Having repeated Seagate HD failures for inexplicable reasons.
I have suffered a second hard drive failure with the second's symptoms closely resembling those of the first failure. The second occurring a mere 3 weeks after installing a brand new replacement drive. Seagate 4TB Barracudas both.
Date of manufacture? Where did you get the drive, and in what setup is it being used?
This drive is not suitable for RAID setup. It does not have TLER
And would manifest by being kicked out of a raid array.
You need to buy raid suitable drives. A desktop drive is not it.
This drive is not suitable for RAID setup. It does not have TLER
And would manifest by being kicked out of a raid array.
You need to buy raid suitable drives. A desktop drive is not it.
did you contact seagate with your problem ? www.seagate.com
They seem to be having problems with the latest version 3,5" Barracuda,
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29160651/Problems-with-Seagate-ST500-ST1000.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29160651/Problems-with-Seagate-ST500-ST1000.html
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Thanks for all of your comments so far.
When I posted the original post I uploaded a detailed description and history around the two Seagate failures I've had since summer's start. I can't seem to find it here. Anybody help me get it to where it can be seen, please?
First failure was of 4TB Seagate about 4 years old. Smart all looked good, began to have extremely long transfer times, big pauses and high, pinned, usage on Task Manager. After some 5 weeks it died, seemingly from overwork. Bought replacement 4TB Seagate Barracuda new. Within a few days it began to exibit the beginnings of the same symptoms. Got worse and worse until it too failed after 3 weeks. Desktop Win64 home I7 16GB. Other drives, from mixed manufacturers, show no abnormal transfer rates, excessive usage nor any inability to supply data or write it. These other drives all all MFT, but these two Seagates were GPT.
I bought an extended warranty when I bought this second drive since I didn't have any good explanation for the sudden failure of the first one. The second's destruction, practically off the line, leads me to think that some Windows updates around the beginning of the summer contributes to Seagate's problems. I made no HW/SW mods at the time that the first drive began its decline. The second's failure leads me to think that the warranty replacement will be to another manufacturer's device.
When I posted the original post I uploaded a detailed description and history around the two Seagate failures I've had since summer's start. I can't seem to find it here. Anybody help me get it to where it can be seen, please?
First failure was of 4TB Seagate about 4 years old. Smart all looked good, began to have extremely long transfer times, big pauses and high, pinned, usage on Task Manager. After some 5 weeks it died, seemingly from overwork. Bought replacement 4TB Seagate Barracuda new. Within a few days it began to exibit the beginnings of the same symptoms. Got worse and worse until it too failed after 3 weeks. Desktop Win64 home I7 16GB. Other drives, from mixed manufacturers, show no abnormal transfer rates, excessive usage nor any inability to supply data or write it. These other drives all all MFT, but these two Seagates were GPT.
I bought an extended warranty when I bought this second drive since I didn't have any good explanation for the sudden failure of the first one. The second's destruction, practically off the line, leads me to think that some Windows updates around the beginning of the summer contributes to Seagate's problems. I made no HW/SW mods at the time that the first drive began its decline. The second's failure leads me to think that the warranty replacement will be to another manufacturer's device.
Nothing Windows can do (except when running disk firmware update) can affect hard disk failure.
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Drive is not being used in RAID.
PSU is large enough to support all the attached HW. No dipping out.
Haven't yet contacted Seagate. Will do by end of tomorrow. The failure of the first drive, not a recently manufactured one, had me thinking that the Seagates were victims of external factors, not of recent Seagate manufacturing flaws. I purchased the second drive, in part, because it was as close a duplicate to the first one as could be achieved given the difference in manufacturing dates. The second's failure points strongly, I think, to changes in how the drives are being accessed by the OS. No other factors seem to be in the equation.
I just want to get the PC restored for real for more than 3 weeks of hideous performance.
PSU is large enough to support all the attached HW. No dipping out.
Haven't yet contacted Seagate. Will do by end of tomorrow. The failure of the first drive, not a recently manufactured one, had me thinking that the Seagates were victims of external factors, not of recent Seagate manufacturing flaws. I purchased the second drive, in part, because it was as close a duplicate to the first one as could be achieved given the difference in manufacturing dates. The second's failure points strongly, I think, to changes in how the drives are being accessed by the OS. No other factors seem to be in the equation.
