Does anyone know what the symbol under the red light means?

[u/S0medumbguy]

[u/Waylon_Gnash]

mechanical hard disk activity

[u/SweetBunnyKiss]

a hard drive?

[u/young_trash666]

i have the exact same case you have lol

[u/Kinzuko]

I used to call it the jar light

Its a HDD activity indicator light.

[u/Arcmanov]

Really bro?

[u/BangSmash]

it's a beercan. if it blinks it tells you it's time to have a beer.

[u/in1gom0ntoya]

basically an analog loading symbol. when it lights up, it's doing something.

[u/Cautious_Delay153]

Dude are people just now noticing this led? I feel like this post keeps popping up

Edit : wording

[u/Brkonja69]

I have the same pc house

[u/stormdraggy]

The state of our society smh

[u/gumpr]

drive activity

[u/PinballMap1]

Check manual for information

[u/hegginses]

All these sweet kids coming in here lately not knowing about hard disk LED indicators lol

These LEDs are used to show when the disk is being read from. Back in the day this was important as some people would assume their computers had frozen when they were actually just taking a while to load, these LEDs would blink to let you know the software is still loading. If your computer was not responding and this LED was not blinking, you could safely assume your PC had frozen

[u/HappyHarry-HardOn]

Danger, danger - High voltage!

[u/potatoman34522]

Is it weird that I never plug the HDD light in because I don't like it to blink?

[u/Immediate-Bottle-557]

When young I always see if my light continues to blink so I know it’s not hang 😹

[u/suppersell]

it means something is happening on your disc, e.g. read/write

[u/Hagil66]

red light on your motherboard means internal hardware is either plugged-in incorrectly or not working. Internal hardware examples include the CPU, RAM, or a graphics card. Sometimes a dead CMOS battery may be the culprit. Boot errors on the hard drive where the primary OS is installed may also cause a red light. This is the reason 💡

[u/Hagil66 → u/Hagil66]

And guys this is information and there are other reason of it but this is the correct reason 👍😊

[u/f8Negative]

Fuuuuuuuck

[u/Maxguid]

That light means that your storage unit is currently being actively used by your PC. Before nvme and SSD it was usually accompanied by the classic sound of a HDD working hard.

[u/Crafty-Engineering17 → u/Maxguid]

If i don't have hdd, and instead have only a nvme it does the same thing?

[u/Maxguid → u/Crafty-Engineering17]

It doesn't matter if it's a HDD, SSD or nvme. The light on just means the drive is being actively used. HDD makes noises because of the mechanical parts

[u/Hummus_199]

It's a wax cylinder. The OGs of HDs

[u/ecktt]

One of the most useful LEDs for a PC! HardDisk/Hard Drive activity. Why the F'k did cases remove it.

[u/NiceCunt91]

It's about to fucking explode!

[u/YoureGettingTheBelt]

Disk activity.

Imagine windows is installing updates but you can't see a progress bar and the screen hasn't changed in a while. This thing blinking means its likely not frozen and is actually doing stuff.

[u/zsombor12312312312]

It means hard drive activity

[u/ch1nomachin3]

stack of disks that's what the cylinder symbol is. it denotes hdd activity, it blinks when your PC access the hardisk.

[u/SchandAapje]

The red light is a virus indication light, it means your PC has a virus.

[u/Top-Conversation2882]

https://preview.redd.it/8i4r5lxv2eyc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a2cc224ef4a17de8fe0906a27c7875c38e9529a

[u/AStove]

It's the symbol for SSD because it was cut from a large cylinder of silicon.

[u/CodeExtra9664]

Uh oh, that's the red light if death everyone's been talking about. Time for a new pc....or you'll die

[u/Odd-Oil-5096]

Its your ssd or hdd storage

[u/UselessPerson2222]

I think i have that exact case...

Though most likely different brands, unless its an IONz case?

Red light is most likely related to a hard drive or ssd. Might be an error or just telling you the drive(s) busy or smth, not exactly sure

[u/Pink_Candy_SL]

I have the same case

[u/Danikika94]

Using your case's manual is so usefull you know :D

[u/Und3adShr3d]

That’s the PC’s oil drum indicator. The Inversion coil replicator needs topping up with synthetic oil.

