fan and slave hd problems

[SickBoy]

After reading through quite a few of the posts on here, it seems like this would be a pretty good place to ask this....

First, the fan problem:
Recently I moved my computer to a new box (an Antec Lanboy to be exact). My main reason for moving was that it had the 350 watt fan I was looking for, plus an extra fan in the front that sucked air in (my old HP box only had the two in the back). They're the 120mm blue led ones that come with the box.

Everything moved over smoothly and I didn't run into too many issues (except for the hd issue that I'll address later). I've been playing PS and doing my usual stuff on the pc... until this morning. For some reason, the front fan has completely turned off, even though last night (and this last week or so) it has been doing fine. At first I figured it was a loose connection from the fan to the motherboard, but after double checking that I realized it wasn't.

Thinking it might be an outdated bios, I upgraded to the lastest version (American Megatrends Inc. 3.17). I rebooted, and still no success. Then I rebooted again and checked the bios screen, and where it normally shows the fan speed it had a big fat zero (duh).

I've tried everything from updating drives to remaking the box, but nothing seems to work. I checked all the wires and nothing is damaged and both ends are plugged in. The only thing that was iffy about when I first had the fan is that when I checked the speed in the bios, it showed it in red. I'm not sure if that is bad or not (the fan IS a low speed fan, afterall).

Any ideas on how I could fix this?



Now for the hd problem:
As I've said, I just moved my computer. When I moved it, I had two harddrives setup. an 80gb master (it had Windows XP and mostly misc apps on it), and my semi-new 80gb slave (which only contained games. NO operating system, NO normal applications.. just games).

The harddrive was actually installed by people at BestBuy since the harddrive was a gift (this was about 2 months ago). The drive has worked perfectly since then. It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, by the way.

When I moved boxes, the first thing I checked was the harddrives. Both were fine. The computer booted normally and nothing was wrong. Both drives were accessible and both were working as usual.

After that, I turned off the pc as usual and went to bed. When I woke up, the computer wouldn't boot. Or rather, it WOULD boot, but it took roughly 15 minutes to do so. When I'd finally get to my desktop, it would slow down incredibly and eventually freeze.

So naturally, I rebooted... which lead nowhere. Then I checked all my connections and whatnot. Which again, lead nowhere. Then I tried starting Windows in SafeMode. Nope, never loaded. All it does is go through the list of loaded things, and then freezes. I tried loading in SafeMode with Command Prompt. Again, not happenin. After that, I restarted again. Thinking it might be my slave drive, I unhooked it. Boom. The computer worked. (minus having a secondary drive). So I rehooked it back up, and restarted the computer.

This time it came up with a "G: drive needs to be checked for consistency" (the G drive is my slave drive). I figured that I might as well let it do its thing. But that too wasn't going to happen. The first of three steps in that process is verifying the files (if I remember correctly). As it went through the drive, TONS and TONS of parts came up as "unreadable". I'd list the numbers it gave, but that would take quite awhile.

After it gets done with that, it freezes (or at least takes forever to do the other steps). I sat at the computer waiting for it to keep going for about an hour, but it never changed. One of my attempts at this DID supposedly finish, but it was one of the tests I did overnight, so I wasn't there to see what the other steps said. All I know is that once that was done, the computer booted to the desktop and froze like before.

I tried downloading the Seagate DiscWizard program to attempt to reinstall the drive, but the program doesn't work (I get a random memory error when it starts).

I WAS just going to format the drive, but unfortunately I can't even get to a command prompt without it freezing (BY THE WAY, when I have the G drive connected, I CANNOT get into the bios screen. I can push F1 to my heart's content, but it doesn't do anything. When I boot with the G drive in, it stalls at the blue HP screen for a LOT longer than normal and then takes forever to actually load Windows.)

I checked Microsoft's site for updates that I might have missed, and downloaded/installed every single one of the optional ones. I also updated every drive I could on my computer. I checked the Seagate site and tried to reinstall the drive. But none of those things helped.




Perhaps the weirdest issue with both of these problems is that they occurred without me changing anything. They BOTH happened after I turned off the computer and went to bed. "Maybe it's the way you're shutting it down" or "Maybe it's because you're shutting down" you might say, but I've shut down the computer MANY times before this... that includes normal shutdowns, and the horrid random-computer-restart problem I have when playing PS for too long. (this is due, I think, to the fact my PC is overheating. I'm not sure what the average temp. of a computer that isn't overclocked is, but when I crash in PS and check the bios when rebooting, the cpu is about 69c.. which I THINK might be high. *shrug*)

If anyone has ANY advice on this I'd very much appreciate it. If I can't get it fixed, I'll probably just save up some extra cash and take it to someplace around here so THEY can mess with it.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Rbstr]

you got some odd problems there, sady i have no idea about the fan, your probably gona have to repalce it with a new 120mm, as it probably burnt out somehow, quite possible becasue your Mobo was feeding it to much juice, that may accout for the red speed indication.

The HD seems to be putting some kind of strain on the system, and i have an idea. When you unplug it from your system do you unplug the power from it aswell? If so i want you to leave the power plug in but have it not pluged in the Mobo. then tell me the results.

[MattxMosh]

The fans.

Usually fans and such that comewith cases are junk, and things like that happen all the time. I've never had a PSU/Fan that came with a case last more than a month to be honest with you. fans are cheap, just pick up another. Also, after you update your bios, you may have to (and I always do anyway) have to clear your CMOS and reset the settings to what you had. Temps readings may be wrong, fans speeds, voltage readings etc etc, until you do, so, refer to your motherboards manual.

Now the hard drive issue.

