Hard Drive continuous accessing

[saladbarkid]

Hello all,
I just built my computer and the hard drive keeps being accessed when I'm not even using the computer. So, at the desktop, just sitting there, the hard drive light keeps flashing for as long as the computer is on. Does anyone have ANY resolutions. I'm desperate for help.

F.Y.I. :
AMD 1000Mhz
512 MB RAM
Maxtor 60 GB HD
Abit KT7-RAID mobo
ATI RAEDON 64 MB VIVO
Sound Blaster 5.1 x-gamer
conexant 56k modem
BTI 12x DVD
TDK VeloCD 16x10x40 CDRW
Zip 100 MB

[Imperion1]

What programs are running in the background?
What is in your systray?
Is a virus scan program running, taskmanager running?

Also check your system resources.
Your swap file could be in use, don't know why, not with 512mb ram.

[saladbarkid]

I have nothing running in the background (that I know of). I've pressed alt-ctrl-del and cleared everything except the explorer. That did nothing. My system tray is empty. I have no virus scanning software. No taskmanager. What is this swap file, how could I disable it? This whole HD running thing is disrupting most of my programs. Help.

[Imperion1]

You don't want to disable the swap file. But change it by:

Right click on My Computer
Left click properties
Click on Performance
Click on Virtual Memory
Click - Let me specify my own Virtual Memory Setting

Change min and max to (amt of ram installed + 1/2 of amt of ram)
Example 256mb installed ram + 128mb = 384
128+64 = 192

[saladbarkid]

I understand how to get to virtusl memory, but if I have for example 384 MB RAM, I would take the 384 + 192 and put 576 in minimal AND maximum? It also asks for the number to be in KB...help.

P.S. thanks for the help so far.

[rhino49]

Can you hear the hard drive, or is it just the HD light? I'm thinking the wire from light to MB is on wrong pins, or possibly reversed.

[Imperion1]

Know what Rhino? Slap me upside the head. I keep forgetting about the simple stuff. Been there done that, more than once. Keep forgetting that my connector is marked wrong.

But salad (is that Caesar?) definitly try turning your hard drive light connector around on the motherboard.

[saladbarkid]

Thabks for the suggestions, but I tried reversing the connector, putting it on different pins and even putting it on different pins reversed. Still no cigar. Any other ideas? My mobo is an Abit KT7-RAID, if that helps. And yes I can hear the hard drive, it's just the light that keeps blinking uncontrollably, as if something keeps using the hard drive every other second...help.

[saladbarkid]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I tried reversing the connector, putting it on different pins and even putting it on different pins reversed. Still no cigar. Any other ideas? My mobo is an Abit KT7-RAID, if that helps. And yes I can hear the hard drive, it's just the light that keeps blinking uncontrollably, as if something keeps using the hard drive every other second...help.

[rsd]

Can't promise this is the answer to your problem, but I had the exact symptom in a system of mine after installing Microsoft Office XP onto a very stable Win98 SE platform. Upon un-installing the Office XP the problem stopped. I am not out to bash Microsoft, I just haven't had time to troubleshoot the reason why Office XP created this problem in my machine. I do have a theory that it is linked to the AutoRecover feature which saves doucuments and who knows what else (and to my understanding system settings in Windows ME)so that you can restore the system to a prior point in time. Not sure how or if one can set the specified interval of time, but it was acting as if the setting must be set to seconds not minutes. Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Imperion1]

Heres another thought.
What ribbon cable are you using, the ATA33 or the ATA66 that came with the motherboard. Also, what IDE connector are you using? And is this system set up as a raid system or are you actually using 1 Maxtor 60G HD?

My other system is a KT7-Raid, not used in a raid array, HD is connectected to IDE2 for use of the ATA100. Cdroms are connected to IDE0 and IDE1. Nothing on IDE3.

[e980238]

you never said what os you are using......if you are using windows me then turn off your system retore feature...you can do this by right clicking my computer and going to properties...then click on the advanced tab and it is somewhere in there

[saladbarkid]

Well, that's another problem. I don't know what kind of ribbon I'm using. It has a blue connector that connects to the mobo, a black connector that connects to the primary, and a grey connector that connects to the secondary. I have 2 of these that came with the mobo of which I am using both in my computer. I also have an ordinary ribbon with 3 black connectors and a ribbon with 2 connectors. Right now I have my one and only Maxtor 60 GB HD on secondary and my Zip on primary, but the HD is set as master, of course. Here's something I found out, though---I unplugged my CD-ROMS (ribbon as well as power) and just had my HD and Zip hooked up. It didn't matter which IDE I used (1 2 3 or 4), and the blinking problem STOPPED! When I connected even one CD-ROM, however, the problem continued...any solutions? By the way, my OS is Windows 98. I think it's First Edition, not sure.

[Imperion1]

The ribbon cable with the blue connector is your ata66/100 cable. If you look at the ribbon cable and compare the wires, you'll notice that the wires on the ata66/100 cable are smaller and have more than the older ata33.
Try this setup.

Use both ata66/100 ribbon cables.

Hard Drive set as Master on IDE3 (its the first ata100 IDE).
Burner(TDK) set as Master on IDE1
DVD set as Master on IDE2

Under bios make sure that the first boot option is set to floppy, second boot set to ATA100 (future ATA, whatever they call it), third boot HDD0, and fourth boot set to cdrom.
Boot other device needs to be enabled.

Make sure that under standard cmos option, that IDE Primary Master, Slave and IDE Secondary Master, Slave are set to auto detect.

And, do you really need the zip drive? You do have a burner, and blank cdrs are cheaper than zip disks.

[saladbarkid]

Well, the problem has been fixed. Thanks to Mr. Brown. He said it was the auto insert notification. So, I disabled it, rebooted and voila, problem averted. So, thank you to all who helped.

[Imperion1]

And another thing. Before doing all that, boot into windows, go to Device Manager (right click my computer, click properties) and remove the hard drives, cdroms, and zip drive from the list. The next time you boot up windows will just refind these.

Uh, just thought of this. But, boot into safe mode, go to Device Manager, and check for multiple devices of your hard drive, cdroms, and zip drive. If its showing more than you have remove all of them and reboot. Then try checking DMA.

If this doesn't work, then try my previous post.