My new X41 keeps clicking!!

[Moose]

Hi all,

Nice forums

Today I took delivery of my brand new Thinkpad X41 which I love apart from one REALLY annoying "feature"; the hard drive keeps clicking!!! In fact it's happily ticking away as I write this

I've read a few threads on here dating way back to 2005 and it seems it *might* be solvable. However, I've stuggled to find a proven solution, just lots of bits of information. The hard disk in my X41 is a Hitachi one which device manager shows as:

HTC426040G9AT00

I'd really appreciate a step by step guide on what needs to be done to resolve the issue, as it's really bugging me when working in a quiet room!

Many thanks in advance

Matt Dearden
PS I've not got a base unit, only an external USB DVD/CD drive in case that's important.

[hone]

If it's still under warranty I believe you can call ibm to replace the hd.

[K0LO]

Matt:

The drive in the X41T makes that annoying noise whenever it parks its head, which is quite often.

You could try upgrading your drive's firmware to version A0L0, which seems to increase the amount of time between head parks. After upgrading, it's almost tolerable.

The upgrade is here.

[codek]

If it's still under warranty I believe you can call ibm to replace the hd.

i don't know about that. I heard all x41t's have that problem

[Moose]

Thanks for that Mark. I updated the firmware using that utility, but alas it's still ticking as much as before

I'm totally used to hard drives making a sort of grumbling noise when they're being accessed but this one seems to only make the ticking noise when it's not being accessed (although the HD light does blink in time with the ticks). The heads parking would seem to make sense. Just wish they're stop doing it! I've also turned off the active protection system. but again no difference

Any more ideas guys, as to be honest it's annoying enough for me to consider changing to something else. I've had 3 Thinkpads in the past, and have always rated them very highly; this is the first one I've had any problems with which is such a same, as in all other ways it's a great little notebook.

cheers

Matt Dearden

[K0LO]

Matt:

The only other things that I could suggest are to be sure that you're using the latest versions of:

1. Active Protection System
2. SATA Power Management
3. ACPI Power Management
The head park frequency is influenced by some of these drivers.

On my machine, upgrading the hard drive's firmware did make a difference in the frequency of the clicks. They're still present but not as annoying as before the update.

You could also try complaining to Lenovo. Maybe they'll send you a new hard disk. A couple of people have done that and claim to have received a drive that's quiet.

[nikemen]

Chekc out the sticky just above your post, it details how to fix it up.
Mine took just a few minutest to fix.

[Moose]

Hi nikemen,

Which part(s) from that thread did you do to fix the problem? The one where you download an ISO image and burn to a bootable CD from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62282

I've not tried this one as it looks quite tricky to do. However, does that not just do the same as this update here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67238

as I've done that one and all the ones k0lo (Mark) has suggested above, but it's stil the same.

thanks

[nikemen]

Actually, I just ran the executable from the computer, no ISO to burn on that one. Check a previous link, or maybe just head to lenovo and download the latest exectuble for this specific issue.

here is the one I used

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67238

your choice to do a backup first or not, I didn't, but it only took like 1 minute.

[K0LO]

Matt:

Just to add to the observations here, I noted last night that my tablet's hard drive was clicking a lot more than usual. Turns out that the frequency of the clicking noise will depend on how often applications access the hard disk.

At the time I was running OneNote 2007, which continually saves to disk every few seconds, so the disk clicks like mad and it's annoying as hell. When I closed OneNote the clicking stopped. If I close all applications and just sit there at the Windows desktop, the disk is only accessed once every 2 or 3 minutes, so it's generally pretty quiet. Before upgrading the hard disk firmware the disk was accessed every 10 seconds or so when just sitting at the desktop doing nothing.

So perhaps your experience with the clicking noises will depend on which app you are running.

[Moose]

Same one nikemen. My HD is now on firmware A0L0.

Could well be Mark Task manager shows loads(!) of programs running in the background. I've never seen so many on a single computer! I think Lenovo must preinstall all manner of crap on these notebooks before they're sold; I'm sure I don't need most of it.

Are there any guides as to what can be removed without screwing anything up? Would probably speed up the boot sequence too which is currently about 2 mins.

cheers

Matt

[K0LO]

Matt:

Not to push my own guide, but:

http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/foru ... sp?TID=339

[Moose]

Hi Mark,

I must say it's very tempting to do this. But at the moment I need the notebook working, as it's my primary study aid for a distance learning course I'm doing at the moment. I really can't afford to spend a day (and I know it'll take a day as I've done it to a few computers in the past) tinkering trying to get it all working again.

cheers

Matt

[K0LO]

Matt:

Understood. In the interim the best two improvements that you can make to the X41T are to uninstall Rescue and Recovery and Access Connections. These two programs really slow the machine down.

In their place use something like Acronis True Image for a better backup solution, and just use Windows to manage your wireless connections.

[Moose]

Consider them gone! Does seem to have knocked about 10 seconds of the boot time too Any more things I don't need?

Also, what's your opinion the pre-loaded Symantec anti-virus and firewall? They seem to use a large chunk of memory. On my previous PCs I've used AVG and Zone Alarm which both work well and don't seem to hog resources. Just seems a shame to remove it as it came with a year's subscription.

Matt

[K0LO]

Matt:

I agree about Symantec (retail) programs; they really gum up the works.

My personal favorite is Symantec Corporate Edition AV, but normally you can only get a copy from your employer or school if they have a site license. Here, for example, it's required before you are allowed to put your Windows machine on the corporate network.

If not, I've installed AVG free edition on my Mom's machine and on my daughter's laptop and it's working well for them. Others on here report good results with AVG also. And Zone Alarm gets good reviews although I personally don't use it, finding Windows native firewall adequate.

[The Spirit of X21]

Hmm. My X23's drive makes that ticking sound. Does that mean that my hard drive is on its way out?

[shinjiplus]

hey everyone, thanks for the post about the firmware update! i don't know how i didn't catch it before.

however, after the update, now ever ~5 mins or so the hdd light goes on and i can hear a regular "click-click-click" very softly, maybe twice per second, and my entire PC freezes (except for the mouse). most notably occurs with firefox. any ideas?