Is it possible for hardware to be affected by sub magnet/vibrations?

gummybear · 09-11-2005, 04:24 PM

dunno how stupid this might sound, but is it possible for computer hardware to fail due to vibrations or sub magnets? namely the video card?

reason i'm asking is my carpc has been playing up and i figured its probably the hdd thats failing causing it to freezing, so i bought a new hdd.

anyway, i noticed my LCD screen looking abit washed out and also copped a BSOD referring to an nvidia driver. so i looked in device manager and it said "This device is having trouble starting" but i'm getting vga output!

any ideas?

custardbomb · 09-11-2005, 05:20 PM

I think a magnet would do it, I am sure of it. It would interfere with whats stored in roms etc as it uses magnetism to set its state. Like a HD. Correct me if I am wrong.

numbers · 09-11-2005, 05:26 PM

Magnets would not likely affect flash rom or hard drives. The vibration, however, will murder a hard drive in cold blood. Really the vibration can affect anything, but the hard drive takes permanent damage very easily. I suppose the video card could come unseated, but I don't imagine it would take any damage unless the vibration is extreme.

widower · 09-13-2005, 12:21 AM

A magnet will not affect roms, flash, sram, dram or ddrram. But if the magnet is strong enough and close enough to a HD, it could destroy data. In fact, it will destroy the low level formating of the drive. I'm not talking about the format command, but the lowest level format.

As for the video, a strong magnet in the right place could cause problems. Inductors (as in the component), use magnatism to function. Often, inductors are used to protect signals that exit/enter a system, from harsh environments. But, the inductors are usually on the vga signals. This could cause washout but not device manager reporting failures. Now also, there may be inductors used as filters for the power on the vga board. If their inductance is changed (by magnets), then you could end up with bad power levels to the digital logic of the vga controller.

Personally, I think your problem is related to bad power, dirty connectors, or a faulty card/drivers.

numbers · 09-13-2005, 02:24 AM

To be clear, no speaker magnet could harm any of today's hard drives. It's not something to worry about. Floppy disks - yes. Not hard drives, though. You'd have to get the magnet closer to the platters than the hard drive's case allows... lots closer.

lez · 09-21-2005, 06:17 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by numbers

To be clear, no speaker magnet could harm any of today's hard drives. It's not something to worry about.

Depends on the size of the magnet..........

I have (had, its now failed, another quality ebay refurbished purchase) my HD in my sub box about 3 inches from the magnet, its suspended by 4 pieces of silicone rubber pipe like a spider in a web.

My whole system is built in the sub box, I'm more worried about car vibration making the boards move in the pci slots causing crashes than sub vibration.

DarquePervert · 09-22-2005, 08:25 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by lez

I have (had, its now failed, another quality ebay refurbished purchase) my HD in my sub box about 3 inches from the magnet, its suspended by 4 pieces of silicone rubber pipe like a spider in a web.

My whole system is built in the sub box, I'm more worried about car vibration making the boards move in the pci slots causing crashes than sub vibration.

What are you going to do when one of those pieces of silicon tubing tears/breaks and flings your hard drive at high velocity into something?

I'll tell you what you're going to do:
1) Lose some (if not all) information on the hard drive.
2) More than likely render the drive unusable.
3) Cry.

Hard drive suspension schemes like this are a horrible, horrible idea. I can not stress how horrible they are. Did I mention that they're horrible?
This has been discussed before at great lengths. There are other considerations besides your suspenders breaking, as well dealing with vibration and the like.

I highly recommend mounting your hard drive to something solid. If you have an uber-stiff suspension for racing or whatever, you may want to mount it using rubber or silicone grommets to provide a bit of additional shock protection.

lez · 09-22-2005, 08:53 AM

lol, I did not know silicone broke like that, I have never seen silicone tube show any signs of stress in that way, rubber yes, silicone, well the tube i just used I stole from the pump on my pond, its been on their 2 years, looks as springy as new just a bit discoloured.

Are we on about the same type of tube?

I have in the past had neoprene and poly something tube, all sold at my pet store for airline for fish tanks, but I paid the extra and got sillicone, went back last week and they had no more, should have bought the full reel when they had it it seems to have a 1000 and 1 uses.

DarquePervert · 09-22-2005, 01:19 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by lez

lol, I did not know silicone broke like that, I have never seen silicone tube show any signs of stress in that way, rubber yes, silicone, well the tube i just used I stole from the pump on my pond, its been on their 2 years, looks as springy as new just a bit discoloured.

Are we on about the same type of tube?

I have in the past had neoprene and poly something tube, all sold at my pet store for airline for fish tanks, but I paid the extra and got sillicone, went back last week and they had no more, should have bought the full reel when they had it it seems to have a 1000 and 1 uses.

ANY material can break if it's stressed enough. I don't care what type of tubing you're using, a suspension scheme for a hard drive is a horrible, horrible idea. Ignore my warning, if you want.
When something snaps and your hard drive gets flung around the enclosure like the ping-pong ball it isn't, I'll be here to give you a well-deserved nelson.

ShawJohn · 09-22-2005, 02:06 PM

If its well made and over engineered for the small task of holding 400g or so of hard disk and theres foam padding on anything that it is able to contact with then whats the problem. Silicone pipe will NOT rot and you can more than triple its length before it snaps. It also withstands quite high temperatures. But to be sure I would make some brackets from thin steel sheet (and mount the drive in them) and put masking tape over sharp edges before attaching the pipes to suspend... Use hot glue gun to stick plugs in then they don't work loose. a quiet 3.5" fan blowing over it would really finish it off

Just my 2p