I just want to get the PC restored for real for more than 3 weeks of hideous performance.
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@andyalder - Thanks for input. Too bad that I can't point a finger in that direction. Running out of ideas save to change drive brands.
Seagate, want to weigh in?
Seagate, want to weigh in?
Can you post the serial number of the drive please?
What make is your motherboard? Model number also please.
What make is your motherboard? Model number also please.
Can you also open Computer management. You can type it in search to open the app.
Then click on disk management under storage.
Does it show the full size of the drive?
Then click on disk management under storage.
Does it show the full size of the drive?
You gave to contact seagate. Depends you and whether you purchased additional warrantee.
The HD might be under warrantee fir one to three, five years.
Died in your case means the motor died since you indicate not smart error, though it requires to be turned on and might not be on ....
The newer one you got.
They all should be checked through seagate.com support, check warranty and talk to them. If .....
The HD might be under warrantee fir one to three, five years.
Died in your case means the motor died since you indicate not smart error, though it requires to be turned on and might not be on ....
The newer one you got.
They all should be checked through seagate.com support, check warranty and talk to them. If .....
Just bad luck I think. Hardware can fail even if it is new from factory. I have seen such cases already. Get another drive, from WD or from Seagate and check if you get the same issues.
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I will post both serial numbers as soon as I can. First drive is long out of warranty but the second I didn't even have time to fill out the page. It'll be a must do too.
For both drives I initialized them GPT and created a single partition to fill the whole drive. In failing, both drives came to say that they were partitioned into two areas, an NTFS partition of, each, about 1.8TB and an uninitialized area over the balance of each drive. I thought it remarkable that both drives came to report such similar partition structures.
While they say that they have this structure, the first one will not accept partitioning of its uninitiated area nor accept formatting of that partition. Fails format at about 80%.
Reinitializing the whole drive to fresh GPT results in a failure to format at about the 80% mark again. It's toast.
Haven't played with the second one to this extent yet to see what it does.
Getting too annoyed to waste the time.
Will post MB info asap. In was the file I tried to put up with original post. Will repeat here.
Bye-the-bye, thanks all.
For both drives I initialized them GPT and created a single partition to fill the whole drive. In failing, both drives came to say that they were partitioned into two areas, an NTFS partition of, each, about 1.8TB and an uninitialized area over the balance of each drive. I thought it remarkable that both drives came to report such similar partition structures.
While they say that they have this structure, the first one will not accept partitioning of its uninitiated area nor accept formatting of that partition. Fails format at about 80%.
Reinitializing the whole drive to fresh GPT results in a failure to format at about the 80% mark again. It's toast.
Haven't played with the second one to this extent yet to see what it does.
Getting too annoyed to waste the time.
Will post MB info asap. In was the file I tried to put up with original post. Will repeat here.
Bye-the-bye, thanks all.
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Oh, the first drive died so badly that I had to remove it from the case and use an USB to SATA to be able to work on it. MB would see something at drive 1 but I couldn't get dskmgmt to work with it. Easeus and others wouldn't play nice either. Had to go USB route.
First drive does show its full size but formatting fails. Norton disk doctor and Easeus couldn't repair partition structure.
First drive does show its full size but formatting fails. Norton disk doctor and Easeus couldn't repair partition structure.
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@noxcho Yea, I might think that one drive might fail and display these symptoms but two, of such vastly different vintages, had me thinking of outside the drive problems. Asside from MOBO problems, seems Windows can't be blamed. If not the MOBO then must be drive centered.
your drive controller may not support >2TB drives. I know I had to update my raid controller since the previous one did not support >2TB.
Did you already have >2TB drives in this machine?
Did you already have >2TB drives in this machine?
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The motherboard is a Gateway FX6860 (CPU 1) having an Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology with 16.0GB of Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
S/N of the first failed drive is S300E3RG, a 'Desktop HDD'.
S/N of the second failed drive is ZFN29G6Q, turns out that Seagate says it's a Skyhawk rather than a Barracuda.
