Just got a my new D630. Need help diagnosing some potential issues

First off, this is a great forum and is responsible (along with a great price from my school) for me purchasing my laptop.

So, on monday I received my new D630. This was great and a bit of a surprise since it wasn't supposed to ship until August 22nd. My initial (and continuing) impression is that it's great. I'm loving it. It's fast and the perfect size for me. However, I've noticed two things about it that are bugging me and/or could be a problem.

First, at seemingly random times from what I assume can only be the hard drive there is a metallic clicking sound. It sounds almost exactly like the Windows Navigation Start.wav sound. It happens both when the computer is 'thinking' and when it's not. Obviously I've used mute to make doubly sure that it's not the speaker. I've also messed around with Vista's indexing/superfetch/auto-defrag/windows update features with no impact. Seems totally independent of the OS.

Second, the audio was crap until I uninstalled the Sigma Tel driver and simply used the default Vista driver. Anybody else have this experience?

Anyway, any insight, especially into the first issue, would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

I got almost the very same machine. I love it too,. I have not messed with the audio, I may try it. And the other could be either a hard drive issue, or a fan issue, or something else I am not aware of. I would thoroughly test the HD with defrag, hdtune, etc to see if it holds up.

The only issue I have with my machine is the vertical viewing angle, or more specifically, the lack of one Is this an issue with yours?

Thanks, Dave

 

Well, it's my first laptop so I don't have a lot to compare it to. However, yes, they are horrible. A few degrees up or down and it becomes very hard to see the screen.

I never thought about it being a fan issue, is there a fan located above/below the hard drive?

* So I ran HD tune and I'm not 100 percent sure what it means. The slope is a good sign (right), but I'm not sure about the two big valleys.

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geoff--

I noticed the bad sounding speakers--haven't done anything about it yet though. I'm running XP professional on mine. I'll have to try uninstalling the sigmatel drivers and see if that helps. It's not really that much of an issue for me as I usually have my computer on mute anyway.

I don't notice any metallic clicking sounds...in fact my machine seems amazingly quiet. But like Dave says--could be a fan or hard drive issue. Hope you can get it figured out soon.

Regarding the vertical viewing angle...it could be better on my machine, but it's not completely awful.

Hope you enjoy your new D630! (I love mine!)

dordale

 

ge_off,

when did you order your D630? I am expecting one of my own in the next couple weeks.

 

Currently chatting with Dell service. They asked if I have another hard drive around. I don't...

I ordered the 27th. They said there was (I think) at 17 day delay with the screen, but it obviously came early. Good luck getting yours soon.

 

i ordered on the aug 12th so it looks like i am going to be waiting awhile. the WXGA+ lcd was backordered 12 days when i ordered it, i just checked and it says 11 days now so perhaps that means Dell's supply chain is starting to recover.

 

Yeah, I don't think the wait time on the LCD ever changed while I was waiting for my order.

Just found out that I'm getting a new hard drive...I guess that's a good solution.

Updated Question
This is a random question, but do other people's laptops make a sound when their hard drive is accessing? Not the spinning sound, but the fainter "thinking" sound associated with the hard drive LED? I've only ever had desktops that I built and I would always leave the hard drive speaker wire disconnected.

 

For most hard drives if you listen real closely, you can hear them spinning up...I can even hear the harddrive in my iPod spin up if I'm listening for it. On a healthy drive, though the spin up sound shouldn't be noticeable unless you are listening for it. With regards to my D630--I haven't noticed any hard drive noise at all.

Glad you're getting a new drive--hopefully that'll fix your problem!

dordale

 

I do not have mine fired up at the moment, otherwise I would post my HD Tune. However, I KNOW it did not have those big valleys, NO WAY. So a new hard drive is probably the right solution. I also got the COMPLETE 3 year warranty precisely so i would not have to worry about this type of stuff, I am sure it is the right way to go on a laptop, good move there.

I am considering calling Dell and asking them about the lack of vertical viewing angle. I'll see what they say, and give them a piece of my mind about for sure. I will however, be nice. I think Maybe I'll get a free lifetime supply of new laptops or something for my "inconvenience".

Dave

 

being a corporate laptop i wonder when deploying 30+ of these how many in that 30 would have problems associated with an inconstistent quality control?

I know when deploying 30+ vaio's we would rcv 30 Vaio's and find all 30 Vaios were working correctly on deployment.

 

When I got valleys like that on HDTune, it was due to a background process accessing the hard drive while HDTune was running. Make sure you close all other programs, turn off Windows Defender, turn off your antivirus program (if you have one), etc.

 

Regarding the sound issue, try this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2060621&postcount=3

 

Swarmer, I re-ran HDTune and there are no peaks this time. It probably was a background program running. Nevertheless it seems like my hard drive is a bit..off...so I'm content with a new one. Plus I'll put a fresh install of Vista on it (something I didn't do the first time).

I'll check out the sound card suggestion. Thanks.