NOISY hard drive - VGN-BZ12XN with Vista Business

Hi,

The Hard Drive LED light on my Sony Vaio keeps blinking EVERY SECOND. It's constantly writing. Half the time it's still totally silent, but every few minutes the hard drive will start spinning and writing like CRAZY. Like, I can't help but notice it and it disrupts my work. It's too noisy and the case is vibrating like I'm doing some heavy defrag process, even though I'm just reading online. My high-end new Vaio is noisier than my low-end 4 years old Toshiba. I mean, ?

I have read all the threads on the net and so far I've tried to disable:

Windows index
Windows defender
Windows search
Windows defrag
Superfetch
System Restore
Readyboost
Defragmenter
I have uninstalled google desktop.
All Vista updates are installed.

I've checked the disk health, it's fine. Also no virus. No torrents running.

Nothing has helped.

Disabling Index and Superfetch seems to do the trick for most people having this problem but not for me.

This could be a specific Vista Business issue - maybe it has an extra "feature"?

I really need help. I just can't enjoy my laptop right now. I basically need to work with headphones on all the time in order not to go crazy.

 

You sure it's the hard drive, or is it the fan? I've heard of a couple bad fans out there on the BZ series, with them being extra loud. That could potentially be the issue...

 

I'm pretty sure but not certain. The level of noise and vibration indicates it's the drive. Also, the laptop doesn't really get hot - ie it doesn't seem like much fan action is needed.

Is there a way to verify this (whether it's the fan or the drive)?

 

I don't know about where you purchased the notebook, but here in the US the BZ comes with a 1 year onsite warranty, and because it's a business machine a little higher grade of support. It may be the same in your country.

 

Nixon: you might have nailed it. I've installed an app to monitor internal temperatures and it does seems like it is when temp gets too high that the noise starts. So it could be the fan.

Are you saying the fans would be defectuous then, and I should have it replaced? Is this a common occurrence with BZ?

I probably can't do that anyway, I bought it in Europe and I'm living in China, I don't think the guarantee applies here, although I'll check.

Thanks very much already in any case, I probably spent 50+ hours researching this and you are the first person who gets it. Sending good karma your way.

If anyone knows a way to tweak the fan on my end, I'm all hears.

 

Finally I stumble upon others with a noisy BZ fan!! While I was disappointed that it had to be replaced after 5 months of use I was very pleased with the fast fan replacement by Sony. ..replacement indeed (yet under warranty) since the helpdesk couldn t clarify what exactly was causing the fan noise. Now I rest with my previous statement in a BZ review post that the BZ runs silent and never gets hot, yet I m concerned that it migh brake down in 2-3 months again. Currently, it'll happen that the BZ will boot with a slightly rumbling noise and than calms itself..since the fan always fully spins at startup (maybe a programmed inital test-run?). the fan then continues to run but without noise. I don't think changing any temp settings will change -what I assume is a rather poor fan build quality, but I m looking forward to further posts on this threat. Cheers

 

Hi, I just got a BZ12 a couple of weeks ago. The fan was sooooo loud that I returned the PC, and it was replace with a new one. After 3 days the fan of the new one is just as loud. What do I do? I like the pc, nothing else out there thats better, but it is not possible to work with this noise all the time!

I am frustrated and very disappointed, it is quite frankly a disgrace! Do they not test these machines before putting them on the market?? It seems I am noyt the only one with this problem.
Also, I don't have the time an nerves to deal with this all the time. I bought my self a problem, not a new notebook!!!!

 

Hi,

I am also looking for a solution. I may not be able to claim on warranty as it was an ebay purchase, therefore it is easy to replace the fan?

Any ideas?

 

Hey guys,

Same problem here. I bought the sony vaio bz12xn about a week ago. Every time I use it I hear the fan turning on pretty loudly, even when I am only opening a web page or a word document. When I stop using the computer the fan stops, but as soon as I hit a few buttons it starts again. When I keep on surfing on the internet or writing a Word document, the fan is working continuously at a pretty loud level, which is pretty annoying. My new laptop is much noisier than my boyfriend's 4 year old Dell laptop!

I did contact Sony: they said the sound should not be there and told me the laptop is "defect upon arrival". They recommended to return the laptop to the shop where I bought it (internet shop). If everything goes all right, they will return my money, because after reading all this, I don't want to try a new one.

 

Hi there,

same situation here. My fan broke (got noisy like hell) after 2 months. I think this is not a problem but the Sony service is quite bad.
I have a 2 year warranty but can just use it in my home country. Since these were the first 2 months of my 5 months US stay, I had to stand this terrible noise for 3 month. In my opinion, a notebook is the embodiment of mobility and it is a business notebook additionally. So, it might be that (business) people travel and stay abroad, taking along their notebook. So, it would make sense to have a global warranty support.

Back home, the BZ12XN was picked up by request and quickly repaired. That is, the local support worked well.

I have another issue if it is one. From the day I bought the BZ12XN, the DVD-drive closes notchy (roughly). It is as the DVD-drive clamps somewhere right before one close it and then close with a snap. It is not as smooth as I know it from other notebook DVD-drives.

Does anyone face the same situation?