very noisy latitude E6500

Hi everybody.
I just bought a latitude E6500 (intel 8600 - 2.4 GH, 3GB RAM, Samsung HDD 200 GB 7200; Vista Business) from an ebay resaler here in UK. From a one day experience I can tell that is is a beautifull machine but it is VERY NOSY all the time no matter what i do - it is like this from the time it gets turned on and stays noisy the whole time.When I put it next to my old Latitude D520 it is almost like a desktop noise. I am not sure if it is only the fan because there's no air flow coming from the radiators neither from the side one nor the vent on the bottom. I thought that there can be somehow that the fan is not working but it turned and blew very hot air for a vew seconds when i updated the BIOS. The noise is mixed with some high friquensy noises coming from where the wents and the proc is. I am confused if it is a hardware issue or it can be fixed somehow ... It comes with a 3 years warranty but i wonder if i should use the 7 day return policy and return it to the seller; which will be pityy because the machine is really beautiful..
Anyone know something about it?

 

i just wondered is there something in the laptop apart from the proc fan and the hard drive (and from the optical drive) that can make some audiuble noise?

 

I can't think of a cause for the noise. The only other moving part is the optical drive. My E6400 (which has much in common with the E6500) is very quiet.

If the 3 year warranty is on-site then ask Dell to send someone round to fix it. That way you can demonstrate the noise and ensure it is fixed.

John

 

thank you, John,
I wrote to Dell tech support yesterday but they still haven't contacted me. I think that it might be the hard drive - it may be even faulty or not fixed correctly. I just cannot think of anything else. The thing is that there's slight vibration when i put my hand on the surface - i have never encoutered something like that on any laptop so far. And this high frequensy muted noises that are accompanying the whole rumbling...i don't know it seems to me like a hard drive noise
I cannot find aut yet if the notebook has ''onsite'' warranty. The saler claimed it has , but when I type the tag number at Dell's site it says ; ''3 year basic warranty''... does it mean that it is not ''onsite'' ... i don't know.
If I don't get a respond by tomorrow i thing that i am comsidering doing a test - i may take out the HDD and turn on the laptop and get in the bios - if the noise is not there it will mean that it is the HDD. Is my logic correct? Now the nhe noise is there when i am in the bios

 

You can always pull out the hard drive and start the laptop without it. It should be possible to start the laptop and access BIOS this way. If it is still noisy you will at least know it is not the hard drive. Same with the optical drive. Eject it and see the noise goes away.

I think the hard drive is the most likely cause of the noise. Some 7200 RPM hard drives are really noisy. I have a Hitachi 7200 RPM hard drive in my E6400 and it is much noiser than other 5400 RPM drives I have. If you are annoyed by the noise from a 7200 RPM drive you can replace it with a large capacity 5400 RPM without losing too much performance. Large capacity drives lik 320 GB have a much higher data density that makes up for the slower rotational speed making them as fast as smaller 7200 RPM drives. I have a 2.5" 5400 RPM 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue in my media center PC and it is fast and not as noisy as the 7200 RPM drive in my E6400.

Örjan

 

Do you think that the ''free fall sensor'' that comes only with 7200 rpm HDD-s really prevents the disk from getting damaged when the laptop moved rapidly and is kind of a advantage over a HDD without such a sensor

 

The need for the free-fall sensor depends on how often you drop your computer while it is accessing the HDD. When the HDD is idle the heads get parked. It's a bit like a life insurance policy: Useful if you happen to die, but otherwise it isn't necessary.

John

 

I just took out the HDD and turned on the system and got into the BIOS for 3-4 minutes. The computer was absolutely silent; After that put the HDD again and started Windows and the noise was the same again.Does this mean that the whole noise that i hear when in windows come from the HDD? Are the processor and the other hardware working normally when in BIOS or they are in some kind of a low frequensy or low power state and that's why they don't make any sound? I just wonder if I should expect the same low level of noise as when I was in the BIOS when I put another hard drive and in case that the new HDD is OK...

 

Your test points to the HDD being the cause of the noise. Samsung usually produce quiet HDDs, but have only moved to 7200rpm very recently. Samsung's specs indicate that the 7200rpm HDDs are slightly noisier than their 5400rpm models (and you are likely to see the same with the other brands). If you are considering changing the HDD then one option would be the WD5000BEVT, which I now have. It is reasonably quiet and probably outperforms the 200GB Samsung for everything except access times while using less power.

There is probably an acoustic management option in the BIOS. You can try changing that.

If the E6500 is the same as the E6400 then the HDD is rigidly mounted in the chassis, which helps the noise to spread. I put some electrical tape on my HDD where it fits in the chassis to try to improve the noise insulation. This may be worth trying in case your HDD is vibrating slightly within the bay.

John

 

thank you, John,
I hope that I will receive the new hard drive by Monday, that's what they promised.
I may do the same thing with the tape with it. Where exactly you put the tape on the HDD? Just on the top( visible when you open the laptop) side or on the other side of the HDD aslo?