Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
3289
January 4th, 2004 03:00
large CD ROM noise for a new system, does Dell test it before shipping it?
I bought a DELL Dimension 2400 last month. the system comes with a Lite-On LTN486S 48x Max CD ROM Drive and a SONY CD-RW CRX216E drive. The system was quite and cool until I put a CD in either of these two CD drives. if there is CD inside and spinning, the drive makes a huge noise, almost makes you feel like sitting on an airplane. The loud noise destroys any enjoyment that you want to get from playing any multimedia.
Is it normal? I did a search using keyword "CD noise" on this forum. I found that I was not alone in complaining this issue. And I read some of those answers. I don't buy those answers of saying that the loud noise was fully normal becasue CD spinning makes it. why can't the noise level of a CD-ROM be the same or smaller than a regular DVD/VCD player (like those used with TV) ? To me, the noise sounds like a design issue, which could be avoided.
Does Dell test the CD driver noise before they ship any system and have a specification for this? anyone knows?
fireberd
11 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
•
112.8K Points
0
January 4th, 2004 08:00
If you're not happy with the Dell, you have 30 days from the date it was shipped to request a Return Authorization, after the 30 days it's yours.
Some newer drives are relatively noisy, because of the higher read speeds. Noise is also relative, what one percieves as "noisy" someone else may not be concerned with. The environment the PC is located in can also be a factor. If it's in a very quiet location, the cooling fan(s) and the hard drive can also be "noise" factors - again for some and not for others.
But, if you are past the 30 days and feel they are too noisy, your only recourse is to call Dell Support and attempt to get repacements for them.
Systems are burned in during production and all devices are tested. But, I don't know what crieteria Dell has to determine a "noisy" drive. Most drives have a noise dB rating.
One other issue is the physical mounting of the drives. Some have reported the drives came loose in shipping and that was causing "excessive" noise. Resecuring the drive fixed those issues.
I'd like to add a real world example. I used to manage a Hardware Help Desk for a large Federal Government Agency. We would get some calls of noisy fans in units and I've had cases where someone reported a noisy fan and "it's so noisy it's disrupting the entire office" and when the tech gets there he reports "this fan is one of the quieter ones I've run across", the tech would go ahead and replace the fan with a new one - that could be noisier but the user would be happy because the tech put a new fan it it. The same with Printers, and I've even had IBM (the contractor at one point in our network) replace the entire printer just because the customers were complaining with one exactly like it and with the same noise level but the user was happy.
Message Edited by fireberd on 01-04-2004 05:49 AM
NOTFROMCOMPACT
3 Posts
0
January 4th, 2004 12:00
I agree with you. "noisy" is a relative term. I happened to be a hardware guy as well. I know Dell put spec on the noise level to their hard drives. they request their suppliers to screen them (e.g., test in a defined environment). while DELL is tough to their suppliers, they may be loose on their own side. I am questioning whether DELL specifies the noise level to their CD-ROM supplier, and check their own system integration before shipping it.
Back to my own issue, the two CD drives are using the top two drive bays, and are "unusually" loud. maybe mounting is coming loose, maybe it is related to fundamental design issue, which could be traced back to their drive suppliers, or be traced back to the drive bay design of Dell dimension 2400, e.g., it could be a known issue to Dimesion 2400 when using these two kinds of CD drives. The purpose of posting this out is to seek answers to this. Somebody out there may know the answer already.
Robert Moyer
2 Intern
•
933 Posts
0
January 4th, 2004 13:00