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Asphodel · ‎11-18-2014

Hi,

Ever since I bought the G550J a few months ago it will randomly start steadily clicking. It is driving me insane. I don't know if this is normal behaviour so any feedback would be great. Some forums I've read regarding other laptops said it is the drive head, so I changed settings to never turn off hard disk - had no effect on the sounds.

Thanks

hmscott · ‎11-18-2014

Asphodel wrote:
Hi,

Ever since I bought the G550J a few months ago it will randomly start steadily clicking. It is driving me insane. I don't know if this is normal behaviour so any feedback would be great. Some forums I've read regarding other laptops said it is the drive head, so I changed settings to never turn off hard disk - had no effect on the sounds.

Thanks

Asphodel, even after disabling turning off the disk, the disk itself will enable APM/AAM settings that will park the head and save power / wear. You can disable that behavior by using a program like quiethdd.

https://sites.google.com/site/quiethdd/

Put these config lines in the quiethdd.ini file

FirstRun = 0
AC_APM_Value = 255
DC_APM_Value = 255
AC_AAM_Value = 254
DC_AAM_Value = 254
AAMEnabled = 1
APMEnabled = 1

It will stop the clicking noise from the HDD head parking, and stop the lag induced by IO waits for the disk to become available from the parked state. You have to run quiethdd every time you boot, and make sure the settings are enabled in the systray tool. So far noone has automated this startup.

Hopefully this is the problem and will stop the clicking... but the best solution is to replace the HDD with an SSD, those don't click.

Please come back and let us know how it works out 🙂

Asphodel · ‎11-27-2014

Thank you very much for this, works perfectly. One thing though, you said that the parking of the head saves wear on the drive - so will me me using quiethdd will make the drive die quicker?

hmscott · ‎11-28-2014

Asphodel wrote:
Thank you very much for this, works perfectly. One thing though, you said that the parking of the head saves wear on the drive - so will me me using quiethdd will make the drive die quicker?

Asphodel, no data on that, but it might be wise to only enable it for games that it helps, and don't use it the rest of the time.

Another way of looking at it is that the act of parking the heads in itself is adding to the wear and tear on the drive - constantly parking and un-parking as you work. Leaving the heads in action all the time is dangerous only if you drop the laptop... don't drop the laptop when the heads aren't parked 🙂

G550J ticking/clicking sound