HD periodic sound in idle every second

[gafonator]

Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone could advise me. I've read about people having similar troubles but nothing what I tried helped so far. A while ago my hard drive started to periodically read / write or whatever that sound is and it is very even. Every second it does a little chrr chrr sound, it's like a heart beat actually. The sound is the sound HD normally does when reading or writing, it's just it's periodic, short, exactly the same and every second for hours and hours.

I tried stopping indexing service, windows defender, uninstalling A/V AVG, reinstalled all drivers, stoping virtual memory for windows, trying to determine which process does the access from Resource Monitor (very explanatory one - System ), run A/V tests for rootkits, botnets, viruses... nothing helped so far, computer is clean.

This behavior's started a short while ago after I bought a new graphic card - MSI Gaming nVidia GTX 960. Naturally I thought this is the problem. Reinstalling the drivers or even having the computer run without nVidia drivers didn't help.

Little comfort for me is, that in the safe-mode hard drive stays normally silent in idle. So I believe this situation must be caused by some program or process. I just don't seem to be able to identify it. Please help.

Windows 7 (it's legal, so this also shouldn't be a case)
nVidia GTX960
16GB Ram
AMD 955 Phenom II X4

Thanks,
Gafonator

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @Gafonator!

Unfortunately, these sounds might not be a good sign at all. First of all, you should definitely backup all your important data somewhere else (off-site) before proceeding with the troubleshooting! Then, I'd recommend you check inside your rig and make sure that the hard drive is mounted properly and there are no loose screws that could be causing extra vibrations while the HDD is active (reading/writing).
If you have access to another computer, I'd also suggest you try the drive there and see how it will respond and act in the other system's environment. You should also use the HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic utility to check up on the health and SMART status.

Keep me posted with the SMART results & troubleshooting! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[gafonator]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @Gafonator!

Unfortunately, these sounds might not be a good sign at all. First of all, you should definitely backup all your important data somewhere else (off-site) before proceeding with the troubleshooting! Then, I'd recommend you check inside your rig and make sure that the hard drive is mounted properly and there are no loose screws that could be causing extra vibrations while the HDD is active (reading/writing).
If you have access to another computer, I'd also suggest you try the drive there and see how it will respond and act in the other system's environment. You should also use the HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic utility to check up on the health and SMART status.

Keep me posted with the SMART results & troubleshooting! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Hi, I've run Western diagnostics and it says all is fine. Test and SMART passed ok green. Which is kind of strange, because a year ago some other test said Smart was like around 40-60% ok and now it's completely ok

Btw the hardware is: ST325041 0AS - great, silent and one of the cool perpendiculars.

What I find strange as well is the fact this behavior isn't present in the safe mode. This must mean something. Any sugestions now?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Well, I believe this is not a Western Digital HDD model, @gafonator, you should check the drive's health using another diagnostic utility again. I'd strongly recommend you check how it behaves in another computer as well. Either way, make sure you backup all your important data from the hard drive somewhere else immediately. It is weird that these noises are not present in Safe mode, though, that's why I recommend you check how it behaves on another system. Despite the fact that the HDD acts normal in Safe mode, it shouldn't make you look away from the issue. It could still be failing.

Let me know how it goes!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[gafonator]

Hi, thanks for you reply. I will do the diagnostics as soon as I have some time (12 hour shifts now).

In the meantime, do you make anything of the fact the hard drive behaves normally in Safemode?

 

[gafonator]

Well, I believe this is not a Western Digital HDD model, @gafonator, you should check the drive's health using another diagnostic utility again. I'd strongly recommend you check how it behaves in another computer as well. Either way, make sure you backup all your important data from the hard drive somewhere else immediately. It is weird that these noises are not present in Safe mode, though, that's why I recommend you check how it behaves on another system. Despite the fact that the HDD acts normal in Safe mode, it shouldn't make you look away from the issue. It could still be failing.

Let me know how it goes!
SuperSoph_WD

Oh gods, I used WD diagnostics on Seagate, you are right

It happened probably becaue the other one I have is WD Green and somehow I got mingled them in my head. I will do the Seagate diagnostics and do the rest. No can do with other computers now, but I will manage it somehow. Thank you for your patience.
Gafonator

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi, thanks for you reply. I will do the diagnostics as soon as I have some time (12 hour shifts now).

In the meantime, do you make anything of the fact the hard drive behaves normally in Safemode?

My guess is that booting into Windows OS normally is way more stressful for the HDD than Safe Mode, which is most probably why the noises are not present. I'd strongly recommend you find another computer to test the drive on it and see, if the sounds would still appear there. Either way, since there's no performance decrease or clicking HDD, I'd strongly recommend you back up your data while booted in Safe Mode. Another thing that you might want to try is running Chkdsk in Safe Mode. Keep in mind that the procedure could be stressful to the HDD, so you definitely need to perform the backup beforehand!

Hope it helps you determine whether the issue is coming from the HDD or not.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[gafonator]

Hi, thanks for you reply. I will do the diagnostics as soon as I have some time (12 hour shifts now).

