Hard drive causing computer to cut power and reboot

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30 Oct 2012
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5
this has been doing this ever since i built my computer, i purchased my western digital sata II drive from ******, couple of years ago established it was faulty and had a replacement sent.

only this one is doing exactly the same as before.

if im playing games or running applications the hard drive does not cut out make any sounds, its nice and happy
same applies if im defragging it.

Soon as i try and open or install a large file such as applications or extracting compressed files.

i hear an eery clicking voltage sound and then the computer cuts out.

i've checked my power cables and HDD cable, i've even ran a diagnostic check on the hard drive and to no avail established exactly what's wrong.

specs

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case

OCZ Stealth XStream 700W PSU - 120mm Fan, 4x 12V Rails

Sapphire HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port PCI-E Graphics Card

Asus P6X58D-E X58 Socket 1366 Gigabit Lan Tripple PCI-E 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Intel i7 930 2.8GHz Socket 1366 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

G-Skill 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue
 
Hi Stason, and welcome to the forums.
How sure are you that it's hard disk related? If you've run disk diagnostics successfully, then it sounds more like it could be a power supply problem that's triggered by an increased cpu load when loading apps etc. Is the 8 pin power connector to the motherboard properly attached?
 
pretty sure, i have ran a stress test on my GPU, CPU and motherboard and RAM and neither have caused the computer to cut out, it's only when my computer tries to gather or touch a large file and physically install it on the the hard drive i get a shut down.

I have physically checked all power cables (unplugged,checked and plugged back in)

this could be a ridiculously stupid statement to make but is there by any chance, that the processor and RAM loading the memory transfere, that quick, that the hard drive physically can't keep up and causes a crash and boot?

It just appears that way when it happens, i can play games at the highest settings doesn't happen it's as soon as i try unloading or installing something onto the hard drive that's a big file (1gb upwards) that causes a reboot.
 
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These are all the error dumped files i picked up I've tried to convert them using the bugcheckcode but I'm not getting anything specific to the problem unless anyone else knows how to do it properly.

- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0



- EventData

BugcheckCode 30
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0



- EventData

BugcheckCode 10
BugcheckParameter1 0x97401e1
BugcheckParameter2 0x2
BugcheckParameter3 0x1
BugcheckParameter4 0xfffff80002f7967e
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0



- EventData

BugcheckCode 30
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0


- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0
 
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It's a reasonable question but having a quick processor and slow disk shouldn't cause any stability problems - you just get a slower machine.
If you've done cpu/gpu stress tests then I'd be thinking towards a chipset/driver/bios setup issue.

Has your pc just started doing this again - if so have there been any changes at the time it started e.g. windows or driver updates?

I'd have a look in the Windows event logs to see if they have any entries relating to a crash, plus the disk's SMART diagnostics info (using HDtune or CrystalDiskInfo) to see if they gave any clues (feel free to post if they don't make sense).

Other things I'd suggest to try would be to remove any overclock (try the bios 'safe' defaults), and try connecting your hdd to a different sata port (and with a different cable if you've got one), especially if it's currently plugged in to one of the marvell sata ports (grey?) - use an intel one instead.

Just seen your crash log files which don't mean much to me I'm afraid.

Edit: Probably stating the obvious here, but if you're changing bios settings I'd take photos of them as they are now so you can always get back to where you are now.
 
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If none of the above works, try putting the hard disk on it's own power cable with no other devices daisy chained (if not already).
 
I completely reformatted the computer previously with the new hard drive so in theory i started afresh.

The problem only really happened after i installed all my drivers/software for the components (up to date).

It's completely random which makes it more difficult to pin point what exactly are the causes, it could reboot, i can go back to that exact installation and it will not drop out on me.

I'm not running any overclocks on my computer at the moment, i intend too, but not until i fix this problem.

I've changed the Sata ports and HDD cable this morning, so I'm waiting to see if it happens again, touch wood i hope not.

I'll also plug it into it's own power cable tonight and run some more tests at random see if i have solved my mysterious issue.
 
I did a quick google search on your motherboard earlier and there seemed to be a few crash/reboot problems being reported. Several were relating to using the marvell sata controller, so if you were previously using that I'd keep my fingers crossed that that was the problem. Another 'fix' was to disable the on-board sound in the bios.

Good luck tracking it down - it's difficult if it's occasional and unpredictable.

Let us know how you get on.
 
So far so good, I've actually changed the HDD ports on the motherboard, so the hard drive is booting from a secondary port, i did some tests again i unpacked 10 folders and installed their contents and removed them over and over again and the problem hasn't popped up.

So I'm now thinking the port was possibly faulty but the only way to establish that is by linking another hard drive and repeating the process. However, that's another kettle of fish.

I cleared all my event logs and error messages to establish any new ones popping up.

Good news is none so far, better news no Kernel-Errors, and shut downs so I'll see how far i can go.

Bad news though, now steam has given up on me, and wont establish complete integrity of any of my games, all ways seems to be one file missing, completely unrelated to my hard drive problems i hope.

Appreciate the input and help though guys, lets hope its a permanent fix. :)
 
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