wd hard drive clicking - possible free-fall protection mode? (OEM DRIVE)

yesterday i've noticed repeating tick tick tick type of ticking sound on my hd (i think so). it only occurs when the drive is idle - i think thats my second hd clicks. they are not so fast, also they are quiet but noticeable for me now. the funny thing that it appears after some time of work not all the time, and i don't hear it when hd under load. its annoying because i dont remember hearing this the past days. maybe this is not a hd failure because it not happened before and all works fine.
so i found this http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_hard_drive_clicking
the possible reason for this clicks is enabled free-fall protection mode - its a problem related parking head. yeah i know that this article describes hitachi hdds problems but who knows..
is there a way to turn it off?

 

Haven't had any clicks on the stock WD my M17x shipped with... but try here (via Device Manager), uncheck the last box:

 

@BatBoy
thanks for the tip!
but what a surprise - the last box was already unckecked.. well now i understand something wrong.. i've already tested idle hdd with hdtune (btw benchmark remove clicks for a test time but then again) for errors but hdtune says nothing about hd health

 

Im going to just paste a post i made yesterday (lazy )

 

Hey BatBoy, you had disappeared for long

 

Coolmine's suggestion on disabling AAM also works wonders - at least it did for me with the XPS M1730 and a Seagate drive. Be sure to try this as well...

Sick at the moment Silly...

 

tis the season! Hope you feel better.

 

the thread went smooth to this topic http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=443814

 

For something like this on a stock drive, just call Dell and have them send out a replacement HDD. If you have a single drive, you might be able to have them throw in a 2nd HDD Cage (if yours did not ship with one) since you will need to transfer files over. Give them a call, its why we have a warranty

Once you have the replacement drive, use WD's free version of Acronis to clone your 'clicker' WD drive.
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

 

well - the call to dell is not so easy for me like people in us, uk or wherever. anyway, i'll try to make completely test to investigate what causes these sounds. for this moment i'm not even 80% sure about hdd problems exactly. as soon as i found a way to view my Load_Cycle_Count i will pretty sure about it

 

Sorry about that hazard. Would love to provide an easy solution here but for something like this its going to be shoot in the dark. My money is on the HDD being the cause, but if you feel its something different... you know best since you are sitting right there and hear the actual noise.

 

yep. thats exactly is. some news: it's quite odd but when i use boost perfomance mode via hybrid graphics i don't notice any clicking in cpu area (where the hdd1 is also situated), similar to sound when i use integrated 9400..
so what the problem here? how could i know what does this click sounds?

 

This may not be identical, but it will give you an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwYSdD4fyRU

Please, do not remove the drive cover That would be bad for warranty purposes.

 

I think I'm going to wait I haven't even go the laptop yet not till the first week in January perhaps later in the year the price it'll go down

 

no its definitely not the click of death. my clicks are irregular and sometimes i don't hear it about 20-30 min while accessing my disk. it's not so loud as here on video. clicks may fade. it caused not by disk operation because the hdd alien head don't flash during sounds. my rig doesn't run any services which use hdd - for example search indexer or smth like this. so its dont look like writing or reading..

 

I have a 320GB WD which shipped with the M17x. I can hear occasional HDD activity but nothing which sounds out of place.

Can you record it and post it?

I know you mentioned calling Dell would be tough, what about sending tech support an email? This type of problem wont require in-depth troubleshooting and they may be able to determine a cause via email with you conducting a few tests. Once determined its bad, they can send the drive to you instead of the drive+tech. Just another thought.

 

here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkYDLRwYTis
i try to catch up the moment of beginning it was quite difficult
these clicks only when using 9400, when i use 280 cards this does not happen.. if this is hdd problem why it does not happen all the time? what changed since i turn on power boost mode every time and why in this mode clicks disappear?..

thanks for idea about remote service. maybe i'll try this
edit: please tell me how should i contact with dell via email to test? where to go on dell site?

 

Is it possible to disable AAM without third party tools?

 

i dunno but its already disabled

 

found some interesting info. as i've read on some sites (my native language) these clicks should be caused by mechanical influence on heatsink edges by the fan. they may be not regular. but this is strange due for lacking of clicks when running dual 280. so i must to look closer on it removing bottom cover. or totally disassemble all rig..

 

Sorry hazard - I'm at a loss. I can't even hear the clicking in your recording . If you need to do a full tear down to check everything, reference Moo's videos and the M17x Service Manual. The manual will help quite a bit if its the first time ripping it apart.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M17x/

To get in touch with Dell, hit Dell's website for the country you are in. If you are in Russia (snowy russia ), check the support page and see if there is a link for 'contact support'.
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=ru&l=ru&s=gen&~ck=cr

 

@BatBoy
thanks for your support u are a very friendly mod
to hear the clicks you may probably set more volume - they are noticable hear since the middle of the record
probably i'll write them a letter soon because call don't solve anything..

 

Yeah - I had the volume up and put on headphones for it. LOL Must've been all that heavy metal in high school... I'll take another listen to it this evening and see if I can pick it up.

Refresh my memory here... two 320 GB WD drives in non-RAID right?

 

yeah. actually these wd drives striped (which means that they are not in ata/achi mode but in raid) but they are not in raid 0 or raid 1 - not a single bunch 640gb of data or mirroring due to dell technician fault and now drives are separated logically as physically by each other (i described this problem in my first topic when i can't find second hdd). this means that now i can't set any hd mode in bios except raid without reformatting whole system because win won't boot.. so typical problems and other issues with raid 0 don't happen with me but in fact i have two 320 gb single drives but striped..

but now i don't believe that clicks are caused by hdd..

 

??? idea?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4892659&postcount=350

also as i've already told in one of my previous post i don't hear these clicks while running dual 280 cards

 

ahhhh... Ok, sorry, forgot about that one. Yeah - I have no idea why running the integrated vs the discretes would do this.

 

update
as i expected after i grabbed laptop and brought it to service centre the tech guy told that he did't notice any malfunction - also he couldnt advice anything.. in that case i haven't any part replaced.. what could i do? my suspicions about sounds from heatsink with fan are still suspicions..
now i worry about one thing - is anybody there with similar issue and how could it be solved?..