Samsung MP0804H owners - a question..

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Samsung MP0804H owners - a question..

Post by IdontexistM8 » Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:23 pm

Now perhaps I'm having bad luck with drives (also see Scorpio & WD3200) or I'm being picky but I'm wondering whether there's an issue with the Samsung MP0804H I've got.

The best way to find out in this instance as I haven't seen anything from a quick google is to pose it here for fellow Samsung 2.5" drive owners.

I've noticed that the drive when it's particularly busy or has just finished being busy makes a noise that sounds somewhat like a head reset. Now it doesn't happen all the time, perhaps once every hour or two (maybe longer depending on accessing).

I've got AAM set @ 128 (i.e. the lowest level) and the drive seems 100% healthy in all other ways. Although the light whine it makes can be bugging as it has a particular tone to it. Importantly, it doesn't make any noise when idle unlike the Scorpio issue which I brought up again last week.

Because my laptop is so quiet when the fan is inactive it's quite noticeable. The best way of describing it is similar to an old fashioned clock hand moving along a notch. Not so much a scrape or click more of a 'shift'.

I'm not sure what to make of it..so if anyone has noticed similar behaviour please let me know. I'd rather not go through my third RMA in a week!! and be left with no flipping laptop drive again. :(

feeras
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu May 26, 2005 5:41 pm

Post by feeras » Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:19 pm

Hi,

I have the exact drive but it's in my desktop machine. I have not heard anything of the sort from the drive. It is very very silent to me. I do know that sometimes it swaps like crazy but i barely barely notice this unless I've got ear under the table. I'm thinking of getting a second one so I can put the swap file on it to offload, or maybe more ram.

Might be that you've gotten bad luck again.

feeras

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Post by IdontexistM8 » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:45 am

So it could be the platter swap?

CoolGav
Posts: 398
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2003 4:26 am
Location: €ngland
Contact:

Post by CoolGav » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:08 am

I have 2 80G Samsung 2.5" drives, 1 in my laptop (which doesn't see a lot of use) and the other in a desktop. I can't say I've heard anything much from them ever. Does yours get hot?

jaganath
Posts: 5085
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:55 am
Location: UK

Post by jaganath » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:09 am

the Scorpio issue which I brought up again last week.
Out of interest, have you had any response from WD regarding that (the clicking noise)? Have they managed to work out whether it was a dud unit/wrong firmware/design flaw? Normally the Scorpios (or at least the 40GB version) respond to the Hitachi Power Booster utility, so it is a real puzzle why yours didn't.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Post by IdontexistM8 » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:04 pm

CoolGav wrote:I have 2 80G Samsung 2.5" drives, 1 in my laptop (which doesn't see a lot of use) and the other in a desktop. I can't say I've heard anything much from them ever. Does yours get hot?
Drives do tend to get hot in my laptop because of where the bay's positioning at the front of the machine, away from the fan and cooling vents.

When pushed you'd usually see temps in the 48 to 55c range. Though I think the Samsung does run cooler than my defunct Toshiba drive.
jaganath wrote:
the Scorpio issue which I brought up again last week.
Out of interest, have you had any response from WD regarding that (the clicking noise)? Have they managed to work out whether it was a dud unit/wrong firmware/design flaw? Normally the Scorpios (or at least the 40GB version) respond to the Hitachi Power Booster utility, so it is a real puzzle why yours didn't.
Sent it back to Misco rather than WD, not sure I could afford another £18 to send it to Germany!

Anyway spoke to Samsung Drive support today and they'd never heard of what I described (though I admit it was tricky to do so). The key point for me is that it only does it under high load, ie. disk access, e.g. torrent downloads, Usenet etc. Oddly part of me wishes it happens more regularly..just so I could get a better handle on what it is. As far as I know it hasn't happened at all today.

The positive upshot is I've got the option to RMA it and thankfully it would be dealt with quickly in the UK.

Pain the backside though.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Woes continue!! :(

Post by IdontexistM8 » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:07 pm

Well Samsung's RMA service via Rexo in the UK is quick...but nowt else I'm afraid.

Wasn't a new drive as I had been promised my Andrew @ Samsung HDD support. Looks clearly a refurb and on the label it's undated.

Also..it makes more clicky noises than the previous one. Indeed if left idle for any length of time it will make a unload type of click noise. Not quite in the league of the Scorpio but still annoying nonetheless. I will be getting back in touch with someone in the morning about it.

Adding to this I can't get Acronis True Image to work properly with my laptop for an image recovery, I'm currently stuck using the Tosh's recovery disks again :( ...so I'm pretty much [insert your own choice of swear word here] off. :cry:

Mankey
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:39 pm

Post by Mankey » Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:12 pm

Mine does the exact same thing. Haven't had any problems otherwise with it. No idea why.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Post by IdontexistM8 » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:33 pm

Well here's some more clicking drive info...

Found the new Toshiba MK8032GAX also does 'it' when idle for say 10sec+

I'm wondering whether my laptop is to blame but I've never noticed it on my previous Tosh drives...

Perhaps it was because they were accoustically louder and such things were not as noticeable over general whoosh and access ticking sounds.

Frankly I'm slightly bamboozled by the whole thing...

Well I'm due to get the original Samsung drive back, probably early next week. Subjectively that was probably the quietest in operations and these 'clicks' but exhibited louder whine.

I'm certainly not going to throw any more money at this, so once that's back I'll have to decide which I can put up with best.

However, I am starting to look for a new laptop...so I'm preparing to open another can of worms :wink:

jaganath
Posts: 5085
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:55 am
Location: UK

Post by jaganath » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:51 am

Well here's some more clicking drive info...

Found the new Toshiba MK8032GAX also does 'it' when idle for say 10sec+
Unfortunately some of the GAX range of hard drives tends to have this SPCR-unfriendly noise signature:

SPCR Thread
Well I've just replaced my Tosh 4019GAX (which died) with a 6026GAX in my laptop and I can't see much difference in idle noise. Always gonna be some whine but you have to stick your head next to the laptop and discern it over the fan(s). IMO it's no great issue.

Seek noise is better with the new drive. The 4019GAX had a 'tick' quality to it's noise output which is absent with the 6026GAX.
GAX Drives Upbraided For Noise
The only notebook drives that ever made too much noise to suit me were the Toshiba 40G and 60G GAX drives. Their noisy actuator was more than I was willing to endure.
SPCR Thread 2 (v. informative)

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Post by IdontexistM8 » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:13 am

I believe the second quote is also one of mine.

Without doubt the Tosh's have improved but I guess they are also doing this head unmount as per every other drive it seems. It's more annoying than noisy.

One other thing to note, the MK8032GAX is totally unconfigurable using any utility. The APM is fixed to Min, AAM isn't present.

Post Reply