Hard drive beeps then stops... fix anyone?

[soulreaper666]

So i've got this laptop, a v3500, for a while i thought the problem was something shorting in the motherboard as when the laptop was jolted (not violently) it would beep then cut out and i'd have to turn it back on again.

The screen died & I chucked the 160gb 2.5' sata hard drive in an enclosure to use and found it was actually the hard drive that is beeping and cutting out as the same prob occurred in the enclosure..
This wasnt too big a deal as i could sit the hard drive somewhere and use it fine in the enclosure.

The hard drive tests for errors fine, and doesn't exhibit any other problems. Has been scanned for bad sectors etc & has none.

Have now got a new screen for my laptop & am wondering whether it can be fixed somehow so i dont have to fork out for another hard drive for it as well,... though 500gb 2.5s are cheap as chips now

Alas, i'm clueless as to what would make a hard drive beep then cut out.. any ideas?

THanks!!

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hello,
Hard drives don't beep since they don't have a pizzo electric buzzer or speaker in them.
You may hear a clicking as the actuator tries to move the heads, or rarely built into the firmware is a vibration that attempts to unstick a stuck actuator.

Since you can check it for errors and bad sectors, that means the disks are spinning and and the heads are not stuck, so back up the data next time you spin up the disk, and get a new HDD replacement. There is nothing else you can do to fix this HDD.

 

[soulreaper666]

Hey,
Thanks for your reply. Previous to writing this i'd searched a few posts which advised similar, that a hard drive couldn't beep. I've sort of come to the conclusion it's making a noise which sounds like a beep, The noise definately coincides with the laptop turning off and the hard drive in the enclosure losing connectivity with the computer then reconnecting. I've had a few hard drives which have clicked before and i'm pretty sure this isnt a click.

Yeah.. sounds like you're right, I will get a replacement. I think the last thing i will do is bare the ends of the sata connection in case it is losing connection due to a dirty contact but i haven't much hope for it.

Thanks

 

[John_VanKirk]

You're welcome,

Hope it works out and you'll have a stable laptop.

 

[soulreaper666]

[SOLVED]

Yay, solved prob so i don't have to buy another hdd anymore..

First I tried baring the sata contact ends, by baring i just mean scratching clean with a screwdriver. This didn't work, i was able to find though that if i pressed the hard drive at a certain point while the laptop was going it would make the error occur.

So,. i removed the outer PCB for the hard drive, there was about 8 small screws, the PCB comes straight off as it has springy contacts that contact with the hard drive in 2 locations, there was some slight electrical buildup on both locations so I bared those & reassembled hard drive, voila. no more noise or hard drive cutting out hooray.

Hope this helps someone with same prob in future

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi again,

Requires one glass of champagne!
It's always feels good when you are able to solve a computer problem yourself. Congrats

Another "good" way of cleaning copper contacts, like you did or on add on boards like PCI-e, is to use a clean or new "old style" #2 pencil eraser.
It removes without scratching the copper oxide and exposed copper surface giving the contacts a fresh surface.

 

[SnowKiter]

reply to John_VanKirk:
Hard Drives can beep. I just opened a broken netbook that had error message about internal hard disk failure. SATA hard drive was beeping. It's not loud, it's like motherboard beeps when it can't "see" RAM, it's different pattern but hard drive beeps. Here is the youtube video to prove it. My netbook HD was beeping with the same pattern like in this video. (/watch?v=ISTN_64MVnA)