@David Johnson, I do not have RAID. The MOBO ran fine with the first drive from 2016 until the beginning of summer 2019. Then the performance of the drive decreased somewhat slowly through the summer until it dropped out of sight in Device Manager and crashed a program I happened to be running off its partition F: at the time. Shutting down the machine, letting it cool off and then rebooting made the first drive visible again, but only for a short time. It never again became visible. The 4 years of good, sprited performance without error nor flaw leads me to think that the MOBO supports > 2TB drives. Also, Gateway made available a BIOS update at the time Windows 10 began to come out. I applied it without incident.
I placed the first failed drive into this machine back in 2016 after having bought it for another machine. That machine's BIOS would not allow booting of GPT drives greater than 2TB. I swapped it for a 2TB drive that this Gateway had at the time. Both drives exceeded my hopes that I'd have no trouble achieving the swaps and data restorations. That other machine ran, continues to run, Win10 64 booting off that 2TB drive I put in it. This Gateway didn't need to boot of its new 4TB drive, the 4TB drive became a second program/data drive. Its C: drive was/is a 250GB SSD. But, as I say, I had no data errors in the 4 years its been in the Gateway and has passed the checks I routinely perform on all my drives. Only at the beginning of the summer did it begin to run as if off checking on itself before supplying data. Wasting increasingly much time. Even then its SMART status numbers did not show errors nor abnormalities. I chose to simply let it run to failure, as it did. But, replacing it with a brand new Seagate of similar capacity then had this second drive fail with the same symptoms. And, in less time than the first drive took to display its same symptoms and fail.
Might be the MOBO but I'm leaning toward drive brand.
S/N of the first failed drive is S300E3RG, a 'Desktop HDD'.
S/N of the second failed drive is ZFN29G6Q, turns out that Seagate says it's a Skyhawk rather than a Barracuda.
@David Johnson, I do not have RAID. The MOBO ran fine with the first drive from 2016 until the beginning of summer 2019. Then the performance of the drive decreased somewhat slowly through the summer until it dropped out of sight in Device Manager and crashed a program I happened to be running off its partition F: at the time. Shutting down the machine, letting it cool off and then rebooting made the first drive visible again, but only for a short time. It never again became visible. The 4 years of good, sprited performance without error nor flaw leads me to think that the MOBO supports > 2TB drives. Also, Gateway made available a BIOS update at the time Windows 10 began to come out. I applied it without incident.
I placed the first failed drive into this machine back in 2016 after having bought it for another machine. That machine's BIOS would not allow booting of GPT drives greater than 2TB. I swapped it for a 2TB drive that this Gateway had at the time. Both drives exceeded my hopes that I'd have no trouble achieving the swaps and data restorations. That other machine ran, continues to run, Win10 64 booting off that 2TB drive I put in it. This Gateway didn't need to boot of its new 4TB drive, the 4TB drive became a second program/data drive. Its C: drive was/is a 250GB SSD. But, as I say, I had no data errors in the 4 years its been in the Gateway and has passed the checks I routinely perform on all my drives. Only at the beginning of the summer did it begin to run as if off checking on itself before supplying data. Wasting increasingly much time. Even then its SMART status numbers did not show errors nor abnormalities. I chose to simply let it run to failure, as it did. But, replacing it with a brand new Seagate of similar capacity then had this second drive fail with the same symptoms. And, in less time than the first drive took to display its same symptoms and fail.
Might be the MOBO but I'm leaning toward drive brand.
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@arnold Yes, the first drive is out of warranty and the second, being brand spanking new, should be able to be replaced under warranty. I'm not sure if I want to repeat this fiasco of having to restore a backup only to see yet a third drive fail in the blink of an eye.
I might move to another brand.
Would you be kind enough to rewrite your comment's second paragraph, please? I can't get the gist of what you're trying to convey.
I might move to another brand.
Would you be kind enough to rewrite your comment's second paragraph, please? I can't get the gist of what you're trying to convey.
When the drive appear to take a longer time frame during bootup to pass the check, it suggests if smart is enable and not reflected as an issue on the drive, the drive's Sata controller might be having an issue.
With no smart event, the drive's mechanical motor or the controller board failed.
