[grumpe]

Hey all,

Have a Gateway 817 GM media center PC running XP. Iy cam with a seagate 200 gig SATA drive. On saturday we had a massive power outage that was proceeded by a surge. The surge protector popped and I thought all was fine. The machine will power up and the fans kick on but the drive will not start or spin for that matter. I pulled it out and put it in my other Gateway (500 GR) that was not on during the failure. The drive spins and it entered a recovery screen. I shut it down and then put it back in the original machine. The fans spin but nothing from the drive.

I know just enough to get myself in trouble so have stopped tinkering. Any ideas out there as to a next step? At first I thought the drive must just be toasted but it seems there may be more going on too.

Thanks for any help you can give.

The PC info is as follows:

Desktop
Gateway 817GM Media Center Computer [Part #4548]
Hard Drives - Find Upgrades
200-GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive [Part #102016]
Media Card Reader
8-in-1 Media Card Reader [Part #100712]
8-in-1 Media Card Reader [Part #101313]
Memory - Find Upgrades
MEM DDR 256MB PC3200 [Part #102013] Support Docs

Motherboards
Intel (Augsburg) No CPU Motherboard R0 [Part #102007]


The drive info is as follows:
Performance
Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)
Buffer Size 8 MB
Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal)
Contact Start/Stop Cycles 50,000 minimum
Read Seek Time (Average) 8.9 ms
Write Seek Time (Average) 10.9 ms (average)
Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)
Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average)
Buffer To Host Transfer Rate (Serial ATA) 1,200 Mbits/s (Max)
Buffer To Disk Transfer Rate 748 Mbits/s (Max)
Physical
Number of Heads (Physical) 5
Formatted Capacity 200,049 MB
Capacity 200 GB
Interface SATA
Actuator Type Rotary Voice Coil
Number of Platters 3
Bytes Per Sector 512
User Sectors Per Drive 390,721,968
Servo Type Embedded
Dimensions (H × L × W) 1.028 × 5.787 × 4.00 Inches (26.1 × 147 × 101.6 mm)
Weight 1.60 Pounds (0.73 kg)
Environmental
# Shock (Read) Operating: 65G, 2 ms
# Non-operating: 250G, 2 ms
# Acoustics Idle Mode: 34 dBA (average)
# Seek Mode 0: 36 dBA (average)
# Seek Mode 3: 35 dBA (average)
# Temperature Operating: 41° F to 131° F (5° C to 55° C)
# Non-operating: -40° F to 149° F (-40° C to 65° C)
Relative Humidity
# (Non-Condensing) Operating: 5-95%
# Non-operating: 5-95%
# Altitude Operating: 1,000 feet to 10,000 feet (-305 M to 3,050 M)
# Non-operating: 1,000 feet to 40,000 feet (-305 M to 12,200 M)
# Vibration Operating:

* Linear: 10-300 Hz, 3.0G (0 to peak)
* Random: 10-300 Hz, 0.008 g2/Hz

# Non-operating:

* Low Frequency: 5-20 Hz, 0.195 inches (double amplitude)
* High Frequency: 10-300 Hz, 5.0G (0 to peak)

Electrical
# 12 VDC Read/Write: 510 mA
# Idle: 510 mA
# Standby: 20.5 mA
# Sleep: 20.5 mA
# 5 VDC Read/Write: 575 mA
# Idle: 550 mA
# Standby: 200 mA
# Sleep: 200 mA
# Power Dissipation Read/Write: 9.000 Watts
# Idle: 8.750 Watts
# Standby: 1.200 Watts
# Sleep: 1.200 Watts

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first thing i would do is see if you can set up the drive as a slave in the other machine and copy off all the important data just to be safe...

second...if you have another sata drive that you can test in the "toasted" machine...and see if it's the board or the drive..

[dsenette]

first thing i would do is see if you can set up the drive as a slave in the other machine and copy off all the important data just to be safe...

second...if you have another sata drive that you can test in the "toasted" machine...and see if it's the board or the drive..

[grumpe]

Never thought of going the other direction with the drives.

Thanks and will try that tonight too.

Eric

[dsenette]

also...check to see if the drive is being detected in bios...

[p-zero]

I had a problem with my SATA drive also. I wasnt due to a power outage, but this might be your problem as well. The power cable that went to the drive was going bad, sometimes the drive would boot, mostly it wouldnt. I replaced the cable, havent had any problems with it.
Just a thought.
-Pete.

[grumpe]

Discovered a friend with a power supply tester. He thought it would be a godd place to start so I plugged it in. It is a CompUSA unit (ATX 12v V2.0).

Anyway when I plugged it into the 24 pin motherboard connector this is what I got:
One short beep.
+5v was solid green LED
+3.3v was solid green LED
-12v was solid green LED
PG was solid green LED
+12v was solid green LED
+5VSB was solid green LED
-5v was NOT lit

The instructions say it power is good all LED will light and you get a beep, if power is bad you will not get a beep and one or more LED will not light. So I have a mixed result with one LED out but I get the beep.

Plugged in the molex cable and get solid green LED on +5v and +12v which per the instructions is positive for good power (BUT -5v is still not lit).

Unplugged the Molex and plugged in the P4 and get solid green LED for +12v.

Unplugged the P4 and plugged in the SATA power cable and get solid green LED on everything but -5v and +5v.

Any comments?

eric

[grumpe]

Well I think I figured out the mixed results. I powered down my other gateway and tested the power supply in it. Got the same exact results so I would say the LED for -5v is bad in the tester.

Will try swapping cables and drives later tonight. Better get some work done.

Also, the machine in question does not start to boot so no way I can tell if BIOS is recognising.

My thoughts turn now to the mother board or memory or combination of events. Hope testing the known good drive in the ailing machine sheds some light.

Thanks all and keep coming with advice if you have any.

Eric

[grumpe]

Figured it out. I swapped the good drive into the bad machine and got nothing. Since they were sitting right here I figured what the heck and tried p-zero's thought about the cables. Swapped the SATA cable and bingo! Everything worked again. Ran over to Best Buy and picked up a new cable.

Thanks folks!

Eric

[dsenette]

glad it was something simple..thanks for letting us know

[p-zero]

Glad to help. 8)
-Pete.