Laptop Hard Disc - Heat Problems??

[GSmonkey]

I've got an IBM Thinkpad T23 with a 30GB IBM Travelstar HDD. Its recently developed a fault, whereby I get a drive error when using the laptop for a long period of time - resulting in the 'Blue Screen of Death'.

I'm guessing that this should be warning to me of an impending mechanical disc failure at some point, again I'm guessing bearing related with it being temp dependant.

Anybody else have similar experience of such a fault??

 

[Steve]

Have you noticed whether the fan cuts in as often as it used to?

Check to see if there's a bios update relating to the cooling fan operation.

 

[GSmonkey]

Bios is up to date, fan cuts in and out as often as normal.

 

[Butler]

whats the dust situation around the fan?

 

[centaur]

whats the dust situation around the fan?

And on the heatsink/s ?

 

[GSmonkey]

whats the dust situation around the fan?

...errrrr dunno. There's a good flow of air, but I haven't stripped it down to have a look. No obvious blockage.

 

[centaur]

...errrrr dunno. There's a good flow of air, but I haven't stripped it down to have a look. No obvious blockage.

Ok. How old is the 'Thinkpad' and what OS does it run ?

 

[Deleted account W]

Coincidence.

Had to have the motherboard changed on my T40 Thinkpad today after it having half a glass of red wine and throwing a wobbly.

When our IBM tech support man opened it up I was surprised to see the amount of dust clogging up the fan and heatsink. Also I wouldn't fancy taking one to bits, the amount of tiny screws and layers of pcbs and other electronic gizmos he had to remove was scarry.

The laptops running a lot cooler tonight and the fan isn't cutting in as much as it did.

 

[centaur]

Shame about the wine Whatton, you could have been the beneficiary before you de-fluffed the thinkpad !

 

[GSmonkey]

Ok. How old is the 'Thinkpad' and what OS does it run ?

Its a T23, about 3yrs old, running XP-Pro. Its an ex-corporate laptop, so I don't know the full history.

I do get a strange mechanical noise from the drive prior to the blue screen, a kind of ticking. If I let it cool down and re-start it is fine, I can run checkdisc, no errors found.

 

[GSmonkey]

Have just stripped down the laptop (lots of scarry bits) but there was little dust. Could quite get the fan unit out, but inspection of the surrounding area and the fan blades showed little dust buildup. I could also blow through the fan unit and there and the blades turned, i.e. no blockage.

One thought was that the heat buildup maybe worse using the wifi pcmcia card. Have swapped it to the upper slot, which gives more airflow through the slots and see if that makes any difference.

I'm sure it'll come to a new hard drive in the end.

 

[mjotad]

I also have an ex-corporate T23 and the hard drive died about a week after starting to make the same ticking noises that you're getting. Back up any important data now - the problem will only get worse.

Googling around various forums and on IBM's own support site (sorry I'm at work so I don't have the link to hand) this seems to have been a common problem with the type of hard drive (re-badged Hitachis if I remember correctly) used in the T23.

The best thing to do is to back up your data and change the drive - 2.5" HDs are pretty cheap, and it's very easy to change - just a couple of screws to undo to release the caddy. You can download a service manual from IBM's site which shows how to do it.

 

[GSmonkey]

I've been doing a bit of research and found the following quote:

Hard Drive Failures... Not sure if it's model specific - the 3 year mark is often around the time they quit, and not many people have had the newer models that long. This is seen in T23's predominantly and also T30's.

....with me having a 3yr old T23, I think the writing is on the wall for the drive. Backup already done

Anybody recommend a solid laptop HDD manufacturer??

 

[maxchilli]

Travelstar and Deskstar drives are well known for how hot they run, which can make them prone to failure.

First off I would run the IBM Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, this will give you conclusive results on the state of your current hard drive:

DFT

then I would go and look at the Seagate website for details of their Momentus laptop HDD's, which have the best warranty in the business:

Seagate Momentus

Hope this is of some help

 

[GSmonkey]

What is the perceived wisdom re. spin speed. Am I best sticking with a 4200rpm disc for less heat / longer life??

 

[maxchilli]

That can follow to a certain extent, but it does simply seem that some MFG's drives just run hotter than others.

I would personally go for the performance benefit of the higher RPM units - the HDD is often a major contributor to a sluggish laptop just because they spin so slowly. Most desktop drives run above 7k RPM (apart from old and/or crappy ones) and then you have the likes of the WD Raptor that run at 10k RPM - this really helps to bring the situation into focus!

The current crop of 2.5" (laptop) drives could give you more years service than you might actually end up using the laptop for. As long as it isn't physically abused in some way! So maybe that might be a factor in your choice?

Ebuyer have a reasonable selection of drives, so might be a good starting place.

Hope you find a good deal out there

 

[GSmonkey]

Cheers for all the help guys. I've installed a new drive, re-built the system and all things seem to be going well.

In the end, went for the Seagate Momentus, 60Gb, 4200rpm, 8Mb cache - £45 brand new of ebay, with a 5yr warranty. Seemed a good deal.

Laptop now running almost silent.....those IBM/Hitachi HDD's are noisy buggers.