probably going to tear this damn case apart to get this hd out ,the good computer's screws are messed up at the tops, so i can't unscrew them =( But I want to get another hd in my computer to see exactly what's going on.. Wish me luck =)

MicroBell, when I was talking with my boss today I asked him the same thing, he said that the controller could be "shorting" out which is causing the hd to turn off and immediatly back on, and he said that's why it'll happen at random times and especially during the post screen (when it identifies hardware). He said that's all he knew though and just that it has happened to him before. I'll try to look that topic up in detail and post before the night is out.

 

[Demalii]

Well actually it's pretty much comparible to a bad hard drive... as my first 120g hd i ordered back in.. september was DOA... the repetetive click, spinup sound. Well it's nearly the same thing. I will be typing, having a grand ol' time and then you hear the "click" and the whine as it spins up (same whine of when you first turn your pc on)... it really is the same exact noise, just that it doesn't happen every other second. it happens roughly once every 10 seconds.
click - whizzzz
ohh.. that greusome sound! I've heard it for 2 months.. like the sound of george's mother on seinfeld.

*edit* ohh yea, i forgot.. i was so stupid i totally forgot about running my drives off of ide2, instead of 1.. so i have the cd-roms ejected to see if perhaps the controller will have a little fit and the cdroms will go back in..

and btw.. MBM 5 shows 5v rail running at..4.38v and asus prove shows 5v.. this crap is really getting to me.. but remember? I already tried another psu that read 4.7-4.8v on the 5v and stuff went wack with very minimal plugged in

 

[Demalii]

So i switched to ide 2 for the hd's, same thing happened, except different this time, when it first did the click spinup thing, I got an error from windows, i didn't have enough time to write it all down but it was an "Exception EAcess" with a bunch of numbers, and i was listening to music.. it would play for a second click spin up, 10 seconds later, play for a second, etc..

 

[Demalii]

well i can't get this hd out of this other computer to stick in mine, i'm going to send the mobo in, and we'll see what happens with the new one, wish me luck =)