The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    New M1530 - Help with minor issues

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by proninja, Jan 13, 2009.

  1. proninja

    proninja Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hello all,

    I have a new M1530 and I just have a couple of minor issues.

    Firstly, the harddrive always makes noises (like it is thinking) even when the computer is idle. It's not loud and just sounds like normal access sounds, but it makes a little noise every 2 seconds or so. Is this normal and can I make it stop? Like I said, the noise sounds like a normal HD noise, but it just never shuts up.

    Finally, has anyone had problems connecting to wireless networks in vista? I have connected my laptop to 2 networks already and it was fine, but now when I try and connect to my main network, it asks for "additional log on information", including a username, password and domain. I don't have this info and have only ever used a WEP key... any ideas?
     
    proninja, Jan 13, 2009
    #1
  2. proninja

    proninja Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Well, I have fixed the internet issue. set up the connection manually. Now, if i can silence the harddrive, i would be a happy man.
     
    proninja, Jan 13, 2009
    #2
  3. fluffboy

    fluffboy Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    400
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    is the harddrive making a clicking sound? because mine also does that i think its normal because the headjack is always searching for a headphone (i read it somewhere).
     
    fluffboy, Jan 13, 2009
    #3
  4. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    I'm not sure what that means, but modern OSes are always doing stuff in the background. Vista loads frequently used programs, optimizes stuff, etc.
     
    Wolfpup, Jan 13, 2009
    #4
  5. shadowlaw

    shadowlaw Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    107
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The constant activity of the HDD even when idle is caused by vista's background services, such search indexing, task scheduling, log/report creating, etc.

    Of course you can disable all of them.

    Lastly, about the HDD clicking, it is caused by improper driver/configuration (or whatever) or your HDD is dying. If the later is not true, then search somewhere in the forum to fix it.

    Personally, i never have the clicking problem. so there ...

    cheers
     
    shadowlaw, Jan 13, 2009
    #5
  6. Wolfpup

    Wolfpup Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    128
    Messages:
    4,082
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    106
    It depends what you mean by clicking though-all hard drives click as they access data . If it's super loud (you'll know) that would be a failing drive. But everything clicks.
     
    Wolfpup, Jan 13, 2009
    #6
  7. proninja

    proninja Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    its not loud, just normal sound. but when the computer is idle it makes a "access" noise every 3 seconds or so. I have somewhat stopped this by changing the HDD performance mode to "silent". But apparently this effects performance... oh well, noise is not loud, so will just put up with it,
     
    proninja, Jan 13, 2009
    #7
  8. acrticflare

    acrticflare Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    16
    Messages:
    70
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    acrticflare, Jan 14, 2009
    #8
  9. blazom

    blazom Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    153
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    if u have seagate 7200.3 rpm series HDD[no mather what size u have}
    go to dell download and download the new firmware for HDD - DE16
    The cd image itself is empty, but the files are hiden..just burn it in to cd/dvd and boot your pc from it. it will update HDD firmware

    http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=2&libid=41&fileid=289385

    The DE16 firmware corrects an audible "clicking" noise. Just read "Fixes and Enhancements"
     
    blazom, Jan 14, 2009
    #9