[u/LeifEriccson]

HDD LED

[u/ImUrFrand]

buckle up, ejection is imminent

[u/abhij2609]

I love the time when this was interesting as a child.

What does this do? What does that do? Oh, what's that?

Now we simply doesn't even bother even if we don't know what it does.

[u/Emu1981]

Disk activity but they are kind of pointless in this day and age of SSDs as the LED has a slower response time than your SSD. They were useful back in the days of HDDs because you could actually see if your HDD was churning and causing your PC to lag by monitoring the HDD LED.

[u/AK_4_Life]

This question. Never ends. Imagine how bad it would be if PC cases had more than two lights.

[u/TheYato_]

It’s transforming into a car

[u/The_All_Seeing_Pi]

It's a one fingered mouse.

[u/EmoExperat]

Its the hdd led. If its on it means your disk is reading or writing.

[u/headxXxnacho]

It’s a soup can. Lets you know when the soup is ready.

[u/DaNoahLP]

IT-Guy here and nope, no clue.

[u/_YeAhx_]

Is that a Ant eSports case ? I have a similar one

[u/FuoFire]

Its a can of beans, it blinks when beans activity is detected

[u/Discokruse]

This is the icon for volume activity. Storage is being accessed because the computer is active.

[u/[deleted]]

It’s your disk activity light. If it’s staying on 100% of the time, it means your connection on the motherboard header is backwards.

[u/AdAccomplished9671]

The data is being accessed from the hard disk.

[u/TheYellingMute]

I know this isn't about the post.

But does anyone hate just how insanely bright all blue LEDs seem to be. And that so many devices want to use them.

[u/wildpantz → u/TheYellingMute]

can't remember which ones, but some LEDs just shine brither than others (depending on color), not sure if it has something to do with our eye's frequency response or the structure of the LED itself depending on the color.

[u/ShaddamIVth]

It's the "binning" icon, the more it flashes the closer it is, if it goes solid you bin it

[u/biohazard4524]

It's a little cylinder to represent storage. It's your hard disk activity LED.

[u/Escapement_Watch]

looks like a usb stick drawing

[u/immns]

is it tecware case?

[u/osxdude]

Sad that with NVMe the light only blinks at a regular rate instead of how it blinks with SATA

[u/allovelle]

It’s a cookie jar, the light turns on when your computer’s cookies have to be cleared so you can download more RAM.

[u/byyhmz]

Yes.

[u/TheRealTechGandalf]

HDD LED, AKA the status indicator telling you your storage device is doing something.

Yeah, OP must be young enough to not remember what a hard drive on an older system sounds like. That's ok tho, nice to see the younger generation being into gaming.

[u/unknowngaming350]

Motherboard cell problem?

[u/Quiet_Cable8747]

Yes

[u/XphRZero]

Your tower is requesting a cool drink.

[u/chandru061101]

HDD or ssd reading indicator

[u/JamieDrone]

Hard Disk Activity, was a lot more useful and relevant when computers were still running on HDDs, but it’s still nice to have for info purposes

[u/fellipec]

It's a beer can, time to crack a cold one with the boys /s

[u/Dry-Step-1791]

Is that a r3 tornado Gtx 1650 Ryzen 3 4100 ?

[u/_Darg_]

I love being colorblind

[u/[deleted]]

It’s deciding whether to load information or blue screen of death.

[u/Sad_Deer2636]

They are crazy bright on that diy PC case

[u/Mystic1111]

Do kids today even know that the “Save” icon is the 3.5 floppy disk.

[u/TheHancock → u/Mystic1111]

Same with “ROLL up the window.” And “HANG up the phone.”

[u/Soccera1]

Drive activity indicator.

[u/CharAznableLoNZ]

Can of beans are to be placed here.

[u/xComradeKyle]

What does the manual say?

[u/AK_4_Life → u/xComradeKyle]

Or a search on this sub for this same question.

[u/Suikerspin_Ei → u/AK_4_Life]

For real, searching a question is way faster than asking on Reddit.

[u/[deleted]]

Self destruction. If it stops blinking. Boom!

[u/Recipe-Jaded]

are we that old now boys?

