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Acer 8104 hard drive clicking problem

post #1 of 19
12/21/05 at 7:35pm
Thread Starter 
I am a recent owner of an Acer 8104 (Got it for 1599 from ZipZoomFly in late November)

I noticed that when the machine is 'idle' (or seemingly idle) it will omit a 'clicking' sound which I think is coming from the hard drive. It's hard to pinpoint, but there aren't many other moving parts in the notebook that would create a clicking sound. I got a replacement drive from Acer support (US phone support was very helpful and quick), and installed it.
However, with the 'new' drive in, the machine still makes the clicking sound every so often. I just don't know if both drives could be bad, or if the clicking is coming from somewhere else.

Any 8104/8103 owners that have encountered this problem?
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post #2 of 19
12/21/05 at 9:39pm
The HD does click and spin once in a while even when it's in idle. I guess it depends on what program you're running on background like Norton and window updates that checks for update once in a while.
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post #3 of 19
12/21/05 at 9:59pm
get a Western Digital drive they are so quite you will not notice this.
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post #4 of 19
12/21/05 at 11:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiz33
The HD does click and spin once in a while even when it's in idle. I guess it depends on what program you're running on background like Norton and window updates that checks for update once in a while.
Any others to corroborate these findings?
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post #5 of 19
12/22/05 at 7:22pm
Yea that happens on my asipre 1694 also.. It comes form the hard drive, I thought i was going insane.. I got a portable 80gig also it does that too, I aint gonan worry about it though!
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post #6 of 19
12/23/05 at 2:44pm
It certainly is the hard drive. I had the same clicking with two separate 8104's. When I replaced the drive with a Seagate Momentus 80gb 7200RPM drive, the clicking disappeared. Might I add that the new 7200RPM Seagate is a fine drive - very quiet and fast!
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post #7 of 19
12/26/05 at 3:20am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all ther responses... It sounds like this is normal behavior for this particular drive.
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post #8 of 19
12/26/05 at 2:44pm
Gnatty, it seems to be a common problem with that drive. I have the same notebook, bought from the same retailer (ZZF.com) back in July (for $1855 I might add), and I had my first drive suddenly fry out on me part way through the 3rd month of having the notebook. Then when I had the new drive, the clicking started up immediately upon idle. I'd have to run defrag or something in the background to get it to stop. Quite annoying. I finally had them send me a 3rd drive, and it works much better (though I sometimes swear I can hear a high-pitched whine come from that area of the notebook, no one else can hear it). The clicking has stopped permanently though.

Also to note, my wife has a Toshiba satellite, and it is a year old and the hard drive has been clicking for some time now. Well it isn't nearly as noticeable as my notebook, because she has a P4 in there, and it's loud on its own. Problem with our notebooks is that they run so quietly that any sound is annoying at times.

-Ransom
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post #9 of 19
12/26/05 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
Hmm.... well, as a precaution, I'll image the drive to a backup, and if this drive fails, I'll at least have a reasonably up-to-date copy. Just goes to show it's important to back-up your data frequently...
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post #10 of 19
12/26/05 at 6:56pm
I agree fully. I was lucky enough to have a full backup of everything from less than a week before. However, I had an entire weekend's worth of assignments to turn in, and it broke on a Sunday evening, when everything was due online by midnight that night. Was a rough week for me, that's for sure.

-Ransom
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post #11 of 19
12/28/05 at 4:09am
Mines been clicking off and on since i had it - about 6 months or so now.

I noticed that using SpeenFan [http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php] and looking at the HDD on it shows the Fitness level really low [has done since i got the laptop] @ 17% !!

Anyone wanna try it with the HDD they had originally in the 8104 and see what it says?

I dunno whether a Low Level Format of the drive would help there with that percentage, but anyhow, the clicking hasnt caused any problems [AFAIK] yet.

