HD l.e.d always on????????

[montano]

The HD led is always on. First thought is wire is backwards, but when I switch it, I get NO light. I thought it was a bad led on the case, but when I got a new case I still had the always on led. The HD is NOT bieng accessed continually, just have the light always on........any thought's??

 

[Monaco]

just double check everything- easy to switch those things by accident. IF you hook the HDD light up to the wrong pin it could cause this. I would pull all the connectors on that strip, and redo all of them just to be sure.

If it still don't work, not much you can do- the light is lit from the mobo's disk controller, whenever it sees traffic it lights. The problem is inside a microchip, i don't think it is fixable.

Good luck!

 

[David]

My HDD led is always on in linux for some reason. As long as the HDD isn't grinding away, dont worry about it.

 

[Cooler666]

if you're using a SCSI hard disk then i don't think it's supposed to light - mine doesn't

 

[montano]

I'm using Windows ME and it's an IDE hard drive. I know the drive is not constantly running, but was hoping someone knew a quick fix.

 

[PsycoPhreak]

OK...2 questions:

1.) Is there anything else on the line like a cd-rom or other IDE device?..( eg. Zip drive, ls-120... )

If the cable is used with anything else besides the HD, does it happen when you unplug everything but the HD itself?

I don't know what your configuration is...whether you have a cd-rom or other device on the cable, so this is a shot in the dark....BUT, sometimes...and it's happened to me, for some reason connecting another device, even another HD, has made the HD light stay on, removing the aditional device and putting it on another ide port always fixed it.....has something to do with the 2 devices sharing the line ( as master/slave ) not being compatible with eachother....It happens. It may also be a bad cable, so you can try and swap in a new one.

2.) is the HD activity light connected properly on the motherboard header?

heh heh, we have all at one time or another stuck cables in backwards or plugged something in one pin to far to the left or right on those headers, make sure it's exactly where it's suposed to be,...again..it happens...

If all else fails, try another drive, just to check it, if it still does it after trying the previously mentioned suggestions with a different drive, then it's definetly something with the IDE controller, if it stops, then it may just be the signaling circuit in the drive itself.

 

[montano]

I recently changed from old school ATA100 cables to rounded cables, and it was always on before and after...so not the cables.
The HD used to be the only device on the cable, now there is a Zip 100, always on before and after, so that's not it either.
Triple checked the connection to the Mobo, so that's not it.
I guess that narrows it down to the IDE Controller??

 

[PsycoPhreak]

Ok, try unplugging ALL ide devices except the HD....see if it stays on...if it doesn't, then one by one, re-connect the other IDE devices untill the problem appears again, also make note of the connectors on the cable...if it's ATA100 then the BLACK connector should be MASTER, and the GRAY conector is SLAVE...and BTW....if it's ATA100 and your HD is too....don't stick the ZIP drive on the same cable...it's not ATA100 and will greatly reduce the speed of your HD.

 

[RnPgrosz]

I've seen this problem before. You may have plugged the hd led to the power led which would cause it too stay on. With the K7S5A mobo there isn't room for the hd led so you have to cut 1 of the wires and move it over because there are only 2 pins available for it.

 

[montano]

OK, I'll disconnect them all the reconnect one at a time. I have 4 IDE devices: HD,DVD,CD-Rom and ZIP. Only 4 connections, so which should I put along with the HD? I think they all are ATA33, except the HD which is ATA100.

 

[PsycoPhreak]

If you put any of the ATA33 devices with the ATA100 HD...the HD will only run at ATA33 ( it will only run as fast as the slowest device on the cable ) thats ok though if you can deal with it.

 

[David]

OK, I'll disconnect them all the reconnect one at a time. I have 4 IDE devices: HD,DVD,CD-Rom and ZIP. Only 4 connections, so which should I put along with the HD? I think they all are ATA33, except the HD which is ATA100.

Anything but the zip. Or you may want to put the zip on it if it is infrequently used - ie so that the HD and CD/DVD are not fighting for bandwidth.