Drivelight flickering all the time

[MPS]

Hi all,

Vista Home Premium, 4GB, C:\drive internal, I:\drive USB

The accesslight on my 320GB D: drive containing ONLY Userdata music, pictures, documents started
recently to permanently flicker in a steady rhythm, say 20Hz. The drive sits in a dockingstation, on
top of the MEDION computercase and connects through USB 2.0

C: Drive 320GB has all programs and programdata on it, so they are completely separated.

When accessed it will either light up stronger or gets dimmer, depending on the amount of data read,
then settles to regular flickering.
It used to be completely ON, except when accessed or written to.

The computer works allright but loading pictures or other data from D:drive is sluggish. Performance
of the drive is clearly lower, it is busy. It will also needlessly wear out sooner.

On startup, its light is steady ON (as it used to), and starts to flicker following userlogon and
desktop visible.
During restarting the system, it will not stop to flicker.

Did the obvious scans, AVG, Spyware, defrag, empty Recycle bin, clean Registry etc.

Light's still on and flickering, as if contstantly acessesed by 'something'.
There is no outgoing activity to the Internet as displayed by my NetMonitor.

I have stopped, reset and restarted Searchindexer, which finished its job. No effect.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no other permanent activity going
on for
D:drive (other than valid acesses) but sometimes
D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize.
How to access those for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Run a disk check on the drive and check the option to fix errors.

For diagnostic purposes:

Turn off indexing on the drive.

If you have any program installed that catalogues pictures, videos, et al,
check for an option to disable it for that drive. Alternately, shut it off
or temporarily remove it.


Tom
PS
Pesky observation: I get the point but you picked a flicker/flash frequency
such that the light would be perceived by most people as being steadily on.

Older "sound" film used to be recorded and projected at 24 frames per sec,
silent film at 16 frames per second. Some people were annoyed by the
"flicker". Most did not notice it.

 

[MPS]

Thank you Tom,

for some covert reason the accesslight stopped flickering today... it's what we call here 'the
dentist effect' : once you get there it does not hurt anymore.

Must wait until it comes on again...
For now FNF: Fault not Found... RWT: Right when tested...

About your light-frequency observation: yes, I am fully aware of what you wrote as this is part of
my business and training.
I have sensitive eyes for frequencies i.e. TL-lights, older tube TV's in Europe having 50 Hz refresh
frequency (25 Hz interlaced), 16 fps movies.

However, once people become aware of this almost anyone can see this flicker when NOT looking at
i.e. staring away and catching the scene with your peripheral vision as this is evolutionary very
well adapted for quick movements such as tigers in the bush or cyclists from your car's side.

Maria

 

[MPS]

Go to "Services" and disable the "Windows Driver Foundation" (right
click on it > Properties > disable). Then reboot. Let us know whether
that helps.

Thank you whs,
for some secret reason the drive's accesslight stopped flickering today... it's what we call here
'the dentist effect' : once you get there it does not hurt anymore.

Must wait until it comes on again...
For now FNF: Fault not Found... RWT: Right when tested...

I disabled Windows Driver Foundation in any case since I do not want it nor need it I think.
There are heaps of these services and many websites discussing their necessity and which to start
automatically and which manually etc. dazzling.

Thanks,

Maria

Maria

 

[MPS]

Run a disk check on the drive and check the option to fix errors.

For diagnostic purposes:

Turn off indexing on the drive.

If you have any program installed that catalogues pictures, videos, et al, check for an option to
disable it for that drive. Alternately, shut it off or temporarily remove it.


Tom
PS
Pesky observation: I get the point but you picked a flicker/flash frequency such that the light
would be perceived by most people as being steadily on.

Older "sound" film used to be recorded and projected at 24 frames per sec, silent film at 16
frames per second. Some people were annoyed by the "flicker". Most did not notice it.

Hi all,

Vista Home Premium, 4GB, C:\drive internal, I:\drive USB

The accesslight on my 320GB D: drive containing ONLY Userdata music, pictures, documents started
recently to permanently flicker in a steady rhythm, say 20Hz. The drive sits in a dockingstation,
on
top of the MEDION computercase and connects through USB 2.0

C: Drive 320GB has all programs and programdata on it, so they are completely separated.

When accessed it will either light up stronger or gets dimmer, depending on the amount of data
read, then settles to regular flickering.
It used to be completely ON, except when accessed or written to.

