HDD Activity Light on continously


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espn said:
Erm.. how to test if HDD failing ;p hahah...

Based on the brand of the harddisk, go to their website and download the disk diag software.
 

eawtan said:
Based on the brand of the harddisk, go to their website and download the disk diag software.
Alright :) will do so. I'm losing my hardware touch :)
 

eawtan said:
Based on the brand of the harddisk, go to their website and download the disk diag software.
Also there might be some clunking sound when your HD is running. Look out for strange or weird noise that was never there before.

Anyway do let us know the solution. We can all learn from this.
 

Hey espn!

Maybe you can list your motherboard model as well. How many HDD are u running and isit on RAID?

It could be that the XP is not loading the correct drivers for your HDD controller on the motherboard. This would explain the long time to write the DVD.

As for the light... it could be the HDD LED connector is shorting or not connected properly.

Sounds like 2 issues here.
;)
 

Oops forgot.

Asus A8v-Deluxe
Currently running 1 x 200GB, 1 x 40GB
I'm not running RAID and I didn't install RAID drivers.

The LED... not that important... the important thing is the cutting of DVD is toooooo slow.
 

espn said:
Oops forgot.

Asus A8v-Deluxe
Currently running 1 x 200GB, 1 x 40GB
I'm not running RAID and I didn't install RAID drivers.

The LED... not that important... the important thing is the cutting of DVD is toooooo slow.

Maybe try to enable UDMA in your BIOS. If I remember correctly there is this setup in the BIOS to enable each IDE channel to UDMA. Guess you gotta search the manual for that.

Not using the SATA? I think older SATA implementations can be quite flaky, esp the earlier drivers. The nvidia chipsets for the AMDs seems to have better SATA implementation and integrates well with XP as compared to some other chipsets.

Good luck! ;)
 

Zplus said:
Maybe try to enable UDMA in your BIOS. If I remember correctly there is this setup in the BIOS to enable each IDE channel to UDMA. Guess you gotta search the manual for that.

Not using the SATA? I think older SATA implementations can be quite flaky, esp the earlier drivers. The nvidia chipsets for the AMDs seems to have better SATA implementation and integrates well with XP as compared to some other chipsets.

Good luck! ;)
Nah... not using SATA, I still much prefer PATA, tho' yes, the SATA cables are thinner air flows better. Right now using silver-braided ATA100 cables.

I will check the UDMA thingie, I'm pretty sure I optimized my CMOS to the max already, might have resetted it accidentally or something. :think:

Thankz zplus you're Z-man!
 

I frequently have this problem with my laptop: I hear the clicking sound from the HDD I think, the whole computer slows down for a while, then after the sound stops, it goes faster......don't know why this is so? I don't have a virus after scanning it with Spybot and spyware blaster and virus scan.....

Hong Sien
 

hongsien said:
I frequently have this problem with my laptop: I hear the clicking sound from the HDD I think, the whole computer slows down for a while, then after the sound stops, it goes faster......don't know why this is so? I don't have a virus after scanning it with Spybot and spyware blaster and virus scan.....

Hong Sien
Might be HDD failing soon...

I'll test all the solutions this weekend, a bit tired to dismantle and troubleshoot on weekdays :)
 

espn said:
Nah... not using SATA, I still much prefer PATA, tho' yes, the SATA cables are thinner air flows better. Right now using silver-braided ATA100 cables.

I will check the UDMA thingie, I'm pretty sure I optimized my CMOS to the max already, might have resetted it accidentally or something. :think:

Thankz zplus you're Z-man!

HAahaa! No problem bro!
Hope you can get it fixed! I understand the pain.
:)
 

hongsien said:
I frequently have this problem with my laptop: I hear the clicking sound from the HDD I think, the whole computer slows down for a while, then after the sound stops, it goes faster......don't know why this is so? I don't have a virus after scanning it with Spybot and spyware blaster and virus scan.....

Hong Sien

Yup, its quite likely your HDD is about to fail. The clicking sound is most likely the HDD heads resetting itself. Better backup all your stuff while its still working.
;p
 

hongsien said:
I frequently have this problem with my laptop: I hear the clicking sound from the HDD I think, the whole computer slows down for a while, then after the sound stops, it goes faster......don't know why this is so? I don't have a virus after scanning it with Spybot and spyware blaster and virus scan.....

Hong Sien
Your HDD is about to die. Prepare for the funeral.
 

Zplus said:
HAahaa! No problem bro!
Hope you can get it fixed! I understand the pain.
:)
The pain is ok if I'm not in a rush for DVD to be burnt finish, if in a rush my backup plan is currently copy everything to my PB and burn, but the PB adds 2 Desktop files to the DVD/CD, which I don't like, and I must remember to rm *.DS_Store files before burning too.

But it's a bit leh chey :D
 

Tried reinstalling the chipsets and m/b controller drivers?:think:
 

Big Kahuna said:
Tried reinstalling the chipsets and m/b controller drivers?:think:
Nope that I didn't... LoL.. will try... actually if that's the case, might as well format reinstall hahah...
 

espn said:
Nope that I didn't... LoL.. will try... actually if that's the case, might as well format reinstall hahah...

Well....that only require maximum 2 time reboot mah....still better than you spend 1 hr+ reinstalling OS, SP, hot fixes and all the apps right :D
 

Big Kahuna said:
Well....that only require maximum 2 time reboot mah....still better than you spend 1 hr+ reinstalling OS, SP, hot fixes and all the apps right :D
I can get Win2K up in 5minutes on my new system.. tried before ;p XP takes slightly longer. 1Hr would settle everything...

I actually I hate to resintall drivers... it never fails to mss up the system.
 

Updates!

Was on MC last thurs/friday, so took the opportunity to troubleshoot the system (finally)


HDD LED *solved*
============

- Plugged out and reversed the pins, turn out, it's correct, but why did the HDD light stay continously on?
- Tried pushing it firmly inner
- Now the HDD light is working normally again.


DVD RW Slow *solved*
===============

- Whilst checking the HDD cable, noticed that the IDE cable is plugged into my DVD-ROM (not in use, no power)
- Removed the IDE cable connection, leaving only my DVD-RW connected to IDE2
- Tried burning a disc at 4X now, back to normal speed, buffer level no longer fluctuates.
- 4min 15s @ 4X and 30% completed. As opposed to previous timing of 55mins @ 4X.



Thanks folks for all the kind suggestions/help!!! :)
 

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