How to diagnose noise? HDD or fan?

This seems like a knowledgeable and helpful group, here, so I hope someone can help me. Be forewarned I know next to nothing about laptops but I have been trying to educate myself the last couple days by reading this forum and other sites.

My root question is: Is there a way to turn off the HDD momentarily? Or maybe run the laptop off an OS on the CD and have the HDD not even spin?

I really cannot afford to replace or send my laptops to a shop. The fee to diagnose the problem is as much as a new HDD would cost so it would make just as much sense to buy new HDD and see if it works but I would really like to have some intelligent indication first.

On my ~6 yr old Toshiba (A25-S207 with IDE ATA-6 HDD) it starts making a groaning noise after it has warmed up (which does not take very long). It runs fine until then but soon after the groaning noise starts the system gets very slow and unresponsive.

On my ~3 yr old HP dv5000 with Celeron processor and SATA HDD a noise starts after it warms up but the system stays operational as usual and the noise is more like sticking a card in bicycle spokes. The longer I leave the machine running the louder it gets until it is vibrating not only the notebook but whatever table it is sitting on.

I really need to make at least one and preferably both of these laptops functional. The noise must be either a fan or HDD but I would sure like to know if there is a way to isolate which one it is before tearing into it blind. I cannot find good instructions how to dissemble these machines so I have a 50% shot that at least one will never get put back together. Niether of these machines really give me enough time to play around with installing and running diagnostic tools before they get too unresponsive (Toshiba) or vibrating too loud (HP).

Thanks,
Paul

 

To answer your root question, you can use a Linux LiveCD to boot a distribution such as Ubuntu. DL the ISO file from the Ubuntu website, burn it as an ISO and boot from it. Ubuntu would mount the HD, but it would not access the data.

For dismantling the Toshiba A25, you can find a guide here that goes as far as removing the keyboard and top bezel in order to upgrade the memory.

You may find a quick fix for one or both of these noise problems simply by cleaning the laptop. Use a can of compressed air to blast the caked dust of the heat sink assembly and fan blades, then apply a powerful vacuum to the fan grilles to suck all the dust and debris out. A more thorough cleaning would be the best thing, but unless you're comfortable with dismantling laptops I wouldn't recommend you do it.

 

You can also try QuietHDD.exe too.

What this program does is disable the head parking which should give you a noise-free system. On your ~3 yr old HP dv5000, this should do the trick (hopefully) as it doesn't have any other symptoms.

For the HD that is groaning: I say get any current HD you have access to and reinstall Windows on it 'clean'. At 6 years old, it is even past what the manufacturer thought it would last too!

If you have important data on either system I hope you have backed it up somewhere safe?

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

I have a now 10 year old ThinkPad T21 that has original HDD and albeit noisy as hell, still works fine.

 

Yeah, but its a ThinkPAD!

 

Hehe, 'nuff said.

 

If you run the laptop on a CD you will not be able to solve the problem. In every laptop I have ever heard the optical drive is always louder than the harddrive.
You can find a solution to your problem.
You can run programs like disc cleanup or disc defragmenter. If they make a different noise, than the noise you have is coming from the fan. Fans usually have a constant sound, harddrives do not. They can be louder at moments.

Or
You can leave your laptop on for some time, than put it into standby for 15 minutes or so, enough that it can cool down.
Than power up. If the noise immediately comes back, than it is the harddrive. If the noise comes on like 5 minutes after you wake the laptop up, than the noise is coming from the fan.

How to alleviate fan noise:
1) clean the heatsink so that the fan doesnt need to come on as much.
2) clean the blades of the fan with q-tips or something similar. That will decrease fan noise.
I am not sure how viable either option is considering your tech level.
I guess you can simply stick a toothpick in the fan vent (to prevent the fan from spinning) Than use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out. Once clean, remove the toothpick, and than use your laptop.

Good Luck,
K-TRON

 

Unfortunately most laptops these days are quieter, but yours are old, so I'm sure you're hearing the fan, the HDD makes also a 'wind' noise but it's not noticeable unless the heatsink fan is not running.

 

It probably has an original IBM hard drive in it, which aren't found anymore. I forget who bought them off; was it Hitachi?

 

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions. The Ubuntu disc was fun to play with and seems like it might be a handy backup tool to have on hand. It seems like it might function even if the HDD were unplugged or dead? My work keeps me trapped in a Windows world but otherwise I would simplify things in a heartbeat.

The HP laptop appears the fan is the culprit so I will pick up some canned air and cleaning supplies to continue my education.

The Toshiba would not repeat the problem. Perhaps it needed an extended break? When the problem started I was booting it up once per day to salvage files then would shut it down when the growning started. Yesterday I ran it hard for 6-8 hours and it never whimpered.

Thanks,
Paul