# Laptop making weird noise help!!!!



## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

I brought a new Toshiba satelite laptop a week ago and i started to notice a wierd clicking noise so i did some research on this and read up about the click of death. I started to watch videos of peoples laptops who had these symptoms but the clicking is a lot quiter and its not all the time. Its not even when the hard drive is being stressed it just comes out of the blue at random times. Anyway i downloaded HD Pro utility to look at the sectors of the hard disk i did a test on the individual blocks and there was nothing but in the health tab two warnings came up 1 of a bad sector and the other one saying it had fixed the bad sector but still clicking. Also i tested the sectors again after this and all fine. I was wondering if its ok to go in to the properties and then to tools and then check drive for errors and tick both options so sectors are checked and maybe fixed. I went on a site with instructions to do so but it said if you have a failing hard drive not to do this cause it could fail completely and id rather keep its life and replace or try getting a hard drive on warrenty cause its a brand new laptop thats whats annoying. So is it safe to do this fix? and is there anyway i can sort out bad sectors with out replacing the hard drive as its only 1 sector or is this just completely normal to make this noise under certain stress. 

I Also know of my removable hard disk doing this when i virus scan it and move loads of files on to it and i checked that hard disk and it had 2 bad sectors is it bad to have bad sectors cause both do and worse thing would be back up drive failing.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

make a warranty claim on the hard drive

when you have bad sectors running a error check with chkdsk can cause the drive to fail


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Well for starters, if you notice that your laptop hard drive is making clicking noises, then I think you should make sure that you backup any data that you do not wish to loose. Because once the hard drive starts to make clicking noises, this can be an informal sign that the hard drive could do something dramatic such as have the heads crash right into the platters, destroying the whole thing. Personally, I think over time the problem might resolve itself after a couple of days, and a few restarts of the computer. But since it should be well under warranty, the least you can do now is give them a call, and have them inspect your laptop for you. As long as they are able to reproduce the problem, then they should be able to understand. But again, take a copy of your data just in case you don't get it back from them.

One thing I do know about hard drives however is that every time you first start them up, they do perform a quick amount of checks to make sure everything is alright, and the S.M.A.R.T monitoring system may be able to help you anticipate any problems, assuming you have a program that will read these details out to you. Seagate for example have a feature called Clean Sweep Calibration on their drives. I honestly don't know what that feature means, but I assume it means that it tries to puts itself back into full working order each time it is powered up.

Depending on what brand the hard drive is from, you can just go to the manufacturers website, and then install/use their utility to perform a thorough check of the drive. Seagate have SeaTools, while WD have Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. To check, just open up Device Manager, and under Disk Drives see what it says.

Whether you like it or not, all hard drives will deal with bad sectors over the life time of the product, but to have to face any so early on may be a sign of a problem. Perhaps the laptop has been dropped, and the drive has come under some excessive shock. When not running, the drive should be able to handle a reasonable amount of shock, seeing as we bring laptops around with us all the time. But when running, you need to be more careful since the parts inside are actively moving, and any shock to the drive could cause mechanical failure.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Ok will look in to getting the receipts back as it was a gift but i used another program called diskcheckup and no problems everything said OK no Fails at all for all tests on the hard disk is there anyway of actually knowing that this is fully the problem cause it could just be the way the hard disk responds. It would be annoying giving them my laptop back on warrenty waiting for a month when there wasnt even a problem especially as i do a lot of work on it. This noise is so faint you cant even hear it unless you put your ear right up to the keyboard. As well do you think this is click of death cause when ive looked at videos of other circumstances it seems that the noise coming from there laptop is more of a clicking noise this is more like the hard drive stressing but at short bursts.

i didnt drop the laptop at all as its very new but i did move it once while it was sleeping because i didnt know of this. I will try the instructions you said thank you hopefully it sorts itself out but it stops quite a lot for a good few hours and then will start again.

