Hard Disc Light Always On ??

Hello,

Ive just noticed with my PC, that the hard drive light is always on, could anyone give me an idea why this might be happening?

The PC apart from this seems to be working fine.

Thanks for you advice
php_2003

is the harddrive actually being used? ie, are you viruschecking, scanning, searching or something - sometimes programs run background scans etc too. if not it might be a hardware issue (ie a problem with the LED controller) but its very unlikely...

no, the hard drive isnt being used...machine seems to be running fine, its just the hard drive LED is always on.

Have got virus software, but itsnt doing any scans etc..

Just wondered whether this indicates a potential problem??

thanks
php_2003

was it like this all the time?

no, must of only just happened recently...

i haven't touch any of the hardware, i.e. installed,changed...etc..

Describe ALWAYS your PC spec. and what "always" exactly means.

Your story has no details. How many ATA type drives does it have and how many LEDs? When does the light come on and when out, or always?

Hmm, are you sure you're not looking at the power led

I've seen the hd led work "backwards" (led on when no activity, blinks off with activity ) when the cable plug to the mb was reversed.

thanks for the replies...

None of the hardware has been touched,e.g. cable etc... so it cant be that, e.g. reversed cables etc...

Any other ideas?

Thanks again..

your sure you don't have it confused with power led? does it happen while in bios or only when windows loads?

(~~;( never change )

Unplug the power cable, and plug it again.

What become of it?

My first ASUS A7V8X-X did that right before it died. Only way I could get light out was to disconnect CDROM, while I was in process of TSing the system died. My second A7V8X-X works great, problem never returned.

Does it do same (always on) if you boot from floppy/CD? If only while in current OS install would say something constantly polling the CD or a background task (trojan, spyware, etc).

I seen something similiar with a corrupt NT event log, if running WinNT/2K/XP can you open event logs? If cannot open event log their are articles on web for killing files and letting Windows rebuild.

Also, if running WinNT/2K/XP what does Task Manager look like (CPU usage, number of handles, etc.). Might see something constantly running in process list.

If Win9x, it has issues with bad swap file management should you have a lot of ram (believe MS has articles regarding it). If Win9x and a lot of RAM set a swap file size and see if is the cause.

Cool thanks.

The machine is running windows 98 (FE), how would i find out about the swag file management, to see if that is the problem ???

I wonder whether it just a hardware fault (dodgy led or controller), the machine is about 5 years old, so .....

Thanks again

Doug: A reversed LED lead wouldn't cause it to work opposites, in fact it wouldn't light at all. Think about an LED as a diode - it only works one way round, so if it doesn't light at all try swapping the wire. To make it work in reverse to its signal it'd need something else.

I ask again php_2003, is it only on when windows loads, or during bios or when?

computer

Can access swap file settings via last tab (Performance tab) of System properties, the Virtual Memory button. Try setting min and max to amount of RAM you have, and that OK set min to RAM size and Max to twice/three times RAM size. Size of paging file (optimal) depends on system usage. Typically Min your RAM size and Max twice RAM size. If you have lots of RAM (over 128MB) could try Swap Min 1/2 RAM and max your RAM size.

Can try ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 in SYSTEM.INI, do google search for instructions.

Is also article regarding problem similiar to yours, if running OfficeXP on Win98
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329377

If you have MS Office (any version) you will also want to look at FINDFAST as being possible problem.

VCACHE can also have issues if lots of RAM, can cap vcache using SYSTEM.INI settings, see vcache on following page
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/tune-34.html

Another thing I could think of is that you may have an excessive number of fonts (over 350, although theoretical max is 1000 fonts). Apps have to get list of fonts when they open and will slow things up if a lot of fonts. The fewer the fonts the better, for performance that is. Also printers can do strange things to apps, so could try blow away all printers and load a fairly generic driver like HP LaserJet 2. In addition, no printers installed can also screw up apps (apps usually scale to printer driver to give you WYSIWYG).

Of course all this only applies if the IDE activity led is working correctly and hard disk is being accessed. If the hard drive does not appear to be accessing try pulling CDROM(s), I have seen flakey CD drive cause similiar problem.