With no smart event, the drive's mechanical motor or the controller board failed.
since you removed it from the case, i suggest to run HDDRegenerator on it
you can run it for free - and check if it repairs the first bad sector found - then buy it
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html
it helped me recover nearly all bad drives....(more than 90%)
you can run it for free - and check if it repairs the first bad sector found - then buy it
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html
it helped me recover nearly all bad drives....(more than 90%)
Can you download and run intel auto detect. Install any new drivers it finds.
https://www.intel.in/content/www/in/en/support/detect.html
Do you have Intel Rapid storage technology installed?
Can you also download Seatools and post back results after you run it.
https://www.seagate.com/ca/en/support/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/barracuda-3-5/#downloads
https://www.intel.in/content/www/in/en/support/detect.html
Do you have Intel Rapid storage technology installed?
Can you also download Seatools and post back results after you run it.
https://www.seagate.com/ca/en/support/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/barracuda-3-5/#downloads
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Thanks, gentle beings for your efforts to guide me toward understanding what's taking place and avoiding it happening again.
I'll look and see if I have the Intel software, run the others and report back later today.
I'll look and see if I have the Intel software, run the others and report back later today.
@noxcho Yea, I might think that one drive might fail and display these symptoms but two, of such vastly different vintages, had me thinking of outside the drive problems. Asside from MOBO problems, seems Windows can't be blamed. If not the MOBO then must be drive centered.Before starting doing a lot of testing, looking for cause of the problem I would give a chance to another drive. The chances that it was just a bad luck with 2 drives are still very high. With three drives I would agree - this is not just a coincidence.
There are two big "enemies" of the hard drives - power shortages and temperature. If there are not taking the place then the drives were meant to fail before you bought them.
try this also
Disable your PC to turn off Mass Storage Device
The other path to turn off the power saving feature is in the Device Manager. Here's how you can do it.
1: Press Windows + X to bring up a menu, and choose Device Manager from the list.
2: Go to Universal Serial Bus Controller > USB Mass Storage Device.
3: Click the Power Management tab and uncheck the box in front of Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK the save the changes.
Disable your PC to turn off Mass Storage Device
The other path to turn off the power saving feature is in the Device Manager. Here's how you can do it.
1: Press Windows + X to bring up a menu, and choose Device Manager from the list.
2: Go to Universal Serial Bus Controller > USB Mass Storage Device.
3: Click the Power Management tab and uncheck the box in front of Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click OK the save the changes.
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@joinaunion - Downloaded and ran Intel Driver and Support Assistant, aka, Auto-detect Intel Products. It reported 'Sorry, no software updates are available.' Its details on the second failed drive, the one currently present in the computer, duplicate the details that I placed in a previous post here.
I'll reply with Seatools and HDDRegenerator results once they've run to completion.
I'll reply with Seatools and HDDRegenerator results once they've run to completion.
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Thanks to all for your help and suggestions toward solving these drive issues.
@noxcho suggested that a drive's enemies were heat and a poor power supply. He also noted that two drive failures might just be that the two drives were bad. With these two failed drives in hand I decided that my best option was to replace the second drive under warranty and see whether a third drive would work. (I can remember spending $K on a 60MB drive. Playing fast and loose with TB drives grates on my sensibilities.)
This third drive was only intermittently seen by the BIOS, dskmgmt and EaseUS Partition Master. Sometimes it would be seen at boot times and then disappear, other times it would stay around long enough for me to try to initialize it as GPT and then disappear or then seem to let me start formatting a small partition on the initialized drive. I became worried that I was destroying a brand new drive by working to try to track down where the problem lay.
The cheapest route to go was to replace the power supply and the shop substituted in one of their known good power supplies to see if it would power the computer and reliably display all the PC's drives. Their power supply didn't resolve the intermittency of the Seagate and, in fact, they found that another drive had disappeared.
They closely inspected the MOBO and discovered that one of the electrolytic capacitors had become swollen and was ruined. I suffered from this same sort of MOBO problem with two of our family's eMachines in the early 2000s. Bum capacitors on those boards literally burned the pcb. Those PCs made distinct pops as they failed, this Gateway didn't do me the favor of identifying its failure mode so abruptly.
That shop and I are now working to figure out which replacement MOBO/CPU/memory combination will fit in the box and not break the bank.
Hopefully the drives will have survived and be usable along with the replacement hardware.
I'm not quite sure how to give all of you credit for your assistance down to this point. Without your encouragement and tips I doubt that the true point of failure would have been detected as quickly. Let me know how to give credit where credit is due.
