R4 - Ticking sound.

My previous thread regarding the USB issue seemed long enough, so just thought I would put up another to prevent confusion.

I've noticed a slight ticking sound on the left-hand side of my R4. I'm not familiar with the internal components of the R4, so I'm not sure what's causing it.

It's not overly loud (nothing like keyboard typing or so), but its loud enough to hear in a silent room - that ticking sound can get annoying too. Almost like a dripping faucet.

It's not persistent or continuous like a clock or watch either. It has sprees of silence or ticking. Not consistent intervals, could sometimes go for one click or a lot of quick ones.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

 

If it's coming from under the palmrest (just to the left of the touchpad), that's roughly the position of the hard drive bay (bay 0). Could be your HDD.

 

From what I can hear when putting my ear up close, it's coming from the area right under the Caps Lock or Tab button.

I'm not sure whether that's because that's where the ticking sound can come from because there are vents or so there, but I can't hear anything from the palmrest.

 

Do you have a mechanical drive or SSD? The drive bay extends vertically, from left of palmrest to directly under the 'shift' key.

 

My drives are currently a Samsung 64GB mSATA boot drive and a Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM HD. These came pre-installed with the unit, haven't made any additions or alterations. I've contacted Dell Support regarding this, but would just want to find out whether it will need a replacement (again).

Thanks for the responses, btw.

 

Could well be your HDD. See if you notice the ticking when the computer is accessing the mechanical drive.

 

I see. How do I know when it's accessing the mechanical drive?

So far, I've heard it when I've left my notes open (MS Word, Browser) and I'm reading a book or trying to think of what to type.

Also, if this is an HDD issue, is this enough grounds for a replacement? Or is this easily repairable?

I'm gonna be heading back home in a week, I'll have access to the IT staff of our company, so I might have them take a look at it.

 

Play a music or video file saved on the HDD. That way you know it's accessing the drive and listen for the ticking.
It's normal for mechanical drives to make noise. However, if you feel that there's something wrong with the drive, backup all your important files on the drive and call up Dell. They'll probably send you a new drive.

 

The CPU fan is located in that same area, maybe more under the TAB key and back, but close. Open the bottom plata and check to assure that the fan housing in screwed down tight and that nothing has gotten caught in the fan.

 

That ticking sound is common with standard HDD's lately. Especially Seagate. It was present for me with the original BIOS for the harddrive. It went away after a BIOS update from seagate. Have not heard the sound for months now.

I have a Crucial 256GB M4 SSD and a Seagate 500GB XT Hybrid as a secondary. I read an article months ago talking about this problem with SSD and HDD configurations and that clicking sound. 99% of the time a BIOS update solved it.

 

If a firmware update for the Seagate drives fixed that annoying clicking sound, I wouldn't have swapped them out for Hitachi's. Oh well...

 

The OP does not have a single platter drive, the stock dell 1TB option is 2x500GB.

Mine arrived with 1x750GB and I never heard the click. I just installed a second and now the tick sound is plaguing me too.

But the sound is classic platter drive click sound but totally new to me too as I have never heard a drive make a single click before.

Does everyone else with this problem have (1) 2 HDD drives and (2) does the sound click once and then not again for a while? The clicks are quite well spread out, I have never heard 2 back-to-back. But I have heard the sound on linux and windows7.

My second drive is a WD scorpio black.

 

I believe the clicking sound is the caused by the drive arm inside moving from "PARK" position to operational position to access data. Over the years a BIOS update fixed it with various drive and brands.

When you access data, most drives spin the disc first, then the arm unparks itself to access the data. But some drive are weird and the arm unparks itself too soon then gets jerked over to the access point on the disc. That causes that clicking sound.

If it jerks too much and often, the dampening system inside the drive that cusions the arm gets worn or breaks.

Personally I believe that since our modern computers can access data so fast now and Bandwidth throughput is so high, these mechanical hard drives are having a hard time keeping up with demand of accessing data so fast and so often. Good thing SSD prices are finnally coming down a little.