Very Very weird HDD vibrations in Define R4

[sisrace]

Hi so today i finally got my computer built, everything is nice and cool running, its purely awesome right now, its also very quiet. well kinda, the fans are silent, my psu isnt hearable even if i put my ear next to it, i got 2 140MM fractal fans running at 7V (Cant hear them at all) and my cpu cooler with a 140mm noctua is even more silent, but i get a very very weird noise, its not constant either, it makes the fairly loud (atleast annoying) sound for a couple of secs then it slowly fades of and the computer becouse silent, the silence remains for about one sec and then the noise slowely fades in, this keeps happening again and again non stop, when i take of the side panel the noise gets less intense, then i apply pressure on my old harddrive on 500gb (well old and old, its about 3.5years or so..) in a very special way the annoying sound stops,
Why is this? can i do something about it? i will try putting 4 more rubber rings in the harddrive cage and screw the screw less tight and see what happends, but if you have any idea please let me know

 

[Mellon Head]

I don't have a solution for the noise problem, but I'm curious as to how you got your Fractal fans running at 7V. How did you do it?

 

[tommycake50]

Hi so today i finally got my computer built, everything is nice and cool running, its purely awesome right now, its also very quiet. well kinda, the fans are silent, my psu isnt hearable even if i put my ear next to it, i got 2 140MM fractal fans running at 7V (Cant hear them at all) and my cpu cooler with a 140mm noctua is even more silent, but i get a very very weird noise, its not constant either, it makes the fairly loud (atleast annoying) sound for a couple of secs then it slowly fades of and the computer becouse silent, the silence remains for about one sec and then the noise slowely fades in, this keeps happening again and again non stop, when i take of the side panel the noise gets less intense, then i apply pressure on my old harddrive on 500gb (well old and old, its about 3.5years or so..) in a very special way the annoying sound stops,
Why is this? can i do something about it? i will try putting 4 more rubber rings in the harddrive cage and screw the screw less tight and see what happends, but if you have any idea please let me know

I'm no expert in hardware, but im 70 sure something is loose in your hard drive, I also reckon that your casing is amplifying the sound somewhat. I would put some sort of soundproofing between your hard drive and anything it may be rattling.

Either that or it's some hard drive specific problem that I don't know about.

Just a thought.

 

[sisrace]

I don't have a solution for the noise problem, but I'm curious as to how you got your Fractal fans running at 7V. How did you do it?

The define r4 has a built in fan controller 5V 7V and 12V

 

[badger906]

does your case have quick release hard drive bays? these can often rattle in their housing on some cases.

 

[sisrace]

does your case have quick release hard drive bays? these can often rattle in their housing on some cases.

yes my harddriva cages are quick release, but they are solid metal and they are not ratteling in my experience But why isnt the sound staying, it just fades in and then fades out

 

[badger906]

are you sure its not your dvd drive pooling? some spin up amd down even with no discs in them.

if it is your hdd fit some rubber orings between the drive and the bay, this will absorb any vibration.
it could be a characteristic of the drive if it came with bundled monitoring software ect.
I would listen to mine to see if it does similar but everythings drowned out by my epic number of fans and gpu that likes to mimic a vaccuum cleaner, got to love amd cards lol

 

[Britton30]

Take the HDD out as a test and see if the sound remains. you can put it next to your ear as well. A HDD should have a steady hum with a little read/write head sound.

 

[sisrace]

Take the HDD out as a test and see if the sound remains. you can put it next to your ear as well. A HDD should have a steady hum with a little read/write head sound.

Yes i took my second drive out, the sound stopped, i put both of my drives in the removable harddrive cage with a piece of rolled up paper between the drives, i also put the 140MM fan next to the drives s they are nice and cool, now i bearly hear the computer, though i think i know why my old drive is making this weird noise, its automaticly spinning down when its not used and its maybe not working the way it should so it spins up, then spins down, after ideling for about an hour the drive shuts down and when transfering data from it then it starts at 12MB/s and climbes up rapidly and the noise also climbes rapidly, I still have the weird noise left though but its bearly hearable, i hear the computer then the "sound" fades of and i no longer hear the computer at al

 

[sisrace]

are you sure its not your dvd drive pooling? some spin up amd down even with no discs in them.

if it is your hdd fit some rubber orings between the drive and the bay, this will absorb any vibration.
it could be a characteristic of the drive if it came with bundled monitoring software ect.
I would listen to mine to see if it does similar but everythings drowned out by my epic number of fans and gpu that likes to mimic a vaccuum cleaner, got to love amd cards lol

no the dvd spins up then shuts down when i start the computer then it remains off until i put a cd in, also the dvd reader makes a different sound

 

[Mellon Head]

Take the HDD out as a test and see if the sound remains. you can put it next to your ear as well. A HDD should have a steady hum with a little read/write head sound.

