Question : Problem: Western Digital WD800 drive causes power supply shut down upon power-on

I am on my second brand new WD800 (JB edition) hard drive that refuses to spin up on my computer.   When I hit the power button (soft power-on), the fans and drives begin to spin up for  approximately 1-2 seconds only to fall silent when the power supply shuts down.  This shut down  is apparently due to a protection circuit, since the line voltage must be removed from the power supply for 1 to 2 minutes before the system will be again be able to attempt power-on through the  soft power button.  If line voltage persists, the power supply will not reset itself.

Can anyone suggest what is causing my problem and/or ways to fix it without purchasing new components?

Relevant details:

This is my second new WD800.  After previously experiencing the problems described herein, I assumed that the first example was inoperable and returned it to  the seller for RMA exchange.  The replacement causes a power up failure in the same exact manner as the original, which leads me to suspect that neither drive is/was damaged.  I need this hard drive because my current boot disk is damaged and unreliable.  I do not wish to return the WD800  for refund because doing so will incur a 15% restocking fee on top of another $11 return shipping  charge.  I have already wasted $11 and endured a 3 1/2 week wait because of my previous RMA for  exchange that was likely made in vain.  I also don't wish to purchase a new power supply, since this power supply operates my present system 24/7 with no problems.

All testing is with drive set to Master according to Western Digital's jumper diagram and with no  other drive present on that IDE cable/channel.

When hooked to another PC, the drive will spin up properly and the system operates normally,  though that system seems to suffer from the >64Gb fdisk problem in dos/win98 when using this 80Gb  drive.  On my own PC, even if the only components plugged into the power supply are the  motherboard, cpu fan, and the WD800 drive, the system will shut down within 2 seconds of power  on.  All that is required to "fix" the problem power up normally is to remove the molex power  plug from the Western Digital drive.

With minimal components hooked up, I can audibly hear the WD800 make a fairly loud buzz, but hear  no detectable platter spin or seeking before the "safety" shut down occurs.

I have tried different molex power plugs and different IDE cables.

My PC has an Aopen AX6BC motherboard (1999) with recent BIOS update (late 2002).

My power supply has not had problems with previous IBM, Maxtor, or Quantum hard drives and is not  likely to be operating near maximum capacity because:
    1) Failure occurs even with other drives/fans unplugged.
    2) Recent CPU upgrade lowered maximum power requirements.
    3) 2 cooling fans removed due to cooler CPU, also lowering power demands a small amount.

Note that I make the assumption that the power supply is causing the shutdown.  It could be the  motherboard, but I doubt that the motherboard "sees" the power draw demanded by any of the IDE  drives.  I therefore assume that some safety circuit in the power supply is triggered by the  Western Digital drive's initial power requirements.

Thank you for reading my question and for any responses that you might have!
-kank

Answer : Problem: Western Digital WD800 drive causes power supply shut down upon power-on

Well unfortunately for you, it is most likely the power supply causing the issue.  I have worked in a computer store for about 6 years on and off, and am currently working in one now.  So i see issues like this all the time.  Hard drives especially newer ones sometimes require more power.  However slight/more that may be.  It is very possible that your Power supply even though it can run everything else fine, just can't operate or power up the 80 gig.  I would suggest purchasing a replacement power supply.  You can get a 300-350 watt for roughly around 20-40 dollars.  Which should run almost anything.  I have a 350 watt enermax power supply that costed me 60 bux.  And it currently runs an AMD Athlon XP 2100, 1gig of DDR Ram, ATI 9700 Pro 128mb, Three 80 gig HDD's (0ne which is currently a WD 80 gig JB edition, and a BB edition, and an IBM 80 gig.  It is also currently running (on the same system) a 120gig WD BB version, and a 100 Gig BB version WD drives.  And an older 45 gig Maxtor hdd.  I am also running a SCSI 40x CDrom, a Plextor 40x CDRW, and a pioneer 16X DVD.  Also on this machine I have a hauppauge TV tuner card, and a Sound Blaster Audigy.  I am currently running 5 Case fans in it.  A dual power supply fan.  And an 80 mm CPU Fan (Alpha heatsink).

And the power supply I had on it before would work almost fine.  330 watt Enermax Power supply.  On occasion my hdd's would not detect properly.  If I unplugged a Case fan, would see the drive fine.  etc....just all depended on the drain.  However I noticed it was my 120gig WD BB drive that would fail.  None of the rest of the drives would fail...It did not matter WHERE on the IDE chain.  And believe me I have 4 IDE ports to set master/slave to to try them on....it would not detect it properly unless I unplugged one of my fans.
Bought the 350watt PS.  And all is wonderful.  Yes I could pull a fan off, or take the drive out, but that was all I could do to get it to work.  Besides running a new power supply...which solved everything.

Try it.  You never know.