XPS 8960, mechanical click 1-2 times an hour while in sleep mode only

For starters...

1. Open a CMD prompt window, run as administrator
2. Type in: powercfg -lastwake and press Enter.

See if that identifies the mystery source...

hi, thanks but had tried it already - Wake History Count - 0. Dell experts asked to make a video capture of it. So I did - the power supply "green light" and two white flashy LEDs light up (looks like the SSD lights). No events logged in the Win 11 Event Viewer Log during this time. I am not sure what triggers this as the machine was not used and was in sleep mode whole day. If this is by design that there should be some event that gets logged by WIN. Will update if I find anything. thx

Glad they're trying to help you with this issue.

Where do you see those "two white flashy LEDs"?

Is the PC's power plan set in Windows to allow hibernation? You might disable try disabling that option and see if the clicks continue or not...

OK, so stop worrying and enjoy the new PC!

That spot on the XPS 8960 back panel is marked with a "drive" symbol, but I don't know if that's for the SSD or for a HDD.  Either way, it's kinda in an odd place since you can only see it if you pull the PC out of its "normal" location....

Hi thanks, they said it is by design and I dont have to worry about it. I still have some time before by 30 day return but I do like my system. The white light (just one) are up on top left of the chassis in the back panel. I think it the SSD. 

Xps 8960

Hi thanks, i only have an SSD. It is not possible that if this by design no one else will not notice this. It is a bit annoying that you have 1-2 clicks plus light flash coming from a sleeping machine every hour. 

Click the "Get help now" icon on the right to start a live chat session. Provide to them the private Dell XPS 8960 Service Tag.

By design. If the XPS 8960 is connected to the internet, there still could be "activity" going on even in sleep mode. Is this XPS 8960 currently connecting via WiFi? Stop all SupportAssist actions in Tash Manager, retest. Boot into Safe Mode no internet, retest.

I experience the same thing, new XPS 8960, 2TB SSD, RTX 3060. I hear the mechanical click and the hard drive activity light. This occurs when the machine is both awake and asleep. I hear the same sound when the machine restarts.

I'm guessing the hard drives never completely shut down during sleep and the sound is general hard-drive activity. The sound doesn't occur that often so I tend to ignore it.

Dell told me it was normal so I've left it at that and didn't bother investigating any further.

Hi Chris, 

I did close all applications and also turned down any wifi. I think the SSD & Power Supply are waking up due to some reason that I feel Dell does not know. In addition the event is not registering with Windows 11 Pro as the event manager has nothing logged. This is a rogue bug that I am pretty sure may have been left alone as a low priority issue as customers wont complain. Unfortunately with such an expensive machine it is making me nervous. thx

Thanks Henge, Good to know that I am not the only one experiencing this with the XPS 8960. I do hear the same on reset yes but not while the xps is awake or at the least so far. Yes I think it may not be a big issue but it is annoying when you see such an expensive machine plus the expensive rtx connected to it. who knows if the power supply has some rogue bug. There should be some root cause. thx

I have the exact same issue, except the power supply clicks every few seconds when in sleep mode. It's very annoying, and I can't believe it's by design. It's a loud mechanical click. Was there a resolution?

@Pickle1800​ 

Mine does it too , was this ever fixed - I`ve the latest BIOS etc .. when i tell the machine to sleep I want it to sleep  .. 

Is a task scheduled to run while PC is idle (sleeping)?

-Windows Indexing Service

-Windows Update

-Apps phoning home for updates

-Syncing data to the cloud

-Anti-malware scan

-Disk clean up

-etc

You could try disabling some tasks (temporarily) in Task Scheduler, reboot, and let PC go to sleep...