Mk, my laptop is making a croaking noise.

At the bottom right hand side of my computer there is this weird croaking noise, i'm afraid it's my HDD. Can someone please confirm? I've also been getting blue screen quite often (about once a week)

 

well the noise plus the BSOD points to a Hard drive isssue

back up you files now, and run Diagnostics

 

mk, one problem. I don't have a flashdrive or external harddrive to back my files up with. And how would I run diagnostics. (I have run system repairs before, but i don't know if diagnostics is the same thing)

 

Could anyone help me?

 

are you sure its not your gpu fan?

 

1) I highly suggest that you buy an external hard drive to do backups/transfers etc with. Unless you abosolutely do not care to lose everything on your drive. Everyone needs some sort of backup for pictures, files, game saves, etc.
2) You can use your “resource” dvd to boot from and run the dell diagnostics from there. You can also download it and make your own boot disc or USB drive, but it’s really simpler to just boot from the resource dvd.
3) Also I highly suggest that you buy a USB thumb drive for troubleshooting/running diagnostics etc. Or even ermergency backup of your most importnant files if your laptop is failing and you don't have your backup close by. It doesn’t have to be huge, a 2 or 4 gb would be plenty for most situations other than actual backups (and depending on your files, my backups are 2,000gb )

 

how can i tell if its my gpu fan?

 

anyone.....?

 

the sound it makes, and where it comes from is your best way to determine if it is the GPU fan.

Flip the laptop on the side and see if you can determine where the noise is comming from

 

Alright, my laptop is making this sound every now and then. It just happened during my discussion with Lozz and the other guys. Was weird. It's definitely from the HDD and it is a croaking noise hahaha

When I saw your headline I laugh and couldn't imagine how this could happen but sure enough I have it It's occurred 3 times in the last 20mins for me, about 3-5 seconds long each time. It's not the sound a dying HDD would make though but it could be a new one. My HDD is new but that is irrevelant as new/old could fail anytime.

AHHH!!! I know what the croaking is coming from. I'm currently burning a DVD (at 4x) and it's occasionally making the croaking sound (really, it's like a frog croak!). The sound is from the bottom right corner of the laptop. My first burn didn't produce this sound however, hmm. I think it's nothing to worry about.

Somehow, I think this is not the solution for your croaking noise?

 

the right side GPU fan is commonly defective from the factory which could also make a similar noise. I haven't heard of one being bad in a while however.

which drive do you have? The DVD burner, BLU player or the BD-RE ? You could even list the device ID string via my computer > properties on the DVD drive if you're feeling nice

 

Urgh, the DVD RW sometimes makes tons of noises, on my 5th DVD and this one is terrible just starting up. It's having a difficult time writing to the blank DVD :/ This one is a coaster.

I have the Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640S drive. First time using it to burn data DVDs.

Hahah, can't shut it down now and it's constantly making the croaking noise. This drive sounds defective, there mechanical sounds coming from it as well Wonder if I can dissect it.

Trying another DVD burn,

EDIT:

1. Well, had to reboot PC because the DVD wouldn't come out. The progress was stuck at 1% but apparently it wrote all my data to the disc; I waited for a bit cause it hung up whatever process I switch to. All noises stopped when writing was completed, during the lead out phase. I haven't verify the data as I'm re-burning the DVD. Strange.

2. Darn, only 1/4th of the data written on the DVD. The drive is definitely a goner, mechanical noise showing up more than the croaking noise hahaha Now may be the best time to replace it with a hard drive option

 

I'm not sure what it is with the R2, but the optical drives have been very finicky on all three of them. Sometimes the CD or DVD wouldn't eject, or sometimes it would cause a system freeze.

replace the optical drive with a HDD? I believe the optical drive uses a standard SATA cable, so it should be possible, you would have to figure out how to keep it mounted however.

 

mk, so i do think it's my fan now. When i flipped my machine over it seemed to be on the top right hand side (where the little vent is). I'm not sure if this is related...but every so often my "kernal" video driver fails....Like, it just happened 3 times in a row (the screen blinks on and off and then recovers)

 

I recently had to replace both my gpu fans a cpu fan because of tilting or rubbing and therefore making loud noises.

 

Thats where the gpu is, your hard drive is in the middle of the laptop, assuming you have a M17xr2. My gpu fans were making noises and i ended up having them relaced.

 

Well, I don't know what to say about my noises now. After last night, I've burned 3 more DVDs and they were all silent. Very strange. This optical drive is not the best, in terms of loading the disc. Feels like the disc is being scratch when you insert it.

 

I have an R1