GA-Z68XP-UD4 odd HDD light issue

[KS212]

Hi all!

I've been looking around for an answer to this with no real solution so I'd figure I'd ask here.

Just recently built a brand new system with the above motherboard, Intel i7-2700k, 16gb Corsair Vengeance ram, Corsair AX850 Gold series PSU. All settings are default for now, no overclocking yet.

System boots fine, runs fine, stays up for days, no problem at all EXCEPT for an odd issue where RANDOMLY, just out of nowhere, the HDD light will turn on solid and stay on. However there is NO actual disk activity. I've checked using Resource monitor and Process monitor to try and see if there really is a massive amount of disk activity that'd make the light go on and stay on... but no, there is no disk activity. Running a 'software' HDD light also shows there is nothing beyond the occasional flash.

When the light goes solid, NOTHING out of the ordinary happens. The system doesn't hiccup at all, there are NO freezes, as is common with this sort of issue. System is running perfectly fine, and will continue to run fine as I've simply left it be for days after the light goes on just to see if it will BSOD or otherwise fall over on me. Nope... Continues to run as if nothing is wrong but the light simply won't go off until the system is rebooted. A soft reboot from 'restart windows' will do.

After rebooting the light will go off and everything will be back to normal, then the light will come on and stay on again after a RANDOM period of time has passed. It could be a hours... days... the longest is a week before it came on. Once again when the light does come on, there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happening and the system does NOT exhibit symptoms of any fault. If the HDD LED itself was on the top of the case where I can't see it I honestly wouldn't even know it came on. But since it's on the front where I CAN see it... I'll eventually notice.

Any ideas? Or has this even happened to anyone at all, ever? I've tried googling around and all symptoms of 'HDD light comes on solid' is attributed to freezes and hiccups, doesn't help me as I have NO FAULT WHATSOEVER beyond just the damn light coming on.

Some light shed (ha ha...) would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance all!

[Gloup_Gloup]

Hi KS212,  

If you check in Administrative tools, with a Services (Windows Services) you find a listed services Enabled.

All these services are that the hard drive LED is constantly on activities.

If you prefer, search what services or program use more your HDD... Disable on by one services and check a diode....

or use a software like Game Booster for Disabled Batch by Batch All these services.

If you use a other software for monitoring process, you have other possibility to view in more details any other services in activities and significations.

Like svchost Viewer (a program to see what all those svchost.exe are running) here :
http://svchostviewer.codeplex.com/

Gloup_Gloup

[KS212]

Thanks for the reply.

I've already gone through the services list and disabled indexing, superfetch, windows search, hibernation... All the usual culprits.

The problem is also not a Windows problem. If it was a Windows problem the light would immediately go off when Windows has gone past 'shutting down'. But in this case the light stays on for a while even after Windows is completely off until the motherboard actually 'resets'.

With this mobo, even when I do 'shut down'... It actually takes a moment or two to go off completely. During that time when Windows is long gone and I hear the HDD's turn off, the light is still on until the power actually goes off.

That shows it's not a software thing.

[Gloup_Gloup]

Hi again,

Have you Disabled a Pagefile.sys ? Have you tried it? check again, your parameters for battery option and screen saver options... maybe disabled or chande a options...

I search other software for processs ...

Gloup_Gloup.

[KS212]

I already said it's not a software issue...

[Gloup_Gloup]

Hi again,  

you have a posibility to check what is pgm ...

SecurityTaskManager18d_Setup.exe here :
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/download.html

Svchost Process Analyzer
Checks your svchost.exe process for trojans.
http://www.neuber.com/free/svchost-analyzer/index.html

Otherwise you LED cable on HDD is not correctly connected.

EDIT01 :
See this topic:
Long startup w/ GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 and OCZ Agility 3 120gb SSD.. Help?
 http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,8437.msg67043.html#msg67043

EDIT02:
Maybe the LED is constantly in activities because the HDD use a cache into HDD....


Gloup_Gloup

[Dark Mantis]

If you are running a SSD then it could be that the drive is doing it's housekeeping. It will run Garbage Collection etc usually when it is quiet.

[KS212]

I do have a Corsair Force GT 3 120gb SSD... I did consider the garbage collection but that doesn't explain the fact the light just comes on totally randomly, and it doesn't flicker, it goes total solid like the power led next to it. However if I run any sort of process/hdd monitor, there is practically no activity happening.

There's no fault at the time it happens, half the time I don't even realize it's happened until I happen to glance up at the LED's and realize it's on then. There is no freeze, no fault with the system. The LED will also just stay on, I left it for 2 days and it stayed on the entire time... all the while the system performs as it should, nothing wrong... until I had to reboot.

Definitely weird. If it was a windows/software issue that'd be something... But if it's just some minor defect I may just ignore it or yank the HDD light cable... I WOULD like to get to the bottom of it however but seeing that there is no real fault being displayed when it happens it's hard to pin down.

[Dark Mantis]

You are correct in that there wouldn't be any activity showing as it all takes place withing the hardware of the drive itself and so the computer isn't aware of it and can't show it happening.

[KS212]

But would garbage collection still make the HDD led go on completely solid? If yes, then that's probably my answer and I can stop worrying. Otherwise I've been thinking it MAY be a potential RAM or motherboard fault, just a really mild one (that can potentially get bad later) so as to not show any real fault signs as of yet.

[Dark Mantis]

To be totally truthful I cannot say that it would or would not make the light go on fully when running Garbage Collection or TRIM. However I would think it was more likely than the other scenarios. Usually if a fault is developing it doens't leave you in any doubt about it and something fails quickly. I would just say accept the more rational explanation and forget about it. 

[KS212]

Considering it happens completely randomly, at any time with no warning, whether I'm using the system or not. It's happened suddenly during gaming, suddenly during movie watching... and when I wake up it's there. But all the while, I can get on the system and do anything with no fault... run extremely intensive games, transfer data, what have you... no problem.

It's just one of those little niggling things that SHOULDN'T happen without a reason, but damned if I can find out the reason. It's sad but I almost WANT there to be some noticable fault like a BSOD or something in the event logs, anything... at least then I'd be able to fix this.

Ah well, I guess when it happens again I'll just leave it and see how long the system goes before a fault ultimately does happen. It's the cheaper option out of 'replace motherboard and RAM on a whim' c.c

[Dark Mantis]

I think it is the more sensible option and certainly cheaper! Good luck anyway and please let us know if anything does show up. 

[Lsdmeasap]

Do you have any Gigabyte Energy Saving utilities installed, if so uninstall them and reboot and see if it comes back on again, sometimes Gigabyte's Energy saving programs can also control the LED's on various items (Which can be disabled in the programs if you want to keep using the program)