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Ask the Doctor

Ask the Doctor: Daily Grind

Posted 06/27/09 at 12:41:00 PM  by The Maximum PC Staff

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Ask the Doctor LogoI recently upgraded my computer. When I shut down my PC, it makes a metallic grinding-type noise. It also happens when my computer is running at full load. Any advice?

—Frank Pavey
 
That’s not a good sign, Frank. The way the Doctor sees it, this could be one of two things. First, check to make sure none of your case fans are hitting anything: errant wires, the sides of their enclosures, etc. Same goes for your CPU fan—if one of its cooling fins is bent it could be hitting against a fan.
 
Otherwise, that could be the sound of a hard drive head grinding against a platter, which is exactly as bad as it sounds, because it means that the drive is going to crash soon. If you have more than one hard drive, try to isolate which one of them is making the sound. Then back up the data on it and start looking for a replacement. The (somewhat) good news is that new drives are cheap as hell these days, and you can get a 1TB drive for less than a hundred bucks that will probably be faster than what you’re running.

 

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

 

COMMENTS:4
TAGS: ask the doctor, grinding noise
COMMENTS
avatarIt kinda sounds like a fan

Submitted by tkddan87 on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 6:48am

It kinda sounds like a fan no pun intened. If it were a hard drive id think there would be sound durring normal opertion, not just durring shutdown and full load.  like the good dr sugested for the hard drives crack the case and take a listen. but also turn an ear tward the fan too

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avatarIt could be a SATA drive

Submitted by rseding91 on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 10:47am

It could also be a SATA hard drive. When I got my first computer with a SATA hard drive the clicking and (grinding it sounds like to me) scared me and for a while I didn't want to use my computer in fear that it would destroy its self.

I soon found out though that the clicking and what sounded like grinding to me was normal for a SATA hard drive.

The sound had simply been masked by loud fans on the other computers I had used.
Just something to keep in mind when looking for the cause of the odd sounds.

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avatarI have 2 seagate sata II

Submitted by gatorXXX on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 2:43pm

I have 2 seagate sata II 500GB HDD's in raid 0 and niether make a sound. Quiet as a peep. It also could mean his fan inside his power supply is going bad since it happenes when he powers on/off. Every HDD I have had go bad has made a hard clicking noise. And that has been quite a few.

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avatarSATA or not, grinding is not good.

Submitted by pastorbob on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 12:51pm

I have two systems with SATA drives and I don't hear any noise from them that even closely resmbles grinding. And I don't have loud fans to mask any noise from the drives. They don't make any more noise than my PATA drives do, in fact they probably make less. I think the Doctor has hit the possible causes very accurately.

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