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Hard Drive Clicking & Ticking Noise
To all Dell Forum readers and participants:
If you have recently purchased a Dell laptop and experience the annoying clicking and ticking sounds coming from the hard drive that so many people have complained about, I urge you to write a letter to Michael Dell, and send the same letter to every director on the Board, every C-level executive and any of the senior management you can find. The names of these people can be found in their annual report, SEC 10-K filing or just look up the stock on yahoo and find the tab for “insiders”. Just send letters to that person care of Dell headquarters. If they don't already know about what is going on here, then they need to hear about it.
My experience has been absolutely horrific. I purchased my Dell Inpiron 9200 laptop in early March 2005 (computer only 3 weeks old) and it made an annoying ticking/clicking sound from the very moment I turned it on. I cannot stand to use the machine. Here is what followed:
Went to the Dell Forums to see if anyone else has the problem, of course many, many people have. I tried all the suggestions and supposed fixes that have been posted on this board … 1) Power Booster to adjust the power management, 2) Turned off the drive indexing feature in Control Panel, 3) set up a boot disk and changed the hard drive power management and acoustic level using the Hitachi feature tool, 4) downloaded Microsoft XP Tweak UI tool and optimized the hard drive when idle. All this stuff failed miserably to quiet this annoying hard drive that is analogous to a dripping faucet.
I turned to Dell Tech Support solely to help solve this problem. I might add my computer was not delivered on schedule right from the beginning and I spent hours trying to find out when it would ship.
I have spent literally over 30 hours on the phone or writing emails to Dell Tech support and Customer care to try and resolve the issue. Normally I spend an average of 25-45 minutes on hold in their automated system before I even get a live person. I have gone through all the diagnostics with Dell to test my motherboard and the hard drive. After removing the hard drive and powering up the motherboard only, there is no clicking or ticking noise – obviously it is coming from the hard drive. Dell has sent me out 3 replacement hard drives in 3 weeks. The original hard drive was a Hitachi Travelstar 80 GB drive. Realizing that there is a known problem with the Hitachi, I insisted they send me a Toshiba or Fujitsu (which are 2 of the 3 brands they use frequently). Each and every time the tech support person promises and guarantees that he or she is sending out a Toshiba or a Fujitsu and each and every time they send me the same exact model Hitachi drive. By the 3rd drive I didn’t even take the drive out of the wrapper, just put it back in the box and sent it back. I am at the end of my rope with Dell. The person is almost always in India or the Philippines which I have no objection to in principle but they are so physically detached from the actual operations where they package up and ship these parts in Texas that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. They are very nice and apologize profusely all the time but they CANNOT solve the problem. They cannot even keep their promise to send the right drive. There is no continuity in the support - I have literally spoken to a different person almost each time I contact them. I try to call them back but they can’t give you their extension so I have told the story to at least 20 different people. I have identified all the part numbers for the Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu drive. Even though they give specific instructions to send the part number for a Fujitsu or Toshiba, it always gets overridden in the system or at the packaging facility and they send out the same old piece of junk Hitachi. This is probably because so many people are returning the Hitachi that they are just desperately trying to pass them off on unsuspecting customers. But it sounds like others have had ticking/clicking noises from Western Digital drives also. To top it off, two of the three replacement drives have also been refurbished (and I paid good money for new equipment not more than 3 weeks ago). I have absolutely no confidence that they can send me anything they promise and they burn up enormous amounts of my time each time they screw up (the courier they use - Airborne Express/DHL is also horrible but that is another story). Someone in the IT field recently told me that Dell is now buying cheap substandard components and putting them in the top of the line computers to increase their margins and drive their profits up. If this is true, then unfortunately, the customer is the one that loses.
Finally, after their third screw up in 3 weeks, I told them that I have had it and want a refund. They told me that I am 5 days beyond the 21 day return policy and that I could not return it. I told them I have spent 21 days trying to resolve the issue but these people in India and the Philippines don’t understand. They are trained to follow simple algorithms and that is all they seem to know how to do. Even the supervisors and senior managers there all say the same thing. I am now stuck with a supposedly top of the line laptop that I paid over $2500 for and I am totally dissatisfied with the product. I have never been so disgusted and disappointed with any purchase I have ever made in my life. The only recourse I have left is to tell as many people as I can about my factual experiences and hope that this information may help others in making their decision about where to buy their next computer.
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-10-2005 11:48 PM
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-11-2005 12:09 AM
jankerson
2.8K Posts
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April 10th, 2005 23:00
No they are not putting substandard parts in the top of the line systems, these systems were designed from the ground up to certian specs...R&D.
There is no way Dell would do that.
Yes there have been and are issues with Hitachi HD's, I don't get it why they keep sending you the same drives back.
