strange noises from hd

[cisz]

We've got a 60G western digital hard drive. It's been making noises like
it's suddenly going faster, and then slows down.

Is this a sign of a problem developing?

The computer is plugged into a surge protector.

 

[The Truth]

We've got a 60G western digital hard drive. It's been making noises like
it's suddenly going faster, and then slows down.

Is this a sign of a problem developing?

The computer is plugged into a surge protector.

This is perfectly normal. I would not even bother backing up any
important data.















BTW I was being sarcastic

 

[Don Phillipson]

We've got a 60G western digital hard drive. It's been making noises like
it's suddenly going faster, and then slows down.

Is this a sign of a problem developing?

The computer is plugged into a surge protector.

Download the WD Diagnostics and run them.

 

[Paul]

We've got a 60G western digital hard drive. It's been making noises like
it's suddenly going faster, and then slows down.

Is this a sign of a problem developing?

The computer is plugged into a surge protector.

Actually, it can be a couple different issues.

1) The hard drive is dying.

2) The quality of power feeding the hard drive is slipping.

The first thing to do, is run any Western Digital hard drive diagnostic
you can find on their web site. If the drive passes all the tests,
then it could be there is a problem with the power supply.

On a couple of my older power supplies, the first warning I got,
was the fans on the computer, that normally run at a constant
speed, started to vary in speed. The human ear is pretty sensitive
to the tone of the fan, so you can hear relatively minor changes
in fan speed (and the voltage feeding the fan is proportional to
the speed). I could tell from the noise the fan was making, that
my +12V was no longer stable.

In some cases, the problem can be related to the way the cabling
is set up. For example, some AGP video cards, have a Molex 1x4
connector, the same type as is used on a disk drive. Sometimes, a
cable will be run from the power supply, with two connectors on it.
It is not a good idea, if one connector goes to the video card and
the other goes to a hard drive. The video card should use its own
cable with Molex on the end. It is OK to run a couple or three hard
drives, off a common cable. I had a problem recently on my current
computer, where a SATA drive started spinning down and up again,
and the cause was a shared power cable (video card and SATA drive
used the same cable). When I used separate power cables for the two
loads, the drive stopped spinning down on its own.

At the very least, make sure your data is backed up on another drive.
You can get external hard drives with USB interfaces, which can be
used for the job. That will lessen the impact to you, if the hard
drive fails completely.

Paul

 

[cisz]

Actually, it can be a couple different issues.

1) The hard drive is dying.

2) The quality of power feeding the hard drive is slipping.

The first thing to do, is run any Western Digital hard drive diagnostic
you can find on their web site. If the drive passes all the tests,
then it could be there is a problem with the power supply.

On a couple of my older power supplies, the first warning I got,
was the fans on the computer, that normally run at a constant
speed, started to vary in speed. The human ear is pretty sensitive
to the tone of the fan, so you can hear relatively minor changes
in fan speed (and the voltage feeding the fan is proportional to
the speed). I could tell from the noise the fan was making, that
my +12V was no longer stable.

In some cases, the problem can be related to the way the cabling
is set up. For example, some AGP video cards, have a Molex 1x4
connector, the same type as is used on a disk drive. Sometimes, a
cable will be run from the power supply, with two connectors on it.
It is not a good idea, if one connector goes to the video card and
the other goes to a hard drive. The video card should use its own
cable with Molex on the end. It is OK to run a couple or three hard
drives, off a common cable. I had a problem recently on my current
computer, where a SATA drive started spinning down and up again,
and the cause was a shared power cable (video card and SATA drive
used the same cable). When I used separate power cables for the two
loads, the drive stopped spinning down on its own.

At the very least, make sure your data is backed up on another drive.
You can get external hard drives with USB interfaces, which can be
used for the job. That will lessen the impact to you, if the hard
drive fails completely.

Paul

Thanks.

I was thinking the sound was coming from the hard drive but after your post
I listened more closely and it seems to be the cpu fan.

I guess the power supply might be going or the power company voltage is
varying.

I wonder if there's an easy way to check the line voltage without having to
wait and watch a volt meter.

