Dual SATA problems. PC keeps powering off

[taurius1]

I connected my new HDD in addition to my existing one.
But after about 20 minutes of use, while i was copying about 40 gigs of music from old HDD to new HDD, the PC just powered off. no warnings, no nothing. instant power cut. Whats more, the PC refused to start up.

I switched the power connection to another point in my CPU. The PC booted up. Then. 2~3 hours, the same power off thing happend.
This time, I didnt bother switching the power point again, coz i had to go to sleep.

Now, i still haven't connected my HDD at this point.

Any ideas why this is happening?

P.S. Could it be a voltage problem? I have only one plug point in my room. that feeds a 300 Watt UPS. This feeds my monitor, and my spikeguard, and my internet-phone (Tata Walky)

The spike guard feeds my CPU, a 2.1 speaker system, and occasionally my phone charger.

My CPU has a 400Watt PSU, two DVD drives, one Floppy disk drive, mother board + processor (ofcourse!!!) and a GeForce 6600 256 MB, and two SATA HDDs. (old + new)

Think im overloading the PSU / main power point?

 

[keith_j_snyder2]

For sure,its not "overloading" the PSU because ur PSU has a potential to run 7900GTX.
U know its kinda weird that u are having the 400 watt PSU & 300Watt UPS....how is it possible that u even get a backup from the UPS....tricky,isn't it?

Ok do 1 thing.
If u don't have power fluctuations then plug ur power supply to the main power & see if the thing happens again.
NOTE: USE THIS TECHNIQUE ON UR OWN RISK!THIS COULD DAMAGE UR POWER SUPPLY.

I did it once to test something & "touch wood" nothing happened wrong.
Hope it will work for u too.
Good Luck dude!

 

[taurius1]

Oh... how come the UPS rating didnt strike me before!!!?? >_<
And another thing about my cabinet... I have a total of 6 fans installed. including the CPU and video card fans.

Now, this is more "testing" on my prolem:

This evening, i plugged my new HDD in. Was playin my music off it. After about 2.3 hours, the PC powered off again.
This time, I took away the UPS and plugged everything in to the spikeguard, coz there's vurtually no power fluctuations here.

The PC still didnt start.
Next, I opened my Cabinet up, and checked my connections. That's when I noticed that my new HDD was WAY more hot than the old one. Fun part is, the new HDD is placed in front of my intake fan.
I don't know why the HDD is that hot. My old HDD never gets this hot.

I tried various combinations of connection/disconnections of all my i/o devices (DVD drives, floppy drives...) Nothing worked. I finally gave up, and went downstairs to get some water. I came back, connected everything, and decided to call it a night. Just as a last resort, i tried to boot it up, and it did! I logged into here immediately.



Any ideas about this new development? Think it's the overheating of my HDD? If so, then what seems to be causing it? Coz my old HDD isnt heating up as much.



P.S. I'm gonna look for a UPS with a higher wattage.


Another thing... do any of you guys have the habit of keeping your PC on 24/7? I kept my PC on for 30 days, with like a reboot every couple of days just for the heck of it... What started happening after a month or so was, that sometimes, when I shut my PC down, it wouldnt boot up again until the next morning or so. Bad mojo? I dunno. My PC guys said it was heating problems. I used to open the cabinet up to air it out for like half an hour or so before I could start it again soon.
Now, I let my PC sleep when do too. Just to be safe.
Anyways.. back to the point... what I'm facing now, with my PC not booting up, it's looks to be the same when my PC wouldn't start up coz it was too hot. Could be? :/

 

[ranjan2001]

Seems ur hdd is creating lot of heat & in turn thats causing the heat within the cabinet & processor. Why do u need 6 fans installed I am sure ur fans are causing wrong air flow witin the cabinet.
To monitor temperature download speedfan & post the screen shots of speedfan so we can check out 1by1 & figure out the problem.

 

[srinivasbg]

I think it could be the problem with your 400w smps maybe its not of a good quality and is not providin the true power supply ..try another smps like powersafe.

 

[taurius1]

HM... bad air flow could be a problem... I'll take out the extra fan i've installed at the side.

Speedfan sucks, btw. Keeps tellin me my processor temperature is 127 degrees. <_<

I use MBM. That gaves me a processor temps of about 41~45~47 the whenever i checked it.


Processor temperature is not the issue here.. harddisk overheating is. Has anyone heard of a case where an HDD heats up more than the other?

 

[janitha]

1. 300 Watts UPS? Never heard about a 300 VA/W UPS. UPS s are normally rated in VA and with a power factor of 0.6, a 500VA UPS should give you 300 Watts. How can a 300 W UPS feed a 400 W SMPS? (My first UPS bought in 1996 was 500VA.)
2. Check the orientation of the fans. Like rear-exhaust, front-inlet etc.
3. Your SMPS may also be the cause of the problem, especially if it is not of a reputed brand.
4. Get your new HDD replaced if you are sure that it is running too hot.

 

[keith_j_snyder2]

^^^Yeah whatever...try to get the point,& thanks for correcting us.
The temp. sure be the reason so adjust ur cabinet in such a way that it has a good airflow.Like tie all the loose wires & try to use short wires as much possible .

 

[taurius1]

Oops! My mistake in telling you about my UPS ratings... !
I use an APC ES 500, btw.
My UPS is rated 500 VA, with a (230~v, 2.2A, 47~53Hz), 300W o/p, and (230~V, 3.8A, 47~53Hz) Surge protected o/p. Can someone tell me why my surge protected o/p Power (Watts) hasn't been specified on the UPS? And do I still need to worry about getting a better UPS?

I've run my PC for an entire day without any glitches. I changed the internal power connection to the HDDs this morning. Connected them with each other's power chords. Dunno if that helped.

This is the layout of my fans (beside the processor/heatsink, SMPS and videocard fans):
Front, bottom: intake
Back, mid & left side, bottom: Exhaust
I think the bottom exhaust takes away most of the heat generated by my two HDDs, and the intake is blowin hair directly over them, towards the direction of the general area where the bottom exhaust sucks from.

If MBM is to be believed, my new HDD is at 40~41 degrees, while the new one is at 44~45 degrees. This I measured while I was transfering 3 Gigs of music videos from the old drive to the new one. Are my temperatures alright?

About my internal wiring, I've already tied stuff up as together and out of the way as possible. I'm very meticulous about arrangement of things. ^_^

EDIT: It just turned off again. !!!
I tried to use the other power connection in my cabinet. (I have a total of three i'm suffling between my two HDDs. It didn't work. I'm disconnecting my HDD now, coz I have to sleep now, and dont want my PC to go ka-put while my downloads are active. ^_^

 

[taurius1]

No more suggestions? :S

 

[shantanu]

just check your power supply, get a 450 or 500 watts .. nothing else..

 

[janitha]

Quote
"If MBM is to be believed, my new HDD is at 40~41 degrees, while the new one is at 44~45 degrees. This I measured while I was transfering 3 Gigs of music videos from the old drive to the new one. Are my temperatures alright?"

I think it is alright especially in summer. Check your HDD specification for "operating temperature"

 

[taurius1]

Hmm.. my normal operating temperatures are given as 30 degrees to 70 degrees. >_<

I'm guessing it could be a voltage problem.

I've kept my HDD outside yesterday, trying to figure things out with different combinations to see what could be the problems. No unwarranted shutdowns yet.

Today, I made a casing for it using my Lego. ^_^
*xs115.xs.to/xs115/07203/DSC03512small.JPG

At least this way, I can be SURE that heating is not the problem.