Western Digital Cav 16 SATA II 320 GIG on FIRE!

papito · Post by **papito** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:44 pm

My hard drive is registering 56 Degrees C on 2 different hard drive monitoring programmes.

I have it set up in a large Antec P-180 case with 2 120 mm fans running. I'm running a Scythe Ninja fan with the Ninja itself and a Nexus. I have only the 1 DVD drive installed and the rest is just empty space. I can't understand why this sonofagun is on fire? Anyone help me out here? Ta

Redzo · Post by **Redzo** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:30 pm

Seems like a bad drive. It should NOT be that hot ! Did you try any WD software ? Try downloading from here http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp
and if it still reports same temp then RMA the damn thing. I would NOT have anything of value on that drive. It will fail pritty soon.

shimq1 · Post by **shimq1** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:35 pm

When I read the thread title, I thought your hard drive literally was on fire. LOL...

tempeteduson · Post by **tempeteduson** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 1:43 pm

shimq1 wrote:When I read the thread title, I thought your hard drive literally was on fire. LOL...

Same here! I was hoping for a pic of a flaming beast... LOL. Anyways, I would RMA that thing right away. Not safe to keep data on it any longer, IMO.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:14 pm

papito wrote:My hard drive is registering 56 Degrees C on 2 different hard drive monitoring programmes.

I have it set up in a large Antec P-180 case with 2 120 mm fans running. I'm running a Scythe Ninja fan with the Ninja itself and a Nexus. I have only the 1 DVD drive installed and the rest is just empty space. I can't understand why this sonofagun is on fire? Anyone help me out here? Ta

It's definitely possible that the HDD is not in the airflow path. If it is mounted in the upper chamber, and you're using one of the two 120mm exhaust vent position but have not blocked off the other, there is virtually no air which comes in through the front vent. The exhaust fan pulls from the nearest vent -- which in this case would be the other 120mm hole. Even if the fan on the Ninja is closer to the front, unless it is running fairly fast, it may be too far from the front vent hole for it to actually draw much air from there.

Just block the other120 exhaust vent temporarily and see what happens. If the above is going on, then the front vent should act as an intake now and the HDD temp should drop.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:15 pm

WD HDD's often have miscalibrated temp sensor; have you tried the finger test? At 56C you shouldn't be able to touch it for more than a couple of seconds.

Candor · Post by **Candor** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:01 pm

I was having the same problem yesterday with my harddrive (on foam, in the upper drive cage.) The lack of airflow took it to 55 degrees, which is much hotter than it should be running. As a temporary solution, I just stuck a fan into the drive cage to give it some air. This dropped the temp by 20 degrees celcius. I'm not content with the added noise, and will be figuring out a new method shortly. But I was amazed at what a little airflow can do for a drive.

papito · Post by **papito** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:16 pm

In an update to this situation I decided to take drastic action!

I gutted the insides and started again.

1. I taped down most of the cables to the case.
2. The HD went from upper compartment to lowest opposite PSU
3. I installed a fan on the upper exhaust and one opposite the Scythe Ninja
4. Finally installed a 3rd fan between PSU and HD undervolted at 7V.

Result:

CPU temp = 34 deg C
Case temp = 35 deg C
HD temp = 32 deg C

...And a happy Papito!!!

The hard drive temp fell by an amazing 24 deg C
The CPU/Case temps fell by an amazing 10 deg C

The case is cold to touch, but the problem is the darn 7V fan is too loud! Oh well suppose one cant have a silent cold PC. Either one or the other huh?

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:41 pm

With such a low HDD temp, you obviously have some headroom the reduce the fan speed a bit more. Why not run it at 5V? I bet you'd still have <40C HDD temp.

fyleow · Post by **fyleow** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:54 pm

MikeC wrote:
papito wrote:My hard drive is registering 56 Degrees C on 2 different hard drive monitoring programmes.

I have it set up in a large Antec P-180 case with 2 120 mm fans running. I'm running a Scythe Ninja fan with the Ninja itself and a Nexus. I have only the 1 DVD drive installed and the rest is just empty space. I can't understand why this sonofagun is on fire? Anyone help me out here? Ta
It's definitely possible that the HDD is not in the airflow path. If it is mounted in the upper chamber, and you're using one of the two 120mm exhaust vent position but have not blocked off the other, there is virtually no air which comes in through the front vent. The exhaust fan pulls from the nearest vent -- which in this case would be the other 120mm hole. Even if the fan on the Ninja is closer to the front, unless it is running fairly fast, it may be too far from the front vent hole for it to actually draw much air from there.

Just block the other120 exhaust vent temporarily and see what happens. If the above is going on, then the front vent should act as an intake now and the HDD temp should drop.

I've tried the upper cages with 2 HDDs and blocked off the top vent. The rear vent had a Globewin running at 5v. Even at idle my HDDs shot up to 55C, I saw the HDD temps posted on the SPCR article and I was actually surprised. I think it had a 5v Nexus exhausting, top exhaust blocked and HDD temps were under 40C.

With the Nexus/Globewin pushing so little air at 5v I would have expected most of the airflow to come from the holes near the PCI cards and not through the front air vent where the drive cage is. At least the airflow would be pretty minimal and the drives would still reach high temperatures.

I have a 150gb Raptor and a 300gb 7200.9 Seagate on the lower drive cage where the PSU is right now. I have a Globewin fan @ 5v and my temps at idle right now for both drives are 49C according to SMART readings. I can confirm the SMART readings are somewhat correct because the drives are hot to the touch.

Ambient room temperature right now is 29C

GrayBeard · Post by **GrayBeard** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 7:47 am

I have 3 drives in the lower bay with the fan running at lowest speed. Without the fan, the drives were running in the mid 50's and with the fan they cruise in the 30-35C range. Amazing what a bit of air will do.

I also suggest a $.99 fan grille to keep the drive wires out of the fan. A stalled fan is worse than none at all.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 9:39 am

In an update to this situation I decided to take drastic action!

I gutted the insides and started again.

1. I taped down most of the cables to the case.
2. The HD went from upper compartment to lowest opposite PSU
3. I installed a fan on the upper exhaust and one opposite the Scythe Ninja
4. Finally installed a 3rd fan between PSU and HD undervoted at 7V.

Result:

CPU temp = 34 deg C
Case temp = 35 deg C
HD temp = 32 deg C

Wow, that's an amazing story, it just goes to show that good airflow design really can make the difference between a cool, stable comp and premature component death.

Western Digital Cav 16 SATA II 320 GIG on FIRE!

Western Digital Cav 16 SATA II 320 GIG on FIRE!

Re: Western Digital Cav 16 SATA II 320 GIG on FIRE!

Re: Western Digital Cav 16 SATA II 320 GIG on FIRE!