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I dont know what caused it but a week or so ago i powered up my
computer and got into windows(xp pro).All of a sudden a few minutes later
everything started to freeze/unfreeze and the HD(SCSI,Seagate X15-36LP)
light in the front of the case was frozen ON and stopped blinking.I was
still able to move the mouse but when i clicked on anything nothing
happened, it was frozen! and next to the mouse pointer there was a
round object, i think it was a adnimated cd.a minute later, i got a
blue screen with some random windows system file(happened a few times
with different files).so i pressed Restart and tried to reboot, but the
adapter wasnt picking up the HD, i had to power OFF and then back ON to
get it to spin back up.I got into windows again and clicked on the
start menu and everything was missing!i clicked on a program via
desktop and it didnt load, i clicked on another and it did but slowly.,
a few minutes of this and i was frozen and had to restart again, and
again the adapter didnt pick up the HD, a few times after this i was in
windows and stable enough to start backing up files, i probably copied
a GB of filesfrom the HD and i started to think it cant be a HD problem
if it just did this!.So i formatted the partition and reinstalled XP, i
was in and as stable as ever,Fast forward 2 weeks,i get home and power
up the PC, same thing!im frozen, mouse is moving but after 3 minutes
still no crash!i press restart and again the adapter didnt list the HD
when i tried to boot, power off/on and its there and im back in
windows.45 minutes, 52 seconds later im about to finish writing this
and everything looks OK.Im confused, is it a windows issue? or is the
HD slowly dying, or both? Seagate couldnt tell me much other than to
run seatools hd test and flash the firmware that they emailed, which i
didnt want to take the chance doing, yet...

Thats your gateway to the future your seein next to the pointer kiddo...transporter room...pack your stuff..and be on your way

Sounds like the drive is givin you a chance to bail whilst you still can...take it

Your cable could be the problem- try replacing it before you get a new drive.

ive heard theres little green martians in this particular HD!!!!do you think the martians inside the drive is mad at me?
ive done everything i can to take care of them, i take the drive out and clean it, i have a large aluminum heatsink on top to disipate heat and a 60mm fan blowing right at them to keep them nice and cool.Interstingly enough, there were no problems after a few days uptime, after i powered the computer off for a few hours, then the problem came back, all is stable now. must plan out a method of backup..

Could be almost anything really... hard drive, SCSI controller (or cables!), CPU, motherboard, PSU...

Before doing anything else, I would do is back up any important files. If the system is really unstable, this may mean moving the drive (and controller if necessary) to another system, so that you can copy the files off without actually booting from the Cheetah.

Then you're just going to have to start swapping out components one at a time to isolate the culprit. I guess I'd start with the SCSI cable, since it is the cheapest one to replace if it turns out to be bad.

So everyone thinks its a HW problem...but everything was and now is GOOD after the format...in dos its all good, during installation its good. I guess ill get a new cable..ribbon or rounded?! these are expensive @ $35.If this happend again im going to send the drive in and let them send me a refurb for whatever....and get a new cheetah as my main drive.everything is stable now, i think its only happening after cold boots.......

c0mplex wrote:

So everyone thinks its a HW problem...but everything was and now is GOOD after the format...

But in your first post you indicated that you still had problems after the reformat? I'm confused...

just brew it! wrote:

c0mplex wrote:

So everyone thinks its a HW problem...but everything was and now is GOOD after the format...

But in your first post you indicated that you still had problems after the reformat? I'm confused...

everything was fine after the format, its been more than a week. but today it happened again, AFTER i shutdown and did a cold boot. I think thats the key, BUT WHY isnt the drive coming up in the boot process after blue screens? what does the blue screen have to do with the drive not coming up?!up till a few months ago i never had blue screens, now theyr happening more and more. I left the computer on overnight and i woke up to a blue screen....

Your PSU may be dying... check your voltages.

just brew it! wrote:

Your PSU may be dying... check your voltages.

12v...12.256
5v...4.892
3.3v...3.28
Vcore...1.824

Seagate told me my 5v is to low and that could be the cause.....the 5v dips down to 4.865 once in a while, could this be it??

Your voltages are well within acceptable tolerances. What brand and wattage is your PSU?

I guess ill get a new cable..ribbon or rounded?!

I would suggest a flat cable opposed to a round one. The round ones, or at least the cheap kind, often don't have the proper EMI shielding and can be affected by interference called crosstalk.

c0mplex wrote:

Seagate told me my 5v is to low and that could be the cause.....the 5v dips down to 4.865 once in a while, could this be it??

Official ATX PSU spec says that the +5V rail is supposed to stay between 4.75V and 5.25V. So 4.865 is still well within range.

If Seagate is telling you that their drives can't deal with 4.865 on the +5V rail, then either the person telling you this is full of sh*t, or their products can't deal with industry standard variations in power supply voltage.

eckslax wrote:

Your voltages are well within acceptable tolerances. What brand and wattage is your PSU?

I guess ill get a new cable..ribbon or rounded?!

I would suggest a flat cable opposed to a round one. The round ones, or at least the cheap kind, often don't have the proper EMI shielding and can be affected by interference called crosstalk.

Enermax 350 watt...

im either going with,
http://www.hypermicro.com/product.asp?p ... _id=01-002
or
http://www.hypermicro.com/product.asp?p ... _id=01-002
how do they look?

just brew it! wrote:

c0mplex wrote:

Seagate told me my 5v is to low and that could be the cause.....the 5v dips down to 4.865 once in a while, could this be it??

Official ATX PSU spec says that the +5V rail is supposed to stay between 4.75V and 5.25V. So 4.865 is still well within range.

If Seagate is telling you that their drives can't deal with 4.865 on the +5V rail, then either the person telling you this is full of sh*t, or their products can't deal with industry standard variations in power supply voltage.

He basically said, "i wouldnt want anything more than 5% under 5v in my computer, this is probably your problem, you need a new power supply", i think he was just trying to get rid of me!

Imagine that ...of all things

eckslax wrote:

I would suggest a flat cable opposed to a round one. The round ones, or at least the cheap kind, often don't have the proper EMI shielding and can be affected by interference called crosstalk.

Even the shielded ones are probably more succeptible to crosstalk than the flat ones, since the shielding just goes around the outside of the bundle. So yes you are shielded against interference from other system components; but those components are generally far enough away from the cable that they are not much of an issue to begin with. The point of the 80-conductor cables is that they have a ground line (shielding) between each pair of signal lines -- i.e. what you really want to protect against is interference between the different signals within the same cable. Once the cable has been slit and bundled you don't have this any more, since there will be signal lines that end up next to each other in the bundle, with no intervening ground.

Will it cause problems? Probably not... lots of people use rounded cables, and swear by them. ATA protocol has CRC checksums to detect errors, so in theory, crosstalk should not result in data corruption. The worst thing that can happen -- again, in theory -- is a slight performance degradation due to retries.

But if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not a big fan of rounded PATA cables. Technically, they're out of spec; and unless the inside of your case is really crowded to begin with, they probably don't do that much to improve the airflow.

If you want thin cables, switch to SATA.

just brew it! wrote:

But if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not a big fan of rounded PATA cables. Technically, they're out of spec; and unless the inside of your case is really crowded to begin with, they probably don't do that much to improve the airflow.

Phews! And I thought it was just me that thought like this. I agree.

I dislike rounded cables for all the reasons you mentioned - basically they weren't designed to be rounded to start with, and technical compromises are made. I'd much rather have flatties too (in the absence of SATA), and not exceeding the specified lengths either.