So I have been assembling a computer over the last weeks. I was to place the final components today. And this HDD decided otherwise. A brand new WD blue 1 To, planned to add some more storage space ( the system is already equipped with an hybrid 750 gb HDD ( boot ) and another 1To WD HDD. ). Connected it , started the computer and... got an acrid smell. Switched the computer off immediately and removed the thing. And indeed, the PCB smells like if it had been under stress...

The computer doesn't seem to have suffered any damage. Connecting an old Maxtor Sata I onto the same power cable and sata connector causes no problem whatsoever. All other drives and the blu-ray disk seem fine as well.

I anyway replaced the sata power and data cables to avoid, not taking any chance.

Would you take other measures ?

Has anyone heard about that type of issues with WD blue HDDs?

I haven't heard of this kind of issue with anything WD, though I tend to stick with the Caviar Blacks most times, myself. I recommend RMAing it to Western Digital as soon as possible, I found their customer service to be second only to GOG (in my personal experience at least). I hope you are able to rectify this problem as soon as possible, and if at all possible try getting a WD Caviar Black, it's a bit more expensive, but worth the price. :)

Just incase you wanted someone else to answer, id second what Theta_Sigma said. RMA (return) it and mention what happened too, if anything youll feel better when someone says sorry!

Another vote to just RMA the thing and be done with it. Once you know that there's a problem with a piece of hardware there really isn't anything else to do. As for similar issues, the WD Blue series have lower performance than the WD Black series, but other than that I haven't heard of any significant differences in reliability. However, with any piece of hardware there's also the possibility that it will be defective from the start (QC process is never perfect), and you probably just ran into this kind of situation.

Ok, thanks. I contacted the retailer that sold me the drive. They should send me a return reference ( to cover the return shipment ) . Hadn't had a brand new HD failing for years, when that IBM deathstar produced rattling sounds after a couple of hours.

I wondered whether there was some test I could perform to check there is nothing more to it than a defective hdd. Or is the fact that nothing else failed on the power line sufficient to exclude a PSU issue ? ( the PSU is a modular thermaltake toughpower TPX 575M )