burning hard drive

[camo123]

I installed a Gigabyte 8400 gs video card in my computer. I have an Asus M4A78LT-M LE mother board and a 600 watt diablotek power supply with 8 gigs of ram. My hard drive burned up. I thought it was a fluke. I removed the video card and installed another hard drive. About three months later i reinstalled the video card and burned that hard drive. Can anyone tell me what is going on here?

 

[USAFRet]

600 watt diablotek power supply

Power supply tier list:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true

Diablotek is in the bottom tier. Replace ASAP.

 

[camo123]

600 watt diablotek power supply

Power supply tier list:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true

Diablotek is in the bottom tier. Replace ASAP.

Are you saying that maybe adding the video card is causing a voltage spike on the hard drive supply?

 

[USAFRet]

I'm saying that is a very crappy PSU, and should be replaced ASAP before it kills anything else.

When you say "My hard drive burned up", what exactly do you mean? Actual melted/scorched parts? Where?
Or some other meaning of 'burned up'?

 

[herrwizo]

Your power supply burned your hard drive, plain and simple, I agree with USAFRet. Don't even bother replacing anything in your computer until you get a quality power supply first. This time get something like Antec, XFX, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Rosewill to name the few. Then, and only then, replace the hard drive.

 

[camo123]

I'm saying that is a very crappy PSU, and should be replaced ASAP before it kills anything else.

When you say "My hard drive burned up", what exactly do you mean? Actual melted/scorched parts? Where?
Or some other meaning of 'burned up'?

Your power supply burned your hard drive, plain and simple, I agree with USAFRet. Don't even bother replacing anything in your computer until you get a quality power supply first. This time get something like Antec, XFX, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Rosewill to name the few. Then, and only then, replace the hard drive.

The PCB connectors were melted and there was a burned spot on the disc itself both times.

 

[camo123]

Your power supply burned your hard drive, plain and simple, I agree with USAFRet. Don't even bother replacing anything in your computer until you get a quality power supply first. This time get something like Antec, XFX, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Rosewill to name the few. Then, and only then, replace the hard drive.

I understand that it is not a quality power supply but why would it burn my hard drive only and only when i add that video card?

 

[USAFRet]

Your power supply burned your hard drive, plain and simple, I agree with USAFRet. Don't even bother replacing anything in your computer until you get a quality power supply first. This time get something like Antec, XFX, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Rosewill to name the few. Then, and only then, replace the hard drive.

I understand that it is not a quality power supply but why would it burn my hard drive only and only when i add that video card?

Adding that part overstressed the PSU. It gave too much/badly conditioned power to 'something'. In this case, the hard drive. Twice.

Hopefully it didn't kill anything else.

 

[herrwizo]

Plain and simple, because it is not a quality power supply. The components they use in these supplies s*ck so much that it is often a fire hazard just having them running. They sometimes burn for no apparent reason, with lots of smoke and stuff. But yeah, they are cheap... never, ever cheap out on a power supply. PSU and motherboard are your two most impornant things you don't want to cheap on.

EDIT: And yeah, like the man said, hopefully it didn't burn anything else.

 

[USAFRet]

Why you don't want a crap PSU:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/26/exploding_computer_vs_reg_reader/

 

[camo123]

Thanks to everybody for the info. Fortunately nothing else is shot as far as i can tell. I have been running it for about 6 months now on this new hard drive. I will be replacing this cpu asap.

 

[fzabkar]

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

... and http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/ (photo clips)

Also see http://hddrepairing.com/downloads_n_videos/presentation/harddisk_pcb_repairing.pdf

BTW, don't use petrol to clean your PCB. Use isopropyl alcohol instead.

 

[bryanl]

I understand that it is not a quality power supply but why would it burn my hard drive only and only when i add that video card?

A possibility is the transformer overloaded and caused the output voltages to drop, then the PSU circuitry overcompensated and made the voltages to overshoot. In PSU reviews that show the internals, notice the better products tend to have larger transformers than the low quality products of the same power rating.