Sager 8760 issue - clicking and split second lag

A week or two ago, my month-old Sager 8760 began sporadically giving off a clicking or catching noise of some sort. It's muted, and the frequency varies. Sometimes it can be one in an hour, other times, one every 2-3 minutes. I'm uncertain what's causing it - it sounds like it's located under the right section of the wrist resting area.

I'm uncertain whether this is related, but I'm also noticing occasional second-long lag spikes. Doesn't seem to be tied to a particular program - it can strike in a game, or in Notepad.

Anybody know what this/these errors might be?

 

Your HDD. 10char

 

Sounds like it may be the infamous HDD clicking issue. Try running some SMART diagnostics on your HDD to see if there are any issues.

 

Ugh, I was afraid of that. Is this a known issue with the model, general HDD issue, or other?

 

Yep, I second (third?) the HDD hypothesis. Under the right wrist rest is where the primary HDD is located.

Incidentally, my HDD (320GB Seagate SOB) died two weeks ago. So I *guess* it's a "known issue", but really, I'm just inclined to believe that Seagate had a bad batch that Sager happened to use in their models. Happens to any company, but it would have been nice to have a better model of HDD from a more reliable brand.

Back up anything even remotely important from that HDD (always have lots of external storage ready to use), make sure you have an operational OS/Install disk, and call Sager at (800) 741-2219 to have them replace your HDD. They let me send mine in (they paid the shipping), just the HDD so I could continue using the machine on an old borrowed Fujitsu HDD, and are replacing it with a new HDD at no cost to me. It's a pain in the butt, particularly if you have no alternative HDD to use as your boot drive, but otherwise you run the risk of losing important data (like your OS) from your HDD.

Be aware that their English isn't the best, but they should be amenable to your request of a new HDD, as soon as they receive the old one.

 

The problem seems to occur most often with Seagate drives (or maybe Segate owners just seem to notice it more), but I'm tolerably sure I've seen the issue with a few other brands as well. I'm not certain what drives Sager usually puts in their machines; it probably is different for different batches, depending on what they happen to have on hand at the time. I can say that a lot of people seem to really dislike Seagate 7200.4 drives, for both this clicking issue and general problems.

 

Just update your firmware. All the OEM 7200.4 drives with firmware version 0001SDM1 and 0002SDM1 have this "clicking" issue. Download 0005SDM1 and flash it to ease your ears. 0005SDM1 is compatible with all capacity flavors and both the AS and ASG versions of the OEM 7200.4.

 

Thanks, everyone. I was fairly sure it was an HDD issue, I just wasn't sure what kind. I poked around the forums for the other HDD clicking threads, and quietHDD appears to have put the issue to bed!

Edit: ooh, even better, firmware solution. Thanks!