[u/f8Negative → u/Recipe-Jaded]

[u/WRfleete]

I remember when they made clicky noises when accessing. Brrrr computer thinking

[u/Helpful-Work-3090]

HDD light. It turns on when your disk is working

[u/creamcolouredDog]

It's the cup-a-juice symbol. When it blinks, the PC demands juice

[u/silverist → u/creamcolouredDog]

OJ's dead though, so good luck with that.

[u/Taikunman]

It's supposed to represent the platters of a hard drive.

​

https://preview.redd.it/k7u2rgjs8ayc1.png?width=387&format=png&auto=webp&s=e878968828d16e38f61cac7739694e20256cd0f2

[u/Kitchen_Part_882 → u/Taikunman]

It goes back further, your image appears to be a full height 5 1/4" disk, the icon for hdd is a stylised representation of the OG RAMAC: *

[u/gurneyguy101 → u/Taikunman]

I never in my life knew hard drives ever had layers! Damn

[u/f8Negative → u/gurneyguy101]

Oh....no...

[u/gurneyguy101 → u/f8Negative]

I’m 21 it’s not really my fault

[u/NECooley → u/gurneyguy101]

One day, in a decade or two, some kid is gonna say “I never knew cellphones used to have physical buttons, TIL” and you’ll know how he feels, lol.

[u/NECooley → u/[deleted]]

I never implied any of this is a bad thing, and neither did he. He’s just lamenting the fact that he’s getting old, we all do it. But hey, getting old is better than the alternative, lol

[u/SemiKindaFunctional → u/[deleted]]

As a grandp at 32, I l definitely took it as an 'oh god I'm so old' kind of joke lol.

[u/NECooley → u/[deleted]]

I actually upvoted you and him both, lol

[u/Top-Jellyfish9557 → u/Taikunman]

Dump some maple syrup on that and it's a robot's pancake.

[u/Unumbotte → u/Top-Jellyfish9557]

Please, maple syrup clogs up the robots, use oil instead.

[u/Saneless → u/Top-Jellyfish9557]

All I could think of was pancakes

[u/Monocular_sir → u/Top-Jellyfish9557]

r/nocontext

[u/Dependent-Big-7439 → u/Taikunman]

I was today years old when I realized. Also this means my old HDD from 2008 probably still works

[u/torrrrrgo → u/Taikunman]

I remember the "full-height" drives!. Of course, I remember the giagantic RK-05's and similar attached to DEC equipment, but hey.

[u/Bourriks → u/torrrrrgo]

That's just a theory !

[u/torrrrrgo → u/Bourriks]

Wait......those big humming drives with blinking lights were just washing machines in disguise?

My childhood is ruined.

[u/Chrushev]

The symbol is “storage”, it’s drive access indicator.

[u/Nameofmyaccithink]

Simmply put it your computer is thinking

[u/queen-adreena → u/Nameofmyaccithink]

That would be CPU activity, not disk activity.

[u/straightfromLysurgia → u/queen-adreena]

oh my sweet summer child you have not used old HDDs

[u/queen-adreena → u/straightfromLysurgia]

Not really, no.

[u/ConkersOkayFurDay → u/queen-adreena]

Then why on God's green earth would you talk like you know what you're talking about?

[u/queen-adreena → u/ConkersOkayFurDay]

Because I know the difference between a processor and storage and that processing information is more akin to thinking than the action of saving or retrieving it to persistent storage…

[u/NECooley → u/queen-adreena]

Idk, I spend more time trying to remember shit than trying to process it, lol

[u/straightfromLysurgia → u/queen-adreena]

when the computer freezes after you save and you see the light flicker you know it's thinking and not stuck or gone

[u/SpellbladeAluriel → u/queen-adreena]

You tell em queen

[u/Twenmod → u/queen-adreena]

Ok zoomer

[u/TheHancock → u/Twenmod]

Hit ‘em with that uno reverse card! Lol

[u/xxdibxx]

Damn, I feel old

[u/Stopher87 → u/xxdibxx]

This

[u/ChChChillian → u/xxdibxx]

MattDamonGetsOldRealFast.gif

[u/GothamKnight311 → u/xxdibxx]

I try and keep my patience and not be an ass, but damn this symbol has been around and indicated hard drive activity for …40?+ years?

