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Thread: Do MSI Boards Kill Hard Drives?

  1. #1
    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    Question Do MSI Boards Kill Hard Drives?

    Might be a stab in the dark here, but I've suffered 3 hard drive failures, each time on MSI boards. First it was a 60Gb DiamondMax Plus 60 which failed on a K7T266 Pro, then a 180Gxp and it's warranty replacement which failed on a MSI 745 Ultra. I know it's nothing conclusive, but the fact that 3 out of the 5 hard drives I have bought have failed, and each time on an MSI board, just got me wondering.

    Any articles on this anywhere?

  2. #2
    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    have you tryed other mobo's? other hdd's? were they all from the same shop? same ide cables used each time? jumpers? dodgy psu? could be anything...

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    All the motherboard can do is send data and control signals via the IDE channels to the drive.

    Now, if invalid signals, or extreme ones are frequently sent, one might think that such a problem would cause a drive failure. However, they will be designed to handle these sorts of errors.

    The only possible situation would be where something is very wrong and causes the IDE controller to fail - but I can't see how signals over the IDE cable could do this really.

    How have the drives died? Physical or controller failure?
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    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    Physical failures, the all started clicking and not getting picked up in the BIOS.

    Different sets of IDE cables used each time.

  5. #5
    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    The fact that they aren't picked up by the BIOS indicates some sort of controller failure.

    I have a Seagate that does similar things. When it tries to read certain parts of the disk, it starts clicking like mad, then drops off the device list for a few minutes while it recovers. I think the controller is encountering some fatal errors resulting in erratic signals being sent to the servo (hence clicking) and ultimately it is resetting itself.

    So, sounds like your drives are doing something similar. I still don't think the mobo had anything to do with it though. If you'd had other drive reliability problems and devices persistantly failing to show up on the IDE enumeration list then I'd be more inclined to point the finger.

    Still, this is certainly an interesting suggestion that bears some investigation.

    What PSU you being using?
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    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    One Maxtor failed on a Chieftec 340w, the IBM died on a generic Eagle PSU, which was then changed for a CWT, where the replacement Hitachi failed again.

  7. #7
    sugar n spikes floppybootstomp's Avatar
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    • floppybootstomp's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P8Z68-V Pro
      • CPU:
      • i7 Sandybridge Quad Core 3.4Ghz
      • Memory:
      • 8Gb DDR3
      • Storage:
      • Corsair 128Gb SSD; 1Tb for games; 500Gb for data
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EVGA Nvidia 1Gb GTX 560
      • PSU:
      • Corsair Modular 620W
      • Case:
      • Antech 900 Gamers Case
      • Operating System:
      • Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • Ben Q EW2730V 27"
      • Internet:
      • Zen as ISP; Linksys Wireless Router; 4 machine network
    I doubt if the make of motherboard is causing problems but I must admit there would be some slight element of doubt as to whether your suspicion is true.

    I think it likely that manufacturers of hard Disks are turning out a lot of sub-standard product. In the last 6 weeks I've had a 120Gb 8Mb cache Western Digital and a Seagate 40Gb Barracuda fail on me. WD is at Scan now, has been since mid January, they agreed to replace it weeks ago, but still haven't got a replacement. The Seagate I sent directly to Seagate in Holland today.

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    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    • nichomach's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3
      • CPU:
      • AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W
      • Memory:
      • 16GB DR3
      • Storage:
      • 1x250GB Maxtor SATAII, 1x 400GB Hitachi SATAII
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Zotac GTX 1060 3GB
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 500W
      • Case:
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    Arggh, Seagate RMA, been there, done that, had a 120GB SATA go south on me last year. Ouch. Talk about DELAY... Didn't get a replacment for ages.

  9. #9
    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    So now we gotta choose hard drives based on who RMAs the quickest, as we expect them to fail?

    I'm gonna buy Maxtors then . . .

  10. #10
    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    • nichomach's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3
      • CPU:
      • AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 95W
      • Memory:
      • 16GB DR3
      • Storage:
      • 1x250GB Maxtor SATAII, 1x 400GB Hitachi SATAII
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Zotac GTX 1060 3GB
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 500W
      • Case:
      • Coolermaster Elite 430
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 20" TFT
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media Cable
    If nothing else, I've rarely seen a Maxtor go wrong.

  11. #11
    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    maxtors rule
    how about power cables? have you used the same or any power splitters with the drives? i had problems with a 120gb and 160gb maxtor which would just keep going on and off. the 160gb drive was new, and also died very quickly. the 120gb still works. the 160gb was rma'ed very quikly by tekheads where i got it, replacement arrived within a few day

  12. #12
    Senior Member
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    When my 40gb IBM drive went, now handled by hitachi, I has to send it somewhere in Europe, cant remember, and I think I would have had a pretty wuick replacement but they didnt have the drive in stock, not suprising since it was over 2 years old. Took them a couple of weeks to get me a newer version of the 40gb drive.
    But once they did dispatch it, it got to me the next day, even though they dispatched it on a Friday, it was marked for Saturday delivery. Very impressive I thought
    Desktop: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton, 1024Mb PC-3200 TwinMOS w/Winbond, MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR, Radeon 9800SE AIW, 40 GB 7,200 Rpm Hitachi Deskstar, 120GB 7,200 Rpm 8mb Cache Maxtor Diamond 9, 160GB 7200 Rpm 8mb Cache Seagate 7200.7 SATA, Plextor 708A 8x DVD-RW, 550W PFC Q-tec PSU, Casetek 1019SM Silver Case, Camdridge Soundworks DTT2200 Speakers

    Laptop: Clevo D470W - 17" Widescreen TFT, Intel Pentium4 3.06Ghz 533FSB, 1024Mb PC-2700 Hynix, Radeon Mobility 9000 64Mb, Fujitsu 80Gb 4,200rpm, 250Gb 7,2000rpm 8mb Cache Maxtor OneTouch, Toshiba SD-R6372 DVD-RW +/- x4, Built-in Four speakers, webcam and microphone

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