Static killer?!

cozm01 · 4 Jan 2007 at 02:19

My three hard disks died in one day, but what caused it? static? faulty psu? ???

I built a new system with one HD:
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 SLI
EVGA nForce 680
Samsung SpinPoint T HD400LJ 400GB SATA-II

Then added two HD's from old system, both Western Digitals:
Raptor 74gb (WD740GD)
Caviar SE 200gb (WD2000JD)

None of the drives would show in my new system, so I put my two old drives back in old system, one drive showed briefly, but since theres been nothing in bios, off any of the three drives, on any system.

So I borrowed a Western Digital 250gb (WD2500JS) and... it worked first time, on both systems, on any sata port.

Both of the WD's were working fine before taken out of old system. The drives were only out for a few minutes, never left the room. So whats up?

Bases covered:
- Kept touching my case(while it was plugged in and powered off at AC) to reduce chance of static charge.
- The three drives were installed and tested one at a time, so I guess that rules out one big freak surge.
- Jumpers correct afaik, have tried all combinations.
- Sata power and sata cables correctly installed and working.
- Didn't hotplug.

My old mobo P4C800-E is SATA-I and my new is SATA-II

PLEASE HELP! :cool:

t31os · 4 Jan 2007 at 02:24

Did you remember to discharge the static from the PC before touching parts, or leaving it off for a little while is enough.

If you literally shut down the PC then take it apart you'll have residue charge left over, easily removed by hitting the Power On button the PC while its switched off, at the PSU or wall, whichever.

Can you test your problem HDDs in another system?...

Werewolf · 4 Jan 2007 at 02:43

For the 3 hard drives to die at the same time I would suspect a PSU issue, you would have to be extremely unlucky for static to kill a drive, let alone 3 at about the same time (unless you sit wearing a wooly jumper, stroking a large white persian pussy, taunting Mr Bond whilst fitting them).

cozm01 · 4 Jan 2007 at 02:45

t31os said:
Did you remember to discharge the static from the PC before touching parts, or leaving it off for a little while is enough.

If you literally shut down the PC then take it apart you'll have residue charge left over, easily removed by hitting the Power On button the PC while its switched off, at the PSU or wall, whichever.

Can you test your problem HDDs in another system?...

Yes, spent a lot of money on the system so was sure to discharge myself on metal casing and leave a few seconds after lights/power turned off. I was quite cautious, this is why I'm still suprished and questioning if its static.

cozm01 · 4 Jan 2007 at 02:50

Werewolf said:
For the 3 hard drives to die at the same time I would suspect a PSU issue, you would have to be extremely unlucky for static to kill a drive, let alone 3 at about the same time (unless you sit wearing a wooly jumper, stroking a large white persian pussy, taunting Mr Bond whilst fitting them).

Anyway too test or verify this, I'm not sure sure which PSU got them, my old or new, guess it be my new. Would it have just affected the hard drives though, sound card, gfx card, dvd drive, ram, cpu, mobo, fans, all fine afaik.

SiriusB · 4 Jan 2007 at 03:03

cozm01 said:
Anyway too test or verify this, I'm not sure sure which PSU got them, my old or new, guess it be my new. Would it have just affected the hard drives though, sound card, gfx card, dvd drive, ram, cpu, mobo, fans, all fine afaik.

PSUs are funny things when they go BANG or ffzzzt. You could be lucky and nothing will be wrong, or you could be **** out of luck and everything gets fried or somewhere in between.

SiriusB

t31os · 4 Jan 2007 at 04:08

Thats assuming it is the PSU, you should be able to run the new parts on the older PSU for testing, if its a quite low wattage, just don't load too much on it, should be sufficient for testing though.