@noxcho suggested that a drive's enemies were heat and a poor power supply. He also noted that two drive failures might just be that the two drives were bad. With these two failed drives in hand I decided that my best option was to replace the second drive under warranty and see whether a third drive would work. (I can remember spending $K on a 60MB drive. Playing fast and loose with TB drives grates on my sensibilities.)
This third drive was only intermittently seen by the BIOS, dskmgmt and EaseUS Partition Master. Sometimes it would be seen at boot times and then disappear, other times it would stay around long enough for me to try to initialize it as GPT and then disappear or then seem to let me start formatting a small partition on the initialized drive. I became worried that I was destroying a brand new drive by working to try to track down where the problem lay.
The cheapest route to go was to replace the power supply and the shop substituted in one of their known good power supplies to see if it would power the computer and reliably display all the PC's drives. Their power supply didn't resolve the intermittency of the Seagate and, in fact, they found that another drive had disappeared.
They closely inspected the MOBO and discovered that one of the electrolytic capacitors had become swollen and was ruined. I suffered from this same sort of MOBO problem with two of our family's eMachines in the early 2000s. Bum capacitors on those boards literally burned the pcb. Those PCs made distinct pops as they failed, this Gateway didn't do me the favor of identifying its failure mode so abruptly.
That shop and I are now working to figure out which replacement MOBO/CPU/memory combination will fit in the box and not break the bank.
Hopefully the drives will have survived and be usable along with the replacement hardware.
I'm not quite sure how to give all of you credit for your assistance down to this point. Without your encouragement and tips I doubt that the true point of failure would have been detected as quickly. Let me know how to give credit where credit is due.
it would have helped if you posted the pc model - that must be an older model
newer models have SSd Caps
newer models have SSd Caps
What was the result of Seatools?
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@nobus The computer is a Gateway, sorry computer now at shop so can't read the box for its model number, having an ASUS MOBO but identifying itself as a Gateway FX6860 (CPU 1) having an Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology with 16.0GB of Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24).
Yea, it was purchased in 2011 and the shop has told me that some current I3 processors outperform my old I7. I'll be trying to figure out the cost/benefit over the next few days as I've been told that neither the processor or memory will fit a current replacement MOBO. Arrgh!
@joinauniion I had three drives seem to misbehave. Of the three I have only run Seatools on the second. I then returned it for warranty replacement while beginning to think that the PC's problems were either power supply or MOBO related. The third I couldn't test because the MOBO seemed to have failed so badly by that time that this third drive couldn't be accessed by the MOBO reliably enough to permit initialization nor formatting. I'll test it once I'm in possession of the PC again and before I try to restore the computer from backup using Acronis' restore to dissimilar hardware feature. I've a bit of time on my hands now that the PC is in the shop and I will be running Seatools Bootable on the first drive after I attach it to an eSATA port on a family member's I7 PC. Will report back with results.
The second drive produced the following results while attached to the seemingly failing computer via the MOBO's SATA and running Seatools Bootable:
Basic Tools
Yea, it was purchased in 2011 and the shop has told me that some current I3 processors outperform my old I7. I'll be trying to figure out the cost/benefit over the next few days as I've been told that neither the processor or memory will fit a current replacement MOBO. Arrgh!
@joinauniion I had three drives seem to misbehave. Of the three I have only run Seatools on the second. I then returned it for warranty replacement while beginning to think that the PC's problems were either power supply or MOBO related. The third I couldn't test because the MOBO seemed to have failed so badly by that time that this third drive couldn't be accessed by the MOBO reliably enough to permit initialization nor formatting. I'll test it once I'm in possession of the PC again and before I try to restore the computer from backup using Acronis' restore to dissimilar hardware feature. I've a bit of time on my hands now that the PC is in the shop and I will be running Seatools Bootable on the first drive after I attach it to an eSATA port on a family member's I7 PC. Will report back with results.
