Resolved Kingston SSHD occasionally very noisy at startup

I installed a Kingston Solid State Hard Drive a few months ago. It works very well, but in the past few weeks it has been sometimes very noisy at startup.

I'm wondering if this might be a sign of problems later on. It doesn't happen very often and when it does, I reboot and it usually stops.

Does this sound like I have problems with the hard drive?

Thank you.

 

Aren't there hybrid SSD's with both Solid State and platter?
Are you sure your SSD is truly Solid State only? Neil.

 

Thanks Steve,

I'll look into it.

 

Hi Neil,

Yes, I'm quite sure it's truly a Solid State Drive. It's a Kingston SSDnow 240GB.

 

It would be hard to not tell the difference between SSDs and hybrid drives. The only difference between a hybrid drive and a conventional hard drive is the memory device used for the buffer. Conventional hard drives use basic RAM and hybrid drives use NAND flash. They are both "hard" drives and the buffer (regardless the type) is typically under the cover of the drive so you cannot just tell by looking.

Whereas the SSD is typically much smaller than most HDs, and clearly much thinner than even notebook hard drives.

At any rate, a SSD should NOT be making any noise because as Steve noted, there are no moving parts. So I think you need to open the case and make sure the noise is coming from the SSD. You might be able to carefully put your finger on the SSD and feel for the noise. My guess is like Steve's and the noise is really coming from a fan, or a hard drive motor nearby the SSD.

If still not 100% certain by touch, or just to verify, I would unplug the computer from the wall, then unmount the SSD from it's mounting bracket and, with cables still attached, leave it dangling outside the case, ensuring it is not touching anything. Plug in power and boot and then determine the real source of the noise.

 

Thank you Bill.
It is definitely a much smaller and thinner hard drive than a regular SATA drive and I 'm sure it's a real SSD.

I think you might be right about it being a fan, since there are several fans in the tower.

I'll do as you have suggested and see what is going on. It only happens once in a while to, and I have run chkdsk on it and found no problems.

Thank you for taking the time to offer these suggestions.

 

If you suspect it is a fan, then I would leave the SSD alone. Instead, if you can carefully touch the center hub of the fan for just a second while it is making the noise, that will change the rotation speed which will then change the pitch or sound of the noise. If the sound of the noise does not change, it is not that fan. If you cannot reach the fan with your finger, use a wooden glue/Popsicle stick to gently press on the hub.

Since you said the noise is only when the computer starts, you may not have time to stick you finger in there before the noise stops so you may need to unplug power to each fan one at a time while testing. Just don't unplug the CPU fan.

 

Thanks Bill,

I'll try that. It doesn't happen often and it always stops when I reboot.

I have more fans in my tower than I need so I'll experiment by doing as you suggest.

 

Maybe, but graphics cards mount at the back of the case and drives at the front. So it seems it would be easy to eliminate the graphics card fan if that was it. Same with PSU fans. They are at the back too and while I realize sounds often reverberate through cavernous metal cases making their source hard to pinpoint, it should be fairly easy to determine if coming from somewhere up front where the drives are, or somewhere in back where the graphics and PSU fans are.

 

Hi Arie,

I'm not sure what you mean by hybrids. The hard drive in question is definitely a Kingston 240 GB Solid State Hard Drive.

Will you kindly explain what you meant by hybrids.

Thank you.

 

Thanks Steve,

I'll take a look at my fans including the one on my graphics card. I try to keep the tower pretty clean, but it is on the floor so dust might be the problem. I'll check.

Thanks again.

 

Thanks Bill,

I'll clean any dust out of the tower.

 

Hi Tony,

Are there moving parts in the power supply. I ask because you mentioned that it could be the cause of noise.

I'll check everything. Thank you.

 

I explained what a hybrid drive is in post #6 above. Please read that again.

No, it is NOT a "Solid State Hard Drive ". You are confusing terminology.

It is SSD, not SSHD.

SSD stands for "Solid State Drive ", not "Solid State Hard Drive ". SSDs are NOT "hard" drives.

And as I noted above in post #6, hybrid drives ARE hard drives too. They just are called hybrid because they use "solid state" memory devices for their buffers instead of traditional RAM memory devices. All "hard" drives have integrated buffers - memory to help speed hard drive performance. On current hard drives (hybrid or conventional), it is typically 32Mb, but 64Mb is becoming more common.

 

Only thing in the PS that moves is the fan.

 

Thanks for clarifying that for me Bill. Now, I understand what you mean.