stopping hard drive whine

[Gomek]

Hi. Any recommendations on stopping the high pitch whine coming from my
hard drive in the back ground? I have several fans in my case, and I tried
disabling some of them to see if it helped with the noise, but the whine was
more pronounced. It's been this way for a while, but aside from getting
another drive I'm trying to figure out some alternative ways to knock the db
level down. Thanks.

 

[Brian K]

Hi. Any recommendations on stopping the high pitch whine coming from my
hard drive in the back ground? I have several fans in my case, and I tried
disabling some of them to see if it helped with the noise, but the whine was
more pronounced. It's been this way for a while, but aside from getting
another drive I'm trying to figure out some alternative ways to knock the db
level down. Thanks.

Have you tried flicking the side of the drive? You do it like you are
flicking a non-computer bug away. Does the sound go away temporarily?
If so back up all your pertinent data. It could be the harbinger of head
crash. This is more likely if the drive has just started making the noise.

If it has been doing it all along, some drives are just plain noisy.
I've never experienced a whine. When I had Seagate the actuating arm was
very noisy and sounded like popcorn popping. Maybe someone else will
have additional input.

--
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[sillyputty]

On 9/16/2007 10:52 PM Gomek consulted a Magic 8 Ball and declared:> Hi. Any recommendations on stopping the high pitch whine coming from my

Hmm, my HDs only whine when they're powering up. Get a set of ear
plugs?

If it has been doing it all along, some drives are just plain noisy.
I've never experienced a whine. When I had Seagate the actuating arm was
very noisy and sounded like popcorn popping.

I had a 1.2gig Seagate that did the same thing. Damn thing lasted 10
years and would probably fire right up if I got it out of my closet.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Are you sure it's the harddisk ?

Make sure,if it is a fan then oil it !

Quite frankly I myself have never heard of a harddisk whining lol.

Fans, that's another story however

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[JAD]

Are you sure it's the harddisk ?

Make sure,if it is a fan then oil it !

Quite frankly I myself have never heard of a harddisk whining lol.

Your so used to 'your whining' about stupid crap that you can't hear anything but
yourself.

 

[Gomek]

Thank all of you very much for the reply's! I haven't tried flicking it, I
don't think it's a vibration issue. Mind you, the whining is much like the
old TV's, it was in the background, real high pitched, and you have to
listen to notice it, but it was still there. I was thinking about building
an acoustic box for the PC, but don't have a workshop. I've real
cramped for room and don't have many other options to place the PC and other
equipment. I have 7-8 fans going at all time, but that's a low roar, it's
the high pitched, whine of the hard drive that get's old. It would be nice
if PC's were all whisper quiet, but being that it's "a machine" I suppose
it's going to make noise.

 

[JAD]

Thank all of you very much for the reply's! I haven't tried flicking it, I don't think
it's a vibration issue. Mind you, the whining is much like the old TV's, it was in the
background, real high pitched, and you have to listen to notice it, but it was still
there. I was thinking about building an acoustic box for the PC, but don't have a
workshop. :

then you will have a overheating issue.

( I've real

cramped for room and don't have many other options to place the PC and other equipment.
I have 7-8 fans

over kill- sure your not hearing the whine from the speakers picking up all that fan
noise?


going at all time, but that's a low roar, it's

 

[geoff]

Me also, a 20 gig seagate cheetah, worked for 10 years but changed it
because it got too noisy.

-g

 

[sbb78247]

Your so used to 'your whining' about stupid crap that you can't hear
anything but yourself.

offer him some cheese to go with his whine? maybe that will shut him up



--
sbb78247

resident redneck alt.os.windows-xp

you aint frum 'round here are ya boy!

 

[Gomek]

then you will have a overheating issue.

I was thinking about constructing the box with a couple fans in it, and
having acoutic foam lining the the inside. I don't have the machine
overclocked, so even though there's the heat/ventilation issue, it won't be
like a hair dryer cranking away in there.

( I've real


over kill- sure your not hearing the whine from the speakers picking up
all that fan noise?

Naw, this is difinetly coming from the hard drive. As mentioned, it's a
audibly low high pitched whine that undulates back and forth. It's not
super loud, but you notice it and can be annoying. I was looking at the
price of sound proof foam and it's ridiculous! I went to Comp USA looking
for a solution, but to no avail. I saw some hard drive enclosures on a web
site but there were a little pricy. Kind of makes me want to hook up my
Commodore 64 and use it, it's VERY quiet!!

