I have another possible location of the buzzing clicking noise. When
I still had my CRT monitor, I would be get some buzzing during the
scrolling of web pages. It seemed that some type of "noise" was sent
out and picked up by my speakers. Now with my LCD, all quite.
Thank you! Mine is an LCD monitor, but I wonder if it could be something
similar. If it comes back, I might try unplugging the speakers to see if
that stops it. Someone else pointed out that it could be a CD audio cable
or
ethernet wires too close together. Whatever it is, I'm just glad that for
the moment it has stopped. And of course, I'm backing up regularly, just
in
case.
Jo-Anne
<<Could be. Most newer optical drives do not required an audio cables.
Most now play the audio over the drive's interface cable as it is
usually digital. Those audio cables only send the "analog" style
audio. They do act like antennas. The cables can pick up the noise
from the "lower" end power supplies also.>>
Given that my computer is now almost 6 years old, would it likely have an
older optical drive with audio cables?
Jo-Anne
<<Could be. Most newer optical drives do not required an audio cables.
Most now play the audio over the drive's interface cable as it is
usually digital. Those audio cables only send the "analog" style
audio. They do act like antennas. The cables can pick up the noise
from the "lower" end power supplies also.>>
Given that my computer is now almost 6 years old, would it likely have an
older optical drive with audio cables?
Jo-Anne
<<Depends. Was the PC built to order or bought "off the rack?">>
It's a Dell, bought off the rack.
<<Depends. Was the PC built to order or bought "off the rack?">>
It's a Dell, bought off the rack.
Today, after four days noise-free (after running CHKDSK and then turning theDon Phillipson said:Identify the drive's maker and run the maker's hardware
diagnostic app. Drive noise often precedes a hard
drive's mechanical failure.
Jo-Anne said:Today, after four days noise-free (after running CHKDSK and then turning the
computer off and on), the buzzing/clicking came back. At DL's suggestion
(thank you, DL! I forgot to say that earlier), I downloaded and ran the
Belarc Advisor to determine the drive's maker, which wasn't showing up in
System Information. It gave me a drive number that I plugged into Google. It
looks like my drive is a Hitachi DeskStar. The Advisor also ran its SMART
drive analyzer, which says the drive is healthy.
Question: Do I still need to download and run the drive maker's hardware
diagnostic application, or is the Belarc analyzer sufficient? I think I
found the right page at Hitachi's website, but I'm not sure which program to
download or how to do it. It seems like I'd need to run it from another
drive...
Thank you!
Jo-Anne
Paul said:Drive Fitness Test is available for floppy or CD. You'll notice
the options provided, seem to want Windows to not be booted
at the time the test runs.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
And yes, such a test is a good idea. It will provide a little
more peace of mind, while you prepare your backup copies of
important files etc. No matter what the test result shows, you
should have backups. Or be prepared to lose everything, someday...
The bearings on a disk drive don't last forever. On
the ones with fluid bearings, failure can occur
quickly, as the last of the fluid escapes from
the sealed bearing. On the older ball bearing drives,
they get noisier as they get older. I've pulled
about four ball-bearing drives, because they
got so noisy I couldn't stand it any more. The
drives still work to this day - I use them sometimes
for scratch disks. But I would no longer trust them
as my boot drive.
Paul