External Harddrive Issues..

[Jay-qu]

I recently got an external hardrive, the case is a brand new Mini Drive 3.5in IDE to USB, and I had a 200GB Maxtor drive put in it (2nd hand, reformatted, maybe a year old). It seemed to work fine at first, but there has been a growing problem. When I have it hooked up to the PC it randomly disconnects itself.. it will normally reconnect instantly, which isnt a problem sometimes but if im listening to music off it or watching video files it can be quite annoying! Eventually it has got to the point where it will hardly connect at all... :doh:

 

I have tried swapping the USB cable to rule that out, no go, still does the same thing, I have tried swapping USB ports, still does it. I will try it out on another computer when I can to see if its just my lappy, but if anyone else has seen this before or has an idea what it may be help would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks, Jay.

[Boerseun]

Does it have its own power supply, or does it suck juice exclusively from the USB port?

 

When sucking from USB, it might be that your lappy doesn't supply enough. I've had the same issue, and it was resolved when I unplugged all my other USB devices, including my rat. That was indeed a severe pain in the ***, since I was forced to use my touchpad. I couldn't use my scanner, my printer or my external DVD writer when I wanted the damn harddrive to work.

 

Sucking juice from the USB is a crap idea when you're working with live data streams - the power dips, the device goes down and comes back up again a second or so later when some capacitor somewhere has charged. It's a royal pain in the bloody ***. And every time your computer tells you "Harddrive disconnected" and you go "No, it's not, *******", and then your computer goes "Harddrive connected" and you go "Told you so, dimwit" and then your computer goes "Harddrive disconnected" and you go "No, it's not, *******", and then your computer goes... you get the idea. ESPECIALLY when you're watching a movie. Or listening to music.

 

I suggest if your external case has an option of either drawing from the USB or a dedicated power adapter, go for the adapter...

 

This, of course, is no problem at all on normal desktops. Maybe you should try the harddrive on a desktop's USB and see if it does the same?

[Jay-qu]

It is on external power :shrug:

 

Its a pretty massive drive, could it still be having power issues? perhaps the PS is screwed..

[Boerseun]

Have you got any other USB devices running?

 

On my desktop, my printer and scanner are both USB, and somehow they also screw around with the USB - they're running on the same bus, and somehow the one insists on taking priority over the other. So the printer will simply go offline until I unplug the scanner.

 

Dunno if this'll help, but I've had some serious pain-in-the-*** issues with USB on both my lappy AND my desktop. Both running XP SP2, btw.

 

I feel your pain, brotha... :shrug:

[Tormod]

Check all your USB ports in the Device Manager and look at the "Power management" tab and turn off the "Allow windows to turn off this device to save power" option. It might be enough to stop Windows from being able to talk to the harddrive. Even if the harddrive gets it's own power, the USB port does not.

[Jay-qu]

Well at the moment it has been running nearly all day and aside from some very persistant issues to begin with it seems to have stayed connected for the last 5 hours or so.. (something to do with accessing it?). It is the only thing I have connected at the moment, so thats not it.

 

Thanks for the tip T, I have it turned off now, see how that goes :shrug: but it seems to be working fine now anyway.. *touch wood*

[InfiniteNow]

*touch wood*

Just what kinds of vid files are you watching, JQ? :lol:

 

 

;)

[Tormod]

Just what kinds of vid files are you watching, JQ? :lol:

 

 

;)

 

Hehehehehehehe.....

/forums/images/smilies/devilsign.gif

[Jay-qu]

Star Gate, Greys Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica.. russian institute ;)

[alexander]

well, thats why its not working! you cant watch good movies like that on an external HD! shesh and i'm sitting here, thinking it's hardware...

 

Ok, make sure all the connections to the HD are solid (sometimes cables go loose and all hell can break loose) unplug all the cables. plug them in again (from the HD as well, i've seen it flake out, just do it to be sure for yourself, yes i know you may have to take the case apart to do it). other then that, make sure that your power is plugged in snugly into the case, i've seen that happen, if all fails, try to find another power slot for the drive, or even plug it into the power directly from your tower power supply if possible (i've seen kits where it is and where it is not, so you are on your own there. (yes yes you will have to take out the HD to do it, i know).

[Jay-qu]

Im not hardware-i-phobic :) Already took the HD out, made sure all the connections where good and snug, the USB port on the computer is a little loose, but I dont have this happen with any other devices and it seems totally random, it will be working fine, then disconnect then work fine for an hour without me touching it :hyper: then sometimes disconnect and reconnect repeditivly no matter what I do to the connections.. did I mention that I changed the USB cable? still happens though..

[alexander]

hardware-o-phobic learn your damn language, dammit! :hyper: joking

 

well the problem is obvious to me its *caughs*windows

 

no for real though, what usb chipset do you have, there are a few really finicky chipsets that will do that to you 4 real :)

[Jay-qu]

*sigh* I thought it may have something to do with it. Not entirely sure, my main chipset is an Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM and I have an Intel 82801DB/DBM USB 2.0 host controller. Not hardware-a-phobic, but no expert :hyper:

 

Still havent had a chance to test it on another computer.