Upgrade Power Supply?

B

blipndub

New member
Hey all,

Added a second HD to my pc and I'm getting "freeze" ups where I have to turn off power supply and also random power downs.

Do i need to add a higher wattage power supply for the additional HD. Running at 250 wts now. Think i'm just going to replace it but then i wondered about getting a bigger one?

Thoughts?
 
Post the computer specs.

You probably SHOULD up the power supply but this may not be the problem you are having now. Did you run the disk formatting utility? Ez bios?
 
EZ BIOS? No, where do i do that from? win or dos? i did enable "Fail Safe Defaults" in the COSM menu

5400 40 gig WD (primary)
7200 60 gig Maxtor
Anthon 900 mhz
256 RAM
CD-Rom
CD-Writer
Creative Blaster Live with subwoofer/amp powering my monitors
NVIDIA TNT 32mb
 
The Maxtor should come with a utilities disk. Format and run EZ-bios before using the hard drive. To do this start the computer with this disk in the floppy drive, then choose FAT32 for the new disk and run the EZ-BIOS option. This should be the first thing done on any new drive. Transfer any info to the system drive until you finish.

Also, the PS is a bit small for this setup, get a 300 or 350 watter when time/money allow.
 
The install of the maxtor WAS a little rought the disk that came with the drive did not do the deed so i did it manually and with downloaded utilites from maxtor website. However, it's been working for about 3 months without a problem. I use it to run audio off cakewalk that's installed on my primary drive. It's just in the last week that it's been powering off all of a sudden. you can smell it heating up and then bang, done, forget it, good night.

It all seemed to start with a video driver problem...things were freezing up so i reinstalled the drivers and then i couldn't get it to reboot so i reinstalled windows screwed with msconfig and got it going again, but then the power downs happened.
 
The Maxtor drives aren't always the best. I've had a couple die on me quite prematurely. Can you burn the audio off to CD's? Backup now!!

Then try wiping the drive and starting over, if it is going bad that'll push it over the edge. Don't use a questionable drive.
 
Believe it or not, it worked!

I ran out and bought a $30 300 watt power supply, took 20 minutes to hook it all up and so far no crashes, PLUS i think i've got improved performance; cd drive is spinning faster and more consistently than before and HD access seems to be improved.

Not saying for sure that all is well, but i tripped all it's triggers and it stayed among the living.

I think i had a bad box, underpowered or otherwise.
 
cooling!

hey man,
You might also want to consider getting a couple case fans if you don't already have on in there. The cooler your equipment is the more efficiently it will run. I would suggest at least one 80mm intake and exhaust fan. Try to keep your cables tucked away to allow for maximum airflow. The Athlons put out some heat. Overheating will cause all of the things you described above..lock-ups, crashes, less efficient power consumption..making the power supply have to work harder..and finally POOF!
dlv
 
As you have discovered, 300 watts is the minimum recomended power supply for an Athlon system. Go to the AMD website for more details.

I have owned several Maxtor drives over the years and have not had any unusual problems with any of them. I have had some fail but only after many years of service.

I would NOT use the Maxtor software for formatting. Use the built-in OS programs instead (which vary depending on what OS you are using). I put up a rather extensive post awhile back giving my reasons. Do a search for "Disk Manager" and you should find it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top