The second drive produced the following results while attached to the seemingly failing computer via the MOBO's SATA and running Seatools Bootable:
Basic Tools
Smart Pass 100%
Short drive self Test Pass 100%
Short Generic Test Fail 0%, Outer Scan 0%
Long Generic Test Fail 24.09% Remaining 17:35:46
Fix AllShort drive self Test Pass 100%
Short Generic Test Fail 0%, Outer Scan 0%
Long Generic Test Fail 24.09% Remaining 17:35:46
Fast Pass 100%
(again) a Short Generic Test Fail 0% Outer Scan 0%
Long Fail 0.02% Remaining 03:16:36
How much of this is due to the drive or MOBO is beyond my being able to determine. And, I won't be able to test it further having returned it to acquire the third drive. Hopefully the third drive hasn't suffered damage from outside itself.
(again) a Short Generic Test Fail 0% Outer Scan 0%
Long Fail 0.02% Remaining 03:16:36
i did not know Gateway used ASus boards - can it be the shop just put another board in?
any way, can you post a icture of thebadcapacitor on the mobo? that helps often identifying what it is used for
just to be sure - it is connected as a standalone disk - on sata port?
any way, can you post a icture of thebadcapacitor on the mobo? that helps often identifying what it is used for
just to be sure - it is connected as a standalone disk - on sata port?
I'll be trying to figure out the cost/benefit over the next few days as I've been told that neither the processor or memory will fit a current replacement MOBO. Arrgh! There are tons of Asus boards on Ebay that are sandy bridge.
i would not do that
instead buy a micro ATX board that fits your need - and leave the past behind
instead buy a micro ATX board that fits your need - and leave the past behind
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@nobus I don't have the PC here with me, it's in the shop. I'll correct and post the brand of the MOBO as soon as I can read the name off it. The PC retains its original MOBO as purchased by me the original owner. If it proves to not be ASUS please accept my apologies for the misdirection. I'll also post a shot of the capacitor in question once it's pointed out to me when I see the board again. It would be interesting to have expert's assessment of what function the capacitor served in what portion of circuitry of MOBO operation. At first blush it would seem to me to be centered on SATA stuff, given this whole exercise.
@David Johnson and @nobus I'm a little gun shy of building up a PC by placing my existing CPU and memory onto a board that I'll purchase given my level of experience with MOBO/CPU/memory mating up. Clock speed setting and whatnot are beyond being familiar to me. Basically, I'd just like to get the ruddy PC running again and get back to work without fear of having bought something mismatching and setting it up to burn out in short order. It's going to be enough of a joy to restore the backup to dissimilar hardware and restore licenses when they invariably complain.
@David Johnson and @nobus I'm a little gun shy of building up a PC by placing my existing CPU and memory onto a board that I'll purchase given my level of experience with MOBO/CPU/memory mating up. Clock speed setting and whatnot are beyond being familiar to me. Basically, I'd just like to get the ruddy PC running again and get back to work without fear of having bought something mismatching and setting it up to burn out in short order. It's going to be enough of a joy to restore the backup to dissimilar hardware and restore licenses when they invariably complain.
>> I'm a little gun shy of building up a PC << i'm not suggesting to use the existing cpu and ram - unless they are modern ones - so post their spec so we can assist correctly
otherwise, if you go with new material, you can post a Q here, and see what they suggest
don't forget then to post what you want to do with it, what is your budget, etc...
otherwise, if you go with new material, you can post a Q here, and see what they suggest
don't forget then to post what you want to do with it, what is your budget, etc...
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Sorry for taking so long to post an update on the status of the computer.
@nobus - The MOBO wasn't an ASUS it was stamped Acer. Manufactured in 2011. Likely that Acer and Gateway got together to mate the board with a case that fully featured the board's capabilities. The computer featured 10 USB2 connectors 2 USB3 and such. Replacing the MOBO with another whose connectors would have a corresponding feature on the case and vice-versa didn't prove possible. USB3 internals couldn't have found their way out of the box.
So, I've transferred the drives from that old case into a new case having an old school BlueRay hole. New i5 9400 2.9Ghz, 16GB DDR4 memory and ASUS Prime B360M-A MOBO. Reused old case's power supply. Effectively buying a new micro ATX board and case that, just about, matches the features available on the case.
Picture of one of the two bad capacitors is attached. Sorry about the image's not showing this capacitor very well. The other one is below left of the video card that is at the bottom of the image. Both capacitors have bulged out their can tops but don't yet have seemed to have leaked past their bottom stoppers.
