Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur

mafi0z · 04-19-2009, 12:12 AM

Hello,

I think I may some serious issues with my PC
So, here's the summary (Issues regarding PSU are toward the end):

Several weeks ago, my PC began randomly locking up. One day, it got really bad, so i shutdown the PC.
My primary Hard Drive, a 320GB SATAII Western Digital, completely failed on that day. Never booted again. I did get a chance to run chkdsk /f on it, but that was the last time it was ever detected outside of the BIOS. No Live CD was able to mount it, so i suspected physical damage..

Fortunately most of my important data was on my other drives, so I put the 320Gb aside, and replaced it. Reinstalled XP, and im up and running again....

Today one of my backup hard disks, a 1TB SATAII Samsung, began randomly disappearing from "My Computer" (Happened 3 times today)..the first two times i just unplugged the power to it(it was not spinning O.o), and plugged it back it to power it back up, and the third time, i had to reboot to get it to power back up. I should also mention that I had ran HDD Regenerator on this drive when the 320GB WD failed, and it had detected 2 bad sectors (which were repaired), while the other drives reported no bad sectors.
Anyway, I go on to check for errors in the Event Viewer, and these are the nasty errors i find:

Error ID 9: The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort4, did not respond within the timeout period.
Error ID 57: The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur.
and heres an interesting one:
Error ID 12: The device 'SAMSUNG HD103UJ' (IDE\DiskSAMSUNG_HD103UJ_________________________1AA01113\31535033444a5157343737343137202020202020) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

It is also probably worth mentioning that all of these errors occurs at the exact same time (to the second!)

Next, i used several monitoring applications, including HWMonitor, SpeedFan, and EVEREST.
The only readings that seemed off were the voltages...

SpeedFan reported these readings:

HWMonitor reported what seemed to be the most accurate readings:

and the EVEREST readings were similar to the ones from SpeedFan:

Now I'm no expert, but the +12V rail should probably be at approximately 12V, and not something in the lower single digits! And the other readings seem quite a bit off as well..

-------------
Additional Information:

---PC Specs---
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R Motherboard
ULTRA X2 750Watt PSU (13 months old)
Core 2 Duo E6600
3 Hard Drives(SATAII): 320GB WD(Had 2 or these, one of which failed, read above), 1TB WD, and 1TB Samsung
NVidia GeForce 8800GT PCIe
Sony DVDRW Drive
2GB RAM (4x 515MB DDR2 Sticks)

One more thing, i have ran memtest86+, and have not had any errors, so RAM is not an issue..
-----

So.. my question to you is:
Is my Power Supply dying and I should shutdown my Pc right away and upgrade it?
or
Am I having really bad luck with my hard drives, and my 1TB Samsung is on its way to failure, in which case I need to backup my backup(lol)?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice,
George

Tumbleweed36 · 04-19-2009, 04:57 AM

Hi George,

Before we get too far, try these two things:

First of all, generally the most accure readings come from the bios so enter the bios and report both the temperatures and voltages from there. Post them here so we can evaluate what it is saying.

Next, the most accurate reading on the health of your hard drive will normally come from a utility the drive manufacturer has put out, so use that utility to check the health (and possibly fix errors) on that drive.

Hard Drive Utilities

Give these two things a go and report back here.

mafi0z · 04-20-2009, 03:48 PM

Hi, Tumbleweed36

I've also created a thread over at the Tom's Hardware forums, where i recently made a post with results of me testing all the pins of the PSU connectors with a multimeter.

Heres a link to that post, as well as the thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/26...occur#t1927237

As for the BIOS readings.. my BIOS doesnt provide me with an actual voltage number, it just says "OK" or "FAIL"... All 3 (3.3, 5, and 12) voltage readings print "OK"

**wrench97** · 04-21-2009, 04:17 PM

If the 12v was actually that low the PC would not boot or run, 3rd party sensor reading programs are not always dependable.

What Power supply Brand and model do have, there is quite a difference between the rails in your volt meter readings.

The rails should be the rated voltage +/- 5%

**wrench97** · 04-21-2009, 04:17 PM

If the 12v was actually that low the PC would not boot or run, 3rd party sensor reading programs are not always dependable.

What Power supply Brand and model do have, there is quite a difference between the rails in your volt meter readings.