its really hard to explain but the clicking ive heard from other peoples machines is like kurkurkur this is like uhuhuhuh its more like the noise when your hard drive runs but the same short burst but my thought instantly as well anyway is that its not right.

ok Jay_JWLH i tried to find utility software for my hard drive but i couldnt find anything been racking my brain over this for a while and i gotta sleep so il check this forum tomorrow and will try to find a utility software but it doesnt seem toshiba have a download if you can find post the link my hard drive is TOSHIBA MK2565GSXV

Also making a load of posts sorry but yea i kind of got what you ment about the utility software to run a smart monitoring system i shouldnt need a utility program cause i done this with diskcheckup and no problems at all through the smart monitoring tab everything came up ok the noise has stopped 2 hours now.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Rinsa said:


> ok Jay_JWLH i tried to find utility software for my hard drive but i couldnt find anything been racking my brain over this for a while and i gotta sleep so il check this forum tomorrow and will try to find a utility software but it doesnt seem toshiba have a download if you can find post the link my hard drive is TOSHIBA MK2565GSXV


Software Utilities


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi follow dai's advice and get it sorted under the warranty that is what you have it for, and there is no point in pushing the drive to the point of failure before having it fixed,any drive giving the click of death this early on is in need of replacement,please remember any piece of hardware can fail at anytime even straight out of the box,the only thing you should do is back up anything you need to keep as you have been advised


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

ok thank you for the link Jay_JWLH i will post results and also ask my mum about the receipts do you know how long it takes when you give your laptop in on a standard warrenty to check these things if you have ever purchased a toshiba laptop cause im guessing it would get sent back to toshiba


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

what i dont understand is that the option under error checking to fix bad sectors will cause your hard drive to fail if you have a bad sector because i dont normally go this deep into computers maybe a hard drive failing is different to a bad sector i dunno.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi bad sector is just that a bad sector it gets fixed by moving the data to another sector this means a lot of read\write to areas of the disc which is not what you want on a failing drive


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

joeten im going to do so but my only problem is how do i know its really click of death when there arnt many symptoms apart from the click which in this case i wouldnt really say its a click if you get what i mean. The noise is more like the hard drive noise when you stress it if you have a removable hard disk you should no what i mean but it will do the normal hard drive noise then it will do the same noise but at a shorter length of time 4 times then it gos back to normal noise for a bit then 4 short noises and back. But obviously it doesnt hurt to take it to the shop and ask about the warrenty its just annoying if im just making a big deal out of something normal as i only got this laptop a week ago and i got my last one knicked and then waited a few months for this one. I got you on the bad sectors. Jay_JWLH i tried to use software utility but i dont think thats the right link cause its for fujitsu hard drives and it wont let me select my drive for test.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi have a look here click of death - Google Search it will give you some idea of what it is,if your bound and determined to test the drive use sea tools for dos download it burn to a disc use img burn and boot from the disc,see the tutorial and download here SeaTools | Seagate


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Thank you much appreciated for those instructions. Will read and maybe do tests.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Ok i read the explanations off google and the only thing i saw i can test is if its clicking the same amount of times each time. I will test this in the next hour. Also i looked at the videos last night and the sound is different but that probably doesn't help in anyway to finding this out. The thing is with seatools is you say you have to burn it to disc which i know how to but i use daemon tools instead but i dont have any blank disks left all have stuff on and wont format maybe because i chose that option when i burned them anyways can i burn them on to a disc which has say 3 files and then set to run from boot? Also is it harmfull to use this if my hard drive is failing?


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

The only other thing i got to ask as well is when a hard disk stress's does the noise sometimes stress in shorter strokes cause my mum seems to think im being a bit para about it but she said she will go to the shop tomorrow.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Hi i didnt realise you could log on this program but yea i got 2 logs the first one said everythings ok but the second one said its not but they both read the same values. 

