Hardrive Diagnostic (OverTemp)

Judas · Mar 28, 2007, 08:33 PM

Recently had a machine i had built before i had even started my business, come in.

Windows spits out a Corrupt file error, go through the nessary process of running the Hardrive diagnostics utility for the drives.

First drive passes the quick test then fails the long test, bad sectors. (damn)...

2nd drive has a odd note. The diagnostics software states the drive has hit 253*C. Now i'm finding this incredibly hard to beleive as i would expect most drives to fail @ 80*C for sure, and nearly self combust and start melting the PSU cables and other things around it at 253*C ..

Anyone think this is just a flaw in the SMART or diagnostics checking or the drive reporting incorrectly, cause i mean the drive appears to work flawlessly... i'm running a LONG check on it now but no errors yet.

GutterPunk · Mar 28, 2007, 09:46 PM

Thats crazy 253C would probably catch the computer on fire... 487.4F roughly... thats just freakin HOT

Judas · Mar 28, 2007, 10:21 PM

no kidding..

reguardless, this machine is ACTING way way weird with both drives, sometimes they both PASS the long test.. then the next one doesn't... then it will, then it'll get so far and the thing will lock up, then it'll corrupt the program....

i'm realy lost on this one.. And being that Maxtor is no longer, and trying to get the orginal diagnostics for the drive is nearly impossible. Course seagate swears there diagnostic programs works flawlessly with the drive (while it does work and recognize everything, and seems to do the job)

Yeah i would have to say the reading is totally bogus, but it also leads me to beleive the drive is flawed...

Dyre Straits · Mar 28, 2007, 10:36 PM

Judas, have you tried PC Wizard 2007? It gives temps on all the hardware that has sensors for it.

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

You'd have to get it into Windows to use it, though. Not sure if you can do that.

Judas · Mar 29, 2007, 12:34 AM

yeah... i've been using several programs.. the current drive temp is 31*C.... however it still registers that at ONE POINT the drive was 253*C...

Grace · Mar 29, 2007, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

yeah... i've been using several programs.. the current drive temp is 31*C.... however it still registers that at ONE POINT the drive was 253*C...

That's just a SMART bug or some other error. Could be from when the other drive crashed too. Could also be a BIOS bug. It could be anything but real. The register is simply wrong.

The temperature of the drive was never 253*C. The SENSOR cannot read higher than 90-110*C to begin with. Physics wise, a temperature like that in an enclosed shell like a drive would cause...hmm...loud, bad things.

ChaosMinionX · Mar 29, 2007, 06:13 AM

253C would melt the board in a drive.. it wouldnt melt the disk itself though as most are made of cobalt and otehr metals.

PangingJr · Mar 29, 2007, 09:55 AM

my guess goes to the drive's firmware, it has a bug in the existing code.

can you request for warranty repair? or check with the drive maker if a firmware fix is already made available?

Judas · Mar 29, 2007, 05:30 PM

checked.... seagate isn't really helping me out with anything reguarding these 2 drives.

The one that registers 253*C seems to be working very well, the other seems a little slugish, but since retesting in another machine for several hours on end, continuesly looping the thorough long test with no errors at all, i think both drives appear to be working fine since moving them to another controller. I've also done a full Low Lvl Format on both drives just to be sure and another set of long test.

I really think that the IDE controller on the motherboard for the drives just decided to crap out and tried to take the drives with it. I'm going to run some more tests here and see what happens, all i know is that the data on both drives was so utterly corrupted and messed up, the partitions tables alone were unreadable and the mbr was unreadable, and doing a fixmbr or fixboot or chkdsk /p /r resulted in quiting nearly emediately due to sevear problems. Partition Magic couldn't even read the drives right at all. But they seem to be working and being read correctly now.

I've got them back in the orginal PC with a different controller (via atm). Every test like i said, is passing so far.

I'm looking around for a firmware update, but even seagates website doesn't have a damn thing on the model being used. Maxtor 6E030L0 (both are) 30gb ATA133 2mb cache, one of them is actually nearly a full year newer.

PangingJr · Mar 29, 2007, 06:53 PM

if you think this problem (may be) caused by the (may be problem) motherboard, then i would tell him just like that, and if the drives kinda old to you? then i think you probably need to force your customer to buy new drives. he must understand that it's the only best way, and let him decide what he wants to do.
i think, the best you can guarantee... will be all the new hardware you sell him today.

Judas · Mar 29, 2007, 07:07 PM

Well that's the best solution usually all the time.

Reguardless, the man can't afford it, and i'm going to fire up windows on it, let it run for a few days under some pressure.. and then let him take the machine home, use it for a few months and i'll check back in with him to see how it's doing.

I've still haven't had a single long test fail so far yet.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Apr 8, 2007, 07:19 PM

I've seen problems like this... its just the drive misinterpreting a sensor value and this assuming its out of range then reporting that the temperature was at the maximum value the sensor can sense. Following me? I would highly doubt that the drive could even get to that temperature, which you yourself also said to be the case. If a drive gets to around 70-80C, the data will get corrupted and lost. Since this isn't the case it never got to that temperature.

Judas · Apr 9, 2007, 10:31 PM

either case.. the customer is currently using the machine, i haven't charged them for anything at this moment due to some uncertainties.

Reguardless, they will use it for a few months, and i'll be checking in on them on a regular baises to see what's going on.

Mar 28, 2007, 09:46 PM	#2
GutterPunk I = Greatest Dood Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Nebraska Posts: 5,949 Rep Power: 71	Thats crazy 253C would probably catch the computer on fire... 487.4F roughly... thats just freakin HOT __________________ Rock On \m/ Thank you Mousey for the Sig! --------------- Intel Core2Duo E6660 (3.4GHZ) ~ Tuniq Tower 120 ~ Enermax Galaxy 1000W ~ Corsair Dominator @ 1090MHZ 5-5-5-15 (OCZ XTC Modded Cooler)~ EVGA 8800GTX W/ HR-03 Plus 120MM ~ Asus DVD-RW LiteScribe ~ LG DVD-RW ~ Corsair Voyager 2GB ReadyBoost Drive ~ Vantec Nexus Fan Controller ~ ThermalTake Armor 25CM fan ~ Personal Finance Blog: Dent Your Debt

Mar 29, 2007, 06:13 AM	#7
ChaosMinionX USB 3 dot oh Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 1,911 Rep Power: 47 System Specs	253C would melt the board in a drive.. it wouldnt melt the disk itself though as most are made of cobalt and otehr metals. __________________ ::Heatware:: How you can help DriverHeaven by using Digg! Last edited by ChaosMinionX; Mar 29, 2007 at 07:19 PM.

Mar 29, 2007, 09:55 AM	#8
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	my guess goes to the drive's firmware, it has a bug in the existing code. can you request for warranty repair? or check with the drive maker if a firmware fix is already made available?

Mar 29, 2007, 06:53 PM	#10
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	if you think this problem (may be) caused by the (may be problem) motherboard, then i would tell him just like that, and if the drives kinda old to you? then i think you probably need to force your customer to buy new drives. he must understand that it's the only best way, and let him decide what he wants to do. i think, the best you can guarantee... will be all the new hardware you sell him today.

Apr 8, 2007, 07:19 PM	#12
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	I've seen problems like this... its just the drive misinterpreting a sensor value and this assuming its out of range then reporting that the temperature was at the maximum value the sensor can sense. Following me? I would highly doubt that the drive could even get to that temperature, which you yourself also said to be the case. If a drive gets to around 70-80C, the data will get corrupted and lost. Since this isn't the case it never got to that temperature.