WD Blue 1TB WD10EZEX noise and vibration

Netsky200n

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Oct 26, 2015
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4,510
Hello!

I recently bought the aforementioned drive, one piece from one shop and another from a second shop, and both manifest the same issue. They vibrate rhythmically, making it all the louder because they vibrate strongly enough for it to ripple through my case and into my desk. I've had the second for 6 weeks now and it's only getting worse, now also making some sorta scraping sound. Performance is good, HDD tests come out "fine". Seeing how the second drive I got behaved just the same as the first, I assumed it was either normal for this drive - an otherwise fast and cheap drive - or that it might just stop misbehaving at some point. It isn't the case, it is still vibrating and looking to get worse. I've gone over Google repeatedly and I always find that it's supposed to be fast and silent - certainly not the case with my drive. I also have a Kingston SV300S37A60G SSD as Windows drive and a rapidly degenerating Samsung HD103SJ 1TB drive (a model seemingly plagued with controller issues, is 4 years old) which I was looking to keep as storage for which I would no longer care about its bumpy performance and constant need for defragmentation.

Furthermore, my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 v1. I do suspect some damage to the motherboard, seeing as some while back, my GTX 560 GPU died, possibly causing electrical damage to the motherboard and to the PSU. The PSU has since been changed, yet the motherboard doesn't actually cause any obvious issues. But the PSU was definitely smellin' of burnt when the GPU died, so there's that.

I'm considering taking the WD Blue HDD to warranty, though I will also check how it behaves in other people's computers. In the meantime, what do you people think of all this? Ask me any further details you believe you might need.
 
Hi Netsky,

1) The WD blue drives shouldn't be clicking, scraping, or vibrating. It is surprising that the Data Lifeguard tests have turned up nothing, but that doesn't mean the drives are guaranteed to be working correctly. Vibrations can also be caused by not securing the drives tightly enough in the drive bays, are you sure their fasteners haven't come loose?

2) If you have a damaged motherboard it could theoretically be the cause of some of the problem, but still your WD Blue drives shouldn't be vibrating violently or making scraping sounds.

3) Checking the drives in a different PC is a very good idea and will hopefully be able to narrow down if your other internal components are the root of the issue.

4) What is the make/ model of your replacement PSU?

5) I hope you have a good cloud backup or external storage solution, as it sounds like your current drives are not reliable.
 

Netsky200n

Reputable
Oct 26, 2015
2
0
4,510
Thank you for your quick answer!

4) Old PSU was an Inter-Tech Energon 650W, current PSU is a Corsair CS750M. a.k.a. 750 Watt Modular. My previous PSU was good enough already, as it was able to hold the setup I had up until the GPU decided it wanted out for good, also except for the new HDD. The HDD is a recent buy, well after the GPU dying. New GPU is GTX 660 => as I recall, this one needs fewer Watts.

5) I do not have external backup done yet. Frankly, the old Samsung is dying a slow enough death for me to feel safe for now. The new drive is still nearly empty, since it's behaving poorly so I saw little benefit from migrating data to it. It's little more than where I keep some games which were loading up a bit too slowly off the Samsung. I can do backup though, as I'm sure I've got an external HDD gathering dust in some drawer.

Will provide any further information needed. And also run tests, if there's some special test I've not come across yet.
 
The CS line isn't the best in the world, but it should be sufficient for providing descent power to your rig. I was wondering about the PSU providing even power output but I'd be shocked if that was the culprit.

Until you are able to test the drives in a different rig nothing else jumps to mind. Please keep us posted on the results!