*** DiskCheckup V3.0 Build: 1006 Report ***

SysInfo DLL Version: SysInfo v1.0 Build: 1008
Time of export: 22:52:42 09-Mar-2011

Device information: 
Device ID: 0
Interface: ATA
Device Capacity: 238472 MB
Serial Number: 7071P29PT
Model Number: TOSHIBA MK2565GSXV
Firmware Revision: GH011M
Partitions: 
C: 119236 MB
D: 118836 MB

ATA information: 

Disk geometry: 
Cylinders: 30401
Tracks/Cylinder: 255
Sectors/Track: 63
Bytes/Sector: 512
Total disk sectors: 488397168
Logical sector size: 512
Physical sector size: 512
Media rotation rate: 5400 RPM
Buffer size: 8192 KB
ECC size: 0 Bytes

Standards compliance: 
ATA8-ACS Supported: Yes
ATA/ATAPI-7 Supported: Yes
ATA/ATAPI-6 Supported: Yes
ATA/ATAPI-5 Supported: Yes
ATA/ATAPI-4 Supported: Yes
Serial/Parallel: Serial
SATA 3.0 Compilance: No
SATA 2.6 Compilance: Yes
SATA 2.5 Compilance: Yes
SATA II: Ext Compilance: Yes
SATA 1.0a Compilance: Yes
ATA8-AST Compilance: Yes
World Wide ID:  50000392A218191B

Feature support: 
SMART supported: Yes
SMART enabled: Yes
SMART self-test supported: Yes
SMART error log supported: Yes
LBA supported: Yes
IORDY supported: Yes
CFast supported: No
DMA supported: Yes
Maximum Multiword DMA mode supported: 2
Multiword DMA selected: 2
Maximum UltraDMA mode supported: 5
UltraDMA selected: None
Maximum PIO mode supported: 4
SATA Compliance: Yes
NCQ priority information supported: No
Unload while NCQ commands are outstanding supported: Yes
Phy Event Counters supported: Yes
Receipt of power management requests supported: Yes
NCQ feature set supported: Yes
SATA Gen2 Signaling Speed (3.0Gb/s) supported: Yes
SATA Gen1 Signaling Speed (1.5Gb/s) supported: Yes
Software Settings Preservation: Supported, Enabled
In-order data delivery: Not supported
Initiating power management: Supported, Enabled
DMA Setup auto-activation: Supported, Enabled
Non-zero buffer offsets: Not supported
Trusted Computing supported: No
Host Protected Area (HPA) supported: Yes
Read look-ahead supported: Yes
Read look-ahead enabled: Yes
Write cache supported: Yes
Write cache enabled: Yes
Power management supported: Yes
Security mode supported: Yes
Security mode enabled: No
Device Configuration Overlay (DCO) supported: Yes
48bit Addressing supported: Yes
Auto Acoustic Managment (AAM) supported: No
Power-up in Standby (PUIS) supported: No
Advanced Power Management (APM) supported: Yes
Advanced Power Management (APM) enabled: Yes
Current APM level: Minimum power consumption without Standby
CompactFlash Association (CFA) supported: No
General Purpose Logging (GPL) supported: Yes
Streaming supported: No
Media card pass through supported: No
Extended power conditions supported: No
Extended status reporting supported: No
Write-read-verify supported: No
Free-fall control supported: No
TRIM command supported: No
SCT command transport supported: Yes
NV Cache enabled: No
NV Cache Power Management supported: No

