Hi Folks.
About 6 months back, maybe a bit longer, I bought a Freeagent 500gb drive, it was great, worked really nice and fast and I backed up all my data on it. No great story there.
Fast forward a few months to todays date, and I've since moved to spain, and today plugged in the drive for the first time. (Into a surge protection thing, just incase it becomes relevant or a question, later)
Anyhow, the first thing I noticed, was that the adapter made a weird noise, as soon as I plugged it in. Sort of high pitched, this is a really weird way to describe it but the sort of whiney noise sausages make when you're frying them.. not sizzling but that sort of high pitched note..
Anyway, some adapters do this, (does yours?) I figured, and plugged it into the drive, at which point the whiney noise stopped. I noticed the drive didn't light up though. I then connected it via USB, and still nothing. A bit of time passed, (few seconds, 10 maybe) and I got a notice pop up that that a USB device had exceeded its voltage allowance or something similar, and that I should remove the device and reset the port.
So, basically, whaa! My drive doesnt work, its got all my creative work backed up on it, PSD's, artwork, websites, documents, movies, music, my whole 'digital life' is on that thing. I'm hoping its an adapter problem; I dont remember it making that noise before.
Perhaps the fact that I havent used it since coming to spain (3 or 4 months) means its somehow gotten old and broken while it was in the cupboard? Typically the electricty is of a lower voltage here, so it can't be blown (my other appliances including this laptop have no problems) and it was surge protected.
I checked, online here with the warranty checker (kudos Seagate, for that, a very nice little app that I found very helpful and easy to use) and I'm still in warranty - so whats the dealy here, what should I do?
Does anyone have similar experiences, know what might be going on etc? Is the power adapter borked? The drive itself? The case? The USB cable? Any ideas, please!
Neil
EDIT -
Ok I've discovered that the power surge thing is where the device is asking for too much power through the USB port, or something similar. So its not SENDING too much power to the port, its asking for too much power from it.
This would explain why when I plug the drive in via USB, but do not connect the power adapter, I get the same error message - about the power thing.
Another point, the weird whining sound continues for about 5 -10 seconds after I unplug the adapter from the plug socket.
I've tried using a few different UK to spain plug adapters, I get the same problem on all of them, have tried the adapter in a few different sockets also, same problem on all.
Message Edited by NeilR123 on 10-26-2008 02:01 PM