 

[Paul]

Thanks.

I was thinking the sound was coming from the hard drive but after your post
I listened more closely and it seems to be the cpu fan.

I guess the power supply might be going or the power company voltage is
varying.

I wonder if there's an easy way to check the line voltage without having to
wait and watch a volt meter.

Well, the first question I have to ask you, is whether the computer is
set up to vary the CPU fan speed in response to the CPU temperature.
I always set my computers to run the fans at constant speed. And then,
when the fans misbehave, I can blame it on power.

But if you're using some setting intended to maintain a quiet computer,
then the variation could be just compensation for CPU temperature.
Which changes constantly.

With respect to voltages, your power supply is a "regulator", which
means the output stays constant over a pretty wide range of
AC input voltages. You can see pretty significant light dimming in the
room, and the computer continues to run. It might work from 90V to 120V
for example. If you notice the room lights dimming (so it is hard
to read a book), then it might be time to check your AC. We had a
substation failure one winter day, that did something like that -
dropped the voltage, a lot. Even traffic lights were running
half intensity.

You can pick up one of your Molex 1x4 drive connectors, and *carefully*
probe the 12V there. Remember, that if you short the shiny metal
of the two probes together, the power supply will throw some pretty
big sparks. And you could damage something on the computer by
doing that. One thing I do, is use one alligator clip on the black
multimeter lead. I clip the lead onto an I/O screw in the I/O plate
area on the back of the computer. That gives me a ground connection.
Then, holding only the red probe in my hand, I'm free to read out
the 12V on the Molex 1x4 drive connector. That should be a safe way
to check your 12V rail. I find the multimeter is more accurate,
than the hardware monitor chip that gives voltage numbers in the
BIOS.

A basic spec for a power supply, would be +/- 5% tolerance. The
variation really shouldn't be that large, if the thing is healthy.
I treat "wandering" of that voltage (i.e. doesn't seem to be
the load variation that is causing it), to be an indication
that the supply isn't healthy. Whether you replace it
right away, is up to you. I don't have any examples of how long
it lasts from first noticing "wandering", until it dies. Since
a lot of modern supplies die quietly, without killing something,
it might not be a big deal to continue using it. But if it
was a Bestec 250W, which typically blows out the motherboard,
I'd replace that the first day it farted. So check into the
history of that brand/model of supply, and see if it has done
a lot of damage or not.

Paul

 

[cisz]

Well, the first question I have to ask you, is whether the computer is
set up to vary the CPU fan speed in response to the CPU temperature.
I always set my computers to run the fans at constant speed. And then,
when the fans misbehave, I can blame it on power.

The computer is a dell dimension 2350 (2GHz cpu). The dell website says that
the bios varies the cpu fan speed according to temperature, but I haven't
seen anything in the bios about that. (I just updated it to the most recent
version.)

 

[Paul]

The computer is a dell dimension 2350 (2GHz cpu). The dell website says that
the bios varies the cpu fan speed according to temperature, but I haven't
seen anything in the bios about that. (I just updated it to the most recent
version.)

They make it sound here, like the Dimension 2350 uses a standard ATX
supply. Because they're proposing a standard supply as a substitute.

http://www.supernotebook.com/power-supply.php?psupart=3393

More pictures here of that replacement supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103018

If you can't rely on the fan speed variation (because it is constantly
being adjusted), then you'd need to measure and monitor the voltage
to tell what is going on. I happened to use the noise of the fan as a
health indication here, because I know the fans are not intelligently
controlled and always run at 100%.

In the case of the Dell, I don't know if an application like Speedfan
can be used to override the BIOS control or not. If a computer
maker wants the BIOS to be able to do things, they can always set up
SMM (system management mode), as it allows the BIOS to get time
slices transparently to the OS operation. The OS doesn't even
know it has been usurped.

On some Dells, you wouldn't want the fans under manual control,
because if you run the main fan at 100%, it makes a terrific
amount of noise (70dB+). So on some of the machines, if they
didn't adjust the fan speed, you'd know it because the noise
would be unbearable.

Paul