Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - HDD shuts down by itself on CF-45

DaveOxford · 08-22-2006, 11:04 AM

Hi. Can some techie out there tell me what might be going on with my Panasonic Toughbook CF-45 192RAM 266MHz 6GB (Toshiba 2144 HDD) running XP Pro (yes, I know. It runs v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly but it does everything I need it to do). It works OK for several days, or even weeks, then, without warning, or any consistent trigger that I can work out, the HDD turns itself off, then on, then off again, and so on. This is signalled by the descending whine of the disk spinning down. This happens more and more frequently until the whole thing hangs. I have found I can 'cure' it by unplugging the HDD and plugging it back in again. Then it works OK for a few days or weeks again.

I am mystified. This is an old unit, and the disk has one bad sector, but I cannot think what is causing this. Is it a hardware fault - perhaps the build up of static inside the machine, or a frayed ribbon cable? Or a software problem. I thought it might be to do with powersaving settings, but the same thing happens however I set them.

I suppose I could try upgrading the disk, and see if the problem persists. However, I am not sure how to do this, and I gather that there will be an upper limit to the size of disk that the BIOS will handle. Can anyone tell me what the limit is. I don't need more than 20 gigs - can I just plug another HDD in and load up XP?

Thanks for any help or suggestions you might have.

Dave

08-22-2006, 11:04 AM	#1 (permalink)
DaveOxford Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 10 OS: XP	HDD shuts down by itself on CF-45 Hi. Can some techie out there tell me what might be going on with my Panasonic Toughbook CF-45 192RAM 266MHz 6GB (Toshiba 2144 HDD) running XP Pro (yes, I know. It runs v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly but it does everything I need it to do). It works OK for several days, or even weeks, then, without warning, or any consistent trigger that I can work out, the HDD turns itself off, then on, then off again, and so on. This is signalled by the descending whine of the disk spinning down. This happens more and more frequently until the whole thing hangs. I have found I can 'cure' it by unplugging the HDD and plugging it back in again. Then it works OK for a few days or weeks again. I am mystified. This is an old unit, and the disk has one bad sector, but I cannot think what is causing this. Is it a hardware fault - perhaps the build up of static inside the machine, or a frayed ribbon cable? Or a software problem. I thought it might be to do with powersaving settings, but the same thing happens however I set them. I suppose I could try upgrading the disk, and see if the problem persists. However, I am not sure how to do this, and I gather that there will be an upper limit to the size of disk that the BIOS will handle. Can anyone tell me what the limit is. I don't need more than 20 gigs - can I just plug another HDD in and load up XP? Thanks for any help or suggestions you might have. Dave