Weird Noise, No idea what causes it.

I have had 2 M14x r2's and this is happening to one of them. When I switch tasks (changing song on iTunes while surfing the web) My M14x makes a noise around the Disc Drive area. It doesnt make any weird noises when reading discs or anything. Only when I switch windows or programs.
Its two short noises that sound like, well how do I describe it haha. REEEH REEEH.

Maybe its the hard drive?

Any way to fix this?

Thanks guys!

 

Mine does this. Thought it was the DVD drive initializing or something.

 

Mine too..

 

Glad to see I am not the only one. I hope we can find a solution. It really bothers me. I am gonna try unplugged the DVD drive and see if it stops, but I have a feeling its the hard drive. Do you both have a mSATA SSD caching drive?

 

Mine too, often I hear those strange noises, like some mechanical movement is being initiated inside.

 

Mines the 64GB mSATA Boot drive

 

That noise is infact the dvd drive.

Push the eject button when there is no cd in the drive and it should make the same noise.

 

Yep. This does duplicate the sound. Unpluging and pulling out my DVD drive makes it quiet. Is there any way to disable it from making this noise all the time but keeping it in the laptop?

 

Not sure if there is a fix for it, but my bluray drive makes that noise everyonce in awhile. It does it when I turn on alienautopsy usually.

Sometimes it does it at random.

I think it may be some sort of a self check thing or something.

 

As far as I know this sound is normal, it actually happens when the system turns the CD/DVD drive on and off, there is no way to disable it...sorry guys

 

I"m sorry but I can't accept that as an acceptable answer seeing as there are multiple people reporting the issue:
m14X R2 Slot Load Optical Drive Noises - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/686488-there-something-wrong-my-cd-dvd-drive-2.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/692144-m14x-r2-optical-drive-loading-disc-sound.html

I've just bought my M14x R2 brand new and have the same noise it sounds as if it is ready to spin up a disc in the drive or if its trying to eject one.

The optical drive is a MAA DVDRWBD UJ167 - I have checked Dell support and there are no firmware or driver updates.

It makes the noise approximately every 60 seconds while I'm on battery ALL THE TIME.
When I connect the laptop to its AC charger it only makes the noise when I plug a USB drive in or if I access the drive through 'My Computer'

The fact it only happens when it's on battery indicates to me it is more likely to be a driver/software issue.

I will be posting this on the official Dell Support page as well, hopefully this extremely annoying problem can get fixed especially seeing as the machine is brand new.

 

Yes this sound is normal. It makes it when your computer accesses the drive.

I use my optical drive an average of once a month, so to fix this annoyance I went to Device Manager and disabled my DVD drive. Simple fix! Don't let your computer get the best of you.

 

It's not normal when it makes this sound every 60 seconds wouldn't you agree? I don't know of ANY other laptop that intialises its optical drive every 60 seconds when its running on battery? I don't know of any other brand of laptop where you have to disable the optical drive to make it stop making noises!

The fact that it only does this when it runs on battery indicates it is a driver/software fault - so I cannot accept disabling it or plugging it into the charger as a proper solution. The $600 Lenovo I'm using now isn't doing it. As such I've tried to be proactive and through the power of Google have found that several people are reporting it as an issue but in different forums/posts.

I am attempting to get us all together in the same place so we can sort it out..

Please read my post here:
Spin Up Noise - Alienware M14x R2 - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

Then put any further updates in this post as we managed to get a Dell tech to start investigating the problem:
Re: Alienware m14x w/ SSD making faint beeping noises - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

This is not normal since it also activates that optical drive sound when opening programs and files.

 

It is a power saving feature, that is why it does it every 60 seconds. You should check the programs that you are running and see if any of them is causing the issue. You can also try changing the advanced power settings on Windows while in battery or connected to "High Performance" and make sure it includes the ODD there.

 

As I said my laptop is brand new, the only non-standard dell software running was Google Chrome and Microsoft Security Essentials.

DarkTriforce has reported his as occurring whilst plugged into the charger so how does that work? It shouldn't need to be power-saving whilst plugged into the charger: Re: Spin Up Noise - Alienware M14x R2 - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

I would have thought when running on battery if you wanted to save power then like all other laptops it would not need to intialise or be checked until the drive is required by inserting a disc and then the laptop would check?

