The HD was indeed a 200GB WD model, one of the first ones. I scoured several forums, which pointed to a production/design/firmware issue with those drives. It got replaced by a different (SATA instead of IDE) much newer 200GB drive.

Updated list of related url's:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...s-ticking.html
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread35827.html
http://www.motherboardpoint.com/t150...otal-loss.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hard..._21967824.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hard..._21524186.html
http://www.gatago.com/uk/comp/homebuilt/17455915.html

For completeness, the PSU model is a Bestec ATX 250 12Z Rev C

Obviously, call centres only deal with problems, so you don't get to hear about all the satisfied customers, but from the moment machines started being sold in the stores with 200GB drives there were clearly issues.

It was so common for machines to be DOA (just not working from the moment they were switched on). You just build up an impression based on that.

And if they worked at the start, they'd die within weeks or months.

Scary.

One piece of advice: back up your data regularly.

As these drives get bigger, people are less inclined to back up and more inclined to save stacks of personal stuff. With the apparent increased risk of failure, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

The problem is; How do you properly back up 200GB+ of data? I'm thinking of getting a MyBook Pro of 500GB for the job, but it will set me back 250 euro, which is quite expensive for just a backup (on the other hand, it is not, since losing data is way way more expensive). Too bad there aren't any Terrabyte Perpendicular drives out.

I just went by a friend, and hooked his PSU's ATX connector in my Motherboard (he had one of those handy ATX extensions cords lying around). When I pressed the power-button, the case fan and cpu fan started spinning, so I'm inclined to think that a cap on a non-12V line or the overload protection on one of those line's of my PSU is broken.

I know what you mean. HDDs are way too unreliable to trust as a primary backup, and yet they are also way too big to be backed up economically (timewise and DVD-wise).

Problem solved with a new PSU :cheesy:

HP Pavillion PC dead...will not turn on at all. Removed the power supply from the PC entirely. The led on the back of the supply is lit when plugged in. No voltages are present at the connectors. The led does not blink it is solid green. It remains green for about 30 seconds after unplugged. Is the power supply bad (no voltages) eventhough the led stays lit solid indicating it is good?