Clicking and beeping noise from WD5000BEVT in Macbook Aluminum

I just installed a wd5000bevt in my macbook aluminum. It makes a loud clicking noise followed by a couple of beeps. Is this a defective drive or am I missing something/doing something wrong?

Does anyone else have this drive installed in a macbook with this error?

 

Have you looked at this thread on the topic of noise in the WD500xx?

 

I have this same problem.

I don't think it has to do with the head parking sound as mentioned in the other thread. This is a very unusual click-click-click-click followed by a beep.

Is this your same issue?

It happens most frequently when turning on, or coming out of standby mode.

It happens maybe 5 times a day in regular use as well, though it always seems to be when I am idle, never when there is drive activity.

I have noticed no ill effects, except the annoying sound. Though I am this close to replacing the drive because it makes me uncomfortable.

Any resolution? I've heard it may have something to do with how Leopard handles drive power management, but haven't made any progress on that front.

Tried to update the firmware on the HD, but the WD utility reported that my version was the most current.

 

Hi.

I have had a wd5000bevt in my Samsung q210 for a couple of days, and i have to say it`s the quietest hdd i have ever had, I have not heard a sound from it when doing defrags or hdtune speed test.

maybe some make more noise than others?

Regards

John.

 

When in general usage, this is also an exceptionally quiet drive. The sound I'm hearing is pretty clearly something not working correctly. I'm just trying to find out if its software, or hardware. My SMART results are perfect, and it passes the WD diagnostics in my boot camp partition. I'm working in Windows for the time being to see if I get the problem in Windows also.

The sound is essentially the same as this youtube video with the same hard drive, and macbook pro.

www dot youtube dot com slash watch?v=dxZv6ROJFrg

(sorry, not enough posts to put a full link)

 

Hi.

Very strange noise at the end of that video, it sounded like a electronic beep , not a metal or mechanical noise.

Regards

John.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dxZv6ROJFrg

 

if you listen closely to that video, you'll hear a click just before the beeps. On my laptop, i get about 3 clicks before a beep, and I only get one beep usually. But its clearly the same noises, and 100% from the hard drive.

 

I think it is a firmware problem, because it sounds like an electronic beep as Tinderbox said. I'll try to find some trouble-shooting for it, and I'll check around to try and find a solution. I'll let you know what i find!

 

I tend to agree that its a firmware problem as well, but my 30-day return is rapidly running out.

I have a ticket into Western Digital as well - so if I get any results, I will post them here.

Thanks for any help!

 

The occasional clicking is normal when you are accessing data, turning it on, and waking it from sleeping. It's not normal when it sounds like it's grinding, repeatedly clicking for a period of time, or when it sounds like vibration. As for the beeps, it sounds like a firmware issue. Here's a mini guide to what might be your problem: Http://www.westerndigital.com/trouble/shooting/scorpio

Problem:
During normal operation, a WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive will make a clicking noise when attempting to enter into power-saver or standby mode.

Cause:
This issue is caused by a system initiated power management command being interpreted incorrectly by the hard drive.

Resolution:
There is a WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive optimization utility available to resolve this issue. Please follow the directions below to download and run the utility.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure that AC power is connected to, and supplying power to the laptop computer before attempting to run the WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive optimization utility.

Although this utility should not alter any data on the hard drive, Western Digital recommends backing up any data on the hard drive before running this utility.


Download the file wdupd020.zip at the bottom of this page to a Windows based computer system and use an extraction utility (such as WinZip) to extract all files onto a bootable DOS floppy diskette or DOS bootable CD.


Insert the floppy diskette into the computer system with the WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive.

If the computer system is running, save any open documents, close any open programs, and reboot the computer.
If the computer system is off, please start the computer.

Please Note: If the computer system does not boot to the floppy diskette, you may need to enter the computer BIOS and set the floppy drive as the first boot device (before the hard drive or CD-ROM drive).


After booting to the DOS bootable diskette or DOS bootable CD, type wdupd020.exe and press enter. Highlight the Western Digital hard drive using the arrow keys.