CircledBadCapacitor.jpg
PassMark-CPU-Value-Chart---Performan.pdf
@nobus - The MOBO wasn't an ASUS it was stamped Acer. Manufactured in 2011. Likely that Acer and Gateway got together to mate the board with a case that fully featured the board's capabilities. The computer featured 10 USB2 connectors 2 USB3 and such. Replacing the MOBO with another whose connectors would have a corresponding feature on the case and vice-versa didn't prove possible. USB3 internals couldn't have found their way out of the box.
So, I've transferred the drives from that old case into a new case having an old school BlueRay hole. New i5 9400 2.9Ghz, 16GB DDR4 memory and ASUS Prime B360M-A MOBO. Reused old case's power supply. Effectively buying a new micro ATX board and case that, just about, matches the features available on the case.
Picture of one of the two bad capacitors is attached. Sorry about the image's not showing this capacitor very well. The other one is below left of the video card that is at the bottom of the image. Both capacitors have bulged out their can tops but don't yet have seemed to have leaked past their bottom stoppers.
CircledBadCapacitor.jpg
PassMark-CPU-Value-Chart---Performan.pdf
i never heard of acer joining gateway....
but you've found a good solution - that's what counts
but you've found a good solution - that's what counts
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@nobus - It was too bad that my shot of the motherboard didn't manage to show the Acer stencil on it. Definitely there.
I think that you're right, I've managed to get to a solution to the seeming drive problems that I was having. Thanks for working and thinking about what might need to be done.
@all - Thanks to all of you who've offered suggestions and observations as to what might be causing the trouble I was having. In short, a couple of capacitors on my computer's motherboard failed, seemingly slowly over several months. and led to poor hard drive performance. Very poor, slow then failure of data integrity leading to the drives dropping from sight off the motherboard. I presumed that the trouble lay with the hard drives but that assumption was incorrect, the SATA subsystem on the motherboard was solely at fault due to the capacitors. I eliminated cables, power-supply and drives by virtue of substitution leaving the motherboard as sole common factor. Tedious. Close examination of the individual components on the motherboard led to the discovery of misshapen capacitors. Distended tops and abnormal seating upon the motherboard due to bulging seals. A close examination was required. Easily missed. Replacement of the motherboard required replacing the CPU and memory and the case as well due to the case's only featuring USB2 and not the USB3 of the replacement motherboard. Effectively I have a new PC save for the drives and power-supply. I've been cautioned that the power-supply's age could well mean that I'll be replacing it too soon. The saving grace in all of this was that I'd been using Acronis True Image as my backup and had a valid backup from which to restore the one lost drive's contents. I've been running it for a week, polishing the windows and sweeping the floor. Seems solid. Thanks to everyone. Until next time.....
I think that you're right, I've managed to get to a solution to the seeming drive problems that I was having. Thanks for working and thinking about what might need to be done.
@all - Thanks to all of you who've offered suggestions and observations as to what might be causing the trouble I was having. In short, a couple of capacitors on my computer's motherboard failed, seemingly slowly over several months. and led to poor hard drive performance. Very poor, slow then failure of data integrity leading to the drives dropping from sight off the motherboard. I presumed that the trouble lay with the hard drives but that assumption was incorrect, the SATA subsystem on the motherboard was solely at fault due to the capacitors. I eliminated cables, power-supply and drives by virtue of substitution leaving the motherboard as sole common factor. Tedious. Close examination of the individual components on the motherboard led to the discovery of misshapen capacitors. Distended tops and abnormal seating upon the motherboard due to bulging seals. A close examination was required. Easily missed. Replacement of the motherboard required replacing the CPU and memory and the case as well due to the case's only featuring USB2 and not the USB3 of the replacement motherboard. Effectively I have a new PC save for the drives and power-supply. I've been cautioned that the power-supply's age could well mean that I'll be replacing it too soon. The saving grace in all of this was that I'd been using Acronis True Image as my backup and had a valid backup from which to restore the one lost drive's contents. I've been running it for a week, polishing the windows and sweeping the floor. Seems solid. Thanks to everyone. Until next time.....
ASKER
Thanks to all of you who've offered suggestions and observations as to what might be causing the trouble I was having. I had to replace much of the computer with current parts as several of you suggested I might.
Is your PSU unit giving enough power to the drive? Is the drive heavily used?