Greeting Ken! I have several PCs and Servers running various combinations of IDE, SATA and SCSI HDD units. My gut tells me the problem you are running into may be one of a sudden demand for current by one or more HDD units. Are you letting any of the HDD units "go to sleep" during periods of non-use? Keep in mind there are some HDD units that have that built-in, where an End User can not (easily) monkey with the sleep/awaken options.
I am thinking you may be trying to use a Power Supply with inadequate capacity to meet the demand of one or more HDD units suddenly spinning up from an Asleep State. Most of my Power Supplies are 400 watt, some are larger. I needed to get larger than normal wattage just to make certain I do not bury a Power Supply with collective high demand from more than one demand source (motherboard, internal tape drive, HDD, etc.). The following is a bit lengthy, but it may be of use to you in this situation. I did not realize how much impact a HDD or internal tape drive could have on electrical demand on a Power Supply until I had added a 3rd HDD to a PC that had a boot IDE HDD, data SCSI HDD, CD/DVD Writer, and an internal tape drive. After adding the 3rd IDE HDD for file imaging & backup use I found the PC was rebooting overnight. In looking at the system logs I found it was not a clean reboot, but the bootup occurred soon after the file backup to tape was scheduled to start. I had a Belkin UPS connected and used their Bulldog monitor software to look at the load on the UPS - no problem there. So I repointed the UPS USB cable to my laptop so I could watch the load on the UPS during various points of rebooting, starting the tape, etc., using the Bulldog app on the laptop. I watched in horror as the load on the UPS would take some pretty hard initial hits as the PC first started up. After it was running the load leveled off significantly (whenever a hard drive or tape drive first lights up it demands a lot more current than when already spinning/running). When I started to do a tape backup the demand would spike every time the drive began to "shoe shine" back and forth. And, sure enough, early into the tape backup the PC simply rebooted, immediately after I saw yet another spike occur early into the tape backup routine. The demand was not overloading the UPS, it never hit over 55% load as I recall. So I figured the stock Power Supply was just not up to providing enough juice to all the components when a heavier than normal demand came along looking for its fair share of current. I replaced the stock 300 watt Power Supply with my first 500 watt unit, and the problem was solved. I hope that helps you out! BTW, if you do get a larger Power Supply, look for one with a 3 year warranty or longer. They cost more than an El Cheapo run of the mill Power Supply. But everything in your machine depends on a reliable power source, so I found it is far better to invest once as opposed to buy twice. And, no sense in tossing out the old Power Supply. You may need it for test purposes later on, as a "known good" unit in case you have to trouble shoot a dead PC. Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kenneth Kixmoeller/fh > Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 11:23 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [NF] Disk Drives: SASA & EISE > > > Hey - - - - - --- - - > > Anybody around this morning? > > Hardware question: I'm still having that weird problem with my old > server box: new drives keep popping the power off, like it has a > short. Old drives (which draw more power don't). I'm thinking I can > live without that old machine, as long as I can get some more disk > capacity. I notice that my development box has 4 slots on the > motherboard for SATA drives. > > Can EIDE and SATA drives coexist on one machine? I don't think there > will be a power problem. This machine has a 750 watt power supply. > There are currently 3 EIDE drives -- think that I can add one or two > more SATA drives??? So far the Googling I have done says "yes," but > I'm wondering if any of you have done it? > > Ken > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
