DV5T Hard Drive Noise?

I just got my new DV5t, it has the 160gb hard drive, and I noticed now that am I downloadign lotsa updates, it seems to be a little noisy, the typing of the keyboard is WAY noisier than the HD so its obviously not bad, I just wanna know if this is normal. I have used the search function but to no avail. I have 4gb ram and Vista 64bit. (T3200 cpu)

Device manager says its a Fujitsu drive....

Please let me know guys, it seems to be making little noises and I read potst about how peoples dv5s were silent..is it ok? Thanx .

EDIT:

It also has frickin 80 running programs at startup, I dont wanan do a clean install cause some of the apps I want, can anyone tell me which ones I can disable via msconfig?

EDIT:

There also seems to be a sort of popping noise, very faint, at random intervals, not sure if popping is appropiate term but maybe a tech savvy guy will know what I mean.

 

I think I got a handle on the popping issue, when I disable "external amplification" and "power saving" in the IDT audio settings, the popping sound doesnt seem to occur. (I tested by hitting the mute button, with options ENABLED, when you hit mute it makes a popping noise, with options DISABLED, when you hit mute no popping noise, and its constantly true.).

 

Come on guys, so many of you have dv5t's, just listen to your laptops for 5 seconds. I also notice that there seems to be sounds by the left palm rest, and near the wifi button, but the HD is in only one of those two places so why does it seem like there is noise in two opposite sides?

Also when I drag windows across the screen (say a minimized firefox window) it seems the hd makes a noise for as long as im dragging it, is that normal ? Please guys listen to your laptops, I wanna make sure this one isnt messed up.

So far twice (in 2 days) the fan seems to have been rubbing against sumthign for a second when its on high, but when I just tap the area it stops. So im afraid this was dropped excessively in shipment or s/t. Everything works but the HD noise is very worrying, I dont want it to die randomly.

 

From my experiences what you are hearing is normal. I have had 3 DV5ts, awaiting my fourth replacement. All fujitsu 320gb hdds. The first one I'm sure was quiet, the others are rather loud, and you can hear the heads being parked regularly, or a read/write operation. It's like a metranome, constant and bothersome. The hdd is actually near the middle of the laptop, under the keyboard, slightly right of center. Try copying several gb of files from one place to another and then listen.

The "pop" you describe is the speakers being turned on/off to save power. You have taken the correct steps to stop this.

I'm not sure what sound you are talking about when dragging a window, but if you are using external speakers (eg through a stereo system) then this is interference. Sadly the dv5t has very bad interference on the audio output jacks. Some of this is from the AC adaptor (try the same thing on battery), and some if it is just interference from something inside the laptop. You can remove any ground loops issues that my be present by converting the 3 pin ac pulg in to a 2 pin one (ie, remove the ground pin). Do this at your own risk however. Some people won't recommend it. I'm running on 2 pins with no issues, and it solves a lot of my noticable audio issues.

 

thanks for replying. Youre on your fourth replacement?? Ouch! Anyways the sound I hear while dragging comes from the left palm rest, it seems the processor is there, can the processor make a buzzing type noise? almost like a cricket? If I turn off all windows animation I think the sound stops. The computer works fine but these sounds are worrisome..any input will be appreciated.. Im fairly certain the sound while dragging is from somewhere other than the speakers..

 

I get the same noise...

does it do the same while playing full screen movies?

 

What do you mean by full screen movie? A DVD, a file on the hard drive, streaming online? I have done most of those but havent noticed anything since sound is playing so I cant hear any other noises. Ill try again later.

And whats this Joshua said about getting a 4th replacement...whats that all about?

I hope this isnt an issue within the dv5 line..

 

I've got the 250GB version and I can only just hear the hard drive but that requires me to stick my ear against the notebook itself. otherwise I never hear it. I actually wish it did make a little bit of noise so I know it's actually doing something. (I prefer noise to flickering light)

 

Ya well after some 'research' it seems the sound is not coming from the HD area, when you drag windows across the desktop your CPU usage DOES spike, and if u look at taskmanager its dwm.exe thats taking the cpu load. Maybe there is a driver issue or maybe vista just makes the cpu strain to redraw the windows constantly with all the fancy stuff lol.

EDIT:

It might not be anything related to dragging windows, thats just an easy way to spike CPU usage controlably, but the actual reason is CPU usage, so does it make sense for spikes in CPU usage to generate noise somewhere?

P.S. Im in love with the keyboard on this thing! Better than normal full sized ones!!!

EDIT EDIT::

Upon further listening, I cant seem to pinpoint where the sound is coming from lol...But I tried plugging headphones in and sound still occurs, so I dont think its speakers, maybe fan? But the fan is running anyhow..what the heck is it?!?!?!

