Noisy T42

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r1ckchard · #1 Post by **r1ckchard** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:42 pm

I just received my T42 (2379RHU) last week and I've noticed that the hard drive (?) is constantly making a whirring sound. It sounds like something is constantly spinning, like a fan but I know the fan is on the left side. The noise is coming from the bottom right corner somewhere. I have a Fujitsu hard drive, which I've heard is supposed to be quiet, so I'm wondering if there's something wrong or if what I'm hearing is considered quiet.

Basically, my question is can I make the hard drive quieter (assuming it is the hard drive that's making the sounds)? Thanks in advance.

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:45 pm

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

You can get NHC and you can adjust the acoustic levels of the HDD indirectly by setting spin-down to on and enabling quiet operation; some of these can also be found in the Windows power manager, although I think that only stops the HDD rotation after a period of idleness.

Here is the link to NHC;

http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm

HTH

sugo · #3 Post by **sugo** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:50 pm

From what I have experienced, Acoustic Management helps lowering the seek ticks but doesn't do much on rotation noise.

christopher_wolf · #4 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:10 pm

I don't know, I noticed that, whilst the HDD was spinning, when I turned activated the "quiet(128)" noise profile in NHC, that the noise went down quite abit.

r1ckchard · #5 Post by **r1ckchard** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:57 pm

I've heard quite a bit about NHC. I currently have RMClock running as I undervolted my laptop with it. If I remember correctly, NHC has something that can help me undervolt, correct? If so, should I just use NHC for the undervolting and the HDD controlling?

Thanks for the replies.

christopher_wolf · #6 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:03 pm

You can if you want; keep in mind though that NHC has a bigger footpirnt than RMClock.

r1ckchard · #7 Post by **r1ckchard** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:05 pm

Sorry, but what do you mean by footprint?

#8 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:06 pm

Put on Thunderstruck by AC/DC and you won't notice the noise a bit!

christopher_wolf · #9 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:06 pm

Resource usage (i.e. CPU, Memory, HDD, etc)

r1ckchard · #10 Post by **r1ckchard** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:08 pm

GomJabbar - I actually do have some music going (Thrice) and I don't notice it a bit.

The "problems" start when the music ends.

christopher_wolf - Thanks for the info and advice. I think I'll run just NHC for a bit and see how my laptop runs.

Cedric · #11 Post by **Cedric** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:04 pm

I've read many discussions about this noicy problem. I myself have a T42 UC2M1GE (with a Hitachi HDD) and what shell I say: Live with it!

Some suggestions, to get rid of this permanent rotation noices, are to include a Fujitsu HDD. It's very funny, because it seems that you have the same problems with a Fujitsu HDD as I have with a Hitachi HDD.

In another thread I've heard that the reason for the noice is the HDD bay.

Like I've written, I've give up to get rid of the noicy problem.

PS: I also use NHC, but the problem couldn't be solved.

r1ckchard · #12 Post by **r1ckchard** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:27 pm

Well, that's really quite unfortunate for you. I, on the other hand, have found NHC to help a little in reducing the noise level with the HDD. Although the HDD still tends to spin constantly, every once in a while it'll spin down which is nice. It's not that big of a deal, and with some music playing in the background, I don't even notice it.

Anyways, when I feel the need to upgrade the HDD, maybe I'll get lucky and come across a quiet one.

r1ckchard · #13 Post by **r1ckchard** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:11 pm

It's been a week since my last post, but I figure since it was my topic and I've got a couple questions that deal with the same topic, I'd post here.

Anyways, I've noticed that in Task Manager there are 69 processes running, which from what I've found is a LOT. I don't think it's spyware/adware/viruses because I've only had my laptop for 2 weeks and I have anti-spyware and anti-virus programs on my computer. What software do you guys use to clean this stuff up? Also, could this be the reason why my hard drive is running almost all of the time? With a couple tabs open in Firefox, I usually have about 40-60MB of Physical RAM available. If necessary, I can take a couple screenshots of task manager if that'll help. Thanks in advance.

EDIT - Links to some pics of Task Manager:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d61/r ... nager1.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d61/r ... nager2.jpg

Zed · #14 Post by **Zed** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:52 pm

Hello r1ckchard,

70 processed is not that bad for a laptop - I would say that's about average. There are plenty of things you could stop running - definitely the ibmmessages.exe which are pretty useless; or the TpScrLk.exe which controls Scroll lock which I personally never use; or the iTuneshelper.exe; or the EZEJMNAP.exe which is IBM’s easy eject utility (I personally prefer to use the Windows one); or the atiptaxx.exe which gives you easy access to your graphic card settings and so on - but it won't make your TP much faster or quieter. Only a fresh install of Windows will possibly make a difference - but I wouldn’t do it. I bought my TP preciselly because it has all these goodies. Ok, I admit I am planning on to exchange the Hitachi HDD for a quiet Seagate one - probably the new 5400.3 one - but that's another story...

There is a useful site http://www.processlibrary.com/ where you can check what all the other *.exe’s and *.dll’s stand for. The site also propagates a program called WinTasks 5 which might be a thing just for you – only if you are willing to spend $50 on it…

Hope it helps.

Zed

PS Also look here http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... uclauncher

r1ckchard · #15 Post by **r1ckchard** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:59 pm

70 processes is normal, eh? I guess what I was reading was for desktops. I know my desktop only runs around 40 processes at most. Thanks for the help. Oh, how do I stop running them on startup? I know I can do an end process after startup, but that's so much work after each time I turn on my computer.

EDIT - Oops, just read the other thread, and it has a link to freeware that'll help me out.

sugo · #16 Post by **sugo** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:15 pm

I only have 29 processed running at the moment. 70 sounds a lot to me. It's not necessarily a bad thing though, if you need those software.

Zed · #17 Post by **Zed** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:01 pm

Well, I have about 50 processes running including some 8 opened programs. So maybe I was a bit too optimistic when I wrote that 70 processes running is about average…

Zed

r1ckchard · #18 Post by **r1ckchard** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:17 pm

Could someone explain to me how the swap file thing works with the hard drive and such? I have a feeling that all of the processes running are using up memory and so the hard drive has to come into play constantly to keep up. I'm wondering if I added 512MB or even 1GB if that'll make the hard drive spin less.

Cmdr.Keen · #19 Post by **Cmdr.Keen** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:55 pm

r1ckchard wrote:70 processes is normal, eh? I guess what I was reading was for desktops. I know my desktop only runs around 40 processes at most. Thanks for the help. Oh, how do I stop running them on startup?...

Besides the Process Library.com site, you might want to check out the following: Process Explorer. I've used this on all my systems and it's a nice little program - you can use it in tandem with Process Library or by itself if you have the savvy...then just "kill" programs you don't want running. Kind of like an expanded Task Manager - I ran across this when I was trying to remove spyware.

Incidentally, I've got 52 processes running, and I know I can trim more...I just haven't gotten around to it.

HTH too.

-Andrew

r1ckchard · #20 Post by **r1ckchard** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:57 pm

What's HTH?

christopher_wolf · #21 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:16 am

HTH ---> Hope that Helps/Helped

r1ckchard · #22 Post by **r1ckchard** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:25 am

Oh, haha. I thought it was another program I could use to clean up some processes.

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