Family Member Computer Problem (1 Viewer)

[Adam Sanchez]

Hello PC owners.

Here I am with another PC problem post, but not mine this time! This post has sort of 2 parts to it so bear with me. Also alot of this information for the moment I'm getting second hand. My brother has been having computer issues and has been texting/calling me for help. Not having a chance to get out and see him yet to try and help, I can't do too much. I'm hoping to stop by tomorrow to see him.

His system, not terribly elaborate, was built by me, the last change being maybe a year ago, probably sooner. Standard Motherboard, I believe the brand is ECS Elitegroup. LGA 775 cpu, a 2.4 Ghz P4. 1 SATA Hard drive, 2 IDE DVD drives, 1 player, 1 burner. While I am no PC expert myself, I know my way around the insides more than him.

The problem he just had, and has had way too often is a hard drive failing. Again. Again being the keyword. He, by our estimates changes hard drives about 2 times a year, though this last one did seem to last a bit longer, maybe a year but certainly no more. It was also his first SATA drive, if that should matter.

He has played World of Warcraft alot. I mean ALOT. Can one use a system so much it simply runs the components down faster than the normal lifespan? I use my desktop pretty extensively, for gaming, work, whatever, and the only time I've replaced a drive is because I wanted to, knock on wood. But his will just...fail. Usually begins with freezes, and resets, and eventually a clicking. I think last week he even told me he heard that dreaded cpu overheating alarm. I'm sure anyone who has heard it knows what I mean!

So his current drive has failed. This weekend he went to get a new one. Went to install it and the system simply will not see his new drive, at all. It only shows the 2 IDE optical drives. The system just wont awknowledge the new drive in any form. He knows it's getting power, he's tried both SATA plugs his system has, but no change. Even went back to the old drive just to see, and it's doing the same thing.

Any suggestions? LIke I said I'm going to try and head over there tomorrow, but wanted to get an idea of what could be going on. I realize this may be hard to do, all of this information being second hand.

To the original problem, what could be causing him to go through drives relatively quick? What are some common things that cause drive failure?

 

[FrankT]

Just a guess but I would think that heat is the issue. I think he needs to get better fans or better air flow in his case.

Note recognizing the drive: For starters I would check the Bios to see if anything is going on there. I would then unplug the other IDE optical drives until you get the hard drive working. Just a few easy ideas that I would try, off the top of my head.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Thanks. It being heat has crossed my mind too. But his system does have pretty good flow, he has even had the side panel off.

Could a lousy PSU cause these problems? We just discovered recently that his PSU was rated very badly. It's an Ultra X Connect and I know he has had it through at least his last to hard drives.

 

[Clinton McClure]

A bad PSU can kill system components. He might want to look into getting a better PSU and see if that helps.

 

[nolesrule]

Removing the side panel is actually worse for air flow, unless you are blowing an external fan directly into the computer using the open side.

What creates good airflow with the fans is high velocity air movement through small openings. Think of blowing air with you mouth. Is it more effective to blow on something with your mouth wide open or through the small aperture of pursed lips?

A bad PSU could cause any kind of electrical damage that could lead to this kind of damage, but so could overheating. A WoW junky needs extra protection due to high use of CPU as well as GPU or you could risk an overheat. You mention the case has good airflow, but is that in theory or in practice? You make no mention of where the case is kept, so even with a well-designed in-box ventilation system can be made useless by bad case placement.

Insufficient system power, bad power and poor ventilation are the 3 biggest issues in DIY computers.

 

[Eric_L]

I had a problem with my MOB seeing my sata drive. Turns out that the mobo has it's own sata drive that has to be installed with a separate disk during the windows installation process. TO make matters worse - the driver was hidden several layers deep in the driver disk. I ended up having to copy it and burn it to CD on another computer. SiS boards SuK.

 

[Parker Clack]

Did he try changing out the SATA drive cable? Or just unplugging the cable from the MOBO and then plug it back in and start up the system? What does the BIOS see? Sounds to me like with the HDs he goes through he definitely needs a higher watt PSU. Have you looked into getting him a chiller for his CPU?