topic Re: Clicking sound solutions... in PCs & Accessories

Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 01:33:33 GMT

Hi,

As we can see in othe threads, almost every 160gb Fujitsu hard drive in our Sony Vaio FE notebooks start making a clicking sound, something like a Tick-Tack, after long usage, specially under low activity.

In most cases Sony can do nothing to stop this, so the only thing we can do is try to find our own solutions to the problem.

Try not to make this thread grow too fast by just saying that you have the same problem: try different ways to solve the problem and report which ones work for you and which doesnt.

In my case, i've just tried putting a small piece of cloth between the HD and case, but it didn't work. However, a similar solution seems to have worked for some people, maybe they can tell ous what to do step by step.

I hope we can find a solution.

Moreover, if there is some Sony staff reading this, maybe it is time to give us some explanation, or even just a sorry. Maybe they can tell us a detailed technical description from their engineers...

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

tweety2b — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:12:52 GMT

Hi Raskolnikov,

It is true that since I joined I have noticed a lot of complaints about the HD but also about Hotkeys not working, Recovery utility issues, drivers problems, etc...
I can tell you and the others that unsolved issue are being watched at and hopefully we can provide a solution ASAP. However you must believe me that in this case we are using the standard 160gb Fujitsu HD, so this means all other PC manufacturers using this HD all have the same issue. If no reply or solution has come from Sony then it means Fujitsu did not provide one.
Of course this is not an excuse but I can tell you that our engineers take such issues seriously into consideration when choosing a new HD for a new model launch.

In the meantime I can only suggest not to go to wild with the solution to improve the sound issue. You wouldn't want to do anything to harm your PC, as our Repair team will not consider the PC in warranty when pieces of cloth are found between the HD and the casing.

I hope this helps.

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:37:22 GMT

What you say is interesting but I don't want to buy a new model with the issue fixed... I want to think that I've spent lots of money something almost error free. The noise makes me think that it is shorting the hd life... what happends if the hd stops working after a year or so? I have very important data here... and the warranty time would be finished by that time...

Please you engeneers must find a way to fix it and launch a bios or firmware upgrade or whatever, i think that this problem is very serious and must be taken into consideration.

I hope we can find a solution soon, I've been very happy with my laptop for my first week, but now I'm totally worried and I don't like spending 1500€ to get headaches...

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

tweety2b — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:10:02 GMT

Hi Raskolnikov,

I share your opinion. Please note that this will be my last comment on this topic. I can only add that you are still working on a electrical machine. Anything can go wrong. Your TV, DVD, CAR whatever brands they are might have a fault and break down after some time. Sometimes it takes 5 years, sometimes sadly enough only 1 year. Here is some advice:
- if you feel insecure about the HD and think you might lose personal data, make sure to have backups all the time (this should be the case even if you don't feel insecure about your HD)
- if you are afraid a 1 year warranty doesn't protect you enough you can always extend your warranty period to 3 years. I know it is an extra cost but it will probably take away the risk of heavy hardware cost for a longer period of time.

Personal opinion:
I always find it weird that people buy insurances and extended warranties for there mobile phone but for a +1500 Euro PC they don't :smileyconfused:.

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 15:08:12 GMT

Hi,

I think I've found a solution! As others have stated in other threads, the problem seems to be that when the HD tries to go into standby mode it cant and starts an clicking in an infinite loop... I've disabled Advanced Powerd Management and Spin-off in the HD and it seems to work, as the comp has been on for 12 hours and no noise has been produce since it is disabled. I use GNU/Linux, and this is the command i've used:

hdparm -B 255 -S 0 /dev/sda

As these settings are reset on reboot, you have to add that to some init script. Note that these options must be set before the computer starts clicking (it looks like once it starts clicking every 5 secs, it enters a loop and can't stop trying to set idle mode or whatever).

It seems to have worked for me, I'll tell you if I start hearing the clicking again.

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

tweety2b — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 15:17:53 GMT

HI Raskolnikov,

This is good news. I would appreciate if you could share this info to whomever posts something about clickinh HD sounds in the future 😉

Thx

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

lyapple — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:08:49 GMT

This is good news. I would appreciate if you could share this info to whomever posts something about clickinh HD sounds in the future 😉

Thx

Call me stupid - but if a member can find a solution why can't the combined efforts of Sony and Fujitsu? And why should it be the responsibility of a member to post a solution? I have no understanding whatever of the technical stuff. I do understand that if I produce something substandard it is up to me to sort out a fix.

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:40:49 GMT

Pandora, probably announcing publically that all 160gb FE models have an error would damage sales a lot.

However, maybe it is still soon to say that the problem has been solved, but It SEEMS to be solved. Maybe it would be good to find an app tho change those HD parameters under Windows.

It would be great also if Sony could, at least, give us a report from their engeneers telling us wheter our conclusions on this problem's source are ok or not, and if we are doing right solving it this way.

I also want to report that after applying that fix performance is the same and temperatures are ok:

nexus:/home/raskolnikov# hdparm -t /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:   94 MB in  3.00 seconds =  31.32 MB/sec
nexus:/home/raskolnikov# hddtemp /dev/sda
/dev/sda: FUJITSU MHV2160BT:  40°C or °F

CPU is around 50 (webrowsing, text editing, instant messanging...)

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

lyapple — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 18:01:11 GMT

Pandora, probably announcing publically that all 160gb FE models have an error would damage sales a lotquote]

Announcing that a company which has a reputation for excellence and quality is putting its house in order can only add rather than detract from its position.

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

Blencogo — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 18:13:54 GMT

Announcing that a company which has a reputation for excellence and quality is putting its house in order can only add rather than detract from its position.

Have we been here before with the Sony DW-D56A drive?

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 15:56:56 GMT

Very bad news... the sound has appeard again...

I'm starting to get frightened... please, I need a solution for this! And I do not want to spend more €€€€ in a new HD...

Re: Clicking sound solutions...

raskolnikov — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:08:21 GMT

Well, setting APM to 255 doesnt works as i've said, but further research leads me to conclude that at least helps...

As seen in other post, Fujitsu admits that the sound is APM related, so Sony must update the bios to solve that. But, why does the sound continues appearing (after long totally idle times now)? I checked with hdparm -I and saw that APM was set to 254 instead of 255, so it was not totally deactivated but set to the lowest level. It seems that APM can't be totally disabled in this HD... at least it helps a bit until Sony releases some fix.