HDD stops working after 5 - 10 mins ???????????????????

arsenalbates

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I originally thought that the hard drive was bad so i tested with another that I know is working. The same thing happened.

When the HDD freezes the system crashes and eventually powers off. (hard power off)

When it restarts the BIOS says there is no drive installed (the same with both drives)

I let it rest for about 5 mins and it all works perfectly again for about another 5 mins.


Now I thought it was a heat issue so I took the laptop apart and removed a fairly big ball of dust. But still, even when the system is cool it still stops working after a period of time.

The only two parts that could be the prob could be the data converter (from sata to the board) or the board itself.


Anyone got any ideas ?
 
Thoroughly clean the laptop. If you removed a large ball of dust, chances are there's more.

I've never heard of a drive controller going bad but anything is possible. Try the drives in a different machine.

Check the memory. Faulty memory would exhibit similar behavior.
 
Unlike OhSnap, I have seen a driver controller go bad, and this is pretty much what happened. It's not a common occurance , but it's defiantly possible.

That said, I don't want to start there yet. Like OhSnap said, check your memory and I'd also do a BIOS update. I've seen some BIOS updates contain fixes for controllers caused by code and if we're lucky that's happening instead of a bad controller.
 
When i removed the dust I did a full clean so that's not my prob.

I have done a full mem test and it passes 100%, also just to be sure swapped ram over and tried in different sockets.

Im afraid to do a bios update as the bios can sometimes crash when the hdd stops responding.

I have a small converter on the sata port of the hdd turning it into a shape that fits the motherboard socket. I have cleaned the contacts but still I get the same prob.

It works fine when it has been left and cooled but after a short time it then stops sending and receiving data sometimes crashing the OS.

Could it be the small converter (perhaps expanding when it heats and therefore causing a break in the flow) ?

---------- Post added at 04:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

And in reply to OhSnapWord, i have managed to do a full image of the HDD and that took about 2 hours and the drive worked fine.
 
It could be that adapter. That would be a first for me, but anything can fail.

If you're worried about crashing when the HDD stops responding, why not make a DVD or something to flash the BIOS with while the HDD is not installed? I don't know of any motherboards that don't have some form of flashing the BIOS outside of an operating system.
 
Check your heat-sink to the CPU, would not be the first time thermal paste to dry out causing the cpu to overheat which will give your symptoms.
 
Now I have removed the dirt the processor is being cooled properly. The laptop does not feel hot where the processor is and before it crashes and the fans are just at idol.

However its got to be either a time issue or a heat issue.

Here is why, When left the laptop must cool and then it works perfectly (for about 5 mins). then after this time it crashes but sometimes it still is operational but the hdd dont respond so i am unable to do such things like open my documents and so on.

Yesturday I was able to enter safe mode and it lasted for quite a bit longer. Im thinking that as there were less processes to do the processor didnt get so hot perhaps ? or something may have not got so hot.
 
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