Member Avatar for BayGuy27

I have an issue where a recently purchased Maxtor 160GB IDE hard drive is not allowing a specific PC to start. When the power wire is plugged into the Maxtor drive and the PC is started, the tower starts to power up for about 1 to 3 seconds, then the tower shuts down. The tower does not even get to load POST.

I initially thought it was the HD, but this issue is not happening on other PC's I've tried it on. Also, the drive passed a manufacturer hard drive test. When the PC does boot with the drive plugged in (which seems at random at this point, and rare), the drive functions fine. Also, other hard drives work in my PC without a problem. I've tried all 4 power wires plugged into the Maxtor drive with the same results. Having the IDE BUS wires plugged in or not has no efffect. The drive initially had no startup problems for the first 3 weeks after I've purchased it, then this started happening. I then thought maybe it was the power supply that's causing the problem but it's this specific drive that's only causing this problems, so I am not 100% sure.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dave

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A compact troubleshooting checklist and expert notes for (and to follow up on 's PSU angle). The goal is to separate a power-supply overload from a drive-caused short or connector/cable fault without repeating steps already tried.

  • Visually inspect the drive PCB and connectors for burnt components, lifted solder joints, hairline cracks, or damaged Molex/IDE pins. Use a magnifier and good light.
  • Remove the drive from the chassis and power the system on with the drive sitting on a nonconductive surface (cardboard or plastic). This quickly rules out a chassis short caused by the drive touching metal.
  • Power the drive independently if possible (external IDE-to-USB dock or bench PSU). An independently powered test isolates the system PSU and shows whether the drive itself causes an overcurrent on spin-up.
  • Check jumper settings and try the drive as the only IDE device on a known-good cable and port (swap the cable). Faulty cables or incorrect jumper modes can cause erratic behaviour early in POST.
  • If you have access to a bench supply or clamp meter, observe spin-up inrush current. Excessive or very unstable spin-up current points to a failing motor/PCB assembly rather than a motherboard issue.
  • Reset CMOS/BIOS to defaults and ensure any power-management or legacy IDE settings are standard. A BIOS update is rarely required but can help obscure edge cases.

If intermittent boots allow access to data, image the drive immediately to another disk. Do not open the drive enclosure (this voids warranty). If independent-power testing or visual inspection shows PCB damage or the drive repeatedly forces shutdowns, prepare for an RMA or replacement and provide the vendor with the failure symptoms, motherboard and PSU models, and the test steps you performed.

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Member Avatar for nizzy1115

It could be the power supply not having enough power for that whole system. Thats what i would make out of it.

Member Avatar for BayGuy27

Thanks for the reply.

I thought that as well but I took out a few PCI cards, CD drive, DVD drive, and other hard drives and the issue is still happening. Also removed my video card to see if the computer would stay powered on, and it did. I am going to try another power supply, but I find it hard to believe that that is where the problem lies.

Note my computer is relatively newer, AMD Athlon 2200+, 512 MB RAM.

Dave

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