The computer works allright but loading pictures or other data from D:drive is sluggish.
Performance
of the drive is clearly lower, it is busy. It will also needlessly wear out sooner.

On startup, its light is steady ON (as it used to), and starts to flicker following userlogon and
desktop visible.
During restarting the system, it will not stop to flicker.

Did the obvious scans, AVG, Spyware, defrag, empty Recycle bin, clean Registry etc.

Light's still on and flickering, as if contstantly acessesed by 'something'.
There is no outgoing activity to the Internet as displayed by my NetMonitor.

I have stopped, reset and restarted Searchindexer, which finished its job. No effect.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no other permanent activity
going on for
D:drive (other than valid acesses) but sometimes
D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize.
How to access those for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria

Microsoft Windows [versie 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. Alle rechten voorbehouden.

Here's the check's result:
No problems found

No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running.

Following the chkdsk Light's On now and shows a faint fast c. 30 Hz flicker
Maria

C:\Users\Senior21>chkdsk i: /f
Het type bestandssysteem is NTFS.

Chkdsk kan niet worden uitgevoerd omdat het volume door
een ander proces wordt gebruikt. Chkdsk kan wel worden
uitgevoerd als dit volume eerst wordt ontkoppeld.
ALLE GEOPENDE INGANGEN NAAR DIT VOLUME
WORDEN IN DAT GEVAL ONGELDIG.
Wilt u een ontkoppeling van dit volume forceren? (J/N) j
Volume is ontkoppeld. Alle geopende ingangen naar dit volume
zijn nu ongeldig.
Volumenaam is DATA.

Bestanden controleren (stap 1 van 3)...
83200 bestandsrecords verwerkt.
De bestandscontrole is voltooid.
125 records met grote bestanden verwerkt.
0 records met beschadigde bestanden verwerkt.
0 EA-records verwerkt.
0 reparserecords verwerkt.
Indices controleren (stap 2 van 3)...
92502 indexvermeldingen verwerkt.
De indexcontrole voltooid.
0 niet-geïndexeerde bestanden verwerkt.
CHKDSK controleert de security descriptors (stap 3 van 3)...
83200 security descriptors verwerkt.
De controle van security descriptors is voltooid.
4652 gegevensbestanden verwerkt.
Het USN-logboek controleren...
35188192 USN-bytes verwerkt.
Controle van USN-logboek is voltooid.
Het bestandssysteem is gecontroleerd. Er zijn geen problemen vastgesteld.

312568640 kB totale schijfruimte.
159007525 kB in 71585 bestanden.
39088 kB in 4653 indexen.
0 kB in beschadigde sectoren.
259895 kB in gebruik door het systeem.
Het logboekbestand neemt 65536 kB in beslag.
153262131 kB beschikbaar op schijf.

512 bytes per cluster
625137281 clusters in totaal op schijf
306524263 clusters beschikbaar op schijf

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Sorry to be repetitious but the observed behavior resembles a
drive-indexing run so closely that I feel compelled to ask.

You say, "No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running" . Does this
include the Widows indexing service as controlled under Drive Properties
General tab "Index this drive for faster searching."?

Tom

Run a disk check on the drive and check the option to fix errors.

For diagnostic purposes:

Turn off indexing on the drive.

If you have any program installed that catalogues pictures, videos, et
al, check for an option to disable it for that drive. Alternately, shut
it off or temporarily remove it.


Tom
PS
Pesky observation: I get the point but you picked a flicker/flash
frequency such that the light would be perceived by most people as being
steadily on.

Older "sound" film used to be recorded and projected at 24 frames per
sec, silent film at 16 frames per second. Some people were annoyed by the
"flicker". Most did not notice it.

Hi all,

Vista Home Premium, 4GB, C:\drive internal, I:\drive USB

The accesslight on my 320GB D: drive containing ONLY Userdata music,
pictures, documents started
recently to permanently flicker in a steady rhythm, say 20Hz. The drive
sits in a dockingstation, on
top of the MEDION computercase and connects through USB 2.0

C: Drive 320GB has all programs and programdata on it, so they are
completely separated.

When accessed it will either light up stronger or gets dimmer, depending
on the amount of data read, then settles to regular flickering.
It used to be completely ON, except when accessed or written to.

The computer works allright but loading pictures or other data from
D:drive is sluggish. Performance
of the drive is clearly lower, it is busy. It will also needlessly wear
out sooner.

