Disk Drives Causing Interference??

A

Arlen Baker

I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same time...) so
I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference. It
is even worse when my hard drives are being accessed (e.g, search for a
file).

I have moved my Win TV card to other slots (both further and closer to the
disk drives). No difference.

I have moved the disk drives into different slots also, no difference.

Win TV support says to try a different video source, but I know my cable TV
is okay because when I hook up a TV, the audio and visual is okay.

Has anyone heard of disk drives causing this type of interference? If so,
how did you fix it (other than replacing the drives!!).

Thanks in advance
 
A

Arlen Baker

Nope...I used the one that came with the Maxtor 60Gbyte drive.

Should I swap this cable???
 
U

User N

Arlen Baker said:
I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same time...) so
I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference. []

Having two hard drives go bad at the same time, or even within
a couple of weeks of each other, would make me go hmmmm.
Exactly how close together were the failures? What were the
symptoms?
 
A

Arlen Baker

The failures were literally hours apart...I was lucky to get a backup of
everything.

Love those flash drives!!

I was concerned about them going bad at the same time too, but after asking
around, several people told me similar stories. They were 40 Gig Western
Digital drives...about 5-6 months out of warranty (of course).


User N said:
Arlen Baker said:
I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same time...)
so I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference. []

Having two hard drives go bad at the same time, or even within
a couple of weeks of each other, would make me go hmmmm.
Exactly how close together were the failures? What were the
symptoms?
 
J

JAD

change the cable for the sake of ruling it out
your HD cage is well grounded to the case?
 
U

User N

Arlen Baker said:
The failures were literally hours apart...I was lucky to get a backup
of everything. []

Well, who knows, maybe you were just lucky to have two hard
drives fail independently of each other just hours apart. Maybe
your since reduced Win TV audio & video quality is just related
to the new hard drives. My first thought was a gremlin ;-)
 
J

John Smithe

Make sure all your power connectors are fully seated in the sockets. If you
have a DVM check the voltages. Does the DVM achieve a stable reading? Make
sure your IDE cables are fully seated as well. Does the problem occur when
you access your CD or DVD? Try swapping the HD's to another IDE channel and
see if anything changes. Visually inspect the new HD's. Look for good
mechanical condition. Are the covers seated properly? Are they bent? Are
screws tight? Is there any mechanical damage to the HD's? Are the HD
circuit boards securely mounted in the drives? Stuff like that. Check your
case and the HD mounting. Are the HD cage screws all there? Are the screws
tight. Are the HD's mounted properly and screwed in place? Did cable
routing change? Are the cables routed near the WinTV card? Are the HD
cables routed near cables going to/from the WinTV card? Try your old IDE
cable to rule out the new one. Are/were you using an 80 pin IDE cable?
Eighty pin should be better than 40 pin for this situation.

The old drives may have died due to the power supply but unless anything
else failed(s) this is not likely. Maybe they burned up. Do your HD's have
good cooling. Are they hot to the touch?
 
A

Apollo

Arlen Baker said:
I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same
time...) so I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference.
It is even worse when my hard drives are being accessed (e.g, search
for a file).

I have moved my Win TV card to other slots (both further and closer to
the disk drives). No difference.

I have moved the disk drives into different slots also, no difference.

Win TV support says to try a different video source, but I know my
cable TV is okay because when I hook up a TV, the audio and visual is
okay.

Has anyone heard of disk drives causing this type of interference? If
so, how did you fix it (other than replacing the drives!!).

Thanks in advance

Are you using a sata drive and previous drives were both ide?

I only ask because I get problems with my Nebula (DVB) card on a Abit
NF7-S (v2) when using sata. Even if I install the TV app to an IDE disk
and only record to IDE, I still get bad interference when anything
accesses one of the sata drives. Running a disk check actually brings
the DigiTV app completely down.

I believe my problem is due to the onboard sata controller swamping the
bus, there are a few potential fixes out there, but I never managed to
get any real improvement. Next time I re-install I'm going to get a pci
sata raid card and move everything around, IIRC this is the only
solution that improves things.

You may have an unrelated problem, just something else for you to
consider though. Check the temperatures of your new drives, heat may
have been a factor, it's rare for two drives to die so close together
but it may have been just a coincidence.
 
K

Ken

Arlen said:
I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same time...) so
I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference. It
is even worse when my hard drives are being accessed (e.g, search for a
file).

I have moved my Win TV card to other slots (both further and closer to the
disk drives). No difference.

