High pitched hard drive sound

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Beni · #1 Post by **Beni** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:23 am

Hi, I got a short question concerning my new Thinkpad T42.

It's just 3 days old but I notice a high pitched sound coming from the hard drive.

It's a 40 GB Hitachi with 5400 RPM (hts548040m9at00).

I wonder if this sound, which is quite noticeable in quiet environments, is to be considered normal or if I got a faulty hard drive.

What are your experiences with hard drives in Thinkpads? Are they noisy or is yours quiet?

Thanks in advance,
Beni

Logi7 · #2 Post by **Logi7** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:41 am

mine's a clicking sound

7200 60gb thou

prolly doesnt help

eriqesque · #3 Post by **eriqesque** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:43 am

Yes most of the hitachi HD's do tend to make this high pitched sound from the HD.

As for the poster about the clicking sound if it's a new HD then this will probably go away after some use. If it's old might want to get that checked out.

edelrc · #4 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:52 am

If it is a clicking sound, it is OK, and both you'll get use to it and it will get softer.

However, if the drive is new and the high noise is generated as it turns, this can become very anoying is you work in quite envioments... call IBM and complain about the issue. I had mine HDD replace because of this twice.

(HDD usually gets this noise after a couple of years (dealigment), but more recent drives are better)

Beni · #5 Post by **Beni** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:59 pm

Hm, yes I also think it is a bit annoying. If I activate the APS by lifting the notebook I feel kinda relieved because that high pitched sound disappears.

edelrc, could you please tell me how the replacement procedure works?
Will I have to send in the whole thinkpad or just the hard drive (I know how to remove it) ?

edelrc · #6 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 5:13 pm

If it is really bad, just call them. I never had any problem with the technicians on this matter.
They will ship you a new HDD, and you have 30days to ship yours on same packaging.

Beni · #7 Post by **Beni** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 6:01 pm

Thanks to all for your answers, I'm glad that I finally got some info about this phenomenon.

I have still one short question to you, edelrc: Was the replacement HDD you got completely without the high pitched sound or just with a not so loud high pitched sound?

I'm wondering if they even have quieter hard drives they can send me in return or if all of them have a high pitched sound at a certain level.

The sound of my HDD is not very loud, but it's high frequency makes it very annoying in my opinion ...

edelrc · #8 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:02 pm

The HDD I'd got as replacement were completely without the high pitched sound (you cannot hear HDD rotate at all at 4feet. Nevertheless, once IBM send me an refurbished HDD that was much much noiser that the one I intended to replace... I called them same day, and the next I had a replacement (brand new) of the replacement that I could not even hear a 1ft!!!! One year later, it still as new

My new T42p's HDD is a little noisier but it is also a 7200rpm. I would have exchange it for a 5500rpm any time, for me dead silence is more important since i usually work in loneliness places!

Beni · #9 Post by **Beni** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:18 pm

I phoned IBM today and explained the problem to them but the technician told me he cannot replace the HDD if the fitness test program doesn't show any errors (which it indeed doesn't).

So, a noisy HDD doesn't seem to be a faulty HDD for IBM in Germany (where I live).
I think it depends on who is on the other side of the line. Some technicians propably might replace it, mine didn't.

I've already ordered a replacement HDD from Samsung (Samsung M40 40GB (MP0402H)) because I just can't work with this annoying sound.

High pitched hard drive sound

High pitched hard drive sound

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