computer eating hard drives?

[stevesai]

My computer seems to be eating hard drives for breakfast. I installed
my 2nd new drive in the past 2 months about 2 weeks ago and it won't
boot as of today. That's 3 hard drives that have 'gone bad' in the
past two months. Each time I run diagnostics on the drive and get
errors indicating the drive has issues and each time I install a new
drive the problems go away for a few weeks until I start getting the
occasional lockup and freezing, and then it progresses to the point
that my computer is a paperweight again. At this point I refuse to
believe it's a coincidence that 3 hards drives all happened to go bad
in a 2-3 month period (2 of the 3 being brand new drives.) Can
something be wrong with the motherboard or power supply that will cause
hard drives to continually go bad like this? I'm sure as hell not
sticking another drive in this time until I get to the bottom of the
cause. Almost forgot to mention that an LG DVD burner that was only
two months old also stopped working in this timeframe. That's four
drives that mysteriously bit the dust ina couple months.

Also....the bios has begun to freeze when I turn on the computer. I
mean immediately - before the memory test and drive detection. It
won't respond to anything (like hitting DEL to go into setup) for a
good thirty seconds or so. Then it seems to go on it's merry way as
usual. Moving memory modules around seems to make it go away for one
startup cycle and then it's back. I've been experimenting with
removing one of the modules (I have two 512mb modules) and moving them
around from slot to slot to see if I could resolve the issue that way,
but have had only momentary successes.

I'm thinking I need to replace the mobo - it might be destroying the
hard drives and the memory modules. I just never heard of such a thing
before and don't know if that's going to solve my problems.

btw- system is a athlon 2500+, 333mhz fsb, Shuttle AN35N ultra mobo

 

[Alan Kakareka]

bad PSU = dead HDD --> more work for me

 

[paulmd]

My computer seems to be eating hard drives for breakfast. I installed
my 2nd new drive in the past 2 months about 2 weeks ago and it won't
boot as of today. That's 3 hard drives that have 'gone bad' in the
past two months. Each time I run diagnostics on the drive and get
errors indicating the drive has issues and each time I install a new
drive the problems go away for a few weeks until I start getting the
occasional lockup and freezing, and then it progresses to the point
that my computer is a paperweight again. At this point I refuse to
believe it's a coincidence that 3 hards drives all happened to go bad
in a 2-3 month period (2 of the 3 being brand new drives.) Can
something be wrong with the motherboard or power supply that will cause
hard drives to continually go bad like this? I'm sure as hell not
sticking another drive in this time until I get to the bottom of the
cause. Almost forgot to mention that an LG DVD burner that was only
two months old also stopped working in this timeframe. That's four
drives that mysteriously bit the dust ina couple months.

Also....the bios has begun to freeze when I turn on the computer. I
mean immediately - before the memory test and drive detection. It
won't respond to anything (like hitting DEL to go into setup) for a
good thirty seconds or so. Then it seems to go on it's merry way as
usual. Moving memory modules around seems to make it go away for one
startup cycle and then it's back. I've been experimenting with
removing one of the modules (I have two 512mb modules) and moving them
around from slot to slot to see if I could resolve the issue that way,
but have had only momentary successes.

I'm thinking I need to replace the mobo - it might be destroying the
hard drives and the memory modules. I just never heard of such a thing
before and don't know if that's going to solve my problems.

btw- system is a athlon 2500+, 333mhz fsb, Shuttle AN35N ultra mobo

I think I'd deep six the whole machine. If Alan is right, and he almost
certianly is, then amount of damage done by the PSU has extended to the
motherboard (you mentioned the hang on POST). You might be able to
salvage processor and RAM, but I wouldn't trust anything coming from
it.

I salvage computers for a living, but I know a lost cause when I see
one. Time to shop for a new one.

 

[meow2222]

My computer seems to be eating hard drives for breakfast. I installed
my 2nd new drive in the past 2 months about 2 weeks ago and it won't
boot as of today. That's 3 hard drives that have 'gone bad' in the
past two months. Each time I run diagnostics on the drive and get
errors indicating the drive has issues and each time I install a new
drive the problems go away for a few weeks until I start getting the
occasional lockup and freezing, and then it progresses to the point
that my computer is a paperweight again. At this point I refuse to
believe it's a coincidence that 3 hards drives all happened to go bad
in a 2-3 month period (2 of the 3 being brand new drives.) Can
something be wrong with the motherboard or power supply that will cause
hard drives to continually go bad like this? I'm sure as hell not
sticking another drive in this time until I get to the bottom of the
cause. Almost forgot to mention that an LG DVD burner that was only
two months old also stopped working in this timeframe. That's four
drives that mysteriously bit the dust ina couple months.

Also....the bios has begun to freeze when I turn on the computer. I
mean immediately - before the memory test and drive detection. It
won't respond to anything (like hitting DEL to go into setup) for a
good thirty seconds or so. Then it seems to go on it's merry way as
usual. Moving memory modules around seems to make it go away for one
startup cycle and then it's back. I've been experimenting with
removing one of the modules (I have two 512mb modules) and moving them
around from slot to slot to see if I could resolve the issue that way,
but have had only momentary successes.

I'm thinking I need to replace the mobo - it might be destroying the
hard drives and the memory modules. I just never heard of such a thing
before and don't know if that's going to solve my problems.

btw- system is a athlon 2500+, 333mhz fsb, Shuttle AN35N ultra mobo

If you want to work on it, put old junkers in it, eg 0.5G drives. Silly
to keep putting new hdds in. I'd check the psu voltage rails first. If
its a bad psu all may be fine once you replace that. But I still
wouldnt trust it with anything of value till its proved itself.


NT