I have moved the disk drives into different slots also, no difference.

Win TV support says to try a different video source, but I know my cable TV
is okay because when I hook up a TV, the audio and visual is okay.

Has anyone heard of disk drives causing this type of interference? If so,
how did you fix it (other than replacing the drives!!).

Thanks in advance
Lots of good suggestions have been made, but what about your power
supply? How large is it and how old is it? The noise could be coming
from the PS as well as the HDs. Like many have said, make sure good
grounds exist to all components.
 
P

Papa

Arlen Baker said:
I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same time...)
so I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference. It
is even worse when my hard drives are being accessed (e.g, search for a
file).

I have moved my Win TV card to other slots (both further and closer to the
disk drives). No difference.

I have moved the disk drives into different slots also, no difference.

Win TV support says to try a different video source, but I know my cable
TV is okay because when I hook up a TV, the audio and visual is okay.

Has anyone heard of disk drives causing this type of interference? If so,
how did you fix it (other than replacing the drives!!).

Thanks in advance

I really doubt if either one of your hard drives is causing the noise on
your WinTV screen. I use WinTV also, and my WinTV card is connected with
coax to a coax splitter. The splitter allows me to hook into my in-house
coax circuit which feeds several TV sets.

Whenever I see noise on my computer monitor when WinTV is running, it is
ALWAYS caused by a loose coax connection. In my case, the loose connection
is at the splitter located behind my computer, and it gets loose because I
had been doing some work on the computer which required me to temporarily
disconnect the coax from the WinTV card, and did not tighten it up enough
afterward. Finger tight will not do it. A little (not excessive) extra twist
with a small crescent wrench is needed. Another possibility: a defective
coax cable, defective coax cable connector, or incorrectly installed coax
cable connector.

Something else to consider. If you are also using splitters, they may not be
adequate for the job. Try a better one. Ask a Radio Shack person for
splitter advice.

Good luck.
 
T

T Shadow

Make sure both computer and cable (where it attaches to house) are grounded
to real grounds, not water pipes.

Check outlets to confirm they are wired correctly.
 
B

bill bixby

ok so i am not the only one that hhad simular happen
comp came with a 40G later added a 80G later added a hdd cooler thin one
that fits..blows on btm of drive
tooled along nicely for some time
then high pitched screaching ..."$%#%^$ ^$#% %^#$% this cant be good"
bios no longer reconizes or interacts with drives
OK upgrade time LoL
replaced with a 120 same mobo PS etc bios say hey look a drive
i want my gigs back esp the 80 ..its a seagate baracuda

but would like to use the drives if i can reserect them will try a freeware
proggy i found for this as soon as i get my next comp built and help my bro
build his



I had my original disk drives go out on me (yea, two at the same
time...) so I have replaced them with Maxtor 60 and 120 Gbyte drives.

Now, my Win TV card has a sorts of both visual and audio interference.
It is even worse when my hard drives are being accessed (e.g, search for
a file).

I have moved my Win TV card to other slots (both further and closer to
the disk drives). No difference.

I have moved the disk drives into different slots also, no difference.

Win TV support says to try a different video source, but I know my cable
TV is okay because when I hook up a TV, the audio and visual is okay.

Has anyone heard of disk drives causing this type of interference? If
so, how did you fix it (other than replacing the drives!!).

Thanks in advance



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A

Arlen Baker

I finally got back around to working this problem (geez, work,
family....isn't my Win TV problem highest priority here??? ;) )

Anyway here is where I stand (as I *still* have the problem*):

1) New 80 pin IDE cable installed on the new hard drives
2) IDE cables does NOT route anywhere near the Win TV card
3) DVM achieves a nice stable reading
4) Mother board monitor displays the voltage as steady state (with a 1
second interval)
Log file indicates steady state over a 24 hour period
5) All IDE cables were double checked for proper seating
6) Drive cages are grounded to the rest of the case (verified via Ohm meter)
7) New hard drives are in visually perfect condition
8) All disk drive screws are installed and tight
9) Fans are installed in front of both disk drives.


Do I just need to purchase a new Win TV board or is there something else
going on here??

Thanks again.

*Since it has been since Nov of last year, here is a refresher as to what my
Win TV problem is:

I have a Win TV card that used to work prior to my hard drives going out.
Since I replaced my hard
drives with Maxtor drives, I have had interference in both audio and video
when using the Win TV card.
The interference is worse when the disk drives (regardless of which one) are
accessed. However, when my
CD drive is accessed, the same level of interference occurs.
 

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