M1530 ticking sound

Just got my m1530 and she's a beauty... everything runs perfectly smooth and all my programs are downloaded and installed. Didn't even bother reformatting since the performance was plenty right out of the box.

Now as the night progresses, the tiny flaws are beginning to come out in front of me. Right now, the only one, by farrrr, is this ticking sound that won't go away! It honestly sounds like a clock ticking not stop, once every second... I've never heard of this problem before, and tomorrow I will have my friend bring his m1530 over to see if I hear it on his.

Any suggestions? I don't think this is normal, it just keeps ticking, like theres a watch inside there... sometimes it will speed up if I have several windows up. I can't locate the area of the ticking, because I hear it throughout the whole laptop.

Help is appreciated, thank you.
~B

 

immanent hard drive failure

 

k i have no idea what that is, mind explaining...

note: the performance is perfectly fine, it just sounds like someone put a very faint-sounding wristwatch inside my laptop somewhere... it's very quiet, but enough to annoy. And I didn't pay $1700 to be annoyed. Help is still greatly appreciated thank you.

~B

 

its a time bomb! *runs for cover*

seriously though, if the ticking sound increases with the amount of activity on the notebook, it could very well be the hard disk giving you some signs that its about to leave this world. does the sound appear to come from under the left palmrest (HD location)?

 

Yes I think so... but if I put my ear next to the left speaker under the monitor, it sounds like it's coming from there too... but maybe that's just because there is an opening... I'm not sure. It does kind of sound hard-drive related...

...just don't forget, it's not loud, and it's not rapid, in fact many would probably ignore it.

~b

 

what jfdube said. aside from your fans, the hard drive would be the only other moving part in your notebook that would make that much noise. and if it's excessive it's a bad sign it will fail soon.

then again you might might be oversensitive to it and it's a normal sound, so compare it with your friend's and don't store anything you want to keep till you're sure it's normal.

 

If its a "once per second" or more type sound, I'm not sure I would ignore it myself. But hey, its your notebook Hope it doesn't crap out on you. Good luck!

 

dell is such an adventure

 

Would dell replace it if my friends laptop doesn't have the same problem?

 

if you frame it in a way that you're sure or worried of a hard drive failure, probably.

 

its the head parking feature of the HD. There is nothing wrong with your notebook if it really anoys you i think there was a piece of software to fix it.

 

Yeapz.. It happen to me too mine is 320 GB, 5400 rpm, Western Digital (base on Everest test).

 

Well were you able to fix this this "head parking" problem? (Whatever that may be). Or anyone know where this piece of "software" is that might get rid of it? Thanks again.

EDIT: Did some research... I'm not quite sure if it really is this head parking problem, because those people say they hear it like once every 20 seconds, and that it's a click-clank sound... mine is a constant tick, exactly like a wristwatch only audible. Hmmmm.

~B

 

NOT the heads parking. Heads would not park every second..

 

call dell for a replacement. see if u can get a 7.2k rpm hdd from them . the 320gb one. that would be sweet. u shud not be having this problems from the start. this is problem on dell's end.

 

You think not only they would replace it but upgrade from the 160GB 7200 to the 320? Hmm, doubt it. But yea I just got back from my friends house, he has the 5400. His is quiet as hell, I have better specs and it seems like his loaded smoother with hardly any ticking (whatever thats called, indexing maybe?) when the computer booted up.

What do I tell dell? Thanks so much guys.

~B

 

Why don't you try one of the fixes that are listed for the ticking sound (like NHC), it might not be your problem. But if one of the fixes, clears up the sound. Then it is the problem.

 

My dell m1530 has the exact same problem. I just got it (3 days ago) refurbished but it came as new. The sound is exactly like a clock ticking inside, exactly as you described, once every second. I've been searching for the solution and found this forum with you having the same problem. I thing i will call Dell tomorrow. It is very annoying. Let me updated with what you are going to do with it.

 

Its normal if its brand new. Its just that some brands make more ticking than others. I can tell you right now if you want a dead silent drive. The Samsung 7200RPM 250GB is the best option, which comes will all Dell 250GB 7200RPM notebooks.

If you get the 320GB 7200RPM drive that comes with a Seagate Momentus, there is slight ticking, but I think it would be worth it for the extra storage don't you think?

The ticking noise also depends on whether you are running a program or how much a drive is being accessed. Though like I said earlier, the Samsung 250GB 7200RPM option is really dead silent. Though overall performancewise is not as good as the Seagate Momentus, but only by a few megabytes in transfer, burst rate, etc.

 

I didn't run any programs at all, didn't even touch the laptop for 3 hours but still heard the sound during that time which is very obvious. there must be a problem

 

could it be the freefall damage protection? im told that the "little arm" of the HD goes in and outside the hd often, and there is a way of resolving it by accessing the hd setting in the bios, ( think its setting it in high performace but i cant remember well)

 

my m1330 makes a faint ticking sound when the volume is muted... very weird but instead of muting it i just turn the sound down... maybe thats what your hearing

 

i've noticed that when i'm ripping and burning DVD....my HDD is very quite, you will not hear any sound.

but when i'm just browsing (maybe harddisk is not working much) sometime i hear that tickling sound.

any input?

 

I have the Western Digital 320gb HDD and it has always made this ticking sound.
At first I thought it was Windows Vista indexing, but once the index was built it still ticked.
If you press ctrl/shift/esc, and then click resource monitor, you will see several Windows Vista processes accessing the drive every second or so.
These are usually log files NTFS format etc.

I think it is normal, it just sounds like ticking because the accessing is regular but the duration is short.
Western Digital tout their Scorpio drives as being one of the quietest on the market, which I think is a bit of an exaggeration, nevertheless it's a high quality drive and I see a lot of people are bunging them into their Playstation 3s.

 

That would be pressing F12 in bios and under "Performace" set the hard drive to "Quiet" instead of "Bypass". Though it does not always work.

 

you a HD failure i called Dell and they told me they will replace it for me but my screen was grainy so they said they will send me new XPS M1530

 

is a well known problem...try this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168425

hope it helps

 

i just stumbled on this thread. i can't believe it took 3 pages before someone posted this link. it is the head parking incessantly due to a software glitch between the OS and the hard drive. i've had m1330 and 1530's before. one m1330 had the 7200 rpm 160gig hard drive and didn't have this problem. every WD hard drive i've seen has it, and i've since swapped to a 250 gig fujitsu which either doesn't have the problem or it's too quiet to tell, i can't figure out which.

 

Well, it confirms that Samsung has the dead silent drive. Will try it out later today to try and see if my Seagate can become dead silent.