On startup, its light is steady ON (as it used to), and starts to
flicker following userlogon and desktop visible.
During restarting the system, it will not stop to flicker.

Did the obvious scans, AVG, Spyware, defrag, empty Recycle bin, clean
Registry etc.

Light's still on and flickering, as if contstantly acessesed by
'something'.
There is no outgoing activity to the Internet as displayed by my
NetMonitor.

I have stopped, reset and restarted Searchindexer, which finished its
job. No effect.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no
other permanent activity going on for
D:drive (other than valid acesses) but sometimes
D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize.
How to access those for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria

Microsoft Windows [versie 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. Alle rechten voorbehouden.

Here's the check's result:
No problems found

No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running.

Following the chkdsk Light's On now and shows a faint fast c. 30 Hz
flicker
Maria

C:\Users\Senior21>chkdsk i: /f
Het type bestandssysteem is NTFS.

Chkdsk kan niet worden uitgevoerd omdat het volume door
een ander proces wordt gebruikt. Chkdsk kan wel worden
uitgevoerd als dit volume eerst wordt ontkoppeld.
ALLE GEOPENDE INGANGEN NAAR DIT VOLUME
WORDEN IN DAT GEVAL ONGELDIG.
Wilt u een ontkoppeling van dit volume forceren? (J/N) j
Volume is ontkoppeld. Alle geopende ingangen naar dit volume
zijn nu ongeldig.
Volumenaam is DATA.

Bestanden controleren (stap 1 van 3)...
83200 bestandsrecords verwerkt.
De bestandscontrole is voltooid.
125 records met grote bestanden verwerkt.
0 records met beschadigde bestanden verwerkt.
0 EA-records verwerkt.
0 reparserecords verwerkt.
Indices controleren (stap 2 van 3)...
92502 indexvermeldingen verwerkt.
De indexcontrole voltooid.
0 niet-geïndexeerde bestanden verwerkt.
CHKDSK controleert de security descriptors (stap 3 van 3)...
83200 security descriptors verwerkt.
De controle van security descriptors is voltooid.
4652 gegevensbestanden verwerkt.
Het USN-logboek controleren...
35188192 USN-bytes verwerkt.
Controle van USN-logboek is voltooid.
Het bestandssysteem is gecontroleerd. Er zijn geen problemen vastgesteld.

312568640 kB totale schijfruimte.
159007525 kB in 71585 bestanden.
39088 kB in 4653 indexen.
0 kB in beschadigde sectoren.
259895 kB in gebruik door het systeem.
Het logboekbestand neemt 65536 kB in beslag.
153262131 kB beschikbaar op schijf.

512 bytes per cluster
625137281 clusters in totaal op schijf
306524263 clusters beschikbaar op schijf

 

[MPS]

Tom, sorry for my belated answer but I was out travelling.

The only indexing service that's on is Vista's own -- but it has completed its indexing long ago! It
uses 00% of CPU at 9MB of memory.

It was the first place I looked since I thought I recognised this behaviour. However, Vista's
indexer's finished having indeded 140.473 items.
It looked and sounded like this old crazy W98SE paging behaviour when the disk would rumble and
sqeak...

While I write this the flickering is on at about 20Hz faintly though as if only very short chunks of
data are being read/written...

I have killed any processes except svchost since they all look alike to no avail. No data is going
out onto the Net as proved by ny NetMeter app.

Any other suggestion?

Ciao,
Maria

Sorry to be repetitious but the observed behavior resembles a
drive-indexing run so closely that I feel compelled to ask.

You say, "No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running" . Does this
include the Widows indexing service as controlled under Drive Properties
General tab "Index this drive for faster searching."?

Tom

Run a disk check on the drive and check the option to fix errors.

For diagnostic purposes:

Turn off indexing on the drive.

If you have any program installed that catalogues pictures, videos, et al, check for an option
to disable it for that drive. Alternately, shut it off or temporarily remove it.


Tom
PS
Pesky observation: I get the point but you picked a flicker/flash frequency such that the light
would be perceived by most people as being steadily on.

Older "sound" film used to be recorded and projected at 24 frames per sec, silent film at 16
frames per second. Some people were annoyed by the "flicker". Most did not notice it.


