0

At this point I can't remember what my computer sounded like when I ran Windows, but regardless there is a constant hard drive noise that is bothering me- I'm running Ubuntu 14.04. It is a whirring sound, so I would like to think it's the fan, but running sensors, even when it reports 0rpm for the fan, I hear this noise. While it isn't incredibly loud, it is noticeable, especially when the computer isn't making any other noise, e.g. music. How could I check to see if it is indeed the hard drive making the noise, and how could I fix the problem?

Ouput of sensors follows:

acpitz-virtual-0 Adapter: Virtual device temp1: +51.0°C (crit = +200.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter fan1: 0 RPM

coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Physical id 0: +51.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 0: +49.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 1: +51.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

nouveau-pci-0200 Adapter: PCI adapter temp1: N/A (high = +95.0°C, hyst = +3.0°C) (crit = +105.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C) (emerg = +135.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)

  • "At this point I can't remember what my computer sounded like when I ran Windows" Can you not check this ? Sounds like a hardware issue not an Ubuntu issue, what type of laptop, hdd ? If you can't remember what it used to sound like how do you even know theres an issue ? – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 06:27
  • @markkirby Indeed,how could I check? Just pop in a Windows installation CD? It is and hdd, and I think I'll send it into Lenovo when I start summer break. –  Apr 05 '15 at 06:28
  • You could try the Windows DVD but if its not installed then no point as it won't access the hdd, based on a little research can you go to settings then disable any power saving options that are on or run - hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdX - then reboot, does this help ? – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 06:35
  • Where are the settings you're talking about? I'll run the command. –  Apr 05 '15 at 06:42
  • I just meant system settings and the choose power and disable all the options, i don't have a laptop but it think you can also click the battery icon in the task bar. – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 07:03
  • You'll know if the fan really is running if there is hot air coming out of the vents. Just because it says 0rpm doesn't mean it really is. Also, what kind of processor do you have, GPU, etc. Did you install lm-sensors and run sudo sensors detect after installing lm-sensors? if not, do so. – mchid Apr 05 '15 at 07:05
  • @mchid The fan wasn't running, I did install lm-sensors- but running sudo sensors detect gave Parse error in chip name detect. My GPU is nvidia, and my CPU is intel. –  Apr 05 '15 at 07:23
  • @markkirby i took down the comment because the tab spaces won't get copied if copied and pasted into a terminal but you get the idea. There are templates at the bottom of the file /etc/hdparm.conf just have to change /dev/hda to /dev/sda and make the only two options apm = 254 and apm_battery = 254 – mchid Apr 05 '15 at 07:23
  • @Anthony I'm sorry, I posted sudo sensors detect and the command is sudo sensors-detect – mchid Apr 05 '15 at 07:33
  • Do you want the output of sensors? –  Apr 05 '15 at 07:35
  • It does not matter you did not save that it was just an example block, to undo the changes - sudo gedit /etc/hdparm.conf - and delete what you wrote. Also this code assumes you installed Ubuntu too dev/sda (default location) if it is different tell me. – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 07:54
  • "Do you want the output of sensors?" Would not hurt to add it to you question. – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 07:55
  • @markkirby That's probably where I installed it, if it's the default. How can I check? –  Apr 05 '15 at 07:59
  • sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL – Mark Kirby Apr 05 '15 at 08:01
  • NAME FSTYPE SIZE MOUNTPOINT LABEL

    sda 465.8G

    ├─sda1 ext4 454.1G /

    ├─sda2 1K

    └─sda5 swap 11.7G [SWAP]

    sr0 1024M I can't figure out better formatting.

     –  Apr 05 '15 at 08:03
  • Anthony, could you please follow this answer and report back @Fabby? Let's hope I'm wrong... – Fabby Apr 10 '15 at 13:36

1 Answers1

0

My first assumption is that the sound you are hearing isn't the hard drive at all, but a cooling fan. However, I'll entertain the notion it is your hard drive, and help you to determine if it is actually failing or has something to do with your Ubuntu installation.

Please open your Disk Utility and, provided SMART is supported, use that to determine if your hard drive is healthy.

Next open your System Settings, and then open the icon there marked, "Details" to determine how much RAM your system has. The reason I request you do that is that the most common cause of noisy hard drives, apart of course from impending failure, is inadequate RAM. If your hard drive has less than 2gb of RAM, I recommend upgrading it to a minimum of 2gb if you can afford to do so.

gyropyge
  • 2,558
  • 1
  • 16
  • 11
  • Disk Utility says that my hard drive is OK, and I have more than 2gb of RAM. I know that it doesn't seem likely that it's my hard drive, but the noise is coming directly from where my hard drive is, is there a fan behind it? –  Apr 05 '15 at 16:34
  • 1
    There is another possibility to explain your observation. Mechanical Hard drives are the noisiest part of any system, except when the CPU fan is forced to work especially hard, which often happens in gaming OR when Windows is infected with massive amounts of adware and spyware. It could well be that running a system free of such parasitic software has made your computer so quiet that the ordinary noise of your hard drive seems unusual. It could be you don't have a serious problem, although as someone who has had to replace a few drives, may I suggest a silent solid state drive replacement? – gyropyge Apr 05 '15 at 22:35