PSU or IDE error?

[thegoonden]

So my main windows box is offline while I get the mobo replaced. All I have left is me laptop, and my trusty Linux box. Watching an old Grand Prix about half an hour ago and all the fans on the case stop spinning and the lights go out (strangely NOT the lights on the actual fan controller). I shut the machine down thinking the FC had just burped.
It wouldn't unmount all the drives (uh-oh). Force unmounted and rebooted.


The fans didn't restart, and the machine tried, but could not detect the single IDE drive that's in there. My first thought was the drive had gone pop and tripped the PSU....but after a lot of timing out looking for the IDE drive, the machine fired up pretty much as normal. Then, without a great deal of warning, the lights and fans came back on and when I interogated the drives, there was the happy sound of a drive spinning up and the machine reported 2xSATA and 1X IDE as it should.



What do you think?
one of the 12V lines on the PSU going bad?
Something the drive or IDE controller have done that's upset the PSU?
Fan Controller (AKASA) done something bad? (what makes me think this is that the FC gets it's juice from a single molex....all the fans went down and yet it's own lights remained undimmed).


I suppose the real answer is...if it does it again it's the PSU, otherwise it was just the gremlins.


The PSU is an el-cheapo, but it ran the machine for a year with an 8800GTS then 8800GTX in it, and the CPU clocked daft, yet now it has an 8600GT and a VERY underclocked CPU to run. My linux box is considered a "cushy posting" by my components. No point having an OS that doesn't mysteriously freeze up if the hardware's gonna lose the plot every few weeks.

 

[thegoonden]

Curiouser and Curiouser as Alice said.....

It just did it again.
This time I accessed the IDE drive....it answered back fine.
I accessed each of the SATA drives, as soon as I access the first one of them....the fans lit up and spun up again.

What do you think?
I was toying with the idea that a drive going to sleep was doing it, but the drive answered too fast to be sleeping.

Fan controller gone senile?

 

[Werewolf]

try it sans the fan controller, but my guess is it's quite possibly the psu being on the edge of what it can handle for one reason or another (age, too many devices etc).

 

[thegoonden]

Where's the smilie for near fatal embarrassment?

All it was was that a molex adaptor I'd installed had intermittent contact. Wasn't hanging out, didn't look dodgy, but sitting on the bios screen....wiggle wiggle bzzzzzzt. Pushed it in very hard and rattled the hell out of it....all good. Drives seem unbothered by the cutouts (which, as well as being bloody good news, also makes me feel hopeful that the drives in the windows box have lived through the reboot cycling bios).

Cheers though, If it hadn't been the pillock who built it (hi there), it most likely WAS a PSU giving notice of it's forthcoming release of the magic smoke[1]. But that would have boggled me, cos it's really, along with everything else in that box, been put out to pasture, light loads, freezing temps, easy life.

EDIT: in the best traditions of Scooby Doo, I should add.....
"do that explains why the fan controller remained illuminated but the fans died, the fan controller draws internal power from the 5v and the fans are run from 12v"


[1]You know that all electrical devices are powered by magic smoke don't you....let it out and they stop working, QED!

 

[Corasik]

Glad you sorted it, I've had several systems where the problem ended up intermittant connection on a molex. They are cheap connectors, and although they often feel nice and tight and secure, the cheapest plugs often found on budget PSU's can actually make fairly poor electrical connection.

Talking about the magic smoke, I've always wondered why computer manufacturers use so little smoke. No wonder our computers can often end up a little unstable. My parents Kenwood food mixer let out so much magic smoke it filled the kitchen.... Best of all, after the smoke cleared it still worked! I guess they include a "smoke reserve"!!!