Maxtor HD Problem

[AuraEdge]

I do know that Maxtors need PIO 4 or DMA off to run at anything higher than a 33Mhz bus (68-99, 104-132, 136+ FSB's). If it freezes after start up and OC'ing, this might be the problem.

[Comtech]

The "whirr...click" sound is your power supply cycling, and causing the HD to spin down a bit then try to get back up. It's probably getting a little tired, and a new PS will solve the problem. Seen this in many machines. If you let it continue, it will kill the Maxtor. If you hear it happening, quickly try to open another program forcing the HD to read from a different sector.

[alving]

Thanks AuraEdge and Comtech. Interesting ideas. Just to let you know, the problem occurred with the smaller drive even though I never enabled UDMA on the drive.

As for the power supply, I'm pretty sure the sounds were coming from the HD and not the power supply unit, but you might still have a valid argument I'll explore further.

Anyone else out there with ideas or similar experiences to share are most welcome.

Thanks

[drdeath]

i just had that problem a few days ago with my maxtor drive - someone suggested that it might be a heat problem with the hard drive, so i stuck a case fan right underneath the drive, blowing cool air at it, and i havent had the problem since. if you have a case fan, try doing that, or if not, try running your comp without the cover on for a little while and see if that fixes it.

good luck!

[alving]

Here's the problem. A few weeks ago, I was experiencing problems with a brand new Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 20.40GB EIDE ULTRA-DMA/33 3.5LP 7200RPM hard drive. The HD was working fine for a couple of weeks but then a problem occurred. The problem consisted of the HD sounding like it was revving up (from a low sound to a high sound, sort of like something speeding up, then it would stop with a few strange clicking noises and immediately begin the same revving up sound)as if trying to access something on the HD and then the whole system would freeze. Upon rebooting, another strange behavior would occur, the HD was not being recognized by the BIOS and was accompanied by the same strange noises as described above. After shutting the power off for about a minute and upon rebooting, the HD was then correctly recognized by the BIOS and I could then successfully boot into Win98. Unfortunately, this same problem would occur randomly so I took out this particular HD and replaced it with another Maxtor, but this time a smaller one at 8.4GB Model # 88400D8 about 1 1/2 years old.

This replacement HD was working fine for about the last week and then, for no particular reason I can think of, began to act the same as the previous HD it replaced. Same type of noises, freezeup of the system, and stranger still, was that upon rebooting, it appeared to initialize successfully and go into the Win98 blue sky and clouds bootup screen but then with the horizontal bar at the bottom showing activity it would just sit there with no sound or activity coming from the HD (the HD activity light was on though, strange...).

I did run the Maxtor diagnostics test on both HD's. The 20.4GB HD passed the test but the 8.4GB HD failed the quick test portion so I'm contacting Maxtor for a RMA on that drive.

I have been running the 20.4GB HD on another system with no problems to date.

I've already considered the following as possible causes for the problem:

OC'ing of the Celeron 400 to 450Mhz (problem continued even after restoring the CPU to a non-OC condition).

Power supply?? I am considering this but have not figured out how to test this theory short of moving everything out of the case to another case or replacing the power supply itself.

Motherboard?? Another possibility? Can a MB affect a HD in such a manner? I don't know.

Expansion card conflicts?? Removed all non-essential cards but the problem still surfaced.

I'd appreciate it if anyone has any ideas as to what could be causing this problem with my HD's. Me thinks its too much of a coincidence to have 2 HDs fail or exhibit similar problems within a couplke weeks of each other.

My system is made up of:

ASUS P2B-F Mainboard
Celeron 400Mhz@450Mhz
256MB PC133 HSDRAM
LS-120 Super Disk Internal (Bootable)
Maxtor 20.40GB EIDE ULTRA-DMA/33 3.5LP 7200RPM DIAMOND MAX PLUS
Plextor 32X UltraPlex SCSI CD-ROM Internal
Jaz 1GB SCSI Drive Internal
Zip 100MB SCSI Drive External
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI Host Adapter
ATI Rage Fury 128 Video Card
Quantum 3D Obsidian2 X-24 Voodoo2 Card
Diamond MX300 Sound Card
3COM Fast EtherLink XL 3C905B-TX NIC
3COM/USR 56K External Voice Fax/Modem Pro (USB)
Hitachi 19" SuperScan Elite 751
MS Natural Keyboard
MS IntelliMouse
APC Back-Ups 280

Note: At the time of experiencing these problems, the system had been on continuously 24 hours a day 7 days a week for at least the last several weeks.

Thanks for reading through to the end of my post since I know its somewhat long but your help is appreciated.

[Ygor]

The answers above look good to me. I just wanted to add a litle info.
I read a review on several drives a while back that included this Maxtor I believe. The reviewers liked the drive, but recommended a drive cooler as it ran the hottest of all tested. Maybe someone has a link for drive coolers?

[Susan]

Here's a link for hard drive coolers, but I don't believe that's alvings problem because the same symptoms occured on the second HD that he installed into the system - and it may have damaged it.

alving - have you checked the ASUS website for any BIOS updates?

A faulty power supply could be the problem, too.

www.tjt.com/HardDrive-1.htm (http://www.tjt.com/HardDrive-1.htm)

[This message has been edited by Susan (edited 09-17-99).]

[Pseo15]

U should get a Ecase. they are 50 bucks and have plenty of power with 2 fans. one for power and one front case fan. its good deal.

[alving]

Again, thanks to all for your ideas and comments. I don't think it was a cooling problem since the HD never felt hot to the touch especially since I had the case cover off when the HD failed.

For the last 6 days I've been running my system with a new power supply and an IBM 16.8GB HD (1 1/2 years old) with no apparent problems (keeping my fingers crossed). Meanwhile, I got a RMA from Maxtor for the damaged HD and am awaiting a replacement HD soon.