Hi all,

Vista Home Premium, 4GB, C:\drive internal, I:\drive USB

The accesslight on my 320GB D: drive containing ONLY Userdata music, pictures, documents
started
recently to permanently flicker in a steady rhythm, say 20Hz. The drive sits in a
dockingstation, on
top of the MEDION computercase and connects through USB 2.0

C: Drive 320GB has all programs and programdata on it, so they are completely separated.

When accessed it will either light up stronger or gets dimmer, depending on the amount of data
read, then settles to regular flickering.
It used to be completely ON, except when accessed or written to.

The computer works allright but loading pictures or other data from D:drive is sluggish.
Performance
of the drive is clearly lower, it is busy. It will also needlessly wear out sooner.

On startup, its light is steady ON (as it used to), and starts to flicker following userlogon
and desktop visible.
During restarting the system, it will not stop to flicker.

Did the obvious scans, AVG, Spyware, defrag, empty Recycle bin, clean Registry etc.

Light's still on and flickering, as if contstantly acessesed by 'something'.
There is no outgoing activity to the Internet as displayed by my NetMonitor.

I have stopped, reset and restarted Searchindexer, which finished its job. No effect.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no other permanent activity
going on for
D:drive (other than valid acesses) but sometimes
D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize.
How to access those for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria



Microsoft Windows [versie 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. Alle rechten voorbehouden.

Here's the check's result:
No problems found

No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running.

Following the chkdsk Light's On now and shows a faint fast c. 30 Hz flicker
Maria

C:\Users\Senior21>chkdsk i: /f
Het type bestandssysteem is NTFS.

Chkdsk kan niet worden uitgevoerd omdat het volume door
een ander proces wordt gebruikt. Chkdsk kan wel worden
uitgevoerd als dit volume eerst wordt ontkoppeld.
ALLE GEOPENDE INGANGEN NAAR DIT VOLUME
WORDEN IN DAT GEVAL ONGELDIG.
Wilt u een ontkoppeling van dit volume forceren? (J/N) j
Volume is ontkoppeld. Alle geopende ingangen naar dit volume
zijn nu ongeldig.
Volumenaam is DATA.

Bestanden controleren (stap 1 van 3)...
83200 bestandsrecords verwerkt.
De bestandscontrole is voltooid.
125 records met grote bestanden verwerkt.
0 records met beschadigde bestanden verwerkt.
0 EA-records verwerkt.
0 reparserecords verwerkt.
Indices controleren (stap 2 van 3)...
92502 indexvermeldingen verwerkt.
De indexcontrole voltooid.
0 niet-geïndexeerde bestanden verwerkt.
CHKDSK controleert de security descriptors (stap 3 van 3)...
83200 security descriptors verwerkt.
De controle van security descriptors is voltooid.
4652 gegevensbestanden verwerkt.
Het USN-logboek controleren...
35188192 USN-bytes verwerkt.
Controle van USN-logboek is voltooid.
Het bestandssysteem is gecontroleerd. Er zijn geen problemen vastgesteld.

312568640 kB totale schijfruimte.
159007525 kB in 71585 bestanden.
39088 kB in 4653 indexen.
0 kB in beschadigde sectoren.
259895 kB in gebruik door het systeem.
Het logboekbestand neemt 65536 kB in beslag.
153262131 kB beschikbaar op schijf.

512 bytes per cluster
625137281 clusters in totaal op schijf
306524263 clusters beschikbaar op schijf

 

[MPS]

Tonight's everything's quiet...

No harddisk flickering, no strange access bursts or regular faint glimmering... I give up...

Thanks friends for answering. I will live with it.

Ciao,
Maria

 

[MPS]

This flickering is now starting to severely and negatively influence my diskaccess, which becomes
sluggish.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no other permanent activity going
on for D:drive (other than valid accesses) but sometimes it shows:

D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize, though I'd like to very much.

How can I access these for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria

 

[Glen]

If you all ask me, I would say that it is some secret deal between Microsoft
and World Governments, including our own, as a very secret backdoor spyware
developed and reporting to the National Security Administration (NSA). A
hidden virus controled by the government and Microsoft to spy on it's own
citizens under a passage of law comonly refered to the Patriot Act. An act
that gave the United States Government a conclusive authority to violate any
and all of a person rights at anytime for the purpose of national security.
I mean, I may be a lil paraniod and all... But you have to think about it.
It's possible.

Sorry to be repetitious but the observed behavior resembles a
drive-indexing run so closely that I feel compelled to ask.