 

[Brian K]

I was thinking about constructing the box with a couple fans in it, and
having acoutic foam lining the the inside. I don't have the machine
overclocked, so even though there's the heat/ventilation issue, it won't be
like a hair dryer cranking away in there.




Naw, this is difinetly coming from the hard drive. As mentioned, it's a
audibly low high pitched whine that undulates back and forth. It's not
super loud, but you notice it and can be annoying. I was looking at the
price of sound proof foam and it's ridiculous! I went to Comp USA looking
for a solution, but to no avail. I saw some hard drive enclosures on a web
site but there were a little pricy. Kind of makes me want to hook up my
Commodore 64 and use it, it's VERY quiet!!

Maybe you could do some garage sales. Buy up cheap speakers and such,
then pirate them for the acoustic foam?

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

 

[raylopez99]

Have you tried flicking the side of the drive? You do it like you are
flicking a non-computer bug away. Does the sound go away temporarily?
If so back up all your pertinent data. It could be the harbinger of head
crash. This is more likely if the drive has just started making the noise.

Interesting Brian--this is my system now, 5 years old, as per another
thread here. How long (if you dare estimate) before the HD failure
(after you hear this noise, that you can flick away by tapping the
side of the tower).

RL

 

[Brian K]

Interesting Brian--this is my system now, 5 years old, as per another
thread here. How long (if you dare estimate) before the HD failure
(after you hear this noise, that you can flick away by tapping the
side of the tower).

RL

Wasn't I clear? You open the case and flick the side of the HDD. Drive
squeal as others have pointed out can be caused by many things. I had
head crash occur on one system that was only three years old. The
read/write heads of a hard drive "fly" over the drive at a very narrow
distance from the drive surfaces. Sometimes the heads become magnetized.
When this happens the drive begins to squeal. Finally, head crash
happens when the magnetized head(s) become permanently stuck to the
drive disk(s). When this happens the drive makes a sound like a loud
scream. Then there's silence. The drive won't spin up and you can't
boot. While the drive could be sent to a data recovery firm, this is not
priced for non-corporate customers. At this point the drive is dead.

Head crash doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it still can happen
however rarely. I should have mentioned that in my original post.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

 

[raylopez99]

On 9/24/2007 3:22 AM raylopez99 consulted a Magic 8 Ball and declared:

Wasn't I clear? You open the case and flick the side of the HDD.

In my case I can make the sound disappear by tapping the side of the
tower--it sounds like a chatter, a light little vibration like a bunch
of "bb" metal ball bearings being shaken in a metal cup, far away.

Drive
squeal as others have pointed out can be caused by many things. I had
head crash occur on one system that was only three years old.

Interesting--this is why I asked again--stories like this is what I
want to hear. This HD, a Western Digital, is bought five years old
this fall--about middle age for a HD.

The
read/write heads of a hard drive "fly" over the drive at a very narrow
distance from the drive surfaces. Sometimes the heads become magnetized.
When this happens the drive begins to squeal.

Is this a squeal that's continuous? Or a vibration sound like I
mentioned above?

Finally, head crash
happens when the magnetized head(s) become permanently stuck to the
drive disk(s). When this happens the drive makes a sound like a loud
scream. Then there's silence. The drive won't spin up and you can't
boot. While the drive could be sent to a data recovery firm, this is not
priced for non-corporate customers. At this point the drive is dead.

Head crash doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it still can happen
however rarely. I should have mentioned that in my original post.

Another problem with this old drive (it seems)--it sometimes gets real
quiet, "runs out of steam", and the system crashes (no activity),
needing a reboot. It's almost like not enough power exists on the
system--which also has this symptom (but I've upgraded the power
supply, so that's not it). I think it's like the drive is just too
old.

As a precaution, I've ordered another EIDE HD (this one from Seagate),
but before I spend half a day swapping internal HDs, I'd like to know
if I can keep this HD as is for a little longer.

RL

 

[Brian K]

In my case I can make the sound disappear by tapping the side of the
tower--it sounds like a chatter, a light little vibration like a bunch
of "bb" metal ball bearings being shaken in a metal cup, far away.



Interesting--this is why I asked again--stories like this is what I
want to hear. This HD, a Western Digital, is bought five years old
this fall--about middle age for a HD.



Is this a squeal that's continuous? Or a vibration sound like I
mentioned above?




Another problem with this old drive (it seems)--it sometimes gets real
quiet, "runs out of steam", and the system crashes (no activity),
needing a reboot. It's almost like not enough power exists on the
system--which also has this symptom (but I've upgraded the power
supply, so that's not it). I think it's like the drive is just too
old.

