"Crackling/Buzzing" Noise From SATA HDD

[jimokee]

Hi

I'm new to this stuff - building a PC for the first time - and struggling as I go along - so any and all help would be hugely welcome.

I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300Gb HDD installed in this PC I'm trying to build - but I get this "buzzing"/"crackling" sound every time the system accesses the disk. It doesn't seem to matter which SATA connection I connect it to (I've tried all 8), or which SATA cable I use (I've used 3 different ones), or which power cable I plug into it (I've used both the cables that come with my Tagan PSU) - it continues to make this "noise" - and this is the second SATA drive I've had for this machine (the first one behaved in the same manner).

I've never had a SATA drive before - so this could be normal behaviour for a SATA drive - but it doesn't sound normal - and, as the system has a tendency to crash during disk access, I tend to think that it ain't normal!!

Having "chopped and changed" all the components (drive, cables, etc) to no avail, I tend to think that the problem may lie with the mobo rather than the HDD.

Has anybody come across this kind of thing before? Or is anybody able to throw any light on this subject? Is there a jumper I haven't set right? Or is it a BIOS problem that will disappear with an upgrade? Is the mobo simply "faulty" and needs to be replaced (my personal "prime suspect")? Or might it be something else entirely?

I haven't "tweaked" any BIOS settings - so they're all set at "default"

Many thanks for any and all help, advice, sympathy, etc

Jimokee
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Specs
-----------------------------------------------
Lanparty nf4 SLI-DR motherboard
Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
Tagan TG480-U22 power supply
AMD Athlon FX-55
ThermalRight XP-120 Heatsink with Vantec SF12025L Stealth 120mm fan
2 x 512mb OCZ EL DDR PC-5000 Dual Channel Platinum DFI nF4 Special
2 x Point of View nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1
Sony 3.5 in 1.44Mb Floppy Disk Drive
2 x LG GSA-4163B DVD-RAM Drive
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 7200rpm 300Gb NCQ HDD
Viewsonic VP201B 20" LCD Monitor

 

[IronDuke]

Go to Maxtor and dowwnload & run PowerMax.

It sounds as though it is duff.

The PSU looks as though it is pretty much on the edge.

 

[jimokee]

Thanks Iron Duke

I've done as you suggested (Powermax v4.21).

The drive passes all parts of the "Installation Confirmation" tests except the "SMART Threshold Check", which it fails.

I tried the tests with both SMART "enabled" and "disabled" in the BIOS - same result both times.

The drive passes all parts of the "Basic Quick Test" and the "Advanced Test".

Before trying any of the other tests (which can take an age to complete), I tried to find out what it meant to "fail" the "SMART threshold check but I can't find anything that makes any sense to me (least of all anything on Maxtor's site!!)

Can anybody throw any light on what this "failure" actually means?

Thanks again for all your assistance - it's greatly appreciated.

 

[IronDuke]

I'm not sure what it actually means, but they give you this test program and so if it fails it is substandard. I'd throw it back. I don't like the sound of the noise and if you are getting a fail on anything it will only worsen, not improve.

 

[Justin]

You should return that drive ASAP. If it is failing SMART tests most likely there is a physical problem with the disc that may eventually result in the disc going completely bad. Print out the reports Powermax gives you and get an RMA via maxtor for the drive, or from the people you purchased it from.

 

[Arkainium]

I have the same hard drive, only in the 250GB variety. I'm using an Albatron 865PE PRO II motherboard.

Anyway, although I don't hear the clicking you describe - not sure if I hear anything at all as my system is rather noisy with a bunch of 80mm fans - I do get some nasty crashes during heavy disk access. So, I ran the Powermax diagnostic program, and like you, it fails on the SMART Threshold Check. It passes the other tests with no problems though.

I don't think it's the hard drive considering it passed the other tests. I'm thinking maybe there's something wrong wrong with the motherboard's SATA controller - maybe some kind of incompatability.

Anyway, if you replace your drive, please test again and let us know the results.

 

[IronDuke]

Arkainium - Just wondering why you ran the tests.

 

[Arkainium]

I do get some nasty crashes during heavy disk access.

Though I don't know for sure if that's the problem. I run GNU/Linux and once in a while the computer just locks up. When I check my logs, I get hard drive diagnostic messages like 'blah blah blah timeout' and 'buffer i/o error' etc. I ran a full check on my filesystems and no bad sectors have been found. Everything else seems to be running normal aside from that so I'm really clueless.

 

[IronDuke]

The idea behind S.M.A.R.T. is that you catch the drive before it fails taking your data (which you were going to back up) with it. If it fails any of the tests to my mind it is on its way out. Your choice.

 

[Arkainium]

You're absolutely right.

It's just such a pain in the *** to send it back and wait for a new one. But I better just suck it up and do it now than wait for it to catch me when I least expect it.

 

[IronDuke]

Small pain now as apposed to a major headache then.

 

[jimokee]

Thanks for all the advice guys - greatly appreciated.

I've now run all the Powermax tests and, like Arkanium, the only failure I get is with the "SMART threshold" (might it be something to do with NCQ I wonder? .... just a thought!) - the drive passes everything else without a problem.

Anyway, I've decided to "play safe" and return both the mobo and the HDD (it's taken me a week to get the RMA numbers from the suppliers!)

I'll let you know how things progress once I've got the replacement items up and running.

Take care.