[u/DerWaschbar → u/GothamKnight311]

Here’s a piece of info: not everyone has been around for 40 years

[u/GothamKnight311 → u/DerWaschbar]

Here is a piece of info, if you have been alive in the past 40 years than this symbol has been around.

I was born after the “play” symbol was invented and used on media devices and before Google and I knew what that symbol was just from basic common sense of existing and understanding that if I push that button music plays

[u/Bourriks → u/GothamKnight311]

I still think it's fun they let a 3.5" floppy drive icon as the symbol of saving a file, when you think people under 20 years old have certainly never seen a floppy disk for real.

[u/xxdibxx → u/GothamKnight311]

At least

[u/Soccera1 → u/xxdibxx]

Drive activity lights make you feel old?

[u/xxdibxx → u/Soccera1]

No, people who don’t what they are does. Back in the day, you (or at least I did) paid attention to it to make sure your system didn’t lock up

[u/Soccera1 → u/xxdibxx]

My computer wasn't very good at the time so it was on 95% of the time.

[u/xxdibxx → u/Soccera1]

And along with it the grumbling from the actuator. Sounded like it was chewing itself up.

[u/FractalZE → u/xxdibxx]

Did you press the "Turbo" button?

[u/xxdibxx → u/FractalZE]

Sadly, yes

[u/_ElFroggo → u/xxdibxx]

Remninds of of the time one of the professors in my CS classes told us about how when he was younger and working on networked stuff, the green blinking light in the Ethernet jack actually represented the bits of data coming through but these days data moves too fast for the light to keep up (it would basically just be solid lol)

[u/enigmasi → u/_ElFroggo]

I thought green represents the power and the orange activity

[u/xxdibxx → u/_ElFroggo]

Try to explain token ring to someone these days and watch their head explode when you tell them a 56k modem was super fast, and you happily waited 30 minutes for your fave song to d/l.

[u/GothamKnight311 → u/xxdibxx]

I’ve actually worked on a token ring network just a few years ago, they are actually still out there.

[u/xxdibxx → u/GothamKnight311]

But not nearly as common as they once were

[u/OehNoes11 → u/xxdibxx]

And these people call themselves the PC master race...

[u/MikeFu84 → u/xxdibxx]

Right? All these younger folks lol <3

[u/funnyrussianmemelord → u/MikeFu84]

All you old folks

[u/xxdibxx → u/MikeFu84]

A few days ago someone posted a IDE HD and asked what it was.

Antique technology.

But to be fair, the way PC stuff evolved over the last 10 years, comparatively it is antique

[u/Slayr79 → u/xxdibxx]

Imagine another 10 years helped by AI. The stuff we have now will probably look like caveman technology

[u/xxdibxx → u/Slayr79]

And I fear it. AI will not save us.

[u/Bobbyanalogpdx → u/xxdibxx]

The IDE interface has been in use since the 80’s. So it’s at least vintage or classic. But antique is 100 years. I get what you’re saying though.

[u/MikeFu84 → u/xxdibxx]

PATA, SCSI, SAS and god forbid SMD

[u/Maxtrt → u/MikeFu84]

I still remember hearing my 10k rpm SCSI warm up sounded light a jet engine starting up.

[u/MrRetrdO → u/Maxtrt]

I had a 3GB SCSI for video editing back in the late 90s. I LOVED hearing that thing spin up!

[u/FnordMan → u/MikeFu84]

SAS

SAS (Serial Attached Scsi) is still in semi-regular use in the business world.

[u/nuked24 → u/FnordMan]

semi regular

You mean regular? Every disk array I see is SAS.

[u/MikeFu84 → u/FnordMan]

It is, I have a whole rack/cabinet full of them at the office still in production

[u/hurtlebum → u/MikeFu84]

You forgot MFM!

[u/kioma47 → u/hurtlebum]

OMG MFM! That was back when 20 Mb was big! 😄

[u/the_burber → u/xxdibxx]

What is an IDE HD?

[u/Grunt636 → u/the_burber]

Integrated Drive Electronics or Parallel ATA was basically a big ass ugly ribbon cable that you used to connect your motherboard to your hard drives and cd drives before SATA became a thing.

[u/OlJohnZ]

I believe it's the symbol for database, but it means data traffic is flowing.