I don't want to run my laptop in 'High Performance" when running on battery!
That defeats the purpose of it I want to conserve power and not have the noise happen and as I have said in the other thread, how on earth does the drive checking every 60 seconds save battery life please explain that.

Seriously I would like a technical answer to that.

 

When I say normal, I mean normal for the M14x R2. I also would like a way to disable this "feature" without having to disable my entire DVD drive.

What happens is when you are running a program that has access to your optical drive (ie. iTunes) it checks the DVD drive for a disc. If their is a disc, it will speed up the RPMs on the disc and popup a window asking if you would like to play DVD, open disc,etc.... If there is not a disc, the drive will remain off. If you startup your computer and don't touch it, then it should not continue to make this noise. It is only when you open a program with DVD drive access that it does this random check/ dvd eject noise.

 

The PC will try to start it when required when in battery. The reason why it does it even while plugged in is because the ODD is not set to skip this. Have you tried the iPhantomHives fix? Disabling the USB emulation in the BIOS?

This is what I mean, It is normal. It's just looking for a Disc in the optical drive.

 

Lol Porras but why in the hell would it look for a disc when there ain't nothing in the tray? Remember this optical sound also activates when opening files or playing video or music. You have to understand this is not happening on the m17x r4 of my cousin and my current sony vaio but somehow the m14x activates that optical drive sound.

 

Because the file explorer also needs it and the music player needs it. It is turned off and on as needed. Did you try the USB Power Sharing setting disabled as suggested before?

 

I haven't noticed my R2 doing that, but then again I don't use itunes.

Edit: and I don't use McAfee either.

 

I have tried the so called USB "fix" and it has not corrected the issue as others have also stated.

I have also encountered the noises being made at the windows login screen when there are no applications or file explorer running.

Even still further to this I have also already stated whenever I have heard the noise the ONLY consistent evidence is that it happens when it is running on battery!!!!! PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THAT

Because when I have had the noise happen whilst running on battery it has happened at the login screen and another time the only application I was using was Google Chrome and I fail to see how google chrome needs to check the optical drive every 60 seconds.

Therefore it would not appear to be application related wouldn't it?

It doesn't matter what program I use the only thing that makes the noise start happening is if it runs on battery plain and simple..

 

I have the same problem, but I disabled the DVD drive (MATA) something, on device manager and this solved the problem forever.

 

Did you get your other problems sorted out too? Hope mine doesn't arrive like that..

 

I think there IS a issue with the driver software, I got my m14x R2 for 1 week now, and I never heard the sound of the Opticial Drive of whatever it is.

I dont say that I'm right, I just tell what i've experienced.

 

I now count 20 people that have reported the issue and the last time I contacted Dell the reg fix they applied failed to fix the problem.

If your not sure about the sound this is what it sounds like: Alienware M14x R2 Spin Up Noise - YouTube
The sound can be heard at: 00:37 , 01:36 , 02:35 , 03:35

The sound will continue until the battery runs out or until the AC charger gets plugged in.
There were no applications running just the blank desktop.

 

Did you ever sort this problem out? I just changed my 500 gb hdd to a ssd and noticed this happening to me, not every minute, but maybe every 30 min. Did a fresh install of windows and all drivers after changing disk, so not sure what it could be. But it never happened before. I have also done a lot of changes to the system. regarding settings to optimize for ssd. So not sure if it could be any of these either..

I'm changing my disk drive to a caddy tomorrow, but just for the sake of it, Dell really should address this problem, and fix it! I have had so many problems with this laptop, and I feel I have done more to fix it then Dell.

Good luck!

 

Had the similar problem in Alienware 14 where drive used to spin up every time I connected an external hardware (ext. HDD, Pendrive etc). It was resolved after enabling 'USB debug' in BIOS.
Edit: Disabled 'USB Powershare' as well.

 

'USB debug enabled, drive noise gone!
Thank you :thumbsup:




Alienware 14 | i5-4200 | GeForce GT750m 2gb | 1920 x 1080 | 16 GB Ram | Windows 7