Odd clicking in my M17x.

Hey everyone, I've had my M17x for what I think is 2 months now and I've been enjoying every minute of it. I used to be on these forums a lot but I've been busy / having fun on it.

I notice that sometimes there will occasionally be clicking noises coming from my M17x. It sounds like it's coming from the area just to the right of the touchpad. It sounds a lot like the audio when you click a link or icons for example. It only happens so often, usually when I'm just typing or doing something in Windows, it's not a game only thing, and it will freeze what ever I'm doing for 2 sec or so. I just wanted to see if anyone knows what is causing the stutter and clicking sound?

I've also been hearing a low-pitched cricket type noise from my 1st 260m but I've heard other people mention this so I won't make much of it.

But about the clicking, I have no idea why it would come from what seems to be the hand rest part of the M17x. Thanks in advance!

 

failing hard disk. run hdtune or the dell diagnostics.

 

This is what I got from HDTUNE.

 

You have a 500GB (or 2x 500GBs) right?

Hdtune will say its fine... it seems nearly all, if not all, of the 500GB hdds in the M17x have this issue.

That cricket noise is normal, it goes away when not plugged in... but I'm always plugged in.

 

I have 1 500GB HD

 

clicking and stuttering for 2 seconds is not normal unfortunately. You need to click on the health tab and run a scan in hdtune. If you do have a raid setup then you must use the dell diagnostics DVD.

 

Yeah, just mentioning it's a common issue. I get clicks and from time to time, occasional 1 second stutters. Probably getting an SSD soon.

 

Run the Error scan in HDtune.

 

Seagate drives have been notorious for this issue. After experiencing this problem (with my old XPS M1730) and the failed firmware update posted by Dell to correct this I will never use Seagate again. They have had similar issues with the external 3.5" drives as well.

My suggestion - call Dell and have them send you another drive. You might also find this thread over @ Seagate's forums an interesting read:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board...thread.id=13411&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

 

I always tell people I've own 5 of these drives, one gen 1 and four gen 2 and I've never had this issue. I'm down to just one because I've sold them off/gave them away and that one has been running strong most of this year. I really like these Seagates.

 

I had the same issue with mine I had to replace my hard drive. Though I was verry suprissed it was a bad western digital hard drive and not a seagate. Call Dell and get a replacement and backup for info asap

 

Just out of curiousity, for anyone who actually knows the answer to this. if someone is under warranty, will dell send someone out to put the HD back in? Or will they only send out the part and the customer would have to put it in? I ask because not everyone who orders one of these machines knows their way around a computer/laptop.

 

When i had my first one replaced dell sent out an installer to install the drive. It was however the first m17x she had ever seen so i had to show her how to get to the hard drives anyway. I'm about ready to call dell and have them come out and replace one of my HD's again, the first replacement last about a month before it got as bad as the original, im thinking dell needs to switch to another HD brand for the 500gb line. Ive been waiting for Windows 7 to be released since i dont wont to reinstall all my stuff and then have to redo all again a few weeks later.

 

^^^Sorry about your troubles. Many people on this forum have reported troubles with their 500gb drives. I was originally going to go for the 500, but after reading so many horror stories on here from folks with their 500s, I might just opt for the 320. Which is a shame because a 500gb drive would be the sweet spot for me.

 

Yeah I'll probably go ahead and order a SSD since I honestly wanted one anyway.

 

I have two 500GB Seagate drives in my rig, and never had a problem with either one of them ever, and I've owned this machine since March. Sounds like they got a bad batch or something, that's really weird.

 

Two 256GB SSDs would solve your problem.

 

That it would, it would also tac on quite a bit of extra coin too

 

I am enjoying a 128gb SSD and a 320 GB 7200 rpm scorpio black myself

 

Can i borrow 800 bux. I want some so bad..

As far as installation they asked me if i knew how to/was comfortable enough to do it myself or if i needed someone to install it. They also offered step my step directions on the phone. But i know what i am doing so just did it myself.

 

What about the 250GB drive? I am getting the 2x250 RAID 0 option for my M17x...Is anybody experiencing any problems with those drives?

 

my 250gb drive has been pretty much silent

 

I've had Dell replace both my 500 gigs twice (have gone through 6 drives total) all of which have this ticking issue. Seems its a big problem that has been around for awhile. The MacBook Pros at the beginning of the year were reporting this problem as well. Some people seem to get lucky and they don't have the noise/lag issue, but most do.

I managed to make mine stop by using a program called quietHDD and turning APM off (255 setting). But this program can only do it if you do not have a RAID setup, which removing RAID was the first thing I did when I got my M17x. If you have RAID I think you can use hdparm, but don't quote me on that.

Needless to say I'll never buy Seagates. This is my first time ever having them in a computer and I am not impressed. Should not have to tweak my hard drives to make them work properly and stop acting like failing drives. I would replace them with WD drives but WD does not make any 500gb drives that run at 7200rpm for laptops last I checked.

 

Just wanted to update everyone on this. I updated the firmware on the 500GB Seagate drive and it resolved the issue, hasn't happened at all yet! YES! Had to go into the bios, change the drive to ATA, ran the firmware, changed the drive back to whatever it was at before. Rebooted and all is well! I'm pleased about this becauase the 1sec lag spikes were really messing with my ability to play WOW and specifically arena. Woot!

 

Could you explain how u applied the firmware, I went into the bios and changed my hdd setting from raid to ata but after the computer restarts it will not boot.

Alienware m17x [email protected] ghz wuxga 1920x1200 8gb dd3 1333mhz 500gb x2 7200rpm raid 0 dual nvidia geforce gtx 280m

 

Is it the click sound same as what i've been hearing on my M15x post?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=447777

 

There is nothing under the hand rest area that can click (except the speakers). There is also the optical drive though....

all that is under the palm rest is the optical drive, wireless and bluetooth, optical drive, and battery

It very well could be the optical drive as it has mechanical parts

 

For all of you having the clicking problem with the 500 GB ST9500420ASG here is how to fix it on this site is the firmware for the HD http://www.digitalchumps.com/gamingnews/86-unofficial/4221-dell-releases- double check wheather ur hd has freefall protection which i think most should and download that firmware Drives with G-Sensor. After you download the file extract it and burn the iso to a cd. Dont make a bootable usb cuz im not sure if the files are specific to a computer since the m17x is not on that list of compatible computers on the firmware. If you have Raid like I do in the bios turn it off and change it to ATA then pop the cd in. Reboot press f12 to boot from the CD and it will automatically download and installl the firmware from DOS. After it is finished go back into the bios and turn Raid back on or which ever setting it was before and the clicks should be gone for good. So far ive been click free for about a day.