Its like a cricket noise or something..pretty close to crickets actually.

AND btw when I run the "reliability report" (perform.exe) some times it says my "Disk Queue Length is 1" which is too long, and when I check details it says min is .600 or so and max is 2.000 or so...but other times the minimum is .100 and max is like 1 or so...and the drive is kinda noisy at times , like if you sit in a quiet room with no cooling fan (external) and no music or anything I can hear it. Again, only sometimes. Everything works 100% but why the noise??? I really wanna get this over with and either find people who know noise is OK or people who think noise is NOT OK, I DONT wanna return it or repair it unless I HAVE to..

 

ONE MORE UPDATE:

Just for the hell of it I tried opening ALOT of programs, basically whatever I can find lol..All Office programs, firefox,minefield,IE,IE64,AIM,Win Defender,iTunes,WMP,Help,Sidebar,Few Windows Games, and so forth. 97 processos, 1.69gb ram (up from 1.2...not bad!). And THEN ran the reliability check. Oddly enough it got a min disk queue length of .119 and a max of just 1...AND I was using the 3D windows switching thingy the whole time.. Maybe the HD shuts off randomly or something? Like a Hybrid car, the engine shuts on n off, but if you test it while its off, that split second it takes to turn on affects results? I hope these noises mean nothing cause im very suprised with this multitasking test. I didnt just open programs, I played music in iTunes, searched in the Help, typed random info in all the Office programs, etc..and CPU stayed under 40%..


So does this warrant a replacement? Can anyone check their laptops to see if it makes similar noise, it might be the fan not the processor area, something on the left side when using CPU, mainly when dragging windows around. I dont wanna get a replacement after waiting 2 weeks and then find out its the same..if theyll even give me a replacement..

 

did you try playing any video full screen and get the same result

 

I tried playing an HD video on hulu.com since it takes processor power, it kinda made the same noise. I dont know if I should return it or not.Everything works but everything seems noisy hmph. I wish people would just check their laptops quick and reply here..

 

I'm in the same boat as you.

I love the laptop, its just the noise which is bugging the crap out of me

 

The hard drive and CD drive are not quiet either..also my cd drive tray feels shaky, like you can move it up and down a tiny bit..I think its normal though. I would like suggestions as to what to do! Keep, replace return?

EDIT:

For clarification, the sound is similar to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTRp2F0zRI

The hard drive aint that quiet either, and also when I run a dvd and place my hand on top of where the dvd drive is it feels like its bumping or something, nto sure hoe to describe. Im really trying to overcome these things but I wanna be sure my laptop wont die the day after my return period...

 

The "cricket" sound you are referring to is infact coming from the top left of the laptop, where the cpu is (it's where the fan intake is). It's to do with the cpu switching power states from low to high quickly. It's a documented Intel CPU phenonemon. Some ppl reckon you can laptops that you can't hear it in, but I suspect it's more their ears not being as sensitive to the frequency. You can go into the shops and you will notice it on other laptops. All of mine made this noise, as do others. If you use software like RMClock you can force the CPU to avoid certain power states and hence eliminate this sound at the expense of battery life when on batteries. Alternatively, putting the CPU into high performance mode etc should remove it, because it's not switching into and out of this lower state (I think it's state C4). It's nothing to worry about.

My replacements are more about my concern for quality than anything faulty. The first one's dvd drive had too much play, it moved about 1 cm, and was hard to eject (since pressing the eject button meant the whole drive moved in and didn't really trigger the eject switch). Also, the sound out was crap as mentioned. I've since realised that all the dv5ts are like this. The second one had the, IMO, unacceptably loud hdd, but ok dvd drive eject. The third has a much louder keyboard, esp space, loud hdd and again power dvd eject. It addition, the screen flickers at times possibly due to an actual fault in the power converter, rather than a quality issue.

I realise most of these issues are trivial, but when you pay money for something you expect it to be decent and want something you expect to get, and IMO HP is simply lacking in any sort of quality control here. In hindsight, my first laptop should have been the one to keep, lol. Comparing it's hdd noise and keyboard, the others haven't been up to that standard.

Regarding the dvd drives, all the TSST drives have extremely bad eject switches. Half the time it's not recognised, and I believe this is in fact a design flaw. The button is sloppy and too flush to the drive and hence hard to use to press the switch. The one drive I had that did not have this issue was an Optiarc.

