WD6400AAKS whining - normal or not?

ArtVandelae · Post by **ArtVandelae** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:14 pm

I recently purchased a WD6400AAKS to replace a smaller WD3200JD that served me for many years. I got the drive from Newegg, installed it and immediately noticed a high pitched whine that wasn't there before . After some careful listening I confirmed it was the drive and, sure enough, when I swapped the new drive out for the old one the whine disappeared (although in all other respects the new drive is quieter then the one it replaced). According to Western Digital's web site a whine during operation was "not normal" so I immediately applied for an RMA replacement and the new drive came yesterday. I installed it and this one whines too.

It's not a "the bearings are failing" loud whine, just a very slight, constant, torturous, high-pitched, non-directional "wheeeeee" that is just enough to drive me crazy while using my PC (and it really stands out since my PC is fairly quiet). I really can't live with this and thus this drive needs to go.

My question is thus: is this normal behavior for these models? If it is I'm going to call Western Digital and see if I can exchange it for another model of the same capacity (perhaps the green model) since I really can't stand this noise any longer. If it isn't I'll try another replacement of the same model and hope for the best.

jamesbundy · Post by **jamesbundy** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:27 pm

I have a WD6400AAKS that exhibits a whining sound like you describe. I was able to get rid of the noise by putting sound absorbing mats in the case and around the drive bay.

Still, it's too bad that it whines in the first place. My previous 500GB and 320GB WD drives didn't...

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:18 pm

I bought a WD6400AAKS in August 2008 (three months ago) and haven't noticed any noise from it that could be considered undesirable in any way.

I had it sitting outside the PC during testing (sitting on a cardboard box with data and power cables running to it). Later I mounted it in a Solo by way of the included suspension system. It's been running pretty much every day for months now with no issues.

1. Your PSU could have coil whine that is triggered at a specific load. The drive you have now is drawing more or less watts than the drive you replaced and that is the trigger not the source of the noise? A test would be to plug the same drive up to a different PSU.

2. There is a vibration issue that I didn't see as I never hard mounted it to a steel or aluminum structure? Try dismounting it and setting it on the bottom of the case or outside the case on some cardboard or foam to see if the noise goes away when it isn't hard mounted.

Keep in mind very high frequency sounds make it hard to determine source or direction.

FartingBob · Post by **FartingBob** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:31 pm

I have 2 of them and havent noticed any whining at all.

ArtVandelae · Post by **ArtVandelae** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:53 pm

dhanson865 wrote: I bought a WD6400AAKS in August 2008 (three months ago) and haven't noticed any noise from it that could be considered undesirable in any way.

My first drive was from August as well and it was the worse of the two. The current drive is from mid-October (15th I think) and has the "Blue" label.

dhanson865 wrote: 1. Your PSU could have coil whine that is triggered at a specific load. The drive you have now is drawing more or less watts than the drive you replaced and that is the trigger not the source of the noise? A test would be to plug the same drive up to a different PSU.

I put it in an external enclosure and it made the whine there as well.

dhanson865 wrote: 2. There is a vibration issue that I didn't see as I never hard mounted it to a steel or aluminum structure? Try dismounting it and setting it on the bottom of the case or outside the case on some cardboard or foam to see if the noise goes away when it isn't hard mounted.

I currently have it in an Antec P150 case and tried both the sleds and mounting it in the rubber bands. No change.

dhanson865 wrote: Keep in mind very high frequency sounds make it hard to determine source or direction.

Believe me, I made sure to isolate the problem before I sent the first drive back. I am 100% sure it is the drive itself.

I think I'm going to call WD tomorrow, explain the situation and see if they will RMA it for the 6400AACS. With two whining drives and jamesbundy's additional case it seems that this isn't necessarily an abnormal trait of these drives. It will be a slight performance hit but I honestly can't stand to work at my computer with that noise present and I don't really want to be bothered with the hassle or cost of sending drives back and forth anymore.

