Re: hard drive reving up periodically

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:31:03 -0700, "InTheZoneAC"
<InTheZoneAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Whenever I'm on this pc you can hear the hard drive rev up at random times
>and Im not sure if this is normal. I have run adaware se, spybot, yahoo
>antispy, avast antivirus and everything is clean. I just want to know if this
>action is normal and/or is there a way I can make it stop? This pc is a Sony
>Vaio PCV-W30 running Windows XP SP 2. I also have a ton of extra space on
>both internal hd's, not sure if that's relevant or not.

I usually run a lot of drives in my systems. The number 1 cause for
that sound, in my experience, has been bad power connectors. A
slight bit of oxidation on connectors can allow vibration to power
your drives off and back on. You often won't hear them power down,
but the power-up is a more distinct sound. Sometimes you can catch an
error in Event Viewer, but surprisingly, it often does not appear.

Molexes were never known for high reliability, but if you use
Y-splitters to power up more drives, this will compound the problem.

Try jiggling the power connectors going into the drives. Best done
right when your system is powering up, before drives are being
accessed. If you hear the drive spin up/down, then don't overdo it...
it's not good for the drive. You can try to gently tighten the female
side of the molex pins. Also a very light spray of Deoxit D5 may
break up the oxidation.

Also, do you have enough power in your supply to power everything?
If it's on the edge, that can do it as well.

It could also be a bad fan. Be especially sure that cables are out of
the way of your CPU fan.

.

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