So don't worry too much about my number of replacements. It's me being fussy about what I get for what I paid for. If you're happy with your laptop then just get on and enjoy using it. I've giving up on HP, and will probably keep the next replacement regardless of keyboard, drive noise etc, unless there is an acutal fault, as I'm sick of this run around and HP's beyond useless customer service. I however do like the laptop and wish to keep it over anything else, hence why I haven't already given up.

 

Lol thanx joshua! You sound like a pro-active version of me! I am most picky with of things which is why im obsessing over these things. When you said your HD was loud, how loud was it? Im finding this HD to be rather loud too..What are your specs btw??

And the cd drive moves around by me too, more then some in store models, its the silver piece with eject button that moves slightly up and down, as for being pushed in slightly, every laptop ive seen is like that. Ive tried several CDs/DVDs , all work, except one cd had a sticker on it and while playing the drive made a sorta faint scraping noise that became louder when I made jiggled the drive..I hope I didnt mess anything up...

And about the CPU noise thing, ive discovered TONS of posts about this and youtube videos (as I linked to in above post). I think its RIDICULOUS that laptops have this issue, ive tried my friends HP and hers was fine, but then I tried a Dell 1536 and it made noise too. ! But mine DOESNT make noise when idle, it makes noise when you provoke CPU usage, like watching HD video or dragging windows around on ur dekstop..isnt this backwards...?


And in regards to your issue, I am skeptical as to quality of replacement products..they actually go and build a new one? Or pluck one out from somewhere...?

P.S. While a some CDs spin in the tray if my hand is on top it feels like its bumping every ten seconds or so...could it be the laser moving, or the disc speed changing? Also it spins up oddly, like it spins up really quick, then stutters kinda then spins slower or s/t..not sure if thats normal...

Hmm..ill stop for now..lets see if anyone reads Paranoia 101 up there ^.

BTW I wouldnt be asking ANY of this, just on DAY one when I first turned my laptop on the fan made a nosie kinda like its scraping, but when I just tapped the area (literally just tapped) it stopped. So im afraid it was dropped hard or something b4 it came to me..the box is a little bent on the bottom...(fedex box)..

 

Hm I was playing a game and it felt like the CD was making a light 'thud' noise every 10 seconds or so, is it the laser moving back and forth or is it a bad drive and the cd is hitting something? Like if I put my hand on top of where the CD spins you feel like a little bump every 10 seconds, not sure how to describe...

 

OK can someone give me a definite answer? From this thread ive got one guy who said its ok, another who said his is quiet..can some more people please help? I dont wanna return this for no reason, I like it more or less. Just the HD is rather loud, I mean you only hear it in a quiet room but still. And thanks to Vista its ALWAYS being read and written too.

And the CPU buzzing is annoying when watching videos cause it buzzes the WHOLE time you watch it...

 

I own a DV5 AMD variant and it sounds like I had the exact same sound you are getting. It annoyed the hell out of me. There are two DV5-1008's in my house and only mine made the noise. It wasn't until I re-installed vista that it went away (mind you I did change allot of things during that install such as update the HDD drop sensor driver and switch to a more aggressive power saving profile.)

Every time the OS hit the HDD I would get this sound (It sounded like someone was cutting glass with a glass cutter), but now on the re-install the noise is completely gone. The laptop has a WD 250GB.

 

Hmm interesting, ill try playing with some settings and stuff when I get to the laptop.

How about CPU buzz/whine?

I tried watching a video in full screen in WMP and the buzzing was quite loud, not like LOUD, but loud for a computer part to make noise. And if I pause the video you really hear the buzzing until I move say 2 or 3 feet away (2 or 3 additional feet)....

So does your cpu make noises lol? This is starting to once again bug me more than the Hard Drive, the HD is relatively quiet after its on for 5 minutes or so, then it make its noises only once every 20 seconds or so.



BTW another interesting note, it seems only WRITING makes noise not READING. The reason I think this is because when you run HD Tune and check your resource manager (via task manager) and check whats reading/writing, you see HDTune.exe is reading BILLIONS of bits (or is it bytes?) and the HD seems QUITER if anything.

So if reading billions of bits doesnt affect noise, it seems only WRITING
makes noises...is that possible...?

 

I have QL-60 so probably won’t help much, but the only time I can hear any noise like a buzz or whine is if I have the fan air intake directly to my ear. Any other time and it is inaudible. So yes it does, but even in the quietest or rooms it cannot be heard.

As for any noise during playback, the only noise I hear is the HDD reading. There is a slight difference in read vs. writing sounds on mine (writing being only slightly louder) but nothing to complain about

 

Hmm...mine seems to make more noise writing vs reading..but this is an assumption. But it is definitely audible in a (not even perfectly) quiet room when accessing, and im worried its messed up somehow...