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:54 pm

I have 2 of them, bought not too weeks ago, and not too weeks apart one to another.

Former does "make some sound", I cannot exactly describe it. Not really a whine, but an annoying thermal calibration (if you know what I mean). Not loud, but very annoying since it doesn't have a pattern.
If I use the disk, it goes away.
AAM on or off doesn't make a difference.

My Scorpio 2,5" does it as well, but a little more often.

Latter AAKS640 is OK, no strange sounds. But my SP250 is more silent.

So... I think it is just luck.

... and I will buy Samsung next time

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 8:50 am

i've found my drive 6400AAAKS to be silent, but torturous when its not insulated with something. when it was just stuck into my case, i didn't notice it at first, but it seems to pulsate sort of. my 250gb WD does the same thing, it'll spin up, and then slow down, constantly, regardless of the OS or applications running.

i ended up solving the problem through a sort of LiveStrong bracelet...very nice rubber i must say. cut it into a few small pieces, and just squeezed those between the SECC drive cage and the drive, pushed the drive clip through them, and there's no vibration in my case anymore. (it was a nightmare when i left my computer on for days on end, because you'd hear that pulsing vibrating sound that would make you insane.

aSASa · Post by **aSASa** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:29 pm

I have the same annoying noise. Its very loud, and audible over 1000RPM fans. I cant quiet it at all, and I've tried a variety of things. It seems to vibrate - a lot. The drive alone shakes my case enough to make fans rattle. [ Note: These fans are in TIGHT ]. I even tried putting it on foam, and it didnt help.

Also, does anyone notice that for about the first 10 minutes after boot up it never stops seeking? Under performance monitor, its a constant 10-60mb/s, and nothing is loading that I can see.

~ I knew I should have bought the Samsung 640GB :/

EDIT: Oh, and can anyone help me with AAM? Sorry to steal the topic, but I've tried a few tools and they always fail to set AAM. I cant get SMART monitoring to work either.

jeccou · Post by **jeccou** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:13 am

It makes sense that I didn't catch this thread before buying a WD6400AAKS to use as a system drive. I have been entertaining the idea of returning it and go for the almost three times as expensive VelociRaptor WD1500BLFS, and these problems some seem to have, might just be what's makes up my mind. On the other hand, I'm sure there are problems with a number of WD1500BLFSs too.

I'll revisit this thread with my findings if I decide to keep the 6400.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:43 am

bonestonne wrote:i've found my drive 6400AAAKS to be silent, but torturous when its not insulated with something. when it was just stuck into my case, i didn't notice it at first, but it seems to pulsate sort of. my 250gb WD does the same thing, it'll spin up, and then slow down, constantly, regardless of the OS or applications running.

i ended up solving the problem through a sort of LiveStrong bracelet...very nice rubber i must say. cut it into a few small pieces, and just squeezed those between the SECC drive cage and the drive, pushed the drive clip through them, and there's no vibration in my case anymore. (it was a nightmare when i left my computer on for days on end, because you'd hear that pulsing vibrating sound that would make you insane.

That sounds like the beat effect. Do you have two hard drives installed at the same time?

RedAE102 · Post by **RedAE102** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:52 am

My WD6400AAKS, branded SE16 and bought from NewEgg 14 Aug 2008, is free of any whining. My ear has to be ~3 inches from the front of the case where the drive cage is in order to hear any broadband noise the 640 may have added to the overall noise from the case. It and my WD10EACS 1TB GreenPower drive are both suspended in the elastic in the front of my Solo. The 640's seeks are quiet; subjectively, the 640's non-AAM seeks sound the same as the GP's AAM-enabled seeks! With AAM disabled on both, the GP's seeks are noticeably sharper and louder. Highly unexpected.