SMART ATTRIBUTES:
ID	Description Status Value Worst Threshold Raw Value TEC 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1	Raw Read Error Rate OK 100 100 50 0 N.A. 
2	Throughput Performance OK 100 100 50 0 N.A. 
3	Spin Up Time OK 100 100 1 1148 N.A. 
4	Start/Stop Count OK 100 100 0 92 N.A. 
5	Reallocated Sector Count OK 100 100 50 1 N.A. 
7	Seek Error Rate OK 100 100 50 0 N.A. 
8	Seek Time Performance OK 100 100 50 0 N.A. 
9	Power On Time OK 100 100 0 148 N.A. 
10	Spin Retry Count OK 101 100 30 0 N.A. 
12	Power Cycle Count OK 100 100 0 92 N.A. 
191	G-sense Error Rate OK 100 100 0 19 N.A. 
192	Power off Retract Count OK 100 100 0 7 N.A. 
193	Load Cycle Count OK 100 100 0 1076 N.A. 
194	Temperature OK 100 100 0 35 C N.A. 
196	Reallocation Event Count OK 100 100 0 1 N.A. 
197	Current Pending Sector Count OK 100 100 0 0 N.A. 
198	Uncorrectable Sector Count OK 100 100 0 0 N.A. 
199	UltraDMA CRC Error Count OK 200 200 0 0 N.A. 
220	Disk shift OK 100 100 0 56 N.A. 
222	Loaded hours OK 100 100 0 127 N.A. 
223	Load/Unload retry count OK 100 100 0 0 N.A. 
224	Load friction OK 100 100 0 0 N.A. 
226	Load-in Time OK 100 100 0 320 N.A. 
240	Head flying hours OK 100 100 1 0 N.A. 

SMART HISTORY:
Error retrieving history


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

ok if you see reallocated sector count at the end you will see it has a value of 1 cause theres 1 bad sector but i has ok next to it instead of fail now this log.

Number Date/Time Current Worst ThresholdData Temp 

1 08/03/2011 23:16:58 100 100 50 1 

2 08/03/2011 23:18:00 100 100 50 1 

3 08/03/2011 23:19:01 100 100 50 1 

4 08/03/2011 23:23:30 100 100 50 1 

5 09/03/2011 00:37:37 100 100 50 1 

6 09/03/2011 00:38:38 100 100 50 1 

7 09/03/2011 00:39:31 100 100 50 1 

8 09/03/2011 00:40:33 100 100 50 1 

9 09/03/2011 00:42:31 100 100 50 1 

10 09/03/2011 00:43:32 100 100 50 1 

11 09/03/2011 00:44:33 100 100 50 1 

12 09/03/2011 00:45:04 100 100 50 1 

13 09/03/2011 01:06:09 100 100 50 1 

14 09/03/2011 01:07:11 100 100 50 1 

15 09/03/2011 01:08:12 100 100 50 1 

16 09/03/2011 01:09:13 100 100 50 1 

17 09/03/2011 01:10:14 100 100 50 1 

18 09/03/2011 01:11:15 100 100 50 1 

19 09/03/2011 01:12:16 100 100 50 1 

20 09/03/2011 01:13:16 100 100 50 1 

21 09/03/2011 01:14:17 100 100 50 1 

22 09/03/2011 01:20:11 100 100 50 1 

23 09/03/2011 02:10:52 100 100 50 1 

24 09/03/2011 02:11:39 100 100 50 1 

25 09/03/2011 22:34:28 100 100 50 1 

26 09/03/2011 22:34:38 100 100 50 1 

27 09/03/2011 22:40:45 100 100 50 1 

28 09/03/2011 22:40:55 100 100 50 1 

29 09/03/2011 22:41:48 100 100 50 1 

30 09/03/2011 22:46:03 100 100 50 1 

31 09/03/2011 22:47:04 100 100 50 1 

32 09/03/2011 22:48:05 100 100 50 1 

This log isnt very clear but it only does seperate logs so its all for the reallocated sector but at different times but this one comes up with warning what gives? and i started to notice short robotic noises when i was clicking buttons in the folder browser. This used to happen to my old laptop over time but it used to freeze completely but on here it just does it for a short amount of time and no freeze


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## MrPhoton (Mar 10, 2011)

Is it still protected by warranty? Happened to me once immediately after I purchased my Asus laptop. It made very noticably loud vibrating noise coming out of its hard-drive. Quite inexplicable, except that I managed to get it changed since it is still covered by warranty.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Most laptops tend to have their own warranty code on the laptop, located with the rest of the stickers on the laptop. You may in that case find your reciept useless, except for the purpose of dealing with the retailer (and not the manufacturer). So just keep in mind that both retailer and manufacturer are different, and should be treated as such.

