WD Green Caviar

By Krpano
in Hardware Hangout

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Krpano

Posted
Posted

I wonder if someone else is having problems with PCB frying up in the Green Caviar line.

I had a 500 dead few weeks ago. I thought it was ok, was the first time a WD died on me. (i have 6 WD hard drives actually)

So last week i decided to increase my storage space and bought 2x 2TB Green Caviar for backup purpose and for my astonishement one stopped working.

I checked every SATA port and cable possible just to realize the drive wasnt working and i notice the PCB was very hot.

I decided to unscrew the PC (4 screw, no warraty seal) to check it out.

And on of the chips was kind of melted.

SO i got the dead 500GB and did the same to realize it had exactly the same chip fried.

The impressive part is that there is 2x 120mm fans directly infront of the HDs, the case is always very cool since it is a storage PC.

Has an excellent PSU too, a Corsair 850W (few months old).

What do you think it might be buring the chips ?

Faulty product ?

The previous day i had set a huge backup of 1.5TB of data.

Im kind of disappointed with WD.

What are your experiences with it ?

Thnaks for your input.

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Grand Master

MR_Candyman

Posted
Posted

I had another Western Digital drive die on me a week ago. It was only a 320 gig drive that I have had for about 2 years, but the same thing happened to it. It was making windows boot REALLY SLOW but once booted the machine ran fine. It was probably deteting there was a drive but couldn't make it work so it timed out and carried on.

Mentor

the big dill

Posted
Posted

I only go with WD drives... maybe their latest chips were faulty?

In any case, i have a velociraptor and i couldn't be happier, honestly... after 2 years i am still surprised at its speed. LOVE IT!

I once had a 160 PATA drive from WD that died out on me, the 'click of death' as many like to call it. The thing is, this drive has been through a LOT and before dieing it was just really poor, so i decided to back it up, next time i restart, its dead.

Proficient

Mouettus

Posted
Posted

a friend of mine had a 2TB caviar green and used it as it's OS drive.

fried 2 days ago. I have absolutely no idea about the fault but windows couldn't load

personnaly I have 2x1TB of those in RAID 1 (because I don't trust any HDD) that serve me as data drives only. stable since day 1. it's been about 8 months now

Veteran

Krpano

Posted
  • Author
Posted

^ thanks.

I am still waiting a reply from WD about this.

I am sick of the products quality these days.

Had some huge HTC Desire headaches, ended with a dead Desire no warranty.

Bought a 2K TV and had some huge light leak.

A Zotac miniITX board......which stopped working too after 2 days, jesus.

Bad year for electronics for me...

Mentor

the big dill

Posted
Posted

Well - to be honest with you, i personally have come upon the idea that electronics are getting worse quality by the year... First they had good American quality, then they had some cheap Taiwanese? quality, soon they will higher chimpanzees just because it costs less....

There is very little i stick to in terms of companies these days, and now it looks like my favorite HDD company is also doing poorly.

PS... OCZ is off the list too recently.

Grand Master

Yusuf M. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

It looks like both motor controller chips were burned out.

From my knowledge, there are two likely scenarios:

  1. It's susceptible to power fluctuations so your PSU (or a power surge) may have overstressed it.
  2. It was defective.

I'd say the former is more likely since both hard drives were affected.

Veteran

Krpano

Posted
  • Author
Posted

@ the big dill

I agree.

It seems it doesn't matter how much money i spend on a product, they are all crap.

@ Anaron

they didn't fry with the same computer....the 500GB fried before under another PSU.

but i agree, the MOBO i was installing kept rebooting. It was a Zotac. Maybe this is the culprit.

Anyway, i took the Mobo and HD to the store....i hope they will replace them.

Today those ******* find any excuse to not give you warranty.

Ill let you know.

Mentor

Pikey

Posted
Posted

I had a brand new WD die on me back in March .. WD5000AAKS model .. I notice one of yours was AAVS!

The replacement is working fine though , which is good news!

I agree with the thoughts others have said about cheap goods being sold these days ... virtually every electrical part you can think of these days is made in the far east and the worse for it in my view!

They may use high tech facilities but I don't think the QA is up to much , but the other side of the coin , you get what you pay for is equally valid.

A 500 Gig hard drive costs under ?40 here in the UK .. that is pretty damn cheap for storage!

Grand Master

TEX4S

Posted
Posted

The Green product line is the drives that failed @ normal RPM.

Basically it is a failed blue. So basically WD will power down the RPM and call it an "energy-efficient" model. How nice of them, huh ?

Dont buy them in hopes of saving the planet and $1.00 every 20 years in energy costs.

If you cant get a black...well get a blue if you must - but there is no reason not to get a black.

The whole "energy saving algorithms" ? well incase you dont know an algorithm is a fancy way of saying method, or process.

So, their energy saving process is tweak down the spindle so it doesnt fail - thereby slowing the drive requiring less juice - creative marketing at its finest.

They dont care about energy saving, its a way of minimizing shrinkage in production.

Veteran

The Dark Knight

Posted
Posted

The Green product line is the drives that failed @ normal RPM.

Basically it is a failed blue. So basically WD will power down the RPM and call it an "energy-efficient" model. How nice of them, huh ?

Dont buy them in hopes of saving the planet and $1.00 every 20 years in energy costs.

If you cant get a black...well get a blue if you must - but there is no reason not to get a black.

The whole "energy saving algorithms" ? well incase you dont know an algorithm is a fancy way of saying method, or process.

So, their energy saving process is tweak down the spindle so it doesnt fail - thereby slowing the drive requiring less juice - creative marketing at its finest.

They dont care about energy saving, its a way of minimizing shrinkage in production.

I actually have had (and still use in another pc) 3 WD Caviar Blue HDD's, and not one of them caused any problems.

I agree with you that all these "Energy Saving" products are just marketing gimmicks. You hardly save anything in the long run. The "Go Green" drive thing is only effective if large companies adopt it. Little old me switching off one light is not going to make any difference! rofl.gif

But IMO the WD Caviar Green is still a fine product, and I currently have 5 of them (1TB each) for data storage and backup. I use these as they spin slower and on't heat up as much as others. Perfectly fine for data storage!smile.gif

But for my main system, it's WD Caviar Black all the way! biggrin.gif

Grand Master

TEX4S

Posted
Posted

I actually have had (and still use in another pc) 3 WD Caviar Blue HDD's, and not one of them caused any problems.

I agree with you that all these "Energy Saving" products are just marketing gimmicks. You hardly save anything in the long run. The "Go Green" drive thing is only effective if large companies adopt it. Little old me switching off one light is not going to make any difference! rofl.gif

But IMO the WD Caviar Green is still a fine product, and I currently have 5 of them (1TB each) for data storage and backup. I use these as they spin slower and on't heat up as much as others. Perfectly fine for data storage!smile.gif

But for my main system, it's WD Caviar Black all the way! biggrin.gif

5 TB ?!?!? My god what are you backing up ? :rofl:

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