On enabling/disabling AAM:
In Windows XP, with my Nvidia 7050PV-630a's SATA controller set to IDE mode, I could use WinAAM to change the AAM mode on both drives. In AHCI mode, WinAAM could not find them. I'm now running 64-bit Vista Ultimate, also in AHCI mode, and WinAAM does work on here.

If you're not running Windows, then I'd recommend the Ultimate Boot CD, available from the link below. It contains the Hitachi Feature Tool for enabling/disabling/adjusting AAM, as well as a host of other utilities. I had also added the WD idle timer tool to the UBCD so I could change the idle timer on my GP so it doesn't wear itself out from excessive head load/unload cycles.

Trippytiger · Post by **Trippytiger** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:39 pm

I had to register just for this thread (although the rest of the forum was pretty tempting too)! I've got a pair of these drives in RAID1 in my Sugo SG02, and they are driving me a little crazy. I not only get the whining noise (actually more of a "whooshing" sound for me), but they've got my case vibrating like crazy as well! I've stuck Dynamat all over the case, and it helped a little but didn't completely get rid of the problem. Tilting the case seems to eliminate it, though.

Now, that's probably as much the fault of the case (and the fact that I have it on a somewhat flimsy filing cabinet), but it's still annoying. I haven't had drive issues like this before.

QuietOC wrote: That sounds like the beat effect. Do you have two hard drives installed at the same time?

I did a few searches on the forums to find more info about this, and it sounds like what I've got happening. Is there anything I can do about it besides tearing out the drive cage and rigging up a suspension system?

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:59 pm

QuietOC wrote:
bonestonne wrote:i've found my drive 6400AAAKS to be silent, but torturous when its not insulated with something. when it was just stuck into my case, i didn't notice it at first, but it seems to pulsate sort of. my 250gb WD does the same thing, it'll spin up, and then slow down, constantly, regardless of the OS or applications running.

i ended up solving the problem through a sort of LiveStrong bracelet...very nice rubber i must say. cut it into a few small pieces, and just squeezed those between the SECC drive cage and the drive, pushed the drive clip through them, and there's no vibration in my case anymore. (it was a nightmare when i left my computer on for days on end, because you'd hear that pulsing vibrating sound that would make you insane.
That sounds like the beat effect. Do you have two hard drives installed at the same time?

yeah i do, and both of them pulsate in the same way, even when in the system alone.

majorbabu · Post by **majorbabu** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:48 am

omg! i have the exact same issue. i was just lurking around this forum and came across this post.

i have two of these drives, and i'm not sure if that blasted high pitched whining is coming from both or one of them. it's so weird though, because it doesn't always reveal itself. its been fairly silent for the past few hours or so, but every once in a while it'll make that whining noise; and once it starts, it'll keep making it even if i'm doing some low load activity, like browsing the web.

i bought these drives in august, so maybe aug was a bad batch or something?

my other issue is that i get this weird vibrating noise through out my case every once in a while. it too, is just sporadic. once it starts, it makes my case vibrate like hell. its quite annoying. i have to slap the front panel part to temporarily allieviate the vibration.

though, that issue could probably be fixed with a better case. i'm on the ancient sonata I, and i think this sporadic vibration was around before i got these new WD drives.

now, i've never actually done an RMA request, and i know that i've lost my receipts. would WD still accept to replace these drives?

JoeWPgh · Post by **JoeWPgh** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:49 am

majorbabu wrote:my other issue is that i get this weird vibrating noise through out my case every once in a while. it too, is just sporadic. once it starts, it makes my case vibrate like hell. its quite annoying. i have to slap the front panel part to temporarily allieviate the vibration.

though, that issue could probably be fixed with a better case. i'm on the ancient sonata I, and i think this sporadic vibration was around before i got these new WD drives.

With an older case, it's sometimes good to go around and re-tighten everything. My Sonata was making a ridiculous noise at one point. It was coming from everywhere! The fix was equally ridiculous - I tightened the screws to the PSU. The noise was gone.