Heat below TrackPad. HD won't stop spinning & "whoo

[GoyoNeuff]

Hi All,

Problems:
1. Excessive heat under the Trackpad / UltraNav.
2. New Samsung HM120jc 120GB HD does not stop making what I call a spinning noise, or whoosh. It is not the “clicking” noise that one might normally get when the system is accessing the HD.
3. One time the HD kept making a rather “pitchy”, very low noise after turning off the laptop. The only way to stopped it was to remove the battery.

Reason:
I really do not have a clue.


What I have done:

1. Checked Samsung web site for firmware / software / utilities related with these hard drives. I have not found anything of help so far.

2. Check the power settings in AC and DC. Set up a limit of 3 min for HD shoot off. Leave the computer alone, and nothing happened. The HD keeps making the “whooshy” noise.

3. Download and run MobileMeter, and NHC to check system temperature.
a. Under normal use CPU = 38 - 42oC, HD = 36 - 39oC.
b. Running “SuperPi” to check system with applications: CPU = 40 - 60oC, HD = 38oC.
c. Running “HD Tune” to check HD under work: HD = 40oC
d. S.M.A.R.T. readings shows always OK with no errors.

4. Searched forum regarding these issues.


Story:
After the little mess I had with my original 40GB HD, which is still to be solved, I upgraded to a Samsung HM120jc 120GB HD. The main reason being that this was the drive they have here in a local shop in Aberdeen, UK. I read some specs about it, and it should be a good drive. I installed into the laptop, did a clean Windows XP installation with the recovery CD’s, downloaded and updated it with all the Windows XP patches and fixes. Installed AVG antivirus, AVG spyware, ZoneAlarm firewall, and some other packages. Created three partitions: a = OS, b = Music, c = Photos. Basically the same items that were installed in the original 40GB HD.
I noticed that the area beneath / below the TrackPad / UltraNav was getting very hot. Not doing hard tasks, but anything like web surfing with a little of Word typing. As stated previously, the HD is not getting hot; the palm rest area is a bit warm, but not too much different as it was before with the original HD. I tried to change the power setting under DC and AC, but in either case I’ve got to stop the HD noise. I do not know if all these have to do with the fact that the HD is not a Lenovo/IBM HD, but instead it is an OEM HD. I do not know if it has to do with the Lenovo/IBM HD airbag protection system. As I said before, one time the HD kept making a slightly “pitchy” noise after the system was shut down. When I took the battery off, the noise was gone.
I do not know if the heat beneath / below the TrackPad / UltraNav is related or not with the HD, but I would guess it is because it started to get hot with this new HD.
I would like to know if the HD is faulty to take action, or if I can solve the issue.

Thank you all,

K

[GoyoNeuff]

Hi all,

Waiting for any help / suggestions...

Thx,

K.

[agarza]

It's a weird problem. I recall last year when I bought a Hitachi E7K100 (the brother of the 7K100) which make my laptop literally a boiler, because it generated soo much heat, noise and vibration I had to replace it back to the stock 40GB HDD (Hitachi 5K60).
Then I got a 100G 7K100 and worked flawlessly (nevertheless I was hearing constants clicks that after weeks of use dissapeared).

I would recommend taking out the drive and see if it's correctly attached to the caddy and properly connected to the motherboard. I should say your HD temp should not rise that much, my 7K100 right now is about 36C, also using the 2nd adapter HDD with the stock 40GB in it, and the machine is not getting hot.

I should advice you to replace that drive, or stick with Hitachi (I've never used Samsung/Seagate,etc only Hitachi) so I can only say positive things about Hitachi (only had 1 HDD failure in 2001 but still I was able to recover my data!)

[GoyoNeuff]

Thank you benottomex,

You're rigth when you changed the E7K100 for the 7K100. If I understand correctly, the second one is designed for laptop/normal use.

I did take out the HD, check the caddy, and putted in again. Still the same.
One of the first things to do is to make the whoosh stop by changing the settings in power management. But as I said, I changed that and the HD still on.

I want to try as many things as possible before taking back the HD to the shop I bought it from.

Thanks,

K.

[GoyoNeuff]

Hi all,

Anything more to recommend about this?

Regards,

K.

[PatrickE]

What were the original problems that caused you to replace the HD? Is the original still readable? I am assuming that the old HD does not exhibit these symptoms?

My only suggestion, seeing as how you have exhausted the software side of this problem, would be turn return the Samsung you have now for a different one. You may also want to look into a 7k100 as it is know to be a relatively trouble free drive with these computers.

Good luck

[GoyoNeuff]

Thank you all,

I've the original 40GB HD up and running again. It works without any whooshing noise. One difference I noticed with the Samsung 120GB HD is that the original Hitachi 40GB HD does stop and go according to the Thinkpad HD protection system. It also goes to idle when not in use. These things are not happening when using the Samsung 120GB HD.
I’m going to try to return the Samsung HD, but I don’t know if the shop where I got it will consider this as faulty item, I doubt it.

The heat beneath the TrackPad / UltraNav is still an issue either with the Hitachi or Samsung HDs. When running Notebook Control Hardware (NCH) I don’t have any high temps. In fact the heat can be feeling right below the TrackPad, not in the right palm rest, where the HD is located. One thing I cannot do is to tweak or change the HD settings with NCH, I got error messages.

Is there any previous knowledge of this heat coming under the TrackPad?
Does anyone know what is sitting in this area that might be causing the heat?
Is there a way to get the more approximate temperature from this area? I mean, which is the nearest temperature gauge/control to this area that I can monitor? And, if there is any, how can I monitor/read this temperature; any particular software/utility to do this?

Cheers!

K.