[wplug] Since we're off topic

[Bill Moran]

Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
>>>Since the problem seems to be correlated to the *first time* I try to 
>>>power up the machine after n hours, I will wait for awhile and try again 
>>>with the HDDs not plugged in.  If I see it fail even once without the 
>>>HDDs, then it's probably the motherboard (there isn't anything else here 
>>>except for a wireless NIC).  If not, then I'm in data recovery hell and 
>>>will probably prevail upon the list again soon.
>>>
>>	Sounds like a power-supply, dewd. Don't skimp on those. Bad power 
>>supplies are the leading cause of machine failure (minus user-error). What 
>>kid of power supply do you have in that thing? Bad RAM may also be the 
>>cause, but I've seen few cases of that. Of course, I only get monster 
>>power-supplies anymore, so...
> 
> I guess it could be the power supply, but it's new, too, and 300W.  Plus, 
> the fact that the BIOS has still not failed to POST once without the hard 
> drives plugged in (8 attempts and counting) points a bloody finger at 
> them.  Plus, this HDD has made noise since the day I got it - occasionally 
> it will make a cracking noise as if it suddenly stopped spinning, and then 
> started up again.  Since it was an IBM, and since I bought it new and it 
> did that from day 1, I figured it was some sort of *feature* but now I 
> don't think so anymore.

I've been following with some interest, but now I think I actually have a
similar experience to offer.

Late last year, my FreeBSD desktop computer started acting up.  About once
a week it would just freeze up, and then on reboot it sometimes would
refuse to recognize the HDD.  I replaced the power supply ... no change,
I replaced the mobo ... no change, finally I replaced the HDD and the
machine has been rock stable since.

In my case, I didn't suspect the HDD, because it wasn't making any noise or
exhibiting any other behaviour other than the lockups.  But it was
obviously the cause of the problem.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com