Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,

I've got a X61 Tablet. Several months after purchase, I started to notice a periodic grinding sound, as if something were grinding to a halt. Over several months, the sound continued to be intermittant, but the noise started to get a bit more noticeable, lasting 2-3 seconds at most.

A month ago, I called IBM customer service and they sent a tech over to replace the motherboard. The fan was attached to the motherboard, so if it was the fan, it should've been fixed. However the sound continued with the new parts.

Does this sound like a fan problem? If not, could this be a harddrive problem in the making?

Thanks in advance for any help.

My guess would be the hard drive spinning down due to your power plan. On my X61T with the drive that shipped with the laptop (Hitachi 5400 160G), when on WinXP, I can hear the drive “grind to a halt”. The sound is not that loud, but you can hear it in an office environment. I think this is normal and the drive is fine.

On Vista or Linux, with a Hitachi 7200 320G, I never hear the drive.

I'm not sure it has to do with the power management settings. I've heard it as the system is still booting up and the drive is still thrashing.

There are only (3) moving parts in a Thinkpad. You've eliminated one of them (fan). So that leaves your hard drive or optical drive. I'd remove the optical drive to see if the noise reoccurs. If it does reoccur, then replace your hard drive. It is really that simple...ok?