Yes i took my second drive out, the sound stopped, i put both of my drives in the removable harddrive cage with a piece of rolled up paper between the drives, i also put the 140MM fan next to the drives s they are nice and cool, now i bearly hear the computer, though i think i know why my old drive is making this weird noise, its automaticly spinning down when its not used and its maybe not working the way it should so it spins up, then spins down, after ideling for about an hour the drive shuts down and when transfering data from it then it starts at 12MB/s and climbes up rapidly and the noise also climbes rapidly, I still have the weird noise left though but its bearly hearable, i hear the computer then the "sound" fades of and i no longer hear the computer at al

The drive could have a bearing problem and might be starting to go. At the very least, you might want to archive that drive's data somewhere in case it fails.

 

[Britton30]

I too suspect the "noisy" drive is on its last legs and could ail at any time.
Check in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings, Change advanced Power Settings under Hard Disk. Make sure it is set to Never power down.

 

[sisrace]

Take the HDD out as a test and see if the sound remains. you can put it next to your ear as well. A HDD should have a steady hum with a little read/write head sound.

Yes i took my second drive out, the sound stopped, i put both of my drives in the removable harddrive cage with a piece of rolled up paper between the drives, i also put the 140MM fan next to the drives s they are nice and cool, now i bearly hear the computer, though i think i know why my old drive is making this weird noise, its automaticly spinning down when its not used and its maybe not working the way it should so it spins up, then spins down, after ideling for about an hour the drive shuts down and when transfering data from it then it starts at 12MB/s and climbes up rapidly and the noise also climbes rapidly, I still have the weird noise left though but its bearly hearable, i hear the computer then the "sound" fades of and i no longer hear the computer at al

The drive could have a bearing problem and might be starting to go. At the very least, you might want to archive that drive's data somewhere in case it fails.

Data recovery is no problem its only a recording drive to the files only stays for like 2 days, so i write, read, and delete very often so its nothing that im affraid of loosing, And well.. the harddrive is about 4 years old but i dont whant it to fail, i need that drive
But if it fails in the future i will get a 500gb sshd or just a regular hdd with around 500gb . depends on the prizes, if they are godd i might get a 1tb drive, but if the drive can whitstand another year i would be very happy

 

[sisrace]

I too suspect the "noisy" drive is on its last legs and could ail at any time.
Check in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings, Change advanced Power Settings under Hard Disk. Make sure it is set to Never power down.

i dont want it to never power down i rearly use the drive exept from when im recording otherwise i whant it to shut down becouse then my computer becomes completely silent, i only use the drive while recording and rendering/editing footage

 

[Britton30]

Ok, I see, you must be one of those who is very easily annoyed by even the smallest sound? My machines would drive you nuts then, I don't mind the quiet hum of 6-8 fans or a HDD thumping along in their work.

You can still try the Never power down to confirm it is that drive? I'm OCD about having things happen quickly and not waiting for a drive to spin up.

 

[sisrace]

Ok, I see, you must be one of those who is very easily annoyed by even the smallest sound? My machines would drive you nuts then, I don't mind the quiet hum of 6-8 fans or a HDD thumping along in their work.

You can still try the Never power down to confirm it is that drive? I'm OCD about having things happen quickly and not waiting for a drive to spin up.

Well. i can live with a computer with a constant noise, but its when the computer gives random noises that isnt constant that it drives me insane, but now i have a silent computer with an harddrive that gives out random annoying noises all the time

 

[badger906]

my nzxt phantom case has 9 fans currently installed with them all set high on the speed controller ^_^ nothing a pair of noise cancelling headphones cant fix lol. it also acts like a radiator under my desk blowing out a nice stream of warm air lol

 

[Britton30]

Sisrace I would recommend you replace the drive soon as possible. The prices here in the US at least, have dropped back to normal.
The type which will power off on its own may be helpful for your application.
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Internal Hard Drives, All Desktop Hard Drives, IntelliPower

 

[sisrace]

Sisrace I would recommend you replace the drive soon as possible. The prices here in the US at least, have dropped back to normal.
The type which will power off on its own may be helpful for your application.
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Internal Hard Drives, All Desktop Hard Drives, IntelliPower

Well, im thinking of another sshd on like 1tb or 500gb becouse i love the speed of thoose things and they are amazing for regording, but it also would be very helpful with like a green drive that spins down... so i can have my computer silent becouse sure i have some crazy noise cancelling headphones but i only use them while recording becouse its a lot more comfy with just using the speakers..

 

[Arnodude]

I know this thread is old but i have had this Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB hard for i believe 5-6 years and since day one it had this strong fading vibration noise. Just like you explained in your first post it slowly fades in, lasts 3-4 seconds, and slowly fades out again, 1-2 secs later and it fades in again.
I've used computer cases which totally couldn't handle these vibration and maked the noise 10x worse.
I've learned to live with the noise but just now i wanted to see if this is actual normal behavior for a hard drive and what the cause of this weird fading is but this is seemingly the only thing i could find in google about this "issue". Furthermore besides these weird vibrations over the course of using this hard drive for 5-6 years daily i've never had any other problem with this drive.

Btw just noticed you also were talking about a 500GB hard drive, also a Western Digital by any chance?