Power supply killed the Deskstars!

Oh boy...some time ago, one of my 2 IBM 40 gig deskstars, which are in strip RAID died on me, and i lost all the data on the raid because of that...luckily i got an on-the-spot replacement for it...
one week later, after i put the harddisks and some other parts in a new case, (with a reportedly 400Watt power supply), the second HDD died as well!!
i am kinda confused...
well, the PSU was quite cheap...could it be that the 400W sticker on it, is fake??
is it the power supply problem at all??
lemme tell you what i have in the system:
Pentium 4 1.8GHz (Retail)
Asus P4B266
256MB DDR
Asus CD ROM
2 quantum HDD on IDE, 2 IBM HDD on onboard RAID
6 case fans, 2 harddisk fans
Matrox G400 + RT2000 Vid Cap Card... (1 AGP, 1 PCI)
Creative sB LIVE platinum
what else....ammm...well, of course the NIC and FLoppy...

if it's the power, how could i know which PSU is good?? the company? well, here in malaysia we don't get much of what you guys get in the US...well, I have seen ANTEC cases here, but they are way expensive...are they my only answerS?
thanks.

It may not be your PS at all.
I know for a fact, a store here in the states, was selling Western Digital HDD's for cheap. (Store Sale) They were going like Hot Cakes! and getting returned because they were S***.
It was a bad lot, a cruddy manufacturing batch from the factory.

It is very well possible you either got two from a bad lot, or they may have been "slightly" damaged" in shipping. Then finally gave out on you.

Now "if" your NEW 2 HDD's die. Then start look really hard at other parts.

HDD's are like anything else, just because thier new, doesn't mean they're good.

Good Luck with the new HDD's.

Also, your power supply may not be a "fake" necessarily, but it could be "creative marking". Some of the cheaper no-name PSUs use a rating convention similar to the one cheap no-name speaker manufacturers use. Ever seen those crappy 3 piece speaker sets that advertise "600 WATTS* OF POWER!!!!!"? If you are able to find what the * means you'll see that it's "PMPO" or Peak Max Power Output... That means that one time, for some undefined short period of time (could be as short as 1 millisecond) they got 600 watts to go out of the amp under some undefined conditions before it started on fire. On average, you'll get something more like 6 watts to the satellites, and maybe 15 to the Subwoofer. Power Supply manufacturers can sometime rate stuff the same way... Typically a decent 400W PSU will have 220W from the combined 3.3V and 5V rails (paraphrasing Hoot). Correct me if I'm wrong... So look at the sticker on the side of your PSU, if it lists only the max Amperage, you can figure watts by multiplying the volts times the amps. So if you get 35 Amps on the 3.3V rail, take 3.3X35=115.5 Watts. Do the same for your 5V rail, add the wattages together and see if they are at or over 220W. There were apparently several "400W" no-name power supplies that were providing less than 180W on the combined 3.3V and 5V lines. This may not have been the cause of your hard drives to die, but you'll know if you have a decent "400W" PSU.
Peace
John

Deskstars always die, it may be noghing to do with your Power Supply

Are you sure your IBM drive was completely dead? IBM has a utility called the Drive Fitness Test. You put it on a floppy and boot from it. It will tell you if your drive is actually malfuntioning or not. I've been using IBM DeskStar drives at work and at home for a few years and I've had very few that were actually dead. (one out of a hundred) It is surprisingly easy to break a stripe on a RAID 0 array. I've done it a dozen times, but i never concluded with any certainty that it was the drives fault.

Try getting the Drive Fitness Test from IBM and run it. It works on non-IBM drives, too, and will pinpoint any physical malfuntion.

I think with proper case cooling you won't have any problems with the IBM drives, even if you don't have cooling they should work for a long time

oh boy!
thanks guys...
well, i did try the drive fitness test...but the drive wasn't there.
but i only tried it on the first drive..
anyway, this second harddisk, is manufactured in Thailand...and is different from the other one.
man...i so convinced my boss that the IBM HDDs are the best, and made him pay the exta few bucks for it!! so you are saying that Deskstars aren't so good afterall?

Intraveinous, thanks for the tips!! i can't read the specs from my PS, cuz the sticker is on top of it, and i have to take it out of the case to read it. no mood for that!!! i will, when the HDD dies again!
hehe!
thank you again.

It really sucks when a component that you recommended turns out to be a lemon. Especially if it's your boss!

There are Deskstar 75GXP's and newer Deskstar 60GXP's. Plain and truly, the failure rate of 75GXP's is close to 30%--as measured by a poll of 6000+ members at www.storagereview.com. The site foundered, unfortunately.

All you can do is RMA the drives. Hope that you'll receive 60GXP'S in return!

Theories abound as to the"why?" of 75GXP's. Don't bother with them. The HDD's simply ain't no good.

ya, that sucks..
i should come out of the forums once in a while!! it's not all truth in here!
klosters64a, what do you mean by RMA??
Is it like exchange? I can do that??!
but i am in Malaysia, for a fact...and i didn't buy it from IBM itself! i don't know if you mean take it to IBM and replace it!

Contact the store that you bought the HDD's from. If they're a good outfit, they'll replace the drives for you. You'll have to pay for the shipping. If they act like this is the first IBM 75GXP in history to go bad, just politely insist that they're defective, and you want replacements. If the store's warranty on the drives has expired, you'll have to get an RMA from IBM. I HOPE they'll handle this in Malaysia. Shipping overseas will be expensive.

RMA means "Return Merchandise Authorisation." This is a number that your store, or IBM will give you. This number must be written boldly and in more than one spot on the package that you send them. If you don't have the RMA number, the package will be refused at your retailer or IBM. And be sent back to you.

Best of luck!

I will never buy IBM HD's again! I had to 40 gig 60GXP's fail within 1 week of each other, I bought them 8/01 and they died 01/02. They just plain blow.

IBM make the best IDE hard drives, just look at reviews for 120gxp's and the 75gxp and 60gxp at the time, the problem is that they dissipate too much heat, so you need some cooling for them otherwise you better be lucky

well, as a reminder, my 40 gig IBM desktarts failed too, after 2 weeks of operation....one after the other...
i also fell for the reviews...

anyway, true. they do make way too much heat...
but i did put a fan for the second harddisk, but it still blew up.
now i have put fans for both of them...and they are coool now.
satisfactory for now.