Three hard drives down and counting

[ChrisN]

Brand new system with Asus A7N8X-X mobo, AMD Athlon processor.

The first hard drive was a western digital. It immediately started making loud clicking noises when I powered it up.

I returned it and bought a Maxtor diamond Max 80GB drive. This one allowed me to install windows, etc, and then started making clicking noises and locking up. Powermax reported that the drive was failing.

Returned it and got an identical Maxtor drive. Everything worked perfectly for a few days. Since I actually got the pc to boot, and some software installed, I discovered that the system was very unstable. A memory test revealed that the memory stick was bad. After replacing it, all was well.

I sent the computer home with its rightful owner, and he called me almost immediately. As soon as he powered it on, the hard drive started making loud clicking noises and locked up. Powermax revealed that the drive was failing.

How likely is it that this computer destroys three hard drives? Is there any possibility that the mobo or power supply is frying these drives? I've been carefully watching heat, and it seems withing tolerable ranges. HD is about 100 degrees, CPU around 115 degrees. The case has two big fans on it, and the cpu has another.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Nodsu]

Check and/or replace the HD data and power cables. I once killed a floppy drive because the power cable was assembled wrong and 12V went to the 5V pin..

Check the PSU voltage levels too.

 

[bluetracker]

I'd be tempted to buy my replacement HD's from somewhere else...kinda looks as tho your getting sold items as new that have been sent back by others under warranty.

 

[ChrisN]

I will certainly be replacing the data cable. I was using the one that came with the mother board. I'll use the one that comes with the next hard drive. As far as the voltage levels go, wouldn't that have immediately fried the hard drive if it was wrong? How do I check the voltage levels on the psu? It's a 480 watt power source.

 

[Nodsu]

The health monitor part of the BIOS setup should tell you the voltages. So will all kinds of motherboard monitor software. And of yourse you could just use a voltmeter..

 

[Samstoned]

wow that realy bits

back when I was novice I used a 40 pin ribbon on a 133 ide
I lost the drive and 1 mem stick in 2 days
I will never know if this was a coincidence or not becuase i never did it again
very hard to do diagnostics with failing system
there is a pci board made to check hardware from ground up the name escapes me at the moment.