In terms of how long it usually takes, I think that is a question that you should ask them over the phone. Note: They may subcontract the service out to somebody else in your area to save them the hassle of having to set up something official of their own, but you should get your problem resolved all the same. I think just a few days should do it, but do follow it up with them if things are taking any longer than a week.

As hard drives get older, some sectors (areas of the disk) may become degraded or damaged. The hard drive will notice this, and try to relocate the data to another location. This is perfectly normal for a hard drive, and is a good reason why drives have spare sectors available.
Hard drive failure = detecting bad sectors. Yes and no. It depends on different cases. Once you start getting too many of them, then computer experts would seriously consider that the drive is on its way out. But in your case, you haven't even had it for that long, so that is different.

Don't worry about knowing whether it is the click of death or not. Just try to gather the facts, give them a call, and take it from there. Tell them what is going on, and why it is of concearn, and see what they offer you. If you need a experts opinion, maybe you can just walk into a computer store and ask them to give you their free advice on the sound, just to be sure.

Yeah, software like that tend to do that. You can't use their programs unless at least one disk of theirs is plugged into your computer. Makes sense.

If you want to boot off a disk like he said, then you will need to get a blank disk to write to, if you really want to do this (you seem to be getting a lot of stuff to do). I don't see a point though.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Just listening to my laptop right now, it does make a bit of a clicking noise. But that is just the sound that hard drives make when they are under any hard drive activity. So before you take anything too far, I would suggest getting a second opinion from somebody else who knows what they are talking about. This could be a friend of yours, or free advice from someone in a computer store like I said.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi at this point I would ask a hdd guru here Hard Drive Support - Tech Support Forum to look over your thread and see if they can shed some light


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Ok thanks for the advice i will go on that site you said. Thanks Jay_JWLH for letting me know about your hard drive. The thing is that my mum called the shop this morning and they said its covered under 28 day guarantee and if the product is faulty the will replace it straight away. So im taking it in on Tuesday as its far away and i cant get a lift till then but the guarantee runs out the saturday after that. They said they will first test it in the shop on the day it was brought in currys which also is chained with pcworld. The worry is if the technician doesn't find the problem do you know what kind of tests they go about in a commercial shop like that because it doesnt happen all the time so if there is a fault and they dont realise that scuppers my whole guarantee. I guess i can only get on wait and then see what they say. So i guess that answers you joeten about going to a computer shop or a friend. There is one more person who could help in the meantime but hes not a I.T technician or anything i mean i reformatted his old netbook and the os was ****** im not saying that takes much knolledge but i have more knolledge basically. But he has a brand new laptop same kind of spec and i can listen to his which will ease the tention a little bit.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

ok posted the same thing twice and dont have a clue how to delete posts but i can edit......


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi don't worry about the double post it happens,do ask in the hdd area they have a wealth of experience in this field,most likely they will run a hdd diagnostic at the shop


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

ok will do sometimes i get in from doing stuff and i dont read properly but i saw what Jay_JWLH and he was saying about the manufacturers and the retail being different. Theres no point calling the manufacturer now though is there cause theres a 28 day retail guarentee to swap faulty items brought so im guessing that blows manufacturers dealing with it better out the window cause the guarentee is a brand new machine.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Also i was about to post in that hdd section with log files but do you think i should do so or just wait till i go to the shops and get it checked out cause it may not be worth racking my brain for hours and posting loads may be better to just wait for advice.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Also Jay_JWLH said dont worry about finding out if its a tick of death or not so ive taken that on board but 1 fact i would like to know just for piece of mind i thought i posted this but obviously i didnt and i cant edit cause time went but my dad said if your not listening directly under the keyboard and you can hear it 6 feet away its a problem. But like my mum he said what you guys said take it in asap before the 28 guarentee so i will conclude it at that and let you guys know if i get a new one or if it was just the laptop after the test on Tuesday.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi ok you need to slow down a little the shop has a 28 day policy not the maker they will have a years warranty,the 28 days will be for refunds most likely,next yes post in the hdd forum and provide a link to this one copy and paste it,the guys there will have more experience so can give a better answer to any questions you have,please do not tie yourself up in knots over things the important thing is you can get it fixed if it is a hdd issue or anything else for that matter, you have a reciept and the warranty will be with the other paperwork that came with your machine look it out and if needs be go to the makers site and register