The data must flow.

[u/WoodenHarddrive → u/OlJohnZ]

Brother if there's traffic on your drives you should look into that.

[u/Jenneeandme]

HDD/SSD activity LED indicator.

[u/N0vawolf]

Disk activity. It means your PC is doing stuff

[u/supertoxic09 → u/N0vawolf]

Why'd I laugh so hard?

I think I was just expecting a bigger problem I missed and someone else would point out

I feel blind-sided by the obvious lol

[u/This_User_Said → u/N0vawolf]

I remember when those lights came with "HRRRRNGRRR RTTRTTRTT HRRRNGNRRRRR" sounds.

Sound would put me to sleep at night when it'd run it's daily virus scan at night.

[u/supertoxic09 → u/This_User_Said]

Oh man, I went on a spree with SSD's a few years back, forgot the sound, and yet I could hear my old HDD spinning while I read this comment... I don't miss it.

Lol

[u/Bourriks → u/N0vawolf]

It means your PC is actually reading or writing something on one of the disks. If this light is always on, I have bad news for you.

[u/MrJFr3aky → u/N0vawolf]

spinning and clicking noises

"Haha it's thinking"

[u/alelo → u/N0vawolf]

dont call OP stuff

[u/alittle_disabled → u/N0vawolf]

Windows defender enters chat in background 

[u/shortsquatch3 → u/N0vawolf]

Is it supposed to blink when the pc is off? Mine did that the other night, then turned itself on earlier today.

[u/roadrunner5u64fi → u/shortsquatch3]

If you powered it off but didn't click the "yeah, bitch. I said turn the fuck off." button when it tells you there are background apps still running, then it's possible that it just went into hibernate.

If the PC is hibernating or sleeping, then it's totally normal for the HDD to wake up during a full moon to hunt for its next meal.

[u/TheHancock → u/roadrunner5u64fi]

This answered a question I have had for a long time but could not describe…

[u/Excalburm → u/N0vawolf]

I was so stressed out when I saw my power button flashing Red after I built my pc turns out it was just the disk activity thing I have no idea why it even exits

[u/BigZaber → u/Excalburm]

It's to confirm if your pc is froze or still calculating - blinking fast = calculating . Slow blink = about to freeze maybe 50% . No blinking = better push that quick restart button they include on builds for this reason

[u/TheHancock → u/BigZaber]

No blinking? I’ll just give it another minute…

10 minutes later

Okay, I mean at this point it HAS to be almost done…

(Sunk cost fallacy)

[u/Nerfo2 → u/Excalburm]

Back when computers were slow and hard drives were spinning platters with slow-ass read heads and terrible seek times, the HDD activity light was assurance that the computer hadn't locked up. It used to take a LONG time to load an application. Why do they STILL exist? Connections to the past... I guess?

[u/Excalburm → u/Nerfo2]

Learn something everyday thanks!

[u/Romanouchet → u/N0vawolf]

*Your pc is thinking

[u/Jarb2104 → u/Romanouchet]

*Remembering things

[u/5t3v321 → u/Jarb2104]

Isn't remembering stuff a way of thinking 

[u/Jarb2104 → u/5t3v321]

Yes, but remembering is more specific and more related to reading information in the storage.

[u/Brittany5150 → u/N0vawolf]

Things and stuff*

[u/Mystic1111 → u/Brittany5150]

Reticulating Splines

[u/Enigmatic_Observer → u/Brittany5150]

*Stuff….and thangs

[u/uncledunker → u/Enigmatic_Observer]

Rock and stone.

[u/Ok_Account_5720 → u/Enigmatic_Observer]

Disk stuffs his face with things

[u/Kai_lad828 → u/Ok_Account_5720]

My brain aint brainin bro, help me

[u/iDoFloorsNotWhores → u/Kai_lad828]

You need more disk space bro

[u/Ok_Owl_2985]

looks like a lil coffee cup

[u/mixermixing → u/Ok_Owl_2985]

Back then when using disk drives, you would boot up the PC then go prepare yourself a morning beverage and wait until it fully comes up.

[u/SadTurtleSoup → u/mixermixing]

While being able to hear your disk drives clattering away in the kitchen from the other room...