Left hand corner on 4101LMi clicking

just received the laptop today, and the left hand corner makes an intermittent clicking noise when left idle.

i strongly suspect its the hard drive, is this a known problem? should i return the laptop or is there a fix for it.

as far as im aware the hard drive is hitachi.

cheers!

 

Yes, ur rite...the noice is from HDD ...it quite common in these models.

This drive seems to have head park function . that's the cause of the clicking noise on restart and shutdown

 

just managed to fix the problem as it was driving me absolutly insane it forced me to fix it. if you or anybody else is having a similar problem with there hitachi or ibm or dell drive then here is the fix...

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

at the bottom there is a utility named Feature Tool (v1.96)

download this and make either a bootable floppy with it or alternativly a boot cd.

once reboot your laptop and change the first boot to the prefered option, then let the utility load.

after its loaded go to the accoustic management section and slide the slider down to quite and click ok.

then go into the power management section and slide the slider up to max performance.

click ok then exit, reboot.. problem seems so far fixed.

 

Have you noticed any change in performance since you dropped it from
"Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode)" to "Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode)?" Are boot times any bit slower or loading of files off the hard disk? If that is not the case are you noticing any loss in battery life due to the switch to maximum performance on the power management section? If no to both, I am assuming these two changes offset each other while managing to eliminate the clicking?

 

I'd be interested in that as well, I have a Hitachi drive in my Sony FS and it clicks quite a bit.

 

I have noticed the same problem with the 600m and also the 1100's.I guess its normal. I have seen lot of talk in the dell forums,but none of them crashing the HDD. You can reduce the sound a little bit but not get over it for sure. I have tried a lot to find a solution for this problem but so far nothing. I know for sure IBM relased a utility for their T40 sometime back, and it did help a couple of Dell users too. But that was just the Hitachi Drives..

 

i did notice a and i quote 'slight' performance drop... it's more of an eye thing than a figure thing.. my hdd performance results using hdd test where identicle to that of the same specification hdd after doing the above.

its certainly worth doing, the clicking noise was driving me insane and now i can leave my laptop on overnight downloading with it about 1m away from by bed without a hum, the laptop is almost 100% silent apart from a slight blow from the cpu fan every now and then.

with regard's to the battery, i wouldnt really know because i havent had it on for more than 4h non-stop however im guessing that no, it didnt effect it at all.

 

I encountered the clicking on my 3270 as well (with the TravelStar 60 GB drive). I just ran the Feature Tool and did as suggested. So far, it seems like it may have worked, though I'll need a little longer to be sure. Thanks to the poster for the advice!

Mark