Hard Drive Light always ON

24jedi · 05-20-2004, 04:22 PM

We recently brought a system back in house from our customer. Aside from the possible obvious (HD power cable incorrectly connected), is there some utility to see why the HD "appears" to be running constantly ?

I am concerned about the health of the HD.

thanks

mermxx · 05-20-2004, 04:58 PM

i am presuming that the lite goes out when the pc is shutdown. Is the lite on constantly or is it blinking constantly? What OS is it using if it is constantly blinking (this will be due to read and write)
u can try top -c to check CPU usage (if linux)
double check the HDD + LED connectors on your mobo are in the right place otherwise this is why it will continually get voltage. This is the only reason I can think of if the LED is permanently lit.

J.W. · 05-20-2004, 05:52 PM

If the previous user of this PC could not connect the power cable correctly on the HD (sheesh!!) I would not expect the HD activity LED connection to be correct either. Most likely the HD indicator light is wired to the "power on" pin, not the "hard disk activity" pin. -- J.W.

24jedi · 05-20-2004, 07:22 PM

Thanks...
After a few hours the light finally quit. The light was blinking...but 95% of the time it was on. The only comparison to what I am talking about is with windows. If you have ever perfomed a software mirror from within win2k or winnt4. The drive lights will run active while they are trying to synch.

The HD led light was doing the same thing except, there is no mirror.

Thanks again anyway