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    Alienware M14x R2's Mechanical Movement Every 2 minutes

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by zeerp, Jun 4, 2015.

  1. zeerp

    zeerp Newbie

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    Purchased this Alienware M14x r2 in summer 2012, the mechanical movement/noise normally occurs only once when I started the computer. But it recently makes noise every 2 mins when I play games or do other stuffs, and it is very annoying.
    Note: I heard win 10 was good for gaming so I recently installed win 10, I think the issue is related to Win 10. But I'm not sure which hardware is making such noise, doesn't sound like DVD, maybe it's Sound Blaster? Anyone knows?

    You can hear the mechanical movement noise in 1:38, 3:38 and 5:38.
    https://soundcloud.com/user459602809/alienware-m14x-r2-strange-mechanical-movementnoise
     
  2. Game7a1

    Game7a1 ?

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    Hard drive or CPU fan, but I'm leaning more towards hard drive. Have you gone inside your laptop before?
     
  3. zeerp

    zeerp Newbie

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    Thanks, Game7a1, the problem is related to Windows 10 and Sound Blaster. Sound Blaster won't make such noise in Windows 7/8, but it does noise in windows 10 if the Sound Blaster driver is not installed. So just install Creative Labs CT9570 Audio Driver in win 10, and it should be fine.
     
  4. Game7a1

    Game7a1 ?

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    Sound Blaster is just an audio driver, but that noise sounds like "start-up / waking up". Not sure why an awake computer, or specifically the speakers, would make that noise, though.
     
  5. zeerp

    zeerp Newbie

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    I'm not sure, either. It could because the hardware related to Sound Blaster wants to "warm up" when the power is on, so that's how the mechanical noise was made. While Win 10's default audio driver was not compatible with Sound Blaster, so Sound Blaster didn't work properly, and then Sound Blaster rebooted, warmed up, and made noise.

    Also, Win 10-build 10130 didn't detect my Intel HD 4000 video card. So I had to install it manually, if Intel HD 4000 can't work properly, then GT 650m won't work properly.

    Am I the only one who installed Win 10 and had trouble?
     
  6. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    Are you sure it's not coming from the ODD?
     
  7. zeerp

    zeerp Newbie

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    Before I posted this problem, I had been searching the source of noise for a while, and I found that some users had spin up noise caused by ODD, some had fan vibration issue, but I never had these problems. I'm pretty sure it is Sound Blaster, since after I installed the Creative Labs CT9570 Audio Driver, problem solved.
     
  8. zeerp

    zeerp Newbie

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    Also, I have a story. As I mentioned that every time when I start the computer, the "mechanical noise" normally occurs once. However, one night in the summer of 2014, when I started the device, there was NO "mechanical noise." I thought something was wrong, indeed, the system could not detect Sound Blaster! So I realized that the mechanical noise was linked to Sound Blaster. How did I fix that problem? I did nothing, because it fixed itself: in the second day, the mechanical noise occurred as usual when the power was one, and the system detected Sound Blaster.

    It looks like there are lots of audio/speaker problems related to M14x R2.
    English not my first language.