[G73JH] Noise/Vibration on the HDDs

[neez]

A couple of weeks ago, from a sudden, the laptop started doing a loud and vibrating noise that I have never heard before. Why "vibrating", you may ask - because it literally vibrates, especially on the Touchpad area. At first, I thought it was coming from the fans but I quickly ruled that out, since the system wasn't even on load and the temps were pretty normal when the noise started. So, it all pointed to the HDDs.

First, I singly tested each Seagate drive on both HDD bays. Then, I upgraded the firmware of both drives. Conclusion: as soon as the system completes the POST, the noise/vibration is back. Finally, I managed to get and test a Western Digital HDD (5400 RPM) to find out if it was related to the drives itself or with the chassis. Guess what? No noise or vibration. On the bottom line: the Seagate drives are causing the noise/vibration.

Meanwhile, I bought an SSD and since then I've been using it as my primary and only drive installed. No noise, no vibration. But obviously, the point is to keep and use one of the HDDs as a secondary (storage) drive.

So, am I alone here or have this happened to anyone else before? I'd like to know your thoughts on this.

Thank you.

[JOSEA]

Neez, I use an SSD and have the Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS (500 GIG) as seconday, but do not notice any vibration while it is in use. BUT from this review it is a known issue (I assume they tested a new one) Seagate Momentus 7200.4 (ST9500420AS) - reviews - Servers & Storage - Hard Disk Drives (Internal) - PC World Australia
I have read quite a few owners who were not overly happly with these drives for various reasons, here is an example
G73 vibration

[kurtcocaine]

Try using HDDScan to see if noise management is switched on

HDDScan – free HDD test utility with USB flash and RAID support

Click on the button to the right of the hdd name and go to freatures>IDE

If it isnt on, set it at the recommended level and you should hopefully see some of the vibrations go down. The only drawback is that the settings dont stick on reboot if running in AHCI (dont know if it'll stick when running in IDE but i guess it should). So you have to re-apply this at every startup

You can also use hdd scan to spin down and then spin up both HDDs alternatively to see if one is causing more noise than the other..

hope this helps..

[neez]

Originally Posted by JOSEA

Neez, I use an SSD and have the Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS (500 GIG) as seconday, but do not notice any vibration while it is in use. BUT from this review it is a known issue (I assume they tested a new one)

Unfortunately, that review confirms what I suspected: the vibration is a result/consequence of the high spin speed, which basically means there is nothing wrong with it.

Originally Posted by kurtcocaine

Try using HDDScan to see if noise management is switched on

Although the Acoustic Management on both drives were off, setting the recommended/max values didn't work. Even if it had work, rebooting the system would reset the values back to 0 (off).

You can also use hdd scan to spin down and then spin up both HDDs alternatively to see if one is causing more noise than the other..

Now, this did the trick. I was able to find out that one of them causes a lot more vibration than the other. The noise is way lower in comparison to before, plus I barely feel any vibration on the touchpad or the palmrest area.


Cheers mate. I appreciate the help

[tijo]

I've noticed the momentus drives in the G73JH did vibrate quite a bit and mine were a bit loud too. Much better now with the SSD and the 7K750, the 750 clicks once in a while and also makes very little vibrations.

[neez]

Although the noise and vibration levels are quite more acceptable now, it's still present and eventually it will get to a point where I can't just ignore it. So, foreseeing that day, I was thinking of a WD Scorpio Black (WD5000BPKT) or the one mentioned above by tijo.

[tijo]

The 7K750 is overall more silent than the scorpio blacks if that is mostly what you are after. Of course, you can't beat a SSD for silent, but the cost per GB is rather high.

[neez]

Since it will be used for data storage, silence is what I'm looking for indeed.

Does the 7K750 model has a 500GB model?

[tijo]

There is a 7K500 too, although it was a bit hard to find one last time i checked.

[neez]

One last question: since I'll be using the HDD exclusively for data storage, will a 7200 RPM drive be the best option or will a 5400 RPM drive be enough?