[D-community-offtopic] A Little Cacophony of Sounds [Long-ish]

[Freeman]

On Fri, Mar 04, 2011 at 12:19:21PM -0800, evenso wrote:

. . .

> 
> 3. Tiny Turbine
> 
> A mild, small whir noise, rising in pitch like a tiny turbine powering up.
> 
>                                                         "
>                                                     -r
>                                                  -ir
>                                            -ir-ir
>                                   -ir-ir-ir
>                      -ir-ir-ir-ir
>       -ir-ir-ir-ir-ir
> "wh-ir
> 
> It is a very faint sound.  Impossible to hear in a cafe, for example. 
> Duration is about 2 seconds.  But repetition can be crazy, like 3 or 4 times
> per minute.  Or not so crazy, but it always repeats.
> 
> It may not happen with ever session.  I haven't paid close enough attention. 
> But I does not happen throughout the entirety of long sessions.  It can come
> and go.
> 
> I may not have noticed it until now because I just moved into a quiet place.
> But I can't be sure.  I may have noticed it at first and dismissed it as a
> harddrive spinning up for some reason, then simply not noticed the
> repetition.
> 
> It doesn't correlate with the CPU fan speed or the main fan speed.
> 
> Actually, I thought it was a harddrive continually spinning up, which
> concerned me, and I tried to verify that for this post.  (They are quiet,
> and insulated.)
> 
> I started with the back of this large-ish laptop held to my ear for 5
> minutes.  Of course, it promptly ended a cycle of repetitions for that
> period.
> 
> Things were complicated by the fact that this laptop has two harddrives.
> 
> SAMSUNG HM250JI
> WDC WD5000BEVT-8
> 
> I got the back plate off and the main fan had stopped so I was only
> listening to the drives and, presumably, the CPU fan.  One drive was
> noticeably quieter and cooler than the other but I think it, the WD with
> Debian on it, just runs that way.  I have noticed it running cooler on
> thermal monitors.  (They are both still obscured by their caddies.)
> 
> In conclusion.
> 
> I hope this computer is going to last me a long time because I am going to
> miss its characterisms when it is gone.  At least, it has caused me to
> contemplate it all the more.
> 

Failed to mention. I did hear the tiny turbine when I had the hd bay
backplate off.  It was the same faintness even thought the noise from the hd
bay was much more noticeable.  So the drives are less suspect?

-- 
Regards,
Freeman