Cantankerous WD Caviar

I have a WD Caviar 22100 I would like to use to hack around with on my
second PC (PC2) (I hate to screw around with my working systems on either
PC). The funny thing is that this HD works poorly on the spare PC: anywhere
from 50% to 90% of the time it will not spin up. When it does spin up, it
works but hangs up later. On the other PC (#1, an HP) it works fine. If I
merely connect the power cable, it spins right up (PC 2). I tried several
different IDE cables and nothing helps.

I have two HDs that I use for serious work. One runs fine on either PC, and
the other ran fine on both the last time I tried (it is now dedicated to PC
1).

All statements above are based on "single" jumper settings.

I cannot find any settings in my bios that looks like it would help. The
only thing I can think is that the MB (SOYO) on the spare PC (2) must put
out a signal that isn't strong enough to wake up this old HD. Does this
sound right? Any constructive advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jim Andrus

James Andrus wrote in message
...

I have a WD Caviar 22100 I would like to use to hack
around with on my second PC (PC2) (I hate to screw
around with my working systems on either PC).

Yeah, generally thats a good approach, much safer.

The funny thing is that this HD works poorly on the spare
PC: anywhere from 50% to 90% of the time it will not spin
up. When it does spin up, it works but hangs up later.

You sure its not spinning up or are you assuming that ?

On the other PC (#1, an HP) it works fine. If I merely
connect the power cable, it spins right up (PC 2). I
tried several different IDE cables and nothing helps.

I have two HDs that I use for serious work. One
runs fine on either PC, and the other ran fine on
both the last time I tried (it is now dedicated to PC 1).

All statements above are based on "single" jumper settings.

I cannot find any settings in my bios that looks like it would
help. The only thing I can think is that the MB (SOYO) on
the spare PC (2) must put out a signal that isn't strong
enough to wake up this old HD. Does this sound right?

Nope, sounds rather unlikely.

Any constructive advice would be appreciated.

The three main possibilitys now are :

The metal tunnels that the pins go into in the molex power
connector can open up a bit over time and not make good
contact all the time. Simplest check for this possibility is to
try another power connector, say off one of the optical drives.
It may be that the pins in the drive side of the connector
are a tad smaller diameter on the WD drive or something.

The power supply is marginal. Try with just that drive
plugged in and see if it spins up more reliably in that config.

The IDE controller is flakey and thats why its erratic.
Some drives will spin down when they decide that
they dont like what they see from the controller.
Havent tried that with that particular WD drive tho.