is driving me crazy

ok has anyone had this problem i hadbought a maxtor 120gb hard drive for amstrad sky+ lots of problems, so have now replaced with the samsung 160gb that seems to be popular everything seems ok apart from whenever the drive makes the faint clicking noise which i know is normal it interferes with the flickering lines on screen anyone know why this is so cheers.

[Nick_UK]

This could be due to the power supply in the box. There are known problems with Amstrad Sky+ power supplies. Short of changing the box, there's not much you can do.

is this a common problem or is it just unable to cope with the new drive.
thanks for the reply

[anthonyg]

I've got an amstrad and get a worse picture when I use my Maxtor drive compared to the one it came with, apparently the old drive used a third of the power the maxtor uses.

I'm experimenting tonight and tomorrow trying to resolve it, and see if I'm imagining it...

I'll let you know.

- Anthony

thanks for the reply, the flicker as i mentioned only occurs when the hard drive does its clicky thing, have looked at the epg screen no flicker there, i wonder if you can get a better power supply.
oh and was recording a prog last night then the box just switched itself off and listed the recording as FAILED dont know if that is a related issue.
and finaly out of interest does anyone know what drive is in the new sky+160.

[HarryAlffa]

Hi,
I know a great deal about PC components including power supplies. I don't know anything about Sky. However, my educated opinion would agree that it's the power supply which is the problem. At least it becomes a problem when you try to draw more power from it. Amstrad make things cheap by making their stuff JUST adequate for the job. Other, less compromising in there specs, manufacturers might give some "headroom" for their components.

Drive Clicky Thing - Power Drain
This is the noise it makes when it's reading and writing data. When it does this it has to "spin up" the platters inside. For large capacity modern drives they usually go up to 7,200rpm, which is why it draws so much more power.

Flickering Lines
The drive does its clicky thing, draws more power, and starves the other components of juice, therefore they don't work quite right.

Recording Failure
The drive is writing information, must be doing it's clicky thing, at some point the power drain became so much that the box just switched itself off - or something!

Aesthetically Unpleasing Solution!
If you've swapped drives in your box then you should be comfortable with this:-

Obtain a cheap/second-hand PC power supply.
Open up the Sky box.
Leave the hard drive in the Sky box, Leave the data cable plugged in, but unplug the power from the drive.
Take the PC power supply, take one of the drive power plugs, plug that into the drive inside the Sky box.
Close the Sky box with the cable trailing out of the box. Of course the box might not close without damaging the cable.

I did say it was a bit messy looking!


A cheap PC power supply unit should cost around £20 or less. But only if you can find a cheap one. PCs nowadays rquire quite a substantial power supply and you probably won't find a new one for much less than £35, plus delivery. Even a very old second-hand PSU would do the job of supplying power to the biggest modern hard drive, as long as that's all its powering.

[HarryAlffa]

Was the title of your thread a deliberate pun on drive?

thanks for the reply very interesting i will try your idea have a power supply handy will let you know what happens. it wasnt a pun but as it is rather clever i would say yes to anyone that asked.

[br14n]

The maxtor quickview drives use less power, they,re 5400rpm and dont overcook . These drives were designed with pvrs in mind. Ive got a 160gb in my pace ver2 and my mate has one in his amstrad box, no probs whatsoever.

[anthonyg]

Ok, but how do you turn on a modern PSU? (Without a PC)

Notably, I don't think the vertical bars are related to my HD, I've ran the box without the HD connected at all and it's still there

the interference i get is not vertical its horizontal i get a very thin flicker across top/middle/and bottom of screen almost as if someone was messing with the signal ie dodgy coax conection problem is connections are good and onlyhappens when the hard disk is reading/writing.?????????? could someone describe this vertical banding to me as i see a lot of posts but not sure what it is

[Nick_UK]

Is this a fairly new box ? If "yes", don't mess with it, because it will invalidate the warranty, should something serious go wrong.

just out of interest has anyone else upgraded an amstrad with a samsung sp1604n

[HarryAlffa]

Originally Posted by anthonyg

Ok, but how do you turn on a modern PSU? (Without a PC)

You are dead right - you can't switch it on!! But only if it's an ATX power supply. So don't buy a new PSU - they're virtually all ATX.
An old AT style PSU is what you want.

Although even with an ATX PSU you can imitate the presence of a motherboard signaling the PSU to switch on by shorting out the appropriate PIN on the appropriate motherboard plug. Which is far to fiddley to try and describe here !

[Nick_UK]

Your idea is not a good one, for two reasons -

1. The loading of the drive on the PC PSU might not be great enough for the PSU to get a "power good" signal, and therefore probably will not run. Many PSU's will not work unless they have a substantial load on them.

2. Connecting two chassis together which are both connected to a switched mode power supply is a potential hazard, because of the earth leakages involved.