false SMART indication

  • Thread starter Thread starter dave
  • Start date Start date
D

dave

Hi,
since one year, my asus L8400B laptop has a strange problem: at boot
says that SMART indicates imminent failure and the boot stops.
impossible to disable smart feature from the BIOS. month after month
the problem happens much more often, sometimes needing to restart
20-30 times to make the system start. indcation is false, because
disabling the smart support with the harddrive utility it happens
anyway, and also it happens with different disks. when it happens
floppy and cd-rom are not detected by the bios.
I suppose it's a motherboard problem.
any similar behaviour?
thank you.

david
 
Hi,
since one year, my asus L8400B laptop has a strange problem: at boot
says that SMART indicates imminent failure and the boot stops.
impossible to disable smart feature from the BIOS. month after month
the problem happens much more often, sometimes needing to restart
20-30 times to make the system start. indcation is false, because
disabling the smart support with the harddrive utility it happens
anyway, and also it happens with different disks. when it happens
floppy and cd-rom are not detected by the bios.
I suppose it's a motherboard problem.
any similar behaviour?
thank you.

david


See if the laptop has a bios upgrade available.
Had you ran the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics and
general-installation-check utility to see if it found
anything unusual?

Has it been used in harsh environments? I'm wondering if
the connectors/contacts/etc are damaged or dirty.
Due to the mechanical integrity necessary for proper
function of a laptop, if you don't feel inclined to
disassemble and troubleshoot the mechanical connections and
related electrical portions you might take it to a qualified
repair shop... after trying the bios update if possible.

Any correlation between ambient temp or how long it'd been
off, it's internal temp relating to the frequency of the
problem?
 
See if the laptop has a bios upgrade available.
Had you ran the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics and
general-installation-check utility to see if it found
anything unusual?

Has it been used in harsh environments? I'm wondering if
the connectors/contacts/etc are damaged or dirty.
Due to the mechanical integrity necessary for proper
function of a laptop, if you don't feel inclined to
disassemble and troubleshoot the mechanical connections and
related electrical portions you might take it to a qualified
repair shop... after trying the bios update if possible.

Any correlation between ambient temp or how long it'd been
off, it's internal temp relating to the frequency of the
problem?

no BIOS upgrade in the last 2 years.
HDD diagnostic passed succesfully, nothing unusual.
something strange: after enabling and disabling the SMART from the HDD
utility the problem doesn't appear for few days. than back again.
I've completely disassembled the laptop up to the motherboard.
contacts are clean and I didn't notice anything strange. any
suggestion on what to check? why do you think that when the disk is
indicating the problem, all the other units are not detected?
according to temperature I didn't notice any correlation between
neither ambient temperature nor internal temperature (rebooting after
long usage): looks like that when it works if I do RESTART it works at
the first time. If for some reason I need to do a hard reset then
often the problem appears. after being off usually it takes even 30-40
trying to get it start, obsiously without doing anything different
between the start trying.
....any idea?
 
no BIOS upgrade in the last 2 years.
HDD diagnostic passed succesfully, nothing unusual.
something strange: after enabling and disabling the SMART from the HDD
utility the problem doesn't appear for few days. than back again.
I've completely disassembled the laptop up to the motherboard.
contacts are clean and I didn't notice anything strange. any
suggestion on what to check? why do you think that when the disk is
indicating the problem, all the other units are not detected?
according to temperature I didn't notice any correlation between
neither ambient temperature nor internal temperature (rebooting after
long usage): looks like that when it works if I do RESTART it works at
the first time. If for some reason I need to do a hard reset then
often the problem appears. after being off usually it takes even 30-40
trying to get it start, obsiously without doing anything different
between the start trying.
...any idea?

Since it is harder to get it working after being off for a
time I would further explore the possibility of it being a
mechanical (as it relates to heat/expansion of connectors)
or electrical, if there is a crack/other flaw in some
component or something like capacitors failing. Perhaps I'd
overlooked it but have you confirmed that the problem occurs
as regularly from the AC adapter as the battery?
 
Since it is harder to get it working after being off for a
time I would further explore the possibility of it being a
mechanical (as it relates to heat/expansion of connectors)
or electrical, if there is a crack/other flaw in some
component or something like capacitors failing. Perhaps I'd
overlooked it but have you confirmed that the problem occurs
as regularly from the AC adapter as the battery?

But also looks like what makes the difference is if the system was
restarted or shutted down... later on when doing normal shutdown I'll
try to start it right soon.
difficult to find capacitors problems, unless they where exploded...
I can say that the problem comes out independent of the usage of
battery or AC power...
doing a further hardware check tomorrow...
one more data: with this disk, when the problem happens all the other
peripherals are not detected and the harddrive gives smart failure.
with another disk when the problem happens (probably, the average of
times it happens and the conditions are similar) the disks works
normally and windows starts, but all the other peripherals are not
detected.
 
Back
Top