Its probably all fucked up. Drives die, it happens new or old. There was lot of text, haha so I skimmed, Ill edit this when I wake up in teh morning, as Im about to go to bed.

It seems since you only have games on it, and you play PS for extended periods of time, and you said it crashes.. You probably overheated the hell out of the drive, lots of drive access and excessive heat combined can be very bad.

AND DAMN COOL THAT CPU DOWN BY ABOUT 20 DEGREES.

I actually have 2 of the same drives, and teh one I run my games off of is shitting the bed, it took 45 minutes for me to boot to windows just last night, checkign the disks and what not. Ill think on it and see if I can come up with anything more conclusive, unless anyone else does.

First thing I'd do though is check the drive in another computer, and if it manages to boot, see what SMART says about it. And listen close for spine tingling noises.

EDIT: Just saw what rbstr said. My drives are a huge power drain, the PSU supplied may not have the juice to power it properly and cause random crashes and corrupt the HD in ways. Now that I think about it, thats more likely than my garbled mess.

BED TIME.

[SickBoy]

How else could I cool down my cpu? I tested it today by having the case completely open and having the fans run. I can't for the life of me figure out any other cooling method. I've had people mention water cooling systems, but I know jack about them. I don't have the pc overclocked at ALL, and I don't have anything running when I play PS.

I *would* try the harddrive on another computer, but right now I don't have access to one that could use it (my other comp is REALLY old and REALLY crappy). I might just have to scrap it. Any ideas on one that would be better? Then again, I probably don't need so many friggin games on my pc at one time. *shrug* just kinda sucks that it's wasted.

As for the fan, I guess I'll grab a new one. Any specific brands you know of that are more durable, but don't cost more than like $50? (120mm fans, that is). It doesn't need to have the blue led lights or anything.. just needs to work better.


Rbstr, I just tried what you suggested, but it does what it usually does.

[Rbstr]

Theres your problem[ to much power is being used, when you plug in the power cable and the System stops working that means you don't have enough power to get it all.

new bigger PSU may fix both problems

[SickBoy]

OH MAN! I just tried to reinstall the drive (which I've tried to do quite a few times before but never worked) and it worked! I still have a longer than normal load time, but I got the thing working!

I think it might be because this time my computer let me run the boot disk for DiscWizard and I was somehow able to get through all the menus to format it before the system locked (which is less than 30 seconds probably). It formatted, and now it works



But I still have the fan and overheating problem. I've been looking for water cooling systems, but the one I was looking at was like $200.... which is out of my price range. Any recommendations on a somewhat cheap but reliable one? (or is it even worth getting?)


**EDIT**
And if you don't think a water cooling system is necessary, could you tell me what you would suggest in the means of fans and a psu?

Here's what I've got right now:
(this is the link to the actual case: http://www.antec.com/us/pro_details_...p?ProdID=15001 )
(this is the link to the psu: http://www.antec.com/pro_details_pow...p?ProdID=25352 )

PSU: Antec 350 watt Smart Blue ATX12V dual fan with blue led
Fan 1: low-speed 120mm fan (rear)
Fan 2: low-speed 120mm blue LED fan (front)


As for what is being cooled, these are my general system specs:

Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600)

Processor:
2.13 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Drives:
160.03 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
124.49 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
HP DVD Writer 300n [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
ST380013A [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 1
WDC WD800AB-22CBA1 [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0

Graphics Card/Monitor:
RADEON 9800 PRO [Display adapter]
RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary [Display adapter]
Mitsubishi NXM76LCD [Monitor] (17.1"vis)

Memory:
1024 Megabytes Installed Memory

Motherboard:
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N8X-LA
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.17



As I've stated before, I've got no overclocking going on in my system and I only run one game/program/etc at a time usually.


****EDIT AGAIN****
I was able to fix the fan finally. It seems the motherboard was touching the actual case without the copper pieces under it (causing a fault in power).

So now I suppose the only thing left to fix is the overheating issue. (although I suppose it'll be quite a bit cooler since I have the fan in the front working)

[MattxMosh]

Well first off make sure the fan in the front is taking air in, and the back is taking air out.

You really dont need to invest in watercooling.

Pick up an SP_97 and a Volcano.

Can't forget some AS5.

I personally wouldnt trust the PSU, or the drives, so keep an eye on em'.

[SickBoy]

Yep, the front fan is sucking in, the back two (or three if you could the dual one as 2) are pushing out.


About the stuff listed: I don't mean to sound like a total moron, but do those come with mounting instructions? I've never replaced a heatsink or cpu fan before. If they DON'T have instructions, do you happen to have a quick link to something that could help me out? (especially on the removal of the old one)

I'm going to go ahead and put in my order for those parts. Thank you both SOOOO much for all the help. It's much appreciated

[MattxMosh]

Originally Posted by SickBoy

Yep, the front fan is sucking in, the back two (or three if you could the dual one as 2) are pushing out.


About the stuff listed: I don't mean to sound like a total moron, but do those come with mounting instructions? I've never replaced a heatsink or cpu fan before. If they DON'T have instructions, do you happen to have a quick link to something that could help me out? (especially on the removal of the old one)

I'm going to go ahead and put in my order for those parts. Thank you both SOOOO much for all the help. It's much appreciated

Instructions are usually included, but it is fairly straight forward. You just take the clips/screws off, depending on your motherboard. Clean the old thermal paste off teh cup with rubbing alcohol. Apply the new thermal paste following the instructions on the artic silver website for you particular cpu, and put the new heatsink on the same way the old one came off. Usually. The manufacturers web sites have good instructions for teh most part too.

[Rbstr]

www.frozencpu.com and www.xoxide.com have big selections of CPU coolers, in lots of price ranges, find one for an Athlon XP(perferably copper)