Cheers
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post #12 of 19
12/31/05 at 8:08pm
Hi gnatty,

I also have this clicking sound (btw, I have SATA Seagate drive if it makes any difference). However, I don't care about it since I have the same sound coming from another SATA Seagate hard drive in my desktop - and no problems so far.
But in this laptop SMART shown by HDTune (very nice program) indicates that the drive is in very bad condition and is going to fail. I would like to ask you how you managed to get a new drive from Acer? Did you send them your laptop? What was the whole procedure? Also did you call them via the phone number that is on their web-site (i guess it is 800-816-2237). I am asking because I couldn't reach anyone via that number They just don't pickup the phone, i waited for 15 minutes listening to their music without any result
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post #13 of 19
1/1/06 at 1:51pm
You could end up waiting for quite some time for tech support to answer the phone. Part of what makes a difference is what time you call at, and how heavy their load is at that time.

Try calling again, and see if you can get through (I'd wait at least 1/2 an hour before giving up till later).

As for the replacement procedure, it's quite simple. You've got 3 options:

1. Send in your whole machine, and they will take out the old drive, put in the new, and test for problems.
2. Send in your old drive, they will send you a new one once they receive the old one.
3. Give them your credit card number (they won't charge it unless you don't send the old one back), they will send you a new drive, and you put it in and then send back the old one.

I chose option 3, because I still had a working drive (though clicking), and I didn't want to lose use of my computer during the interim shipping period. It’s also convenient because they send you all of the shipping supplies when they send you the new drive. Makes it much easier on you.

Any other questions?
-Ransom
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post #14 of 19
1/1/06 at 7:04pm
Hi Ransomed1,

Thank you for your fast reply You are right - option 3 looks really nice. Could you please clarify what you mean by shipping supplies? Is it envelope and all this kind of staff? (Sorry, I am not very profficient in English)
Also could you please let me know the values of your SMART parameters called "Reallocated sector count" and "(BE) unknown attribute"? I just want to compare with mine.
Thank you,
Ilya

PS Happy New Year to all!!!
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post #15 of 19
1/1/06 at 8:02pm
No problem.

By shipping supplies, I mean stuff that's made to ship the drive, so you don't have to find your own box and foam/bubble wrap to make it fit well.

As for your other questions, I honestly don't know. Anyone else?

-Ransom
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post #16 of 19
1/1/06 at 9:28pm
Hi Ransomed1,

You may check the SMART parameters using any program like HDTune (http://hdtune.com/hdtune_251.exe) which is free and easy to use.
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post #17 of 19
1/4/06 at 10:35pm
Ok, some updates here if anyone is interested. I have reached Acer techs and I am REALLY DISAPPOINTED with the guy I was talking to. Well, anyway - they agreed to take the laptop and test (the whole laptop no options of hard disk replacement). He said it would take them about 3 weeks (oh me!) before I get it back. When I looked at what he wrote in the receipt I was really shocked - half of it was the truth though the other half is what I haven't even thought. Oh... to be continued
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post #18 of 19
1/5/06 at 1:08pm
Don't worry too much, at least you'll know your pc is working fine after they check it out. Just know that in my case they had it for less than 7 hours before it was on its way back to me. Next time you call (this was just about the clicking HD, right?), be sure that they understand what you're talking about with the drive, and that it still works, and when the symptoms happen, etc. If they know more, they can better help you. He probably thinks it's possibly the motherboard or something (I don't remember what they said my problem might be, but it sounded like a big deal, and ended up just being a new hard drive was needed).

-Ransom
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post #19 of 19
1/5/06 at 4:26pm
Hi Ransom!
Thanks for your warm words, I really appreciate your support. Well, I called them today because I wanted to clarify the description of the problem. I talked to a guy who was (in my opinion) more intelligent - at least he knew how hard drives work (heads, plates, etc.). After talking to him for some time he put me on hold and then came back (in 4-5 minutes, not too much I think) and offered me two options of hard drive exchange: send them an old one and then receive a new one, and receive a new one and then send an old one. Wow!!! I managed to prove them that it was a hard drive failure! Waiting for a new hard drive now. It will be shipped in two business days - so no earlier than on Monday. But still it's better than sending them a laptop for 3 weeks
And, yes - now I am pleased with the guy I was talking to
Will report back with the progress!
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