You say, "No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running" . Does this
include the Widows indexing service as controlled under Drive Properties
General tab "Index this drive for faster searching."?

Tom

Run a disk check on the drive and check the option to fix errors.

For diagnostic purposes:

Turn off indexing on the drive.

If you have any program installed that catalogues pictures, videos, et
al, check for an option to disable it for that drive. Alternately, shut
it off or temporarily remove it.


Tom
PS
Pesky observation: I get the point but you picked a flicker/flash
frequency such that the light would be perceived by most people as being
steadily on.

Older "sound" film used to be recorded and projected at 24 frames per
sec, silent film at 16 frames per second. Some people were annoyed by
the "flicker". Most did not notice it.


Hi all,

Vista Home Premium, 4GB, C:\drive internal, I:\drive USB

The accesslight on my 320GB D: drive containing ONLY Userdata music,
pictures, documents started
recently to permanently flicker in a steady rhythm, say 20Hz. The drive
sits in a dockingstation, on
top of the MEDION computercase and connects through USB 2.0

C: Drive 320GB has all programs and programdata on it, so they are
completely separated.

When accessed it will either light up stronger or gets dimmer,
depending on the amount of data read, then settles to regular
flickering.
It used to be completely ON, except when accessed or written to.

The computer works allright but loading pictures or other data from
D:drive is sluggish. Performance
of the drive is clearly lower, it is busy. It will also needlessly wear
out sooner.

On startup, its light is steady ON (as it used to), and starts to
flicker following userlogon and desktop visible.
During restarting the system, it will not stop to flicker.

Did the obvious scans, AVG, Spyware, defrag, empty Recycle bin, clean
Registry etc.

Light's still on and flickering, as if contstantly acessesed by
'something'.
There is no outgoing activity to the Internet as displayed by my
NetMonitor.

I have stopped, reset and restarted Searchindexer, which finished its
job. No effect.

In Vista's Reliability and Performance Tool section Disk I can see no
other permanent activity going on for
D:drive (other than valid acesses) but sometimes
D:\$MFT NTFS50-MFT Master File Table and
D:\$Logfile.

The latter 2 files I cannot see in Explorer nor in TreeSize.
How to access those for inspection?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Ciao,
Maria



Microsoft Windows [versie 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. Alle rechten voorbehouden.

Here's the check's result:
No problems found

No indexers of any kind nor cataloging running.

Following the chkdsk Light's On now and shows a faint fast c. 30 Hz
flicker
Maria

C:\Users\Senior21>chkdsk i: /f
Het type bestandssysteem is NTFS.

Chkdsk kan niet worden uitgevoerd omdat het volume door
een ander proces wordt gebruikt. Chkdsk kan wel worden
uitgevoerd als dit volume eerst wordt ontkoppeld.
ALLE GEOPENDE INGANGEN NAAR DIT VOLUME
WORDEN IN DAT GEVAL ONGELDIG.
Wilt u een ontkoppeling van dit volume forceren? (J/N) j
Volume is ontkoppeld. Alle geopende ingangen naar dit volume
zijn nu ongeldig.
Volumenaam is DATA.

Bestanden controleren (stap 1 van 3)...
83200 bestandsrecords verwerkt.
De bestandscontrole is voltooid.
125 records met grote bestanden verwerkt.
0 records met beschadigde bestanden verwerkt.
0 EA-records verwerkt.
0 reparserecords verwerkt.
Indices controleren (stap 2 van 3)...
92502 indexvermeldingen verwerkt.
De indexcontrole voltooid.
0 niet-geïndexeerde bestanden verwerkt.
CHKDSK controleert de security descriptors (stap 3 van 3)...
83200 security descriptors verwerkt.
De controle van security descriptors is voltooid.
4652 gegevensbestanden verwerkt.
Het USN-logboek controleren...
35188192 USN-bytes verwerkt.
Controle van USN-logboek is voltooid.
Het bestandssysteem is gecontroleerd. Er zijn geen problemen vastgesteld.

312568640 kB totale schijfruimte.
159007525 kB in 71585 bestanden.
39088 kB in 4653 indexen.
0 kB in beschadigde sectoren.
259895 kB in gebruik door het systeem.
Het logboekbestand neemt 65536 kB in beslag.
153262131 kB beschikbaar op schijf.

512 bytes per cluster
625137281 clusters in totaal op schijf
306524263 clusters beschikbaar op schijf