Red hard drive light oddity

[AlanK]

Gents,
A couple of days ago whilst on my FS computer, (FS9, XP, Asus mb, 1 internal 750 GB HD, 650w power supply, 4GB ram, 1GB NVIDIA graphics card), one of the fans, not sure which one, started revving up. It wasn't going nutty but I closed the thing down within a minute or so and decided to do an overdue clean of it's innards the following day. Cleaning done, (it needed it but was not as much as I thought it might), I plugged it all back in and started it up. Then, as now, everything worked ok save for the red hard drive light staying on. (It was off until I started the sim'.) The system idle process shows zero or one percent usage with various folders open when not being "touched" and the hard drive itself does not thrash around of its own accord. The air coming out of the fans is cool, all the programmes run fine and there is no extra noise etc from the fans. The only odd thing that has happened was on one occassion whilst looking left out of the Meteor T7 the wing was not there only the aileron which was where where the leading edge should be. I closed the sim, restarted it and it was fine for the next hour or so until I closed down. (I was making some scenery during the whole of this three hour session so was in and out of the sim' on numerous occassions.)
The light staying doesn't seem to make any difference but obviously I'd feel better if it went off when it should.
The machine is about five years old and I wonder if the battery on the motherboard needs changing. I can't find the original docs' and diagrams for the thing and therefore don't know if it is the battery warning light. The company I purchased it from, (Cube), has gone bust so I can't ask them.
I'm happy that everything is seated/connected ok and it takes the same time to boot and to close down as it did before.
I'm baffled as to what is going on and would appreciate any help or advice you might have.
Regards,
Alan

[TSR2]

Hi Alan,

I'm assuming the red light your talking about is the one on the computer case? If so, this light will also light up if there is activity on the CD or DVD ROM drive. If you try switching the computer off and disconnecting the CD / DVD ROM and see if you get the same problem? Also, can you tell us the make and model of both the hard disk and the motherboard please?

Cheers,

Ben

[AlanK]

Ben,
Thanks for the reply.
Yes the red light is on the computer case at the front.
From what I can see in the device manager the hard disk is only stated as ST3750840AS. (From googling it appears to be a Seagate.) Apologies for being stupid but I don't know how to find the info on the motherboard. If you could point me in the right direction I will track it down. I have an Intel(R) Core(TM)2duo CPU [email protected], (two entries in the device manager), with an Optiaric DVD/RW/ AD-7200S.
I will try disconnecting the CD/DVD as suggested though I won't be able to do so for a few hours as I have to go out. There were no discs in the drive when this problem started and none since then. Don't know if that makes any difference.
Something else that may have a bearing on this if it is the DVD drive is that about six months ago the thing started refusing to play DVD's or film clips, AVI, DIVX, MPEG etc. No matter what I opened them with, Media Player, Divx or Nero the screen would flicker badly and then crashed if could not close the prog' in time. Music CD's play with no problem and I'm still able burn music/info CD's and DVD's. Still not been able to sort this out despite removing/reloading the progs' and codecs.
Once again thanks for the reply and apologies for being a pain.
Regards,
Alan

[TSR2]

Not a pain at all Alan, these CD / DVD drives are often (although not always) the root of much evil.

[AlanK]

Ben,
You are, sir, a genius.
I disconnected the DVD/CD drive, turned everything back on and, wonder of wonders, no red light. Made two flights in the sim' closing and restarting between the two and no problems at all. Oddly enough if anything there was less red light than usual.
The next question is, of course, what do I do with the DVD/CD drive now; if I connect it again will it sort itself out on rebooting or do I have to do something techy to remedy it? I could probably live without it but any further advice you could offer would be very gratefully received. A possible complication in any fix might be that the computer is not and never has been connected to the net which is probably why it it still running ok after all this time.
(By the way when I had the thing open I saw G31-M7 TE ver6.1 printed on the motherboard. I've just googled this and see it's a Biostar and not an Asus. Not surprised that the company went bust.)
Again, many thanks for your help.
Regards,
Alan

[TSR2]

Hi Alan, a lucky guess, partly down to the fact that I seem to go through DVD Rom drives a lot, and I rarely use them . If you can, I'd bin the drive and get a replacement.

Glad your sorted

[AlanK]

Ben,
You are far too modest! Great call.
I don't use the thing much either. Wonder why they cause all this bother?
One more question and I promise I'll leave you alone.
Anything I particularly need to look out for when buying a new one? The ones at Maplins for instance all mention SATA. Would they be ok or do I have to look for something else to go with my "Biostar but supposed to be ASUS motherboard".
As ever any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Alan.

[TSR2]

Hi Alan, you'll need something that directly replaces the one you've got. If this has a ribbon cable (usually grey) going into the back of it, you'll need an IDE (sometimes refered to as PATA) one. If the one you have at the minute is SATA (small black spade type connector) then its a SATA one you want.

A typical SATA one....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-AD-5280S-0 ... 12&sr=8-13

An IDE one...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liteon-IHAP122- ... 478&sr=1-1

[DaveB]

Jumping in if I may..

I seem to have got through a number of DVD drives too Ben. I've bought LiteOn for years but my sata drive was only a couple of years old when it failed (it failed before then.. it took me a while to replace it) and the one on my XP3200 is also playing up I've just replaced the LiteOn in this pc with a cheap and cheerful LG sata drive (under £20) and I have a new Samsung SH-222AB (even more cheap and cheerful at £11.65ex vat) to go into a new build pc Basically.. the last 2 LiteOn drives have failed prematurely as far as I'm concerned.
My HD light on this pc is like a heart beat btw.. blink, blink.......blink, blink.......

ATB
DaveB

[TSR2]

Yes Dave, they just dont seem to last anymore. I remember Pioneer drives always where supposed to be the best of the bunch, but my last one (a £14 Sony number) is still working 18 months on, so fingers crossed.