Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
I've had at least three early SATA cables which developed a fault; they seemed to be wobbly in their 'sockets' and showed the symptoms you describe. More recent SATA cables have been OK here so far. IMHO surge protectors are essential for anything with chips or transistors: cheap peace of mind. When my daughter's car battery (original, 9 years old) gave up in the current cold blast, she asked: Do I need a new starter motor? Random replacement of components is expensive and wasteful - with computer stuff just as with cars. Tony Wood (from Linux Mint12 PC) On 06/02/12 18:09, Rob Malpass wrote: Hi all As you may remember from my post last week, my Ubuntu machine's HD died. Despite a brand new HDD I'm having intermittent problems ranging from install failing to complete with another HDD error to the BIOS not detecting the drive at all. I have literally just tried a new SATA data cable and all (so far touch wood!) seems well. The thing is - if the problem persists - what part should I look at replacing next? The PSU? The mobo? Could this be some sort of mains AC problem and would a new surge protector be more the order of the day? I should add I have several other boxes on the same ring main that appear to be working fine. Are these new (yada yada I know I'm not exactly Mr Current Affairs) SATA data cables any better or worse for bad connections than other types of BUS e.g. usb or even pata ide? Cheers Rob -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk -- -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
On 06/02/2012 18:09, Rob Malpass wrote: Hi all As you may remember from my post last week, my Ubuntu machine's HD died. Despite a brand new HDD I'm having intermittent problems ranging from install failing to complete with another HDD error to the BIOS not detecting the drive at all. I have literally just tried a new SATA data cable and all (so far touch wood!) seems well. The thing is - if the problem persists - what part should I look at replacing next? The PSU? The mobo? Could this be some sort of mains AC problem and would a new surge protector be more the order of the day? I should add I have several other boxes on the same ring main that appear to be working fine. Are these new (yada yada I know I'm not exactly Mr Current Affairs) SATA data cables any better or worse for bad connections than other types of BUS e.g. usb or even pata ide? These days, it is PSU's that seem to go bandy more frequently than anything else and it is usually intermittent. I use a PSU testing tool (a half decent one with an LCD display costs around 40 GBP), its proved a great investment. And, I have dealt with a few thousand machines in the past couple of years or so and my findings appear consistent. Hope that helps, Isaac. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
I have never had a PSU fail, but mine are all branded and not on the cheap end. Disks die often, motherboards occasionally but mostly fatally and are normally pretty obvious. Loose cables are a common enough problem. Anton - Anton Piatek (sent from my phone, please excuse any typos) email: an...@piatek.co.uk blog/photos: http://www.strangeparty.com pgp: [74B1FA37] (http:// www.strangeparty.com/anton.asc) No trees were destroyed in the sending of this message, however, a significant number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced. On Feb 6, 2012 7:11 PM, Isaac Close a...@etho.org wrote: On 06/02/2012 18:09, Rob Malpass wrote: Hi all ** ** As you may remember from my post last week, my Ubuntu machine's HD died. Despite a brand new HDD I'm having intermittent problems ranging from install failing to complete with another HDD error to the BIOS not detecting the drive at all. ** ** I have literally just tried a new SATA data cable and all (so far touch wood!) seems well. The thing is - if the problem persists - what part should I look at replacing next? The PSU? The mobo? Could this be some sort of mains AC problem and would a new surge protector be more the order of the day? I should add I have several other boxes on the same ring main that appear to be working fine. ** ** Are these new (yada yada I know I'm not exactly Mr Current Affairs) SATA data cables any better or worse for bad connections than other types of BUS e.g. usb or even pata ide? These days, it is PSU's that seem to go bandy more frequently than anything else and it is usually intermittent. I use a PSU testing tool (a half decent one with an LCD display costs around 40 GBP), its proved a great investment. And, I have dealt with a few thousand machines in the past couple of years or so and my findings appear consistent. Hope that helps, Isaac. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk -- -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
On 06/02/12 20:13, Anton Piatek wrote: I have never had a PSU fail, but mine are all branded and not on the cheap end. Ooh, you don't want to make statements like that Anton - you're just begging for a multiple PSU failure event by putting that in writing! :-) Seriously though, I have had two branded PSUs fail, namely an Antec and a Seasonic, and have also seen no-name efforts seemingly go on forever. Granted paying a bit more for a decent brand should buy you reliability and possibly even a longer warranty, but it is not a guarantee against failure. Sean -- music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel: www.funkygibbins.me.uk -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
On Mon, 2012-02-06 at 20:13 +, Anton Piatek wrote: I have never had a PSU fail, but mine are all branded and not on the cheap end. Probably for the best, in general. Disks die often, motherboards occasionally but mostly fatally and are normally pretty obvious. And the price of disks is currently, disappointingly, high. But the cause is pretty horrific. Damian -- Interlinux Engineering Foundation http://www.interlinux.org.uk Central, non-trading, administration, governance and dissemination of foundation intellectual property and know-how. GPG 945F8E45 signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
I have never had a PSU fail Oh, I have. but mine are all branded and not on the cheap end. I see more cheapie PSUs than branded ones. I see failed examples of both. I don't think I've got nearly enough data to form an opinion of whether or not the branded ones are more reliable. Disks die often, motherboards occasionally but mostly fatally and are normally pretty obvious. Connectors are the most usual type of failure. I've got a failed motherboard in a PC in my office. The machine had a fire[1] in it, so we removed it from the customer and gave them something new. The only thing I can find failed is the USB ports (none of which work at all). But I had a failed motherboard a while back that was caused by a failed PSU. That one wasn't re-usable :-( Vic. [1] Yes, a real fire. There were properly blackened bits inside. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] Dying HDDs
On 06/02/12 19:10, Isaac Close wrote: On 06/02/2012 18:09, Rob Malpass wrote: Hi all As you may remember from my post last week, my Ubuntu machine's HD died. Despite a brand new HDD I'm having intermittent problems ranging from install failing to complete with another HDD error to the BIOS not detecting the drive at all. I have literally just tried a new SATA data cable and all (so far touch wood!) seems well. The thing is - if the problem persists - what part should I look at replacing next? The PSU? The mobo? Could this be some sort of mains AC problem and would a new surge protector be more the order of the day? I should add I have several other boxes on the same ring main that appear to be working fine. Are these new (yada yada I know I'm not exactly Mr Current Affairs) SATA data cables any better or worse for bad connections than other types of BUS e.g. usb or even pata ide? These days, it is PSU's that seem to go bandy more frequently than anything else and it is usually intermittent. I use a PSU testing tool (a half decent one with an LCD display costs around 40 GBP), its proved a great investment. And, I have dealt with a few thousand machines in the past couple of years or so and my findings appear consistent. A most perplexing intermittent fault turned out to be an under spec PSU (older PC) and a second DVD RW drive with a rather high power need. Mostly the PC worked well. But on some occasions, - installation process was typical - there were inexplicable probs. The DVD drive itself was no problem. Nor was the PC, after the DVD drive was removed and the original single CD drive used. A very marginal problem, and only repeatable with many many almost statistical tests. -- alan cocks Ubuntu user -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