As a precaution, I've ordered another EIDE HD (this one from Seagate),
but before I spend half a day swapping internal HDs, I'd like to know
if I can keep this HD as is for a little longer.

RL

If the HDD stops dead sometimes and can only be reawakened with a
re-boot. You might want to take a look at your Power settings in
Windows or your BIOS. If you have Standby enabled, disable it. See if
that makes the problem go away. Check all Hard Drive settings in
Windows Control Panel >> Power Options and in BIOS. The HDD should be
set to "on all times" or "never sleep" depending on your system. With
these settings the HDD won't spin down unless you power down or power up.

When my HDD went south, there was a high pitched whine, constantly a
little louder than a mosquito. Before it finally crashed, there were
unexpected spin downs. Adjusting Power Options and HDD power settings
in my BIOS did not improve the matter. Lucky for me I had a backup.
Because it crashed shortly there after.

What you describe, sounds more like you might have some hardware loose
(mounting screws - bolts) inside your case. Have you tried tightening
all your screws without over tightening them? Look for something loose
inside the case?

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

 

[raylopez99]

If the HDD stops dead sometimes and can only be reawakened with a
re-boot. You might want to take a look at your Power settings in
Windows or your BIOS. If you have Standby enabled, disable it. See if
that makes the problem go away. Check all Hard Drive settings in
Windows Control Panel >> Power Options and in BIOS. The HDD should be
set to "on all times" or "never sleep" depending on your system. With
these settings the HDD won't spin down unless you power down or power up.

When my HDD went south, there was a high pitched whine, constantly a
little louder than a mosquito. Before it finally crashed, there were
unexpected spin downs. Adjusting Power Options and HDD power settings
in my BIOS did not improve the matter. Lucky for me I had a backup.
Because it crashed shortly there after.

What you describe, sounds more like you might have some hardware loose
(mounting screws - bolts) inside your case. Have you tried tightening
all your screws without over tightening them? Look for something loose
inside the case?

--

Thanks Brian for the tips. I did have "hibernate" turned on (I
thought only for the monitor, but I'll turn it off--there's another
switch for HD that I turned off to keep the HD always on, but perhaps
the two switches conflict in WIndows XP).

As for the sound, I think it's either a loose screw, or it's the
graphics card fan. Since I'm using a cheap $40 video card, I've
ordered a newer video card and will tighten the screws. From another
thread I read that if your CPU fan fails, your BIOS will shut your
system down automatically--which is good, as I was afraid it was the
CPU fan, and I don't want to replace that sucker unless I have to, it
will take me 5 hours as nervous as I am with such a job. I've also
installed the software program "Motherboard Monitor 5" to monitor CPU
temperature, which seems OK.

Ah, PC maintenance, an evergoing battle.

RL

 

[Brian K]

Thanks Brian for the tips. I did have "hibernate" turned on (I
thought only for the monitor, but I'll turn it off--there's another
switch for HD that I turned off to keep the HD always on, but perhaps
the two switches conflict in WIndows XP).

As for the sound, I think it's either a loose screw, or it's the
graphics card fan. Since I'm using a cheap $40 video card, I've
ordered a newer video card and will tighten the screws. From another
thread I read that if your CPU fan fails, your BIOS will shut your
system down automatically--which is good, as I was afraid it was the
CPU fan, and I don't want to replace that sucker unless I have to, it
will take me 5 hours as nervous as I am with such a job. I've also
installed the software program "Motherboard Monitor 5" to monitor CPU
temperature, which seems OK.

Ah, PC maintenance, an evergoing battle.

RL

You might want to check your Temp Mgmt settings in BIOS. On some BIOS
critical temp auto shut down is the default giving you the option to set
the trigger temp. On other systems it's disabled. I prefer to use a PC
Health monitoring software. It puts the cpu temp as an icon in the
Quick launch area. That way all I have to do is glance at the icon from
time to time. Before the cpu gets too hot, the icon turns red and
flashes with an optional audio alarm.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

 

[raylopez99]

UPDATE: the clicking noise is probably one of three case fans I
have. The whining noise like a jet propellor driven engine reving up
was another case fan (not the same one making the clicking sound).
Both sounds go away once the fans heat up and/or you tap the case.

Just in case, I've swaped out all my old (4-5 yrs old) hard drives
with new ones, and am monitoring processor fan temperatures with the
utility Motherboard Monitor.

RL