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

Ok i kind of got that i will provide a link but are you saying it will probably be able to be seen to in the shop and replaced cause thats the understanding i have of what was said over the phone. Because i got those instructions obviously i will try first then call up and send off do you think this is the right thing to do cause what props into my mind when i was told that is if its faulty it will get replaced is to go and do that first thing but obviously if not theres calling Toshiba and sending it off but if its a case of a brand new machine no hassle or even the refunded money so i can get the same machine. I mean if you think its better to send it away i will ask what my dad thinks and then he will look into it but the logical thing that came in to my mind is that taking it to the shop and getting them to test it is the best way cause then i will know and then i can ask about the 28 day policy seeing what they say and if they cant replace it or refund me then i wont bother with getting the shop to send it off on warrenty i will call toshiba instead. I mean to be honest saying that is probably a stupid question cause like i said its the logical solution and easiest way that comes in to mind.

O yea basically what was said to my mum is if you buy any electrical product ie games consoles mp3 players and laptops if they have a fault or break in 28 days a full exchange for a new item will be given as long as they can see the fault you have when they try it out.

thats what this guy means i think 

MrPhoton 
Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 4 
OS: Windows xp 

Re: Laptop making weird noise help!!!! 
Is it still protected by warranty? Happened to me once immediately after I purchased my Asus laptop. It made very noticably loud vibrating noise coming out of its hard-drive. Quite inexplicable, except that I managed to get it changed since it is still covered by warranty.


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## Rinsa (Mar 9, 2011)

this was a old post i made that i forgot about http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f16/wierd-noise-coming-from-computer-help-556650.html


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

What you are saying is that it may be difficult to reproduce the problem, so they may just send you back without any fix. At the very least you should ask them if they can:
1. Run a short diagnostics of the drive, making sure that they listen to the sound the hard drives makes under load. Does it sound normal or not?
2. Test the health of the drive (keeping in mind that bad sector thing you noticed). Is it okay?
Write this down if you want, and see if they can at least send you back home satisfied that there aren't any problems with your laptop, instead of plucking up the courage and the convenience to go back when things keep going wrong. I wouldn't want you to go there, come back, and then have to go there again.

Don't worry, that shouldn't scrap your guarentee at all. Not unless they have some silly rule that gives you a limit on how many times they will spend inspecting your laptop. In my country (i'm not sure about yours), consumer law would cover this kind of thing. Regardless of what the warranty says, if there is a fault with the laptop within at least a year, the retailer that you purchased it from has to handle all problems you have with it, not the manufacturer.

Lets just see how this turns out. Don't forget to tell them it has something to do with the warranty. You never know, they might try to charge you for computer repairs thinking it has nothing to do with the warranty. I assume they will already understand.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

The retailer offers a 28 day gaurentee. This is for your convenience, in case something goes wrong with your laptop within the first 28 days you purchased it. And like was said, they may be willing to give you a full replacement if they had to, where as after the 28 days they may want to waste more of your time trying to get it fixed, not replaced.

Once the 28 days is over, you have the X number of years guarentee from the manufacturer. This typically involves phone support, and online support (email and through their website). In my country, according to law, I can just get the retailer to deal with it, but I usually give the manufactuer a call since they know how to deal with it better. Again, this is just to do with my country and.... well I have no clue what consumer law is like in your country.

Jeeeeeez you guys have terrible grammar.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi see what the shop say's you have nothing to loose by it,and you still have the warranty to fall back on if required,curry,s pcworld are usually not to bad to deal with,keep us posted on how it is going


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