xps1530 - vista -> hard disk problem

hi all,

i am having a major aggrovating problem. I bought a dell xps 1530 laptop a week ago and received it about 3 days ago. I am running vista premium on the system. I noticed that even when the system is idle, i can hear minor (but annoying) scratching sound constantly every second from the hard disk.

I disabled indexing, defragmentation, windows defender, etc, but to no avail.

Can anyone help me with this problem?

I was thinking of formatting the hard drive and returning to windows xp. For 2 reasons: 1. its more efficient to use, 2. to see if there is any unwanted hard disk activity, 3. opengl works so much better in xp (which i need coz i do some graphics programming using opengl). However changing OS's would be a last resort, unless I can't solve this hard disk problem soon.

So if anyone can lend some advice on how i can solve my hard disk problem, i would be so so greatful to you.

Also, if i did have to switch to windows xp, would i encounter any problems or would it just be smooth sailing to format the hard drive and install xp?

thanks everyone,

dan.

 

Did you disable windows restore?

 

yep, i disabled windows restore

 

I had this same problem. Go to this thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168425

I downloaded NHC and haven't had an issue with it since. good luck.

 

i installed this software and although the clicking has reduced (not a click constantly every second), there is still some clicking of the hard disk when i load/run something.

 

what does the (254) in "max performance" mean?

 

i believe that the disk just rotates more. i am no expert but i believe when you do load something there will be some clicking. if you go through that forum there is a lot of info on what this technically does.

 

ah will do, thanks. one more thing,... you wouldn't happen to know if i can eventually wipe vista clean off my system and install the good ol' reliable windows xp, do ya? Also, if I can, where would i get the drivers for the hardware so that their compatible with xp? (I checked dell, and dell don't offer the drivers for xp on this machine, but do on the 1730 and 1330). Am starting to think I purchased the wrong system.

 

the clicking noise is like this....(imagine just 1 second between clicks)

[click], [click], [click], [click,click,click] & repeates that sequence over & over.


any ideas now?

 

It is because you don't have enough ram in your system you need to upgrade you are ruining your harddrive

 

i'm surprised no one is helping you out. i wish i could be more help... but i'm probably more of a newbie than you. I am pretty sure that you can get rid of vista and then install xp

I came on here a month ago hoping to get the clicking noise fixed on my new xps 1530 and i did. People led me to that link that i led you too.

People seem to get angry on this board if you don't know what you are doing or if you don't try the search menu to find what you are looking for. Most likely you can find your answer there. There are a lot of great people that help so keep looking and asking and I'm sure you can get an answer.

 

ok chk out this link if u already haven't....and follow the instructions in post #174... i'v had that same clicking issue.. and this definitely reduces it, if not completely... also.. do u have sp1??

 

cheers for that. only thing is.. where do i download hdparm.exe from? I went to that link and read the guys post and went to download hdparm but its a tar.gz download. thats only for linux os's yes?

 

i downloaded a windows version from here http://hdparm-win32.dyndns.org/hdparm/

and ran it, but i am still hearing clicking, could this just be because it is the way the xps 1530 is built or is this possibly because of the hard disk itself and i should phone dell and get a replacement one?

 

did you change the Advanced Power Management to Max Performance (254)? If my clicking didn't stop I most likely would have called dell. I have read about people getting a free upgrade from dell because of this problem. I think it is a very common problem with the harddrives so you aren't alone.

 

i wrote the a bat file as i was instructed to in another thread located here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168425&page=18. its thread #174. The code in the bat file was as follows:
@echo
"C:\Program Files\hdparm\bin\hdparm.exe" -B 254 hda

should this program not change the APM to max performance (254) or do i need to do that manually?

 

I'm not sure what that file will do. I have NHC and I had to manually change it.

 

what is the general procedure when i call dell about my hard disk drive? do they come out and collect it, asses it and then send me out another one or something? or does it happen some other way?

 

If you say something is wrong they will most likely set something up where you can mail it back to them and they give you a replacement. I guess sometimes they might have a technician come out there and see what the problem is, but it is fairly easy to replace the harddrive yourself. Talk to them and see what you can work out.

 

u sure its not doing what its supposed to do? my vista and along with others on the net are saying vista is indexing or loading up superfetch on idle and this is why the HDD is being accessed. as we speak right now my HDD is being constantly read, and after about 20 min it stops on idle. its the damnest thing but if its normal in vista go figure.