XPS 630 HDD LED blinking all the time

Chris,

Indexing is NOT running on my system.  The HDD light flashes constantly.  I cannot hear the drive spinning so I assume it is not being accessed, however I have never owned a computer where the HDD light flashes constantly.  I'm talking about 6 previous Dell's, an HP, and two builds. 

As for other troubleshooting, I've tried killing processes one at a time to see if any of them were accessing the HDD.  I have noticed no difference. 

It would be nice if we can get a straight answer on this issue.  Is it normal or not?  If it's normal, an explanation would be in order as to why the light flashes unlike all other computers. 

Thank You

I am in the same position, the light flashes intermitantly and I've switched indexing off and systematically been through my prossess to try and find what is interacting with the drives, but still there seems to be activity. I am concerned the drive is always spinning which is both a waste of power and reducing the drives life considerably.

For your info:

XPS630i

Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz

2 x nVidia 8800GTs in SLI

2 x 320Gb 7200rpm HDD (in a RAID Stripe)

X-Fi Soundcard

what is indexing?

My hard drive is incrediably slow....but I haven't had time to look into it yet.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms689718.aspx

I have mine turned off.  It's a little tricky sometimes to stop.  I had a problem on another computer with it starting itself again after reboot.  If you have trouble shutting it down, post here and I'll go through a step by step.

The HDD LED on my 630i has blinked continuously since I first received it.  I have not turned Windows indexing on or off so it should be like it was shipped from Dell.  I also do not have the 100% fan issue but I have not overclocked the system.  I have changed the color of the front LED's.

Davet,

That is interesting, but it's not what's causing the problem.  I'm running XP and have the same issue.

All

I found this on the Vista board posted by an extremely reliable source..

I have posted to get a reference link. this could be the best explanation yet...

Did you know that Vista defrags all drives automatically by default, if the PC is left on and is not being used.

Message Edited by mombodog on 05-15-2008 07:35 PM

IMHO it's got to be a hardware fault with the MIO, my reasoning:

When I first recieved my 630 I did notice the HD lignt was constantly on, I knew about the indexing in vista so assumed it was that and after a while it did settle down to the "Heart Beat" affect (flashing every second or so).

Then I experienced the "Jet enging in a wind tunnel" joy.

Now: I've downloaded and flashed my MIO with the firmware made available by xponentia, temporarily fixing my fans but the constant HD light is BACK!

Hope this info helps the top notch techs.

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@Davet50 wrote:

All

I found this on the Vista board posted by an extremely reliable source..

I have posted to get a reference link. this could be the best explanation yet...

 

 

Did you know that Vista defrags all drives automatically by default, if the PC is left on and is not being used.

 

Message Edited by mombodog on 05-15-2008 07:35 PM

Message Edited by Davet50 on 05-16-2008 07:49 AM

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I am running XP as well - as I see are most of the people responding to this topic.

Chris I followed your steps and with the power supply cord to the Master I/O board disconnected the HDD (Power Light) is on solid.  Returning everything to normal the blinking HDD light has returned although it did stay on solid for approximately 5+ minutes prior to starting to flash again.

John

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@Anonymous-Chris_M wrote:
All,

* Power off the PC
* Unplug the PC power cord
* Open the case cover
* Disconnect the power supply cord going into the Master I/O board
* Reconnect the PC power cord
* Power the PC on
* Does HDD LED blink all the time?
* Power the PC off
* Unplug the PC power cord
* Reconnect all of the Master I/O cabling
* Close it up and use as normal

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