Voltage/Amperage Issues in Multiple Desktops

[it_geek]

[FONT=&quot]Hi all,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am facing power-related issues on not one but two of my desktops.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Here are the specs:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rig 1[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Internals[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]AsRock Z170 Gaming K6[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Intel Core i5-6600k baseline @ 3.5GHz, OC 25% to 4.4Ghz on auto voltage[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Cooler Master V650 80 Plus Full Modular Power Supply (650W)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Cooler Master Hyper 212X (X2 120mm fans with PWM)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]16GB Corsair Vengenance LP DDR4 RAM @ 2133Mhz baseline, OC to 2400MHz on auto voltage.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]ASUS NVIDIA Geforce 730GT 2GB[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]HP SAS Array Expander (2nd Gen)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]HP P410 RAID/Array Controller + 1GB FBWC[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x LG DVD-RW Writer[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x M2 SATA SSD (Sandisk Z400s 256GB) --> Current Boot Drive[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 320GB Hitachi 7200RPM HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]3 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM Desktop HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 2TB Hitachi 7200RPM HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 4TB Seagate Desktop Drive 5900RPM HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]4 x 120mm CM 4-pin PWM fans[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 140mm 3-pin fan[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]2 x 120mm CM 3-pin fan[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Note the above two fans are connected to a fan splitter with adjustable voltage (set to max)[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]1 x AsROCK TPM 2.0 (Infineon)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Via USB:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]1 x 320GB Toshiba 5400RPM HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 2TB Seagate Backup Plus 5400RPM HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x Akasa AK-ICR-16 Multicard Reader with 3 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]System has been running in OC Configuration for close to 4 years with no issues, until recently.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Drives highlighted in red are the ones that have been posing issues.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sometimes, when the computer is powered up, these said drives will have problems spinning up (repeated motor start up sound). Drives also cannot be accessed and the BIOS will take forever to read them. [/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The drives are definitely fine as they do not show any issues in CrystalDiskInfo. SMART parameters are fine...[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The problem only goes away when the drives are disconnected for 24 - 48 hours and then re-connected again. But the problem usually comes back in a few days when the drives start to fail at spin up again.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I have also noticed that I keep getting "shocked" these few days when I touch specific parts of the metal casing of the computer, which I did not experience before, notably the silver outer rims. Casing is a CM 690 (1st gen)[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rig 2[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Internals:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R (rev 1.1)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 with stock fan cooler (currently set to clock at the maximum speed of 3.00Ghz)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Kingston HyperX DDR2 RAM (2GB x 4) 800MHz[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Via the SATA Backplane (power-independent)[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]1 x 320GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200RPM HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 1TB Seagate Desktop HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda ATA Desktop HDD[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 2TB Seagate Desktop HDD[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Other Drives[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]1 x Intel 320 SSD (SATA II) 600GB[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]--> Current Boot Drive[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x OCZ Vortex SATA II SSD 30GB[/FONT][FONT=&quot] (Windows Rescue Environment, Windows 8.1 Pro)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x 80GB IDE Seagate Barracuda ATA 7200.7 HDD[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]1 x Samsung IDE DVD Writer[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Others[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]NVIDIA Geforce GT630 1GB[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]2 x 100mm fans (3-Pin)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]The SATA Backplane also comes with its own 80mm fan[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Externally connected[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]2 x Sandisk Cruzer Thumbdrives[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Drives highlighted in red are the ones that have been posing issues.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sometimes, when the computer is powered up, these said drives will have problems starting up (HDDs - spinning up (repeated motor start up sound)). SSDs obviously make no noise. Drives also cannot be accessed and the BIOS will take forever to read them. [/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Also, when booting up, instead of displaying the full ID of the drives, e.g.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]OCZ Vortex 1.3[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The system will display something like:[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]..E_$%tex 1.3[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I don't know what kind of corruption it is. It still gives this kind of issue even after changing the SATA cable![/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Hope there can be some resolution on this issue... looking forward to everyone's advice here thanks!!!![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

EDIT: The 2nd Rig is using a Headway 450W power supply, non modular.

 

[yusoffb01]

Copy the data out and replace the drives?

 

[_DeS__]

Connected to same power socket?
Same multi plug/power strip?

Try to change the multi plug and see if it helps.

