m50vm-b1 hard drive noise

Anyone else hear this? It seems to be louder than the fan (I'm hearing a whirring-air like noise right near the left usb ports + mic/headphone jack)

 

I remember this mentioned once before. I suggest you BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY.

Next, check if it is indeed the HDD. Some CPUs will "whine", make noises when between certain power saving states. Make sure it is not that. Make sure it's not the fan, either.

Then, look at my Tips and Tricks and test your HDD. See if that comes out with anything.

If you are sure that it is the HDD, even if the tests come out OK, I suggest you RMA the HDD anyway. A HDD that sounds louder than the fan is not a good HDD.

 

Agreed. Backup you important info!

Sounds like the HDD bearing is prematurely wearing out, contact your reseller or ASUS asap.

 

Hm, it's weird because I can hear two noises, one seems to be the hard drive (low hum) and another one that sounds like wind, which I would assume it would be if it was coming from the top left.

Do you know if air flows towards the hard drive? Because it really seems as if it sounds like wind.

Could it be wind being sucked through the vents at the bottom?

EDIT: Okay so when I go close to the area where the hard drive is, I can hear the hard drive. This noise is something else, but it seems to be in that area. Can anyone link me to a pic of the opened m50?

 

Best way to check: remove HDD, see if noise goes away. Then it's clear.

There is an M50 disassembly guide linked from the Info Booth.

 

I am also hearing the same sound from the Harddisk area of my M50VM.
I am also not sure what is causing this sound. It is like sound of air, but there is no fan located in the Area.
As a matter of fact I have open the harddisk bay and replaced the Harddisk with a samsung 320GB to see if the Western digital scorpio built originally was too loud or not.
But it did not make any difference.
I heard the same sound with samsung drive, but it felt to be little bit less intense.

I have found out that in M50VM harddisk chamber there is lot of empty space on the top side between HDD and the arm wrest area. I am coming to believe that the harddisk noise is echoing inside this empty space and being amplified, but I am not sure.
When I get some time, I would try to put some foam in this area to see if the sound is reduced.

 

I have done further testing concerning the sound that comes out of the harddisk chamber and which is much louder than the fan sound on normal basis.
I have removed the HDD from the HDD compartment and connected it from outside the laptop using an external esata controller.
As I type this massage I have the system booted from the same HDD running from the esata port.

As expected I do not hear this buzzing loud sound anymore.
The HDD while running from the table is not producing the amount of noise it produced when it is build into the M50Vm.

So this proves that this sound is coming from HDD compartment.
I think this is due to some vibrations in the free area around the HDD and this results in loud sound as compared to when you have the same harddisk running externally on a table.
This is obviously a design flaw on a great product and those of us who have sensitive ears have to live with it.

 

Well, the interior of most 2.5 external enclosures is generally pretty limited compared to notebook interiors, but I'm not sure it's necessarily vibration (although you're right there with it and I'm not ); it could simply be acoustic as there is more space for the sound to bounce and echo from there as compared to the inside of the exEnc.

Not exactly a design flaw in my mind, more likely sensitive ears (as you say) combined with slight variation in manufacturing/assembly tolerance, or a slight issue with position of the HDD attachment or internal position if it is vibration (although this would still qualify under manufacturing/assembly tolerance).

 

Wow, thanks a lot for all that testing Turbogear!

Could we put a thin sheet of rubber there or something to get rid of it?

 

Yeah, that would be a logical next step, if the sound is disturbing for you. Make sure not to cover breather holes for the HDD, that might kill it.

It is louder than the fan when the computer is idle? That's less bad than if it were louder than the fan when the computer is under load. Either way, it's not really normal for a HDD to be louder than the fan.

 

For this notebook usually the fan is running at low speed in many cases with normal office work, so I am continously hearing the buzzing of the HDD over the fan noise.

I am currently trying to configure some optimum rubber size and position to stop this sound.

I noticed that if I put my finger on the middle of the HDD where the motor is than the sound produced by notebook decreases, but I do not know how can I attach rubber there to stop the buzzing.

I tried by attaching small rubber on the top of the motor with a tape but it does not have any significant effect.

Anybody has any idea how can I stop the motor buzzing sound from being amplified by the HDD compartment?

 

I don't know how effective it will be (and if there would be any adverse effects), but you could try a thin layer of foam (perhaps shave off a thin piece of material that was used for shipping your notebook if you still have it. (Foam is what many golf manufactures used to dampen sound generated by golf clubheads).

 

I have attached a small length piece if sponge to the motor by using a tape. This fills the space between the motor and touches the upper side of the notebook plastic housing. Now the noise is much less.

I will have to monitor the HDD temperatures to see if this has some nagative effects.

 

The breather holes on the HDD are not for temperatures, mind you! They are for pressure control inside the HDD (roughly speaking). So if you cover them you may kill the HDD even if it's not overheating.

Make sure you do not cover the breather holes...

 

No, the breather hole is not covered.
I have but the foam in a way that it only touches some mattel parts of the HDD surface in the width direction around the motor and does not cover any holes.

This is still temporary solution, I would try to think about some better way to block the noise which is mostly caused by the HDD motor vibration sound echoing in the free space between HDD and plastic cover.

This notebook has much more free space in HDD chamber than my previous F3JP notebook. I believe that ASUS made it so that people will have more space if they are going to use some of the new 500GB 12.5mm drives in this notebook.

 

Indeed you should. While this is working as a sound buffer (i.e. foam walls in recording studios), be careful as the foam is also going to function as an insulator and disrupt heat convection away from the HDD case to keep the drive cooler even if you haven't done anything else to alter internal airflow patterns.

 

Underneath the foam I have put a piece of Aluminum foil on the HDD extending 1 cm to the sides. I think this will help to spread the heat away from the that area.

So far the temperatures of the HDD are in similar to as they were before I put that piece of foam on top of HDD motor.

 

One solution would be to put two thinner bands of foam near the ends of the HDD, instead of a contiguous sheet. That would provide the support but at the same time leave some room for airflow.