[mythtv-users] OT: SATA errors

[Marc Randolph]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Harry Devine<lifter89 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Why would the power supply be a potential problem?  Wouldn't the
> box not boot at all if the PS was bad?  Or is it just not putting out enough
> juice to spin up the drives?  Just curious as to how the 2 areas connect,
> that's all.

Howdy Harry,

It is easy to design a poor quality power supply... and I'm not
referring to "poor quality" components, I'm talking about them being
poorly design.  'They can be noisy (in the electrical sense) or
regulate poorly.  Sometimes noise or regulation problems can't be
compensated for by the switching power supply on the motherboard.  For
example, a sudden change in current due to the processor changing
speeds could cause a very brief voltage sag on a low quality supply.
I would hope that the voltage monitoring / reset circuits on the
motherboard would see such sags, but I don't know for sure.

Another problem is poor incoming power - either from the power
company, or some other device in your house (A/C system to name one of
the biggies).  Power supply may not filter and/or regulate very well
and so noise/dips/spikes might pass through.  This is why some people
throw a cheap UPS inline with expensive electronics.  It isn't that my
brother wants to watch his huge rear protection LCD TV when the
electricity goes out... it's that they do a great job of cleaning up
the line power.  Just today, in fact, a heavy rain storm came through
the DFW area and my UPS's started chirping... I thought it was odd
because the lights were still on.  But 5 or so seconds later, the
lights went out too.  Very slow brown-out.

Good luck on resolving your SATA problem,

   Marc