 

[selim]

[FONT=&quot]I have also noticed that I keep getting "shocked" these few days when I touch specific parts of the metal casing of the computer, which I did not experience before, notably the silver outer rims. Casing is a CM 690 (1st gen)[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]

Are you using 2 pin or 3 pin plug which power cable connected to your computer.
The earth wire not connected and you get shock

 

[_DeS__]

[FONT=&quot]I have also noticed that I keep getting "shocked" these few days when I touch specific parts of the metal casing of the computer, which I did not experience before, notably the silver outer rims. Casing is a CM 690 (1st gen)[/FONT][FONT=&quot].[/FONT]

Are you using 2 pin or 3 pin plug which power cable connected to your computer.
The earth wire not connected and you get shock

This one common occurrence especially with faulty multi plug. Try changing one as mentioned previously.

 

[wwenze]

Your PSU chiu... check mains AC for what

 

[wwenze]

Ignore the shock... it's probably not correlated.

The first case I already say PSU chui, u dun believe u remove 3 HDD i see the others will spin up or not?

Second case may be SATA controller dying. Or ram chui. Or mobo chui. Or PSU chui leading to previous.

 

[sacredrays]

how old are your psu?

if you got spare psu, maybe can swap and try lor..

 

[wwenze]

When you meant chui you mean it's not good enough for the use case, or it's going to die?


I am not sure if changing to a higher wattage PSU would make a difference, cos isn't the overall available amperage to the 5V and 12V rails around the same? The difference is the power available to the 6-pin/8-pin PCI-E/CPU rails right?

That being said, the other drives have always appeared unaffected regardless whether those red drives are connected Also see my earlier post that when i plug those drives marked in red into an external HDD cage, THEY ALL WORK FINE!!!. They pass read/write/250GB file write and read-back tests, even chkdsk! And I can't understand why it's always those drives in red that will suffer power loss even though they lie on entirely seperate branches of the SATA power cable...

I did do a calculation on a Power Supply Calculator website then I take that value x 1.2 to factor in PSU inefficiency and loss of power over time. That becomes the minimum wattage PSU level.

Just remove 3 of the drives marked in red and see if the other 3 spins up...

 

[wwenze]

1 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD
1 x 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 HDD
3 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM Desktop HDD
1 x 2TB Hitachi 7200RPM HDD

You have 6 HDD labelled red in the first system, no?

Can you take out the 500GB, the 160GB, and one of the 2TB, leave the remaining 3 red HDDs in, leave all the rest of your parts in, and see if things work?

 

[wwenze]

Are the failing drives using

HP SAS Array Expander (2nd Gen)
HP P410 RAID/Array Controller + 1GB FBWC

 

[Northernray]

GIGABYTE EP45-UD3R (rev 1.1)
South Bridge:
6x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD

Might not be power issue, check those problematic drives connected to which SATA controller chip. You might bark up the wrong tree if the problem lies with the controller chip/circuitry.

 

[keenklee]

Just a thought, was the computer connected when the electrical works were in progress?

Or it could be the PSU have aged and can no longer can supply enough for the spin-up demand of the HDDs.

I have a very lightly used Asus desktop - PSU never made it past 4 years.

 

[keenklee]

Nope. Both units were taken offline during the electrical works. Or rather, the whole house had no power during that period cos it was rather massive cabling works that had to be done.


I have heard not very nice things about the CM V650 though... hmmm.

A quick check, some drives require 2.5 amps to spin up. You have a lot of drives !

Another possibility could be heat related. Maybe leave the casing open and cool with a fan for troubleshooting. I used to have a branded slim PC which has such issues.

 

[wwenze]

A quick check, some drives require 2.5 amps to spin up. You have a lot of drives !

Another possibility could be heat related. Maybe leave the casing open and cool with a fan for troubleshooting. I used to have a branded slim PC which has such issues.

https://www.45drives.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Startup_powerdraw_15HDD.JPG

The strange part however is, threadstarter has 8 HDD and 1 DVD drive. Yet the 6 red HDDs are failing even after 3 have been removed which should reduce power requirements. Also DVD drive does not consume power upon initial boot yet it's also dead.

I'm suspecting resource conflict or a failing integrated / pci-e SATA controller.
Or troubleshooting observation conflict.
Still if we are to make as little assumptions as possible, it's still the PSU.

 

[haylui]

Change power cable see if it helps.