Orange Light Next to Blue Power light??

[Flysofree]

For about a week it has stayed on constantly. From reading on Google, folks say that's the hard drive light which s being read/written to.. I haven't been able to figure what they say the solution is if any. Computer seems to be working well, but is it about to die? I'm not taking it in to a repair shop. I have a small laptop for an emergency. If anyone knows something a pure ignoramous like me can do to save fix it, please tell.

[HUSKER55]

if your computer is working (writing to hard drive) I would think it would show up on your task monitor or running programs list.

I would save my data to a flash drive or a cd if I were you.

better play it safe.

[DJofSD]

I got an orange light on the backside of my computers. It flashes off and on all of the time.

[GameTheory]

It is normal. If it is totally solid all the time that would be weird -- they usually flicker erratically with disk activity. If it is not the hard drive light, it could be just wi-fi turned on/off in which case it should be solid meaning wi-fi is enabled (turn off wi-fi for a minute if you know how and see if it goes off).

[Flysofree]

It is normal. If it is totally solid all the time that would be weird -- they usually flicker erratically with disk activity. If it is not the hard drive light, it could be just wi-fi turned on/off in which case it should be solid meaning wi-fi is enabled (turn off wi-fi for a minute if you know how and see if it goes off).

Every now and then it goes out for a several seconds and occasionally it flickers, but 99% of the time it stays on.. I'll check the Wi-Fi when I can figure that and see later today.

Thank you all!!

[GameTheory]

Every now and then it goes out for a several seconds and occasionally it flickers, but 99% of the time it stays on.. I'll check the Wi-Fi when I can figure that and see later today.

Thank you all!!
There is also sometimes a network activity light (which is what the poster above likely has on the back of his computer if it is a desktop machine), but they usually don't have those on laptops. There is probably some symbol next to it that indicates what it is. I wouldn't worry about it though unless your laptop seems to be grinding away all the time (hard drive noise) or the fan never goes off.

[Flysofree]

This is a desktop computer that I have with the orange light staying on... It's a 3 ring circular light... hard drive?

[Flysofree]

I was mistaken about the blue light..That's the wi fi light.

[GameTheory]

This is a desktop computer that I have with the orange light staying on... It's a 3 ring circular light... hard drive?
Oh, thought it was a laptop, sorry. On a desktop it could be hard drive or even just decorative (to look cool and show you where the power button is in the dark).

[DJofSD]

Who makes the PC and what model?

[Flysofree]

HP Pavilion HPE h8 1010

[DJofSD]

HP Pavilion HPE h8 1010
Looks like the picture here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5097929 ?

[Greyfox]

On my computer, when that orange light comes on, I usually shut the power completely off at the plug in power bar.
Then I turn on the power, push the power button on the computer and the orange light is off.

[Flysofree]

Looks like the picture here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5097929 ? That's it and the light has flickered or gone out mostly for the last 30 minutes or so..

[DJofSD]

On my computer, when that orange light comes on, I usually shut the power completely off at the plug in power bar.
Then I turn on the power, push the power button on the computer and the orange light is off.
I've been looking for some documentation for the HP system identified above. Mainly to confirm exactly what the orange indicator is used for -- power, I/O activity, fault, etc.

Now, GF, you say your system has an orange light and when it is on you do a hard recycle of the system by completely removing the power. This makes me think this is some kind of fault indicator but for consumer electronics, I'm not expecting to have anything like that built into the equipment. Now my curiosity is really peaked.

BTW, here's more info about the HP system (if I've landed on the correct web page): http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02838702&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5097929#N54 . Usually, HP will do a decent job with the doc and will identify things. But, in this case, unless I missed it, I am not finding anything to tell me about an LED on an exterior panel that would be orange at any time -- card reader, optical drive, wireless?

And, this box does have wireless, so, maybe it is like the HP laptops with WiFi which will show a red/orange light when the WiFi is disabled via the slide switch usually located next to the light.

P.S. the HP system looks like an improved version of a Media Center PC I have sitting on the floor ATM. It's been repaired, parts added, others removed and right now I have it running FreeNAS. The original MoBo is limited to 8 GB and for what I'm doing, it's good enough -- though, depending on this and that, I could end up needing another box to go beyond the 8 GB limit.

[DJofSD]

That's it and the light has flickered or gone out mostly for the last 30 minutes or so..
OK, good. Plz see the additional link in the reply I just posted.

Where on the PC is this LED located?

[Flysofree]

Not sure what an LED is.. But both lights the Blue Wi-Fi and orange circular light are side by side about 1 inch fro the top of the tower on the right hand side ..The orange light is directly under the Power button.

