What's this noise?

[Raisin06]

Have another thread open exploring the possibilities of what is causing this noise, figured taking it to the HDD forum might be helpful too...

 

I have had this noise making me anxious and I'd like to know what it is.

 

-I've replaced the drive, and have a brand new one installed now with the same issue.

-I've replaced the power supply, still have the noise.

-OC has been turned off and all BIOS options (save for PWM fan speeds) have been defaulted.

 

Thoughts as to what the noise could be?

 

WeirdClick.mp3

[mrgooglegeek]

have you tried removing each fan individually to see if a cable may be hitting one of them every so often?

 

[Moonzy]

sounds like the red/write head docking itself

how frequently you hear this sound?

 

maybe try removing all parts and adding them one by one and see which one is it

[Raisin06]

The drive is in the lower portion of an NZXT S340, no fans are near the drive. I took great care to route wires appropriately ;-)

[mrgooglegeek]

I have the same case

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

sounds like the red/write head docking itself

If he has replaced the drive that would have probably solved the problem. This case has no 5.25 bays, but there is a section at the front for 2 140mm fans. Do you have front fans installed? Are the blades metallic? the dust filter magnets are Quite close to the bottom fan and the drives in this case.

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, Raisin06 said:

The drive is in the lower portion of an NZXT S340, no fans are near the drive. I took great care to route wires appropriately ;-)

it could be the fan's motor ticking as well lol

 

for now try removing the hard disk and see if the noise remains

2 minutes ago, mrgooglegeek said:

If he has replaced the drive that would have probably solved the problem.

well, maybe some softwares are causing this, we'll never know lol

[Raisin06]

I've got the two included fans from the case installed in the front panel, and they're all plastic.

 

The magnets in the dust filter are up in the top, far enough away from the drives, not that it would make a difference anyway. 

[mrgooglegeek]

1 minute ago, Raisin06 said:

The magnets in the dust filter are up in the top, far enough away from the drives

different revision I guess, mine has magnets at the top and bottom.

 

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

it could be the fan's motor ticking as well lol

agreed.

[Raisin06]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

it could be the fan's motor ticking as well lol

 

for now try removing the hard disk and see if the noise remains

well, maybe some softwares are causing this, we'll never know lol

I'll remove the fans tonight and see if that does anything, I'm starting to wonder if this is just a weird facet of the WD750 2.5" drive...

 

Paging @Captain_WD, any thoughts?

[Moonzy]

5 minutes ago, Raisin06 said:

I've got the two included fans from the case installed in the front panel, and they're all plastic.

The magnets in the dust filter are up in the top, far enough away from the drives, not that it would make a difference anyway. 

i just remembered, the ticking noise could be the hard disk motor spinning up and down

 

my external hard disk is making the same noise everytime i plug and unplug it while its still spinning (after safety removed of course)

[Raisin06]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i just remembered, the ticking noise could be the hard disk motor spinning up and down

 

my external hard disk is making the same noise everytime i plug and unplug it while its still spinning (after safety removed of course)

Yeah, that's how I described it to a few people before, but I've got all power saving options (related to drives) turned off that I can find. System is running in high-performance mode and such

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Raisin06 said:

Yeah, that's how I described it to a few people before, but I've got all power saving options (related to drives) turned off that I can find. System is running in high-performance mode and such

lets wait for professional's help aka captain WD `-`

 

also, does it occur frequently? like every 5 seconds? or just when you access the drives?

[Raisin06]

Just now, Moonzy said:

lets wait for professional's help aka captain WD `-`

 

also, does it occur frequently? like every 5 seconds? or just when you access the drives?

That's the b*tch of it all...I recorded for over an hour last night, while sitting in dead silence waiting for it to happen. All the while, running benchmarks and moving data back and forth, trying to trigger it. After that, it happened 4 times in an hour

[Captain_WD]

1 hour ago, Raisin06 said:

~snip~

 

Hey there Raisin06,

 

What drive do you have in there? Are you 100% sure that click comes from the drive? Have you tried moving the drive around in the case? Have you tried the drive on other computers or simply outside the case if it's making the same click? 

 

That single click doesn't sound like something typical for a HDD (parking, reading, spinning up/down, etc.). Have you tested the drive with the manufacturer's tool? 

 

Have you tried running the system without the HDD to see if the click happens again? 

 

Captain_WD.

[Raisin06]

1 hour ago, Captain_WD said:

 

Hey there Raisin06,

 

What drive do you have in there? Are you 100% sure that click comes from the drive? Have you tried moving the drive around in the case? Have you tried the drive on other computers or simply outside the case if it's making the same click? 

 

That single click doesn't sound like something typical for a HDD (parking, reading, spinning up/down, etc.). Have you tested the drive with the manufacturer's tool? 

 

Have you tried running the system without the HDD to see if the click happens again? 

 

Captain_WD.

Thanks for dropping by Cap'n...I'll do some more in-depth removal/testing tonight when I get home, but running the system without the other drive will be a little more difficult as it has my programs installed on it. Maybe I can boot up a linux distro off of a thumb drive and just let it run and see what happens?

[Captain_WD]

Just now, Raisin06 said:

~snip~

That would be a good idea. The point is to see if that click is coming from the HDD itself or some other part is causing it. 

[Raisin06]

20 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

That would be a good idea. The point is to see if that click is coming from the HDD itself or some other part is causing it. 

Still had the click last night, even after removing the fans and led lights and anything else that had moving parts. I'm really beginning to think this drive is just noisy. This is the 4th drive I've had (already been through the rigamarole with WD and the RMA process) and I'm getting tired of tearing apart my system. 

 

Starting to wonder how an SSD would work as a secondary storage device... 

[Captain_WD]

41 minutes ago, Raisin06 said:

~snip~

As I said, those are not normal HDD sounds and shouldn't be there if the drive is healthy.

SSDs should work just fine as they don't have any moving parts and lack operating noise, but the price/capacity ration is far bigger and not all types of usage can actually benefit from running off a SSD.

 

Captain_WD.

[Raisin06]

56 minutes ago, Captain_WD said:

As I said, those are not normal HDD sounds and shouldn't be there if the drive is healthy.

SSDs should work just fine as they don't have any moving parts and lack operating noise, but the price/capacity ration is far bigger and not all types of usage can actually benefit from running off a SSD.

 

Captain_WD.

I agree it shouldn't be making the noise, but as this is the 3rd or 4th drive I've had that does the same thing, even with different power supplies...I'd say maybe it's just how that sku of drives is.