Loud Intermittent Howling/Squealing noise from HD area

[dozer]

howdy folks,

Just got a used T41 for my wife...a 2373-7JU, 512mb, 60gb, 14", CDRW.

HD was empty when I got it.

Installed Win2K from generic OEM CD...deleted the extra partition during the install process.

All went fine/normal.

Have been downloading all the TP drivers from Lenovo site; which is a VERY painful process when you live in a rural area and have only a 28k modem connection. Why they couldn't provide a straight binary RAR of JUST the driver files alone (without a huge bloat 'installer' attached to every [censored] one) is beyond me....

But in any case...

Last night, the machine suddenly starts howling/squealing...loud enough that I can actually feel the case vibrating. Best I can tell, it's coming from the right front corner, i.e. HD area.

It stops after a few seconds....does it again....stops....then seems to be fine for a while. It seems that -moving- the laptop triggers this phenomenon.

I've been googling and reading for the past few hours, but haven't yet run across mention of such a 'loud' noise from a T41.

In my reading this morning, I just came across a reference to the Active Drive Protection being a -windows- function (i.e. driver/applet), NOT built into the machine/bios.

Thinking about that just now, I realized that I didn't have a single occurence of this noise until the point where I had begun installing the drivers off the Lenovo site.

Which has me wondering if this noise might be related to the APS.

The drivers I've installed so far are:

-chipset
-speedstep
-PCI cardbus
-power mgmt
-battery maximiser
-network

I've not downloaded the video yet because it's an incredible 30mb of bloat. If I've got a bad HD, there's no sense suffering through many hours of downloading if I just have to start over on a new HD anyway.

Any ideas on this howling/squealing? Anyone had it happen to them?

How do I disable the APS ?

I'd like to do that and see if that eliminates the problem.

Also, I've come across many refs to fan-noise in this model, but all seem to be talking about the 'blip' in fan speed/noise every few seconds (which mine does too). But I haven't come across refs to a REALLY loud fan noise yet.

Has anyone had any REALLY loud noises that ended up being the fan?

Another question, regarding updating the bios...

The Bios and embedded controller are a step or two behind the latest version. Mine are:

2373-7JU9-9BT2RM
bios 3.06F
emb xtrol 3.02

I didn't get a floppy drive with this T41, and again, I only have a modem for online connection. Given this situation, what's the best (i.e. safest) procedure for doing an update of the bios/embedded ??

Also, I can't seem to put the machine to sleep (i.e. fn-F4).

thanks much!

[ZPrime]

do you have the hdd mounted properly?

can you go to a coffee house or something and use wifi to grab drivers in the future?

[dozer]

Update: it was the HD that was bad.

Replaced it 2 days ago and no noises since then.