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View Full Version : Very Weird dead hard-drive problem. Wont let me power-on PC.

SuperZ
06-21-06, 11:36 PM
When I have the power cable attached to the hard drive (regardless of whether the IDE is attached) the computer will not boot at all and the hard drive will not start up. No computer fan coming on, no monitor turning on, no messages from OS, nothing! I do not have this problem with other hard drives... and in fact, if I have no hard drive connected at all, the pc will atleast power on.

When I tried putting this HD in an external enclosure and turning it on, again it did not spin-up (hard drive made no indication that it was doing anything at all, no noise), however I noticed that on the power supply brick the green led turned off when I tried turning the enclosure on. I tried this on another brand of enclosure, and the same exact thing happened.

I realize this is a very weird problem, and is unlike any other dead hard drives i've ever seen before, but I am desperate for help because there is important school stuff on this hard drive, and I can not afford to pay for "professional" recovery.

What might be causing this problem?
What are my options?

Thanks!
Agentorange88
06-22-06, 12:08 AM
Can you give us the specs of your computer?
SuperZ
06-22-06, 12:20 AM
I don't think it has anything to do with the computer because I used 2 different enclosures as well to try to get the HD to work. The computer works fine with one of my other spare HDs.

But eitherway, here are my specs:

Pentium D 820 2.8ghz
160gb WDC SATA (<-- working spare hd i'm using now)
1.5gb Ram

I'm willing to do anything to be able to access my data on the hd (even getting it to spin-up would be an improvement).

I read some stuff about swapping the hd logic board with one from an identical model as a potential solution. Does it sound like this would solve my problem, or is this a solution for other kinds of HD problems?
hafa
06-22-06, 12:36 AM
It sounds like a short in the IDE electronics. Inspect the PCB on the HDD, especially around the power molex area, to see if any foreign objects may be causing a short. If not, your PCB will likely need to be replaced in order to use the drive.

And BTW, :welcome: to the forums!
Martel
06-22-06, 12:50 AM
Did you pull this hdd from a Gateway computer or other name brand? I had a friend with a Gateway, with her hdd plugged into my rig I couldn't power up, in hers it worked properly.
SuperZ
06-22-06, 01:14 AM
It sounds like a short in the IDE electronics. Inspect the PCB on the HDD, especially around the power molex area, to see if any foreign objects may be causing a short. If not, your PCB will likely need to be replaced in order to use the drive.

And BTW, :welcome: to the forums!

Thanks for the welcome :)

I looked around the molex connector but couldn't find anything that looked abnormal (nothing that looked like it had fried).

I've put in an order for a hard-drive of the same model so that I can try using the PCB from it (I got it from Buy.com because their return policy is a lot more friendly then at other places).

If the HD is in fact being shorted out, why isnt the PC doing anything at all when being turned-on (atleast powering on)? Is the short in the HD causing the power supply to restrict any power from going to the system?

Thanks for the help so far :)

Btw Martel: this hard drive didn't come from any system, its a seagate barracuda 7200.7 model: ST380013A which I had originally gotten to use in an enclosure)
SavageBasher
06-22-06, 12:30 PM
get a multimeter
set it to ohms
test the molex connector pins
find which are shorting out
SuperZ
06-22-06, 01:24 PM
get a multimeter
set it to ohms
test the molex connector pins
find which are shorting out

Do i just try every combination of the pins? And also, what kind of a reading should i be looking for that will show a short? a very high resistance or very low?

i've never really used a multimeter much other than for testing laptop batteries
SavageBasher
06-22-06, 01:27 PM
the two grounds (center pins) should be connected (no resistance)

the rest (0-12, 0-5, 5-12) should be extremely high. the one that shows none is your short.
hafa
06-22-06, 04:59 PM
...Is the short in the HD causing the power supply to restrict any power from going to the system...

Essentially correct; the short is preventing the PSU from running normally, hence your system is not receiving power.
dlavrenz
06-22-06, 05:28 PM
Well electricity travles on the path of least resistance so a short is just electricty free to run in circles through your hard drive and refusing to go to the rest of your system.
SuperZ
10-30-06, 09:55 PM
I know this thread is from months ago, but I wanted to come back and leave a message (in case someone else has a similar problem in the future and searches the forum).

It turned out that it was in fact the hard drive PCB causing the problem. I ordered the same hard drive model from buy.com (not knowing whether the same firmware revision would arrive or not). Fortunately the same firmware arrived, and I swapped out the PCBs, and the computer started working :)