The listing will show "Update Applicable" under status. Press Enter to continue.


Press Y to accept the license agreement. Follow the instructions listed and press Enter to continue.


The application will report "Update Completed." Follow the remaining instructions and press Enter to exit the utility.


Remove the floppy diskette and restart your system.


The file is too big for NBR so email me and I'll send it that way, or if you have a better way then just say so.

 

Unfortunately I already did this as directed. The utility found my drive but said the firmware was already up to date.

Maybe a newer version soon?

Anyone else try this?

Thanks again!

 

Ok, sorry! I'll see what else I can find.

 

Thanks!

I made my own youtube video for reference. These are three examples of the click-beep that I get.

Also, in my decidedly unscientific tests, it seems to be happening more frequently then when the HD was just installed (though I may be just paying more attention).

www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=_gOhgaIMpPI

 

It could be that the HD is not fitting correctly inside the notebook, as that may be causing it to vibrate or rattle when accessing data. I'll check out the video sometime today.

 

I don't think that's the case here. I've reseated it 3 times (thinking the same thing you are). With these new macbook pro's its really either in properly, or not. No in between. Double checked all screws - they are nice and tight.

 

Hmm, I'm all out of possible solutions. This is very strange, because if you reseated it 3 times, I would think it would be solved if it was that, but I don't know.

 

Hi.

As i have said my WD5000BEVT is silent, no ticks clicks or beeps, below is the full model number and firmware, so you can check to see if i have a newer model.

Model: WDC WD5000BEVT-22ZAT0
Firmware: 01.01A01

Regards

John.

 

I've been hanging on swedish forums trying to find someone else having this problem with no luck until now. The other guy I found had switched his drive for a wd5000bevt too, so I pressume it's whats causing it. I managed to record the sounds a few weeks ago:

http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/23441/MacbookSound.mp3

 

I'm really starting to think this is an OSX software/HD firmware incompatibility. I get this ALL the time in OSX, but never in the same computer, in bootcamp.

 

HD firmware, would be my best bet.

 

Too bad they only offer hard drive firmware updater for Windows users over att WD... No luck using it thru Boot Camp or Fusion :/

 

i took my drive out, stuck it in a windows box, ran the updater.

it told me my firmware was already current.

 

Ok, I've contacted WD now, let's see what they say...

 

i have sold a ton of these drives as well as own 6 of them myself. 4 of the ones i own are noisy.. they click or tick all the time every once in a while very annoying kinda like every 20-30 seconds. but i have yet had one fail out of prob 40 or more of them. i do notice though that if i hook up the drive with a external adapter (seagate free agent but without the case just the board plugged into the drive) hooked to my desktop i hear nothing at all. noise goes away. the noise has been the most present in the dell m1730 and the macbooks i have put these in. in the ocz whitebook it made a small bit of noise but not as much nearly as the dell. i have also had a few customers call me to tell me they hear the noise as well (no beeping as you have) but the ticking noise

maybe a power delivery issue. hard to say. im hoping we find a solution for this as well. im about to switch to the segate drives for my customers in the meantime just in case

 

zfactor thanks for the info. Have you tried hdparm?

 

Hey Zfactor:

Does the click/tick sound like these?

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

 

Hi All,

Just to let you know that I got the infamous clicking and beeping issue as well with this drive. I got 2 of them build in an HP dv9500 series Pavilion laptop and only have the problem with 1 of them.
The thing is that when I run my OS from the good disc I hear the clicking and beeping all the time, while when I run my OS from the "bad" disc I only hear the clicking and beeping at booting or getting back from sleeping mode.
Obviously I'm also very interested in getting to know the cause of these sounds.

Martin

edit: Oh BTW I'm running Vista 64 Ultimate SP1

 

I gave up!

Bought the Seagate 500GB.

Good Riddance.

 

I also have this annoying clicking and beeping problem with two of these WD5000BEVT in a Acer 9520 laptop.

