SPCR I need your help!! Especially WD SE16 owners!!

Share your experiences about noisy computers and components, and vendors responses to your valid complaints.

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Gareth
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SPCR I need your help!! Especially WD SE16 owners!!

Post by Gareth » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:56 am

I'm having a terrible time dealing with a known overclocking specialist shop in the UK. After two telehpone calls I have been told hard drives don't have temperature sensors and 44C isn't enough to burn a persons hand after prolonged exposure...!

Detailed below is one of the webnotes (of many) I have sent them in the past few days:
FAO ####

I have uploaded the following screenshot taken last night in a room with an average ambient temperature (no room heating was on at the time) at around 12.30AM:

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/7048/hddtemp3be.jpg

This was taken using SpeedFan and SpeedFan's HDD Status monitor; I have also used Hmonitor and a few other programs with the exact same results. As you will clearly see the drive is operating just four degrees lower than the maximum permitted.

You will also notice the average running temperature of the CPU and motherboard. The hard drive is located in the upper chamber of an Antec P180 case alone in a drive bay with a case fan blowing air onto it; as such it is not affected by heat from the PSU, an Antec Phantom 500.

I attempted calling again today to rectify this problem and again I was fobbed off by a member of your team. I was even told 44-47C is not enough to burn a person’s hand which I find ridiculous. I tried telling this staff member the situation - I believe the HDD temperature sensor is at fault as the drive is cool to the touch. Even after a few good hours of continuous operation.

This person again, the same as the other member of your staff who I first tried dealing with on the phone told me to RMA the drive back to Western Digital in Germany – something I am not prepared to do. Why should I send a product to Europe when I am based in Liverpool and #### is only based in Stoke-on-Trent? An absolutely farcical situation and one I am not prepared to put up with.
Could anyone with a 320GB Western Digital SE16 SATAII 16MB cache drive please post screenshots of their normal idle temperature so I can forward them onto this company.

Also if anyone knows of any websites or forums detailing the known faulty temperature sensor which runs throughout the family of these drives could you please post them.

Massive thanks

Gareth

nomoon
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Post by nomoon » Thu Jun 15, 2006 10:10 am

Are are screenshots from my machine with two WD320's. HD0 is a WD3200KS (w/16MB cache). HD1 is a WD3200JD (w/8MB cache). It's in the bottom chamber of a P180 with a fan behind it running very slowly.

Jason


Image

Image

Gareth
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Post by Gareth » Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:37 am

Thanks Jason much appreciated. :)

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:37 pm

Gareth --

If you know the drive is running well, and cool & the thermal sensor is reading high, then why worry? It might well be the motherboard's monitoring system that's at fault, as well. I would bet that accurate temp sensing is NOT covered by any HDD maker's warranty. There are many instances of sensor systems being off or miscalibrated in motherboards, vidcards, hdds, etc, and I have never heard of any company providing RMA to correct this.

QuietOC
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Post by QuietOC » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:02 pm

MikeC wrote:Gareth --

If you know the drive is running well, and cool & the thermal sensor is reading high, then why worry? It might well be the motherboard's monitoring system that's at fault, as well. I would bet that accurate temp sensing is NOT covered by any HDD maker's warranty.
I don't think the HD temp sensors have anything to do with the motherboard monitoring system. I am sure that signal is just passed on from the HD using the SMART protocol. The HD internal sensor is probably not very accurate.

Sorry, re-read the post a little more carefully. The sensor is likely inside an IC on the drive's circuit board. The localized heat at that location could be considerable higher than the drive's recommended operating temperature. I don't see any problem here.
Last edited by QuietOC on Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Devonavar
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Post by Devonavar » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:45 pm

I vaguely recall some reports that a few WD drives had this problem. I would suggest googling (and searching on this forum) to see if you can find any other reports.

QuietOC
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Post by QuietOC » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:24 pm

Devonavar wrote:I vaguely recall some reports that a few WD drives had this problem. I would suggest googling (and searching on this forum) to see if you can find any other reports.
Also, my drive is sitting against some foam (=insulation). The temperature sensor is probably on that circuit board sitting against the foam. The metal casing exposed to the airflow is cooler. Maybe I should rotate the drive 180*. :o

With the video duct on again, HD0 is reading 55*C.

nomoon
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Post by nomoon » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:56 am

My drives get a little warm on the bottom. You may consider positioning them so that they get airflow underneath to see if the sensor reports lower temperatures. Jason

oldabelincoln
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Post by oldabelincoln » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:18 pm

A possibility is that the HDD temperature sensor is not calibrated correctly. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about that if that is the case.

I have 4 Maxtors in a P150 drive cage, with 2 Nexus 92 mm fans running at 12V immediately in front of the drives. Of these - and they are all of the same vintage, but different models - one does not have a functioning temperature sensor, two show about the same temperature (31 C and 32 C at idle) and one is simply way out of calibration, showing 45 C [sic] at idle, even though all three get the same ventilation and are at the same temperature to the touch.

Under heavy disk load, the temperatures rise 3 more degrees on the two drives with apparently functional sensors, but the one indicating 45 C idle goes up 10 degrees to 55 C, even though all feel about the same to the touch

This all seems consistent with what little I know about temperature sensors in computers, and I believe that the one with the high readings is simply inaccurately calibrated, and is not about to melt down.

it's hard not to draw the conclusion that the accuracy of temperature sensors is not the first thing that drive manufacturers think of.

Your situation is a little trickier, as you don't have other disks as a temperature reference.

QuietOC
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Post by QuietOC » Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:01 am

oldabelincoln wrote:A possibility is that the HDD temperature sensor is not calibrated correctly. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about that if that is the case.
Speedfan at least does let you supply a offset value for any of the temerature sensors. My strategy was to just boot the computer and check the drive temperature with the drive cool, and then adjust the offset so the displayed temperature seemed more reasonable. The drive should be at room temperature once it has been off for a while.

HammerSandwich
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Post by HammerSandwich » Sun Jun 25, 2006 11:30 am

Gareth, see this post.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:10 pm

I'm having a terrible time dealing with a known overclocking specialist shop in the UK
Let me guess, it's http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

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