Aspire 5536 and WDC Scorpio Blue temps

I just got an Aspire 5536 and I'm running some diagnostics on it. While running SpinRite to test the drive I'm seeing HDD temps as high as 58°C!

This is a WDC 320 GB Scorpio Blue drive rated with a maximum operating temperature of 60°C and it's in a brand new machine sitting on the desk (so the vents are clear).

Isn't this ridiculously warm for this laptop? Does anyone else have the laptop (or the WDC 320 HDD) that can give me some comparison numbers?

Thanks!

 

WDC 250 GB Scorpio Blue - Looking now after 2 hours of internet use, HWMonitor 1.15 is showing 42. Update - Currently as I have been reading this forum for a further 30mins, the temperature has fallen to 40. Now down to 38. The previous 42 must have been all that fast web surfing (LOL) And finally down to 36 after a further 30mins again light surfing on this forum.

I don't remember seeing it much higher than this ever (certainly never in the 50s for my laptop and type of use). For my setup/use, even watching and recording HD video directly to hard disk the temp never goes much over 42ish. Must obviously depend on your use/type of applications.

Disable the Service for Windows Search Indexing - it trashes your hard disk.

 

idle temps of 53~57. can get up to 61 when unpacking huge files (e.g COD4) or when gaming.

 

Should idle around 35-40c and max out at 50-55c.

58c is hot but i wouldn't say critical.

Try removing unnecessary services or processes that might be putting extra load on the HDD.

 

Or improve the airflow to your hard drive. Are you seeing these temps on a desk? On your lap?
Just elevating your laptop a bit can improve temps. I personally use two empty SD card cases to hike the back of my system up a smidgen.

 

I have just checked my weekly Full Anti Virus scan for you - 60 minutes and Hard Disk Temperature did reach 50 (max) - that is the highest I have seen it. It is now quickly back down to 42 (after 15mins). I think it will continue to fall and operate around 35-38 for light surfing of this type of internet forum.

Note - My laptop is on a raised cooler (cooler turned off though). Also when I have the laptop on the desk/plugged in mains I generally remove the battery. Additionally I have Windows Search Indexing Disabled.

 

SpinRite is going to push your drive to the max especially if you select level 5, and as you are running outside of the windows environment the HLT may not be issued allowing the CPU to run at max, all increasing the systems temperature.

I would be inclined to use a cooler pad and only use SpinRite very infrequently, most notebooks tend to struggle with heat dissipation and the cooling systems tend to be focused on the CPU/GPU. SpinRite will shutdown the operation if the drive reaches a critical temperature. Personally with modern drives I only use SpinRite for the rare instance of data recovery.

 

I am intending this to be a burnin test before giving it to my brother to use for work. Spinrite's been running a level 4 test for 31 hours and another 3 1/2 to go. Drive temperatures are stable at 56°-57° and no errors detected.

It still seems hotter than I'd like, but I'll do some more realistic temperature checks under Win7 tomorrow. There doesn't appear to be very robust cooling in this particular model.

Thanks for the information everyone!

 

I would expect temps to be in the high 30`s to mid 40`s under normal workloads, SpinRite Level 4 is very intensive; Locate Surface Errors - reads all data twice, flipping bits from 1 to 0 and back again while fully recovering areas already marked as bad, so the elevated temperature of the drive is no surprise. Under normal use you wont see an issue.

 

The SpinRite test finished with no issues. The machine's been running under Win7 now for a day with light activity and the drive temperatures are around 43° which are a bit elevated, but not terrible. CPU temps are about the same so that appears to be the internal steady state temperature in this case.

The fan runs more than I'd like, but then again I don't have to listen to it.

 

Give it a couple of days, once 7 finishes updating & indexing the drive temps may lower, this is what I observed on my Samsung X420 with Windows 7, although its Intel CULV CPU also helps keep the case temp down as well