[GameTheory]

On my computer, when that orange light comes on, I usually shut the power completely off at the plug in power bar.
Why in the world would you do that? Good way to corrupt your system. There is no light on any normal desktop machine you are going to buy that means, "Trouble! Cut the power immediately!" It is just the hard drive light -- it is going to be on or flashing most of the time...

[DJofSD]

Why in the world would you do that? Good way to corrupt your system. There is no light on any normal desktop machine you are going to buy that means, "Trouble! Cut the power immediately!" It is just the hard drive light -- it is going to be on or flashing most of the time...
He didn't say whether or not he did a proper shutdown before hand. I just assumed Windows was brought down first.

[DJofSD]

Not sure what an LED is.. But both lights the Blue Wi-Fi and orange circular light are side by side about 1 inch fro the top of the tower on the right hand side ..The orange light is directly under the Power button.
Sorry, LED == light emitting diode which is basically a fancy light source.

Well, I'm leaning towards it being a light for I/O activity on the hard drive, as others have already said.

As long as you are not having any other things happening which might be new or different, it's probably OK just to ignore what the light is doing. Now a days, an indicator for hard drive activity is nice for just getting a warm fuzzy feeling the system is running but it won't really do too much more than that.

Things that could be new or different would be beeps when turning on the computer, or, it taking a long, long time to either start up or shutdown, or, sometimes powering itself off.

Computers do eventually have some kind of problem but yours looks to be about 3 to 4 years old, so, I would caution you to think about replacing the hard drive. Hard drives do eventually "go south" and most technicians I've talked to usually recommend they be replaced after about 3 years of usage.

[JustRalph]

Why in the world would you do that? Good way to corrupt your system. There is no light on any normal desktop machine you are going to buy that means, "Trouble! Cut the power immediately!" It is just the hard drive light -- it is going to be on or flashing most of the time...


reading my mind...........

[Greyfox]

Why in the world would you do that? ...

I did that because it works.
I'm not computer literate.
My computer was custom made for me and I spent quite abit more than ones I could have purchased elsewhere at Futureshop and so on.

[Greyfox]

I did that because it works.
I'm not computer literate.
My computer was custom made for me and I spent quite abit more than ones I could have purchased elsewhere at Futureshop and so on.

I should have added, that when the orange light is on the blue power light is flashing.
The computer is shut off for whatever reason.
The only way I can get the computer back on is by shutting off the power bar, starting it again, and then pushing the power button.
That way my computer functions well again.
Any suggestions on how to turn my computer on again without doing this procedure are welcomed.

[GameTheory]

I did that because it works.
I'm not computer literate.
My computer was custom made for me and I spent quite abit more than ones I could have purchased elsewhere at Futureshop and so on.
Ok.

A) The light isn't "bad", so there is no reason to react at all if you see it.

B) Don't ever just cut the power from your system without properly shutting it down. If it is frozen, there is a reset button on your case you can press to reboot it -- still not the best, but if you have no choice much better than just cutting power.

[GameTheory]

I should have added, that when the orange light is on the blue power light is flashing.
The computer is shut off for whatever reason.
The only way I can get the computer back on is by shutting off the power bar, starting it again, and then pushing the power button.
That way my computer functions well again.
Any suggestions on how to turn my computer on again without doing this procedure are welcomed.
Ok, that sort of sounds like it is going into a standby mode (which is normal option for power management -- go to semi-sleep if nothing is happening). The normal way to get it back on would be just hit the power button straight away, and it should come back to life (without the whole reboot sequence). Hard to say without checking it out personally.

[DJofSD]

I should have added, that when the orange light is on the blue power light is flashing.
The computer is shut off for whatever reason.
The only way I can get the computer back on is by shutting off the power bar, starting it again, and then pushing the power button.
That way my computer functions well again.
Any suggestions on how to turn my computer on again without doing this procedure are welcomed.
Have you looked the power supply? See if there are any LEDs which might indicate a problem. You might need to crack the case to look inside.

[JustRalph]

Ok, that sort of sounds like it is going into a standby mode (which is normal option for power management -- go to semi-sleep if nothing is happening). The normal way to get it back on would be just hit the power button straight away, and it should come back to life (without the whole reboot sequence). Hard to say without checking it out personally.

unless you have a driver that is not cooperating. Then it won't wake up.

Turn off power/management and sleep mode. They suck!!!

[Ray2000]

I think I found the specs for the enclosure (case)
Aluminum structures w/ bubble light led.
Blue led lights for power on and orange flash led for drive data transfer.
IDE Interface.
Applicable for PC, notebook, and Mac.
Plug & play and hot-swapping capability.
USB 2.0 480 Mbps transfer rate.
Strengthen aluminum material.
Suitable for all 5.25" optical drives.

Perhaps some automatic indexing or de-frag routine is running.
That would turn on the orange led almost continously.