Skugge

 

I have installed this hdd in my early 2008 MBP about 1/2 year now, and it seems to me, it's getting worse by the time - so it could be a hw problem.

I'm using OSX only and the clicking sound appears just after turning the laptop on or waking from sleep (opening lid). I think, until the drive stops clicking, it can't be read - because today it clicked 5 or 6 times before beeping and the content of Aduim window was updating slowly between the clicks.

My theory is, that the clicking are head's attempts to calibrate to the track and it varies with hdd temperature - the actual one and the themperature at what the data under the head were written.

However, I wonder what part of hdd can make such an audible consistent-high-frequency beep...? The beeping sound is so specific, WD shoud be clearly aware of what the problem is (maybe it's an error code like some motherboards give by beeping? mine is deeeet-dit-dit-dit-dit . kenshabby, no response from WD?

Although insted this one i have no issues with the drive and smartctl is reporting good health, no bad blocks, everything in condition and passes both long and short test, i am still somewhat nervous about it..

Please update this thread, if any of your drives fails! Thanks. (sorry for my english

 

I just bought this drive, Hopefully I don't get the noise, I'm not a fan of seagate that's why I went with the WD. I should get the drive next week.

 

i just got mine
no beeps and clicks so far

 

Hi.

It wait`s until you right to return runs out!

John.

 

Mine makes no noise, guess I got lucky.

 

Just FYI I bought a WD3200BEKT, installed Windows 7 Beta 1 and everytime Windows reboots, there's some clicks and then a weird beep too.
I think it comes down the drive is not receiving enough power to initiate (The 'Z' led light turns off when the beeps happens).

Is really a shame to see new drives performing these stupid behaviours, I find my 80GB HDD a joy to use because I've not found any other drive as quiet as this one.

 

I've just set the "Reduced Power Spinup" jumper and at first boot no beeps this time, but I have to have the thing running for a while to be sure that this actually works. Anybody else tried this? http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2670

Martin

 

@mdekker: I'll try this solution, but I have to get some these jumpers first. Would be wonderfull if this solution works.

Could you please confirm, that this 'jumper' solution worked for you?

 

It's been two weeks ago and since then I only had one tick-tick-tick-beep so far, as opposed to several times a day before... so, for me it seems to work at least for the most part. BTW I had some difficulty finding these jumpers as well, they are not being used so much anymore as they were in the past.

Martin

 

@mdekker: I have installed this jumper, but unfortunately clicking of hard-drive didnt stop.

 

The MacBooks and MacBook Pros don't have enough USB power to keep the drive spun up. When you wake up your computer and the drive starts to spin up initially it doesn't have enough power. (I'm speaking in amps here not voltage) I bought two of these drives (actually the WD4000BEVT) and both are doing the exact same thing. I switched cables and ports on my MacBook with the same results. I then put both of them over to my wifes Dell and left them on there for a week without any beeping or clicking even after suspends, reboots, coldboots, etc.

The beeping is drive saying "I think I can, I think I can", spinning up the drive. Eventually it spins up fast enough for it to need less amps, but it's the same concept as you turning a ceiling fan on. The first setting is always high (unless you wire it wrong) so that you can get the blades spinning as fast as possible as quick as possible. So the disk tries to spin up as fast as possible as quick as possible and it's unable to do so hence the warning beeps.

Will this cause problems down the road? I don't know. However if you call WD Support within your warranty window (6 months I believe) they will send you a USB Y-adapter to plug external power into it.

I hope this answers peoples questions.

 

Thanks! I was looking to get this drive for my Aluminum MB, but I'll have to rethink it. I might end up getting the Hitachi 500GB drive, but I'll have to look at some benchmarks.

 

I bought a WD5000BEVT-22ZATO and installed it in my Dell studio 1555, it had 2-3 clicking sound when booting, but no beeping noise. Today I set the jumper in the HDD to enable the RPS mode, it appeared to be effective. Now the HDD is running quiet.

 

Do you have any evidence for this from apple or WD? Or are these your speculations?