[Joe Bloggs]

Hi and long time no see

I would post this on a computer forum, but after posting this on arstechnica apparently nobody cares about such a mundane problem as this

I just bought an IBM R50 notebook last Friday. Everything's fine (well the thing is heavy, the LCD ghosts like nothing I've experienced before, but I can't return the notebook because of that, can I?

) except I've heard this weird clacking sound come out from the hard disk twice, once today and once the day before yesterday. On neither occasion was there any audio apps that might have caused a sound like that, and it sounds distinctly mechanical. It sounds like it might be coming from the hard disk or the CD-ROM. My bet is on the HD--there wasn't a disc in the CD-ROM drive when the sound came.

I did a chkdsk /r (that stands for a surface scan right?) but wasn't around to see it results (I could hardly just sit there for half an hour waiting for it to finish, can I?) I tried chkdsk again and in the report after this short scan it says there's no bad sectors. Now if chkdsk /r found bad sectors they would be marked down and reported even in the short chkdsk, right? Can I assume that there really are no bad sectors?

Now if you had a hard disk that had no bad sectors, but 'clacks', what would you do?

Or could it be some other mechanical component in the laptop making the sound?

This used to happen with my old IBM T20 notebook too. Not when it's new though

It remained alive and kicking many months after it started making that clacking sound. Although its hard disk did just give up the ghost last month, I think that had more to do with how I had to shake the defective LCD like mad every time I wanted to get an image from it

 

[Mr.Radar]

Crackling noises from hard drives = very bad. The next time the noises happen try to locate the approxminate loctaion they're coming from in the laptop (i.e. front of it, back, one corner, etc.). You should download the HDD test program from Hitiachi/IBM and run it to perform a full disc surface scan to be sure the disc is good.

 

[gsferrari]

Sound isolation in laptops is poor. This is actually electromagnetic noises and clatter of the drive head etc. This is a problem in most laptops (they skimp on the shielding see...saves them money

)

Solutions :-

* External Soundcard (Echo Indigo / Xitel / Bithead)
* Find a laptop with decent sound
* Buy a Desktop

You can try using the Intel Application accelerator and defragmenting your hard drive but I doubt this will solve your problem satisfactorily.

LCD Ghosting :-

Who is the manufacturer of the LCD? Hitachi? try to find out...
Have you installed the latest video card drivers for the card in your laptop (Ati Catalyst 4.9 or nVidia drivers?).

Best regards,

gs

 

[V7iktor]

When my laptop HDD started clicking it was the end of it. System froze and the next reboot was unsuccessful, didn't even get a chance to backup anything. So unless it's simply your HDD spinning down because it is set to do so, I'd say it's a dying drive.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Sound isolation in laptops is poor. This is actually electromagnetic noises and clatter of the drive head etc. This is a problem in most laptops (they skimp on the shielding see...saves them money )

I think he's reffering to actual physical noises not EM/RF interference caused by crappy soundcard sheilding.

 

[Permonic]

Joe, that's strange. Several years ago I bought a new 20 GB HDD from IBM for my old Thinkpad. I started to hear (maybe similar or even the same) clipping from the HDD after about 1/2 year. I use this hard disc in my PC now, however some sectors are bad (I lost some data). I can't explain that clipping, it's still there. Since I bought a new one from Hitachi, no problem so far. Isn't this an IBM HDD design problem? Dunno.

 

[Hop Pocket]

I've only experienced the clicking sound in one incident. One day it started clicking/clacking, and then two days later it was grinding and whirring. Hard drive died. Get everything off it while you still can!

 

[Mr.Radar]

IBM HDD's used to have the nickname "DeathStar" because they had an incredibly high failure rate. IIRC, their worst offender was their 60 gig DeskStar model. It got so bad that IBM now contracts all their HDD manufacturing out to Hitatchi and the Hitatchi DeskStars much, much lower failure rate than the old DeathStars. In any case clicking noises from an HDD are VERY bad and a sign the drive is about to die.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Heh, since I'm in project mayhem now (no, not the movie... I just mean I'm very busy with my project) and this notebook has hit the ground running doing the work my old notebook was doing, I don't feel like being picky about weird noises as long as everything's functional... and chkdsk apparently checks out ok, even with the surface check... so call me stupid, but I'm sticking with this notebook

Maybe run another surface check before the 10 days return period is up

Permonic:
My old drive used to clack but didn't make that clack sound when it died, it just couldn't read much more than the FAT all of a sudden... it'd show some directories and files ok, but some subdirectories can't be accessed and whenever I try to download a file, it goes on forever trying to access it while just making normal hard disk busy sounds... On the other hand it just merrily 'clacked' its way along when it was still working (I'd hear it, say, once or twice a week)

I never even lost any data or had any system trouble right up till the end (3 1/2 years of solid use and rattling in my backbpack)

 

[Joe Bloggs]

A google search turned up this tidbit about IBM notebooks and hard disks:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-42320

Quote:

Symptom The hard disk drive in your IBM ThinkPad system may periodically emit a soft clicking sound. This sound may be more noticeable on hard disk drives manufactured by Hitachi Affected configurations Any IBM ThinkPad system. Solution None. This is not a problem. The hard disk drive is working as designed. See the Additional information section below for more details. ...

 

[skitlets]

Well, if it starts whining or emitting high pitched noises, the drive is gonna go. The head has something obstructing its writing capabilities, and it can only get worse. But, if its just a loud drive, no harm is done.

 

[pedxing]

if you hear funny noises, it usually means bad news. Sometimes the funny noise means the drive had to like reset itself from a very bad error. One of my IBM desktop drives started to fail and it would make a cracking noise and reset every so often.

The drive may not be necessarily an IBM/Hitachi drive. I know IBM use to sell computers with cheaper drives from other manufacturers. The only way to find out is to look at the system in control panel or open up the laptop.

 

[D-EJ915]

IBM's HDD drives have been very reliable throughout the years, IBM sold it's HDD division to Hitachi because it felt like it, they didn't change anything, just the name. Also the model was the 75GXP or something like that, a 7200RPM 75GB HDD, NOT the 60GXP or whatever. Mr. Radar is misinformed.

 

[Mr.Radar]

No, the 60GXP model was also plagued by the same reliability problems the 75GXP. I was wrong that they contracted the work out to Hitatchi, Hitatchi just bought their HDD division. I guess I didn't make it clear that not all of their hard drives had problems, but the probems with the 60GXP and 75GXP models forever ruined their name in the HDD world. You may also want to read this page.

 

[D-EJ915]

I don't buy Maxtor (40GB) or Western Digital (40GB 100GB) HDDs anymore, two of each brand have gone on me and my friend (Kevin) has had 3 Western Digitals go on him (old and new alike). As far as I'm concerned, get a Seagate, lol.