4 Posts
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82716
WD19TB Dock Excessive Fan Noise
I've had my WD19TB dock for around a year, its under warranty until Feb 2023.
I have used it daily since I bought it and have had no complaints, however over the last few months I have noticed the fan has been coming on for longer and running faster than normal.
I know the fan is meant to keep the unit cool but its not under load when this happens, the room is air conditioned and quite cold so I don't think that its an environmental factor or anything to do with the dock being warm/hot (Its cool to the touch and the exhausted air is room temp so its not extracting any heat from the device).
This started a few months ago with the fan randomly spinning up for 15-30 seconds and then going off, it seems to be lasting a little longer now.
The event that has prompted me to join this community was around 10-15 minutes ago where the fan spun up to full speed and stayed on, its only just stopped now so I'd say it was on solidly for 10 minutes.
The dock isnt warm, the room isnt warm, the laptop is not under load.
I have updated to the latest firmware but without any change.
Any ideas? I'm getting to the point where I think I might just open it up and cut the wires to the fan.
DELL-Cares
Moderator
Moderator
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25.1K Posts
2
May 26th, 2021 12:00
The dock is working as designed.
(edited)
blob007
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
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81 Posts
1
April 24th, 2021 17:00
This pattern has been noticed by many users, myself included. For most of us it seems to only last around 5 seconds though. Perhaps, some of these docs can only spin their fan at max speed or have faulty temperature sensors. Hopefully this won't lead to eventual fan failure...
DavidBarrett
4 Posts
2
April 30th, 2021 16:00
I could cope with 5 seconds, its 10-15 minutes... and its 40-50db (Measured with a really bad app on my phone so that might not be accurate)
Its bad enough that I have to wear noise cancelling earphones to work now.
I don't think that its actually to do with the dock getting hot either as its not under any more load now than it was for the previous 11 months I've owned it and the room its in is no warmer than normal.
The exhaust air is cool so its not taking much heat out of the device.
Also I've found that simply cycling the power when the fan is spinning fast stops the problem for a while (I'd imagine if the dock was hot that switching it off for 2 seconds wouldn't have any effect on the heat and it would just spin up at full speed again) - this isn't a great solution though as it disconnects the network which in turn kicks me off the work VPN which then takes a few minutes to reconnect.
I'm in conversation with dell support now to see what we can do, Ill be pushing for a replacement if a resolution cannot be found, its almost unusable without noise cancelling headphones on now.
Fredtheboots
38 Posts
1
May 5th, 2021 09:00
Hello,
Let us know how it turns out. We have 24 of this model here, 2 out of 24 have fans problems.
I am looking for solutions, or maybe a replacement like you are working on.
Thanks
DavidBarrett
4 Posts
0
May 6th, 2021 07:00
So far the only thing I've found to work is cycling the power, which the network connection on my laptop requiring a reboot, so hardly ideal during working hours.
I've rolled back to an older firmware which might have made the problem a bit better... But it's still happening. Just had to kill the power again now after 20minutes of full speed high pitched fan.
Seriously my old desktop PC was quieter than this thing.
flarezt
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
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11 Posts
1
May 15th, 2021 09:00
Hi,
I have similar issue with my wd19tb.
I've bought it two months ago and yesterday it started to make excessive noise when my laptop is idle.
The recorded noise: Noise sound
DavidBarrett
4 Posts
0
May 19th, 2021 06:00
Yeah that is similar to mine, it kind of pulsates faster and slower.
Ive just had a replacement unit arrive so Ill have a few days with that and see how I get on - Silent so far!
Note, to get this replacement unit I tested using a different dock but on the same desk (so that all environmental variables were the same) and proved that the second dock that I tried did not have the same issue.
Once I told support that they were happy that we'd ruled everything else out and sent me a replacement, so if thats an option for you and you want a replacement it might work.
dougisnow
2 Posts
0
May 25th, 2021 22:00
same problem here, must be a bad batch of units Dell please contact me to arrange an exchange, this port replicator is only 3 months old and when i'm on con calls people think I'm blow drying my hair! yes it's that loud.
and it's not hot air
dougisnow
2 Posts
0
May 26th, 2021 11:00
-Doug
btownsend405
1 Message
1
July 21st, 2021 07:00
I also have this issue. It is nearly constant all day and when others come into my office they jokingly ask if it is going to takeoff. I have gotten somewhat used to it by now. I am the VP of IT for a bank and I will tell you we will not be ordering any more of these. Support is not helpful and apparently they say this is normal. I call because it shouldn't be constant. Build quality and engineering are lacking and if I deployed this to my user base I would never hear the end of it.
(edited)
kersantinov
9 Posts
2
October 26th, 2021 02:00
I have same issue with fan of Dell WD19. Space Shuttle takeoff is more quiet.
Ident1ty
1 Message
0
November 16th, 2021 05:00
I have the same issue. One day the dock gave me a malfunction error and I thought I was finally safe because the fan stopped spinning but everything else worked, then it started up again.
afietz
1 Message
0
December 1st, 2021 07:00
Same issue. Mine is starting and stopping like every 5-10 seconds. Sometimes it decides to be in full on fan mode and just continuous through a whole days worth of work. This has been going on for a few months now. I have two in my home office (mine and wife's) and only mine is giving me problems. Please help