hard drive light permanently on without flashing

[orangos]

Hi

i  have buyed a desktop HP Elite 7300  _ cpu i5-2500  recently,  the hard drive is WDC WD5000AAKX-603CA0  ,500GByte

when i switch on the computer the hard drive yellow led keeps on without flashing even in the freeDos environment

also when i boot the windows 7 it keep on, the problem is that i can't see the activity of the hard disk sometimes this is usefull,

i have searched the bios setup items and i can't see a related item

any suggestions to enable the flashing feature  of the hard drive light ?

thanks

[erico]

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orangos wrote:

Hi

i  have buyed a desktop HP Elite 7300  _ cpu i5-2500  recently,  the hard drive is WDC WD5000AAKX-603CA0  ,500GByte

when i switch on the computer the hard drive yellow led keeps on without flashing even in the freeDos environment

also when i boot the windows 7 it keep on, the problem is that i can't see the activity of the hard disk sometimes this is usefull,

i have searched the bios setup items and i can't see a related item

any suggestions to enable the flashing feature  of the hard drive light ?

thanks

---

That is quite unusual. Please run the hard disk diagnostic that is available from within the BIOS or the HP Support Assistant.

You may download the Windows 7 appropriate version of the HP Support Assistant  in the Business Users software and drivers section of the web support portal for your HP Elite 7300 desktop PC.

Please post your results here.

There is no BIOS update that would address an issue of that sort. The lack of the hard disk activity led feature is likely to be a hard disk controller issue. If you find it to be an unbearable issue, then you can contact HP for warranty service. The hard disk is a warranty item. I do suggest that you clone your current hard disk to an external drive to simplify the transition from one hard disk to another.

Kind regards,

erico

[orangos]

thanks erico, in the bios setup diagnostic tools, the results are:
cpu test: passed
hard drive:
connection test: passed
Boot test : passed
s.m.a.r.t  test: passed
memory test: passed

so i have downloaded a software to show the HD activity as an icon in the taskbar :"free HDD Led"
until i test another hard drive to see if the flashing happened or not, i hope it is a hard drive issue and not a motherboard issue since i think the led cable are attached to the motherboard..
regards

[erico]

The wires for the hard disk activity LED on the PC case are connected to a header on the motherboard. I doubt that the two pin connector is connected backwards since polarity determines if it illuminates at all. An LED is a diode and requires proper polarity. LEDs block current if connected backwards.

Best regards,
erico

[orangos]

erico,  i can't resist trying your suggestion, since it make sense.

from the area of the power button there are six wires attached to a one female connector to the motherboard male connector near the dark blue(sata0) connector , if we look at page 2 of the "Illustrated Parts & Service Map HP Elite 7300 Microtower" the arrangment of the wires when we look from above to the F_Panel motherboard connector: the same orientation as looking to this picture from above to bottom

http://s14.postimage.org/wdxyzadz5/f_panel.jpg

yellow black

black blue

empty red

empty black

empty empty

 now looking at the power switch which contains also the power led and the yellow hdd led, i saw that the hdd led have a big cathode inside attached to a black wire, and a small anode attached to a yellow wire ( i suppose it is a ++ wire). i was about to cut the cables to reverse the connection, then i saw in my older computer that the hdd led big cathode attached to a white wire while the smaller anode attached to a red wire(ie ++). so i stopped to make changes since this is the same in spirit to the hp 7300 computer.

may be the led itself problem !?  i will check this after trying another sata hard drive from my old pc in the near days, and will post the finding here.

thanks

[orangos]

i come to a conclusion that the problem is from a fault in the motherboard.
i have attached the hdd led from my old pc instead of the original yellow led and it continue to light without flashing, i reversed the polarity of the led then it ceased to light at all.
after that i have attached my old sata drive instead of the original one , i have inserted the windows 7 dvd trying to install , the hard disk works okay but again with a continuous light.
it is sure a very rare situation much more than to win a lotto prize. so i have to live with this up to 5 years until i buy another one.
regards

[erico]

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orangos wrote:

i come to a conclusion that the problem is from a fault in the motherboard.
i have attached the hdd led from my old pc instead of the original yellow led and it continue to light without flashing, i reversed the polarity of the led then it ceased to light at all.
after that i have attached my old sata drive instead of the original one , i have inserted the windows 7 dvd trying to install , the hard disk works okay but again with a continuous light.
it is sure a very rare situation much more than to win a lotto prize. so i have to live with this up to 5 years until i buy another one.
regards

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The warranty period is over? (standard warranty is one year) 

I am happy that you did not dike the wires. That was not what I had in mind at all.

Diodes either let current pass or they do not. In the case of a light emittind diode that equates to illumination or none. Since your LED was illuminating it was connected correctly.

[orangos]

The warranty period are still active, i will talk to the dealer and if the situation needs changing the motherboard i prefer the current situation. (many years ago a dealer upgraded my motherboard and after returning home i discovered that many parts of the hard disk turns physicaly defective).

it seems there are many people suffering from this phenomena, i have disconnected the dvd to see the effect as suggested here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254438-32-hard-drive-light-stays-system-slow

but the light stay on. it could be also other devices like the five devices i never exposed to before in the front panel: smart media, SD..., compact flash, MS/Peo/Duo.. and a 2 SSUSB .

regards

[erico]

The greatest likelihood is that the SATA hard disk controller has a fault. That means the motherboard should be replaced. It is a warranty item. I have replaced HP motherboards in client's business desktops for issues before. 

Check with HP about the viability of your removing and keeping the hard disk (at your residence) to reinstall once the motherboard has been replaced with a new one. An alternative would be to clone the hard disk to anexternal drive to preclude the possibility of your losing any data and settings.