The rails should be the rated voltage +/- 5%

04-19-2009, 12:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
mafi0z Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP SP3	Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur Hello, I think I may some serious issues with my PC So, here's the summary (Issues regarding PSU are toward the end): Several weeks ago, my PC began randomly locking up. One day, it got really bad, so i shutdown the PC. My primary Hard Drive, a 320GB SATAII Western Digital, completely failed on that day. Never booted again. I did get a chance to run chkdsk /f on it, but that was the last time it was ever detected outside of the BIOS. No Live CD was able to mount it, so i suspected physical damage.. Fortunately most of my important data was on my other drives, so I put the 320Gb aside, and replaced it. Reinstalled XP, and im up and running again.... Today one of my backup hard disks, a 1TB SATAII Samsung, began randomly disappearing from "My Computer" (Happened 3 times today)..the first two times i just unplugged the power to it(it was not spinning O.o), and plugged it back it to power it back up, and the third time, i had to reboot to get it to power back up. I should also mention that I had ran HDD Regenerator on this drive when the 320GB WD failed, and it had detected 2 bad sectors (which were repaired), while the other drives reported no bad sectors. Anyway, I go on to check for errors in the Event Viewer, and these are the nasty errors i find: Error ID 9: The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort4, did not respond within the timeout period. Error ID 57: The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur. and heres an interesting one: Error ID 12: The device 'SAMSUNG HD103UJ' (IDE\DiskSAMSUNG_HD103UJ_________________________1AA01113\31535033444a5157343737343137202020202020) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal. It is also probably worth mentioning that all of these errors occurs at the exact same time (to the second!) Next, i used several monitoring applications, including HWMonitor, SpeedFan, and EVEREST. The only readings that seemed off were the voltages... SpeedFan reported these readings: HWMonitor reported what seemed to be the most accurate readings: and the EVEREST readings were similar to the ones from SpeedFan: Now I'm no expert, but the +12V rail should probably be at approximately 12V, and not something in the lower single digits! And the other readings seem quite a bit off as well.. ------------- Additional Information: ---PC Specs--- Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R Motherboard ULTRA X2 750Watt PSU (13 months old) Core 2 Duo E6600 3 Hard Drives(SATAII): 320GB WD(Had 2 or these, one of which failed, read above), 1TB WD, and 1TB Samsung NVidia GeForce 8800GT PCIe Sony DVDRW Drive 2GB RAM (4x 515MB DDR2 Sticks) One more thing, i have ran memtest86+, and have not had any errors, so RAM is not an issue.. ----- So.. my question to you is: Is my Power Supply dying and I should shutdown my Pc right away and upgrade it? or Am I having really bad luck with my hard drives, and my 1TB Samsung is on its way to failure, in which case I need to backup my backup(lol)? Thanks in advance for any help and advice, George Last edited by mafi0z; 04-19-2009 at 12:13 AM. Reason: fixed subject line

04-19-2009, 04:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,635 OS: XP Professional	Re: Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur Hi George, Before we get too far, try these two things: First of all, generally the most accure readings come from the bios so enter the bios and report both the temperatures and voltages from there. Post them here so we can evaluate what it is saying. Next, the most accurate reading on the health of your hard drive will normally come from a utility the drive manufacturer has put out, so use that utility to check the health (and possibly fix errors) on that drive. Hard Drive Utilities Give these two things a go and report back here. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

04-20-2009, 03:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
mafi0z Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP SP3	Re: Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur Hi, Tumbleweed36 I've also created a thread over at the Tom's Hardware forums, where i recently made a post with results of me testing all the pins of the PSU connectors with a multimeter. Heres a link to that post, as well as the thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/26...occur#t1927237 As for the BIOS readings.. my BIOS doesnt provide me with an actual voltage number, it just says "OK" or "FAIL"... All 3 (3.3, 5, and 12) voltage readings print "OK"

04-21-2009, 04:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,428 OS: Win7	Re: Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur If the 12v was actually that low the PC would not boot or run, 3rd party sensor reading programs are not always dependable. What Power supply Brand and model do have, there is quite a difference between the rails in your volt meter readings. The rails should be the rated voltage +/- 5% __________________ Power Supply and Selection

04-21-2009, 04:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,428 OS: Win7	Re: Hard Disks Failing,PSU +12V rail reported at 1.7V!?Event Errors Occur If the 12v was actually that low the PC would not boot or run, 3rd party sensor reading programs are not always dependable. What Power supply Brand and model do have, there is quite a difference between the rails in your volt meter readings. The rails should be the rated voltage +/- 5% __________________ Power Supply and Selection