All of the Drives you recieve will say refurb on them as Dell tests them before they ship them out and legally with they open the plastic they have to label it as refurb.
jankerson
2.8K Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
She said:
Hitachi Travelstar 80 GB drive
I think that is a 5400rpm right?
ejn63
9 Legend
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
Disgusted2005
6 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
Look, I don't even care if they send me a refurbished hard drive, that is not the main issue. If it is refurbished and doesn't click or tick than I am fine with that. I am not even worried about the hard drive crashing, I back up all the time. The PROBLEM is the wretched thing is annoying!! Period, bottom line!! .. and I am not going to accept it. I am a consultant and work from my home office. I have a very quiet environment and this clicking and ticking is driving me crazy. I have been more satisfied with no-name generic computers. My last no-name desktop was 7 years old and was as quiet as a mouse. Once again, the root problem is this annoying hard drive but the ancillary problems (equally disturbing) is the absolute inept tech support and/or their inability to coordinate the right parts to ship from the packaging facility.
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-10-2005 08:05 PM
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-10-2005 08:06 PM
Disgusted2005
6 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
It is not a 7200 rpm drive. It is a 5400 rpm drive. But again, the issue is I have an annoying hard drive and they should do whatever it takes to send out one that does not click or tick. If they don't have a replacement in stock then they should know that and not promise me they are sending a Toshiba or Fujitsu. As I said, I even went as far as to get the last tech support person to tell me what the part numbers are, read things back to me to ensure we have it right. He even kept me on the line until he had entered a dispatch number because he thought the problem might be that when someone only eneters a case number and then lets the system or someone else assign a dispatch number, then they find out that they have no more Toshiba or Fujitsu drives left and default back to the Hitachi.
Tech support told me that the Dell part numbers for the Fujitsu 80 GB 5400rpm is M5487 and for the Toshiba it is T5555. Even though the label on the last Hitachi had the Toshiba part number on it, they still overrode it and sent me out the Hitachi. Talk about incompetant - these people take 1st prize.
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-10-2005 08:48 PM
jankerson
2.8K Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
I completely understand what you are saying.
I like quiet to
I have 6 computers and all of them run quiet, I can't stand it loud.
It would drive me nuts too.
jankerson
2.8K Posts
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April 11th, 2005 00:00
jankerson
2.8K Posts
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April 11th, 2005 01:00
Look at my Sig, I have the 60 GB vers and it is awesome.
Disgusted2005
6 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 01:00
... "Call them again, thats all you can do, ask for a Supervisor or a Level 3 Tech, or call customer Service and have then do it for you."
Been there, done that!
I am now seriously considering just going out and buying my own hard drive rather wait for Dell to get their act together. Has anyone heard anything about the Seagate ATA drives? I am looking at the Seagate Momentus 5400.2, 80 GB, 5400 rpm, 12.5 ms avg. They advertise that it delivers inaudible operating acoustics and that the QuietStep ramp load technology enables whisper-quiet load/unload acoustics.
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketing/Seagate_Momentus_5400-2.pdf
It is a shame that I have to resort to buying a hard drive from a 3rd party on a brand new $2500 Dell laptop that is not more than a month old just to get some peace and quiet !!! Listen up Dell moderators and get off your rear end and deal with this problem. Some people are fed-up!!!
Message Edited by Disgusted2005 on 04-10-2005 09:04 PM
mandatory
107 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 02:00
Your experience with Dell Tech Support is very typical and reflects exactly what I went through last December with one of my Inspiron 5160's including the Dell Indians burning up my 21 day return period and the continued shipment of the same brand problematic drive after the Indians promised it would be a different brand.
In my case, they sent TEN replacement hard drives. Just about one a day. Each time I got the same brand I had to call and reorder. Each time the Indians apologized profusely and promised to send a different brand and each time I got the same brand. Finally, the tenth replacement arrived as a different brand and that ended the fiasco.
Message Edited by mandatory on 04-10-2005 10:35 PM
Disgusted2005
6 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 03:00
AMOLMD
34 Posts
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April 11th, 2005 17:00
Hello,
You really had a bad experience here. My suggestion, if you want to purchase any drive yourself...
then first, write a descent email to customer care for the last time & ask them to pay for your choice of hard drive as a compensation. At least you won't have to pay it on your own. What do u think? U have already put enough money there!
PatrikM
13 Posts
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April 12th, 2005 03:00
Message Edited by PatrikM on 04-11-2005 11:15 PM
Message Edited by PatrikM on 04-11-2005 11:16 PM
PatrikM
13 Posts
0
April 12th, 2005 03:00
Thats a bold clame,
As for being loud the western digital 2.5" Scorpio is anything but loud. Have u actually heard the 2.5" notebook hd?
I have presented the forum and let a little search there amongst users be the judge.
And as for making cliucking noise,..its the power management and its random , sometimes not at all sometimes comes a little. On the contrary to the experience with powerbooster on the hitachi, if power management is shut of totally the wd soft "soemtimes"clucking totally does dissapear, but drawinng some more current. Forum memebers have done that.
The seagate has the highest power consumption of all 2.5" drives. Maybe they lack the power management scheme...But i guess a smart and sound implementation of it, and that it works in order is ok.
jankerson
2.8K Posts
0
April 12th, 2005 03:00
WD's are loud, ticking sounds....
Even in my external USB2 case the Seagate was quiet. :smileywink:
Plus I know others who have them and they are quiet too.
Message Edited by jankerson on 04-12-2005 12:37 AM