Something Clicking Disk every 10-30 seconds

Frank_Rizzo · 6 Mar 2006 at 21:18

Every 10-30 seconds something is clicking the disk. This is really annoying.

I've run spyware and virus scans. Nothing found - all upto date.
XP SP2 is fully udpated
Latest drivers and bios updated.

This is on a laptop with an 80Gb Samsung disk.

It's like something is trying to 'hard write' to the disk, i.e. not caching it - the head is physically moving to where it is being forced to go making a distinct 'Ta-Tick' sound.

I've used Taskmanager to shutdown everything that it will let me. Disconnected network cables. And yet it still does this random clicking every 10-30 seconds :confused:

Is this software or is the disk doing some kind of diagnostic? Using Speedfan shows the SMART status to be 100% healthy.

This only started happening in the last week.

Any ideas?

Frank_Rizzo · 6 Mar 2006 at 21:45

Hmm. Not even a year old.

Surely if the disk was on the way out the SMART status would be less than 100% and that I would also have noticed slow downs with the laptop in general?
Windows and database apps all load and run fine.

I'm running a scandisk now...

Frank_Rizzo · 6 Mar 2006 at 21:58

About 30% the way through....

The first thing I notice is that the clicking stops if the disk is doing something like scandisk. Scandisk just smoothly goes from sector to sector / track to track without any noise.

Whilst I'm waiting I had a look at the Samsung warranty info on the site. Here's a flow chart showing that Samsung say the disk is OK! But obviously I need the test to finish at 100% first.

Frank_Rizzo · 7 Mar 2006 at 11:33

Scandisk passed 100% - no errors found.

I can't see this being a disk fault anyway, as already pointed out: the laptop works fine, no slowdowns due to disk retrying etc.

I have a spare disk which I can ghost to confirm that. But I just know this is going to be a software problem only fixable by reformatting and reinstalling everything

Anyother ideas as to what this could be?

As it only started happening last week I'm thinking a recent windows update did something?

Frank_Rizzo · 7 Mar 2006 at 23:14

That is what I was hoping. I'd rather a definite duff drive than dodgy software.

Anyway. The problem is still there and it just won't go. I tell you this laptop is JINXED! Had no end of problems with it - I'm scrapping it soon.

After the previous tests this is what I did next:

Ran Samsung HUTIL test: No fault reported by util
Boot in Safe Mode: Fault exists
Boot in DOS with Win98 CD: No Fault
Ghost disk to spare disk and boot normally: Fault Exists
Use original drive with an older restored Ghost image: Fault Exists.

So there you go. The only way to get rid of the fault is to use DOS

The Samsung Drive Test passed all tests so that should 99% rule out H/W fault.

Restoring old backing image should have determined if recent software update was at fault but the problem remained.

Using a totally different brand of disk did not get rid of the fault at all - again indicating that the drive is fine.

All I can think of is that this laptop is jinxed. It has been replaced once, had two new PSU's, burnt out two ram sticks, had a new mobo, then the usb ports failed 1 week after the warranty ran out.

Now it's causing mischief with the disks.

Works great when it does - a pile of crap when it doesn't.

Frank_Rizzo · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:25

This is definitely a fault with the Uniwill design and XP.

Restored the disk to Factory Settings / Restore CD. Problem still exists - it never used to.

Installed Linux. Works fine!

Frank_Rizzo · 8 Mar 2006 at 17:31

Good point. But it would have to be a combination of XP and hardware causing the problem as it doesn't exist in DOS or Linux.

Frank_Rizzo · 8 Mar 2006 at 18:11

Yes, everything uninstalled, all tasks that can be shut down in task manager shutdown.

Remember, this only started happening since last week. Have restored the factory image cd and it still happens.

Definite combination of hardware + XP fault here.

re: PSU - does the same on battery!

Frank_Rizzo · 9 Mar 2006 at 12:25

(edited)

Frank_Rizzo · 9 Mar 2006 at 13:25

Filemon looks great! Just what I was looking for. I'll let it run for a few hours and see what's happening.

Frank_Rizzo · 10 Mar 2006 at 11:32

System:4 IRP_MJ_WRITE* C: SUCCESS Offset: xxxx: Length: 4096

That's the offending article.

I believe this is an internal process - it is not a physical file. So how do I dig deeper?

It's not even writing to a file. Other System:4 entries write to ntuser.dat and log etc. But this one just writes 4096 bytes to C:

---

As I said earlier the problem was not happening last week. This means that if I restore a ghost image from a while ago, or use the restore CD to return it to the same state as the day I bought it, then the problem should not exist.

On the points about the disk: parking, quiet / loud accoustics etc. This happens with both the Samsung and the original Fujitsu Siemens disk. And again, why now and why not last week? Nothing changed!

The common factors in all this is the motherboard and XP. The clicking starts as sson as the Windows [---- ] Logo appears.

For whatever reason, XP is forcing the mobo to physically move the disk head.

It doesn't happen in DOS/W98, it doesn't happen with Linux. That rules out a disk fault.