Upgraded to WD2500BEVS Hard drive, makes clicking noise..

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Level 1

5 points

Upgraded to WD2500BEVS Hard drive, makes clicking noise..

Hey,

I recently upgrade my hard drive in my macbook to a WD 250GB SATA drive.

the problem I'm having is that every few seconds of inactivity the hard drive sounds like it 'parks' it's head.

The SMART status of the drive is verified.

Apparently this is the solution :

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?p_faqid=1414&p_created=1138984716&psi

But I'm obviosoly on a mac running osx with no floppy drive, so does anyone know how to apply that patch? Thanks.

Message was edited by: Ron21

Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 8, 2007 8:21 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 8, 2007 8:39 AM in response to Ron21

I think that ZIP files is intended for PC user running XP or Vista.

You might need help from your friend that using XP or Vista laptop machine (that comes with SATA HD) and still have floppy disk drive on it.

I don't think buying usb floppy disk and connect that to your macbook will work, even if you use bootcamp, because you cannot pull the BIOS out during macbook start up and changed the boot sequence to usb floppy first.

Good Luck.

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Answer 2

Nov 9, 2007 10:45 AM in response to Ron21

Hi Ron,

I'm not sure this well help you, heck I'm not sure it will work, but it's worth a shot. I believe the macbook will boot off a PC boot disk (as if you wanted to run xp on it or something) I will likely soon have the same issue with this drive, and the Macbook im getting. Only thing is I have a windows machine I could put it in if I have to. Basically what I did was take the flash component out of the zip file, and edit a pre-existing bootable cdr image, to add the flash. I successfully booted it off a windows machine, and was able to get to the point of flashing the drive. Until you actually tell it to flash, there is no damage you could even do to it, if you'd like to try it to see how far it gets you, I'll post a link for it.

If you want to wait for me to see what happens, it will be a few days at very least, probably like 2 weeks before I get the macbook and install the new drive.

You can extract the zip, burn the iso with the mac, then try to boot off the cd.

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=kn6cyw3yy6b

Update the thread if it works for you, and if you wait let me know and I'll update if it works for me.

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Answer 3

Nov 9, 2007 10:46 AM in response to Photogmatt

Let me just clarify, once you boot through to the A prompt, type wdupd020.exe, and it will start the flashing program.

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Answer 4

Ron21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 9, 2007 1:24 PM in response to Photogmatt

Hey,

I am able to boot form the disk, but when I type WDUPD020.exe I get the folowing error :

"CauseWay error 07 : Unable to control A20"

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

Ron21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 9, 2007 4:17 PM in response to Ron21

Update -

I plugged the HD into a PC and used the cd image that was posted here (no floppy drive).

Anyway, the update utility told me that the HD needs no updating! (all that for nothing).

I still don't understand why every few seconds of inactivity the HD parks it's head. Like I said the SMART status is verified so I don't think the HD is defective.

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Answer 6

Nov 10, 2007 4:12 AM in response to Ron21

Sorry it didn't help. Now I'm thinking I might be stuck with the same thing. I would call Western Digital and see what they have to say about it. Someone in another thread mentioned turning off the mac's ability to sleep the HD, because it was conflicting with the HD which does that itself. I could be mistaken though, so take that for what it's worth.

I'm still going to give it a shot btw, on my end with the boot disc but I'll skip straight to the PC. Did it actually list the drive on the screen at least?

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Answer 7

Ron21 Author

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5 points

Nov 10, 2007 6:08 AM in response to Photogmatt

It did list the drive and it's firmware version, which was up to date.

I have tried turning off the option "put hard drives to sleep when possible" that didn't make any difference for me.

Thanks.

Message was edited by: Ron21

Message was edited by: Ron21

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Answer 8

Nov 10, 2007 7:09 AM in response to Ron21

Boy now you're really bumming me out. LOL
I guess I just have to hope it doesn't have that noise. Let me know if you find a solution.

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Answer 9

Ron21 Author

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5 points

Nov 10, 2007 11:31 AM in response to Photogmatt

I think I narrowed it down to some type of power saving feature in OSX.

Because when I boot into windows vista via boot camp, the clicking noise is gone.

But in windows it seems that the OS is constantly accessing the drive (if I put my ear next to the palm rest I can hear HD activity)

edit- nwm - it happens in windows as well but very rarely.

Message was edited by: Ron21

Message was edited by: Ron21

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Answer 10

Stipey

Level 1

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Nov 10, 2007 11:28 AM in response to Photogmatt

I'm on the same situation, reported it to Western Digital, still waiting for a reply.

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Answer 11

Nov 11, 2007 6:09 AM in response to Stipey

One last thing I heard was to disable the mac sudden motion sensor, because we can't seem to disable the one in the HD itself. I believe all the SMS in the mac does is protect the hd anyway.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300724

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Answer 12

Ron21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 11, 2007 6:23 AM in response to Photogmatt

After tons of research I think I finally figured out what the problem is.

Google the following terms : "APM Value" and "APM Tuner".

Unfortunately APM Tuner X does not work in leopard and I have no idea how to adjust the hard drives APM value.

The clicking noise is a result of a command being sent by the OS telling the drive to load/unload. Which basically parks the head after a few seconds of inactivity. From my understanding the APM value is OS dependent, thats why in windows the noise is very rare.

This issue has been around since 2001 and has affected various notebooks (not just macs) and even the Mac Mini.

Message was edited by: Ron21

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Answer 13

Stipey

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Nov 11, 2007 8:05 AM in response to Ron21

The last post in this discussion is very illustrative:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5747020&#5747020

Recompiled, the declunk program to an intel version, and get rid of the noise.
I know that is an ugly solution. Let's see what has Western Digital to say.

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Answer 14

Stipey

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Nov 11, 2007 1:25 PM in response to Stipey

Forgot to mention that I set the interval to 4 seconds, 5 seconds didn't kill the noise.

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Answer 15

Nov 11, 2007 2:50 PM in response to Stipey

Can you supply a link to your recompiled program? I really don't have any programming experience. Like you said hopefully WD will supply an actual fix, that would be nice.

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