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alexandre_leib

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21 years ago

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7137

June 8th, 2005 13:00

D410 hard disk noise

Hi,
 
I have a Latitude D410, running WinXP SP2. After some time of usage, the disk starts to do a clicking noise, like it was being turned on/off repeatedly.
 
A system restart solves the problem - after the reboot it does not happen, at leat for some time (1 hour ?).
 
Apart the irritating noise, everything else seems to work fine. Can this be a physical disk problem? Or more probably a software malfunction?
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Alexandre. 
  • ejn63

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    Posted June 8th, 2005 13:00

    It could be normal, if it's always done that. If the sound is new, a thorough run with the Dell diagnostics is in order.
  • Da Gopha

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    Posted June 17th, 2005 11:00

    Hello there,

    I was waiting for someone to post something like this...!

    I've got an on/off clicking going on all the time that the system is booted in Windows XP. It's like the drive spins up, then down repeatedly. This apparently *is* normal for the D410 series - I checked it our with Gold Tech Support and have also run every drive diagnostic program onboard the D410 to ensure that the disk is okay.

    These drives park the instant they aren't in use to protect them from shock, so they will click up and click down a lot more than a normal HDD in a static non-mobile system.

    Cheers,

    Gopha

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    Posted November 24th, 2005 14:00

    Hi,
     
    Just to close the thread -> I have called Dell support, they came and changed the drive. Now it´s a Hitachi 80G. Larger (good deal) and no more clicks :)
     
    Thanks to all,
     
    Alexandre.
  • Da Gopha

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    Posted November 25th, 2005 11:00

    Cool, didn't realise this thread was still active.
     
    The various drives are subject to varying amounts of noise. Some of the ones on the early D410s were notorious in discussions forums for being noisy.
     
    I think it's the frequent park/unparking etc etc. I spoke with the Dell tech folks, and they said that if enough people complained, or sent feedback, then they would take into consideration the 'aesthetical' aspects of the drives and perhaps change models.
     
    So perhaps my griping has resulted in a quieter drive for you!?  ;-)
     
    Kind regards,
    Gopha