Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

A few days ago I dropped my thinkpad (R60). Everything worked fine afterwards but I'm hearing a constant zooming noise, like if a drive or fan is spinning ("slowly"). I didn't exactly know where the zoom was coming from but I booted a linux live cd without the harddrive in it and the zoom was gone (except for the "normal" silent sound of a working machine). The zoom is there on windows as well as linux.
Pc doctor (full hd check) said the drive is ok.
When I move the drive (when I took it out) in my hand it seems as if there's some little rock moving inside or something (also sounds like the clicking noise when using the drive that has always been there, so maybe just the platters?).

I'm going to call lenovo/ibm tomorrow or in a few days. Do you think the hd would be broken? The thinkpad itselves is out of warranty, does the drive have longer warranty? (longer then 1 year)

Thanks

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snessiram wrote:snip.........The thinkpad itselves is out of warranty, does the drive have longer warranty? (longer then 1 year)........snip

No.

I heard the sound through the file you posted earlier, everything seemed (sounded) normal; atleast from what I heard. If the hdd rattles then perhaps spindle motor or platter has changed places, misaligned in other words.

If you need a permanent solution then buy a new HDD, temporary would be to use the current one till as long as it lasts.

Hmmm . . . I think it would be worth checking w/ the HD manufacturer to confirm their warranty terms. I think Hitachi has a 5 year warranty on their Travelstar drives, don't they? Worth looking into, at any rate.

Paul Unger wrote:Hmmm . . . I think it would be worth checking w/ the HD manufacturer to confirm their warranty terms. I think Hitachi has a 5 year warranty on their Travelstar drives, don't they? Worth looking into, at any rate.

Well, these HDD's are co-branded by lenovo as "ThinkPad", the warranty for them is whatever they provide you with the machine, the origininal manufacturer will be of no help in this matter. Same goes for Atheros Network card that comes with your thinkpad, it's also co-branded by lenovo as "Thinkpad".

Didn't know that, ryengineer . . . thanks for setting me straight! Just thought it might be worth a try. Guess not. I'm not a fan of 'over-reaching' on warranty issues as I think that ultimately we all pay for that. IBM's warranty is among the best and they have always been good to me.

Thanks to clearify it ryengineer. I think I'll try to install on a 60GB external portable drive and see if it makes less noise and then maybe switch them.

Is it actually possible to install on an external harddrive using recovery cd's?

Just to be sure I'll call Lenovo anyway.