IBM 120GXP annoying periodical buzzing noise (DFT OK!)

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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rmarango
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2002 5:49 am

IBM 120GXP annoying periodical buzzing noise (DFT OK!)

Post by rmarango » Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:38 am

Anyone of you are experiencing the annoying buzzing noise made by my brand new IBM 120GXP, also known as "Idle Time Function" :x ?
It happens every 10 minutes exactly and sounds very intrusive, lasting about 2 seconds.
This function only stops if the disk is intensively accessed when the 10 minutes timer expires... :cry:
I've also been told that this function cannot be disabled :evil: !

Here is what IBM told to me (quite long):

Dear Sir,
Thankyou for your email.
This will be the Idle Time Function of the drive, which is a feature to
improve the reliability of the drive. I do not believe this was a feature
in the DTLA harddrives.

Regards
------------------ In Response To ------------------
Delivered Date: 11-28-2002 07:31:37+6
Subject: Re: IBM Technical Support Center Request #228-619-162-3

Thanks for your prompt answer.
I ran DFT both quick and advanced and the result was OK (return value 0) in both cases.
I was just wondering if that brief buzzing noise emitted periodically
every ten minutes ) is done intentionally by the firmware to improve the
reliability of the drive recalibrating it.
In my previous disk (IBM DTLAXX) this periodic calibration wasn't present
so this is why I ask.
Is this calibration feature present in my hdd model IC35L080AVVA07-0 ?
My disk drive's firmware version is VA40A52A40.

Thanks in advance,
Roberto

----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 1:49 PM
Subject: IBM Technical Support Center Request #228-619-162-3

Dear Sir ,
for the 120 GXP we do not have a firmware update.
In order to gain more information about your problem you need to run a
utility called Drive Fitness Test on the drive. This will establish the
cause of your problem.

Please download Drive Fitness Test from the following URL:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

If possible we would recommend backing up any important data at this time before running the test.

Run the quick test first, and if you receive the result 0x00, then run the
advanced test.

Best regards
M.Pampinella
IBM Technology Group
------------------ In Response To ------------------

Delivered Date: 11-28-2002 05:17:42+6
Subject: Firmware feature ?

Dear Sirs,
I recently bought an IBM GXP120 model IC35L080AVVA07-0.
My question is:
I hear an annoying buzzing sound coming from the hdd (that noise
is resembling a micro-gearbox running) lasting for about 2 secs and
happening periodically every 10 minutes and wondering if it's an idle
time function intended to recalibrate the heads and/or prevent heat build-up due to excessive dwelling of heads above the same area of disk when idle.
I found no mention of this hdd function in the manual, in fact I got the
above info from internet newsgroups.
Is this feature absolutely necessary or is it possible to disable it via
software/firmware update or jumpers.

Thanks in advance,

Best Regards,
Roberto

tridion
Posts: 116
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2002 5:23 am
Location: London, UK

Post by tridion » Fri Jan 03, 2003 7:37 am

I used to have this problem. I ended up removing the drive and getting a cuda IV.

I also know several people who have had this IBM drive crash on them, losing all their data. I would avoid them personally.

SungHyun7
Posts: 149
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2002 1:45 pm
Contact:

Post by SungHyun7 » Fri Jan 03, 2003 1:51 pm

i used to be a die-hard ibm fan but i stopped endorsing them so much... and even more so after reading this post. i really don't know why i liked ibm so much after getting ball bearing problems and numerous bad sectors and after 4 ibm drives that all went bad. i used to have WD in the 386/486 days, and hated the wd drive. i once had maxtor and loved it... had no problems but not coming back to it just because i think i can do better (maxtors are cheap) :roll:

anyways, right now i'm with wd 120gb special edition drive with 8mb cache and i absolutely love it performance wise.... and would've loved it in whole if i didn't get swirled into this whole silent pc computing :) but yea that drive is very loud. seagate drives are good but they're always slower than their counterparts as far as their ide drives are concerned. ahh the choices...

rmarango
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2002 5:49 am

Post by rmarango » Fri Jan 03, 2003 3:33 pm

tridion wrote:I used to have this problem. I ended up removing the drive and getting a cuda IV.

I also know several people who have had this IBM drive crash on them, losing all their data. I would avoid them personally.
I think I'll follow your path, going for a cuda seems a smart and silent choice...I really don't care if they will perform a bit lower than ibm.
Anyway I'm very disappointed by this old and "noble" brand of information technologies :( .

Regards.

tridion
Posts: 116
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2002 5:23 am
Location: London, UK

Post by tridion » Fri Jan 03, 2003 3:42 pm

Does anyone know why the cuda V have had the warranty reduced to 1 year ? The cuda IV was 3 year (wasnt it).

Slightly concerned that they may not be as reliable.

rmarango
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2002 5:49 am

Post by rmarango » Fri Jan 03, 2003 3:47 pm

tridion wrote:Does anyone know why the cuda V have had the warranty reduced to 1 year ? The cuda IV was 3 year (wasnt it).

Slightly concerned that they may not be as reliable.
I guess I'll go for cuda IV ... are those models still available ?

Regards

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Sat Jan 04, 2003 5:42 am

Maxtor and WD also reduced their warranties to one year on Oct 1st. Only the WD SE drives still have a three year warranty.

If you look around you can still find (leftover) Seagate Barracuda IVs in retail boxes that have the 3 year warranty. Every time Best Buy has one of their sales/rebates on them I go and root around until I find a box that says "3 year warranty" and I'll buy that one. I've posted about this in several forums but no one seems to get it. Why get a drive with a one year warrany when there's one sitting right next to it with a three year warranty? You can run the serial number of the drive at Seagate's support site and it tells you when the warranty expires.

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