In the meantime, do you make anything of the fact the hard drive behaves normally in Safemode?

My guess is that booting into Windows OS normally is way more stressful for the HDD than Safe Mode, which is most probably why the noises are not present. I'd strongly recommend you find another computer to test the drive on it and see, if the sounds would still appear there. Either way, since there's no performance decrease or clicking HDD, I'd strongly recommend you back up your data while booted in Safe Mode. Another thing that you might want to try is running Chkdsk in Safe Mode. Keep in mind that the procedure could be stressful to the HDD, so you definitely need to perform the backup beforehand!

Hope it helps you determine whether the issue is coming from the HDD or not.
SuperSoph_WD

Tried Seagate tests. All status 100% or "Passed". Strange thing is the hard drive ticking stopped today. I don't know when exactly, but I'm siting at the computer which has been on for like 16 hours at least and the sound isn't coming out of it. I'll do a check disk, I appreciate you trying to help, but somehow I doubt it's going to show any errors. I'll probably buy a new hard drive as a solution, it was a good harddisk but it's pretty small now (250GB). It's been a good time with it. Here's one to one of the first great perpendiculars

PS: The sound is coming from the hard drive for sure. It's exactly the same sound what hard drive does normally when reading or writing.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Good job, @gafonator! Well, I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Keep in mind that some physical hardware damage might go undetected by the software utilities, so chkdsk might definitely not show any errors either but it's still worth the try. The best thing to do until the replacement HDD is to keep regular backups of the data on the drive and make sure you copy it somewhere safe. That's how you will avoid the potential data loss.

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[gafonator]

I mean stopped after those 12 hour or so but whenever I start the computer it begins anew. If I leave the computer in the signing in screen the sound starts as well. Strangest behavior of a single piece of HW if I've ever seen one

Never mind. Thanks for your relentless effort to advise me, you were most kind my good man. I hope you do well. Bye, Gafonator

 

[gafonator]

Good job, @gafonator! Well, I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Keep in mind that some physical hardware damage might go undetected by the software utilities, so chkdsk might definitely not show any errors either but it's still worth the try. The best thing to do until the replacement HDD is to keep regular backups of the data on the drive and make sure you copy it somewhere safe. That's how you will avoid the potential data loss.

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Hi, I didn't solve the problem as you are aware of, but I found out an interesting thing. I allways kinda thought something with nVidia does this, because those troubles started a while after I bought a new graphic card (GTX 960 MSI) and today I just seldomly turned off and on a service named: MSI_ActiveX_Service.

Well, not that it completely stopped the sound but guess what. After I turned it off first time, the sound changed almost immediately from from a heart beat kind of sound to a heart beat sound with an echo. I turned it off and on again after that and now hard drive sill isn't exactly quite, but sometimes it stops for a time and sometimes it does different sounds. Somehow that's much better then hearing all the time chrr chrr... chrr chrr... chrr chrr.... like a water dripping on one's bald head hihi.

Very strange. I must google that service up and see what I find related to constant hard drive activity.

 

[gafonator]

Actually, since then the sound is gone. Today 2 hours computer on and the heart beat like periodic sound from HDD hasn't appeared

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, @gafonator!

Indeed, this definitely sounds strange! I'd suggest you consider resetting the whole system, but make sure you backup all the data beforehand. By resetting, I mostly mean reinstalling all the hardware-specific drivers & downloads for the motherboard and flashing BIOS even, to make sure you have the latest BIOS version installed. For this, check the mobo manufacturer's official website and all the drivers & downloads under the 'Services' tab.

The surest way to find out whether or not the HDD has any hardware issues, is to test how it will perform on another PC.

Let me know if you encounter further strange system behavior.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[gafonator]

Hey there again, @gafonator!

Indeed, this definitely sounds strange! I'd suggest you consider resetting the whole system, but make sure you backup all the data beforehand. By resetting, I mostly mean reinstalling all the hardware-specific drivers & downloads for the motherboard and flashing BIOS even, to make sure you have the latest BIOS version installed. For this, check the mobo manufacturer's official website and all the drivers & downloads under the 'Services' tab.

The surest way to find out whether or not the HDD has any hardware issues, is to test how it will perform on another PC.

Let me know if you encounter further strange system behavior.
SuperSoph_WD

The situation gets stranger and more ridiculous. Just try to google up msi_activex_service.exe and people having strange troubles with hard drives and computer stability. I haven't said that my computer started to crash in the middle of League of Legend game and when I say crash it means the computer freezes without any bsod or anything with really terrible sound coming out of the soundspeakers. I stopped the service for good, no crash after that yet. Hard drive has stopped doing the strange sounds as well since that.

What a bummer.

 

[gafonator]

Last notice:

Recently I've upgraded the system. Motherboard, RAM and Processor are new. I have never allowed the service to be running again I've played hours and hours of 3D demanding games such as Witcher 3 or Metro Last Light on ultra high settings and no problems have occured. Hard disk sound has still been gone ever since I turned the service off the very first time.

See you guys.