[SOLVED] Please help: PC makes rattling noise

adamkiss994

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Jun 12, 2018
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Hey all,

My PC often makes a kind of split-second metallic rattling noise. That is the best way I can describe it. It is not exactly a clicking noise. Sometimes it does not happen for a while, and sometimes it happens like every 30 seconds or every few minutes.

Here is a video. It happens in the last 2 seconds or so.


Does not seem to relate to what I am actually doing, it happens when completely idle, too.

This has been happening for a while. Just a few days ago I cleaned the inside of my PC of dust, checked for any possible cable obstuctions, thinking a fan might be occasionally barely catching on a cable. The noise sounds kind of similar to that to me (that might be completely wrong), so I thought that would solve it. Yet, it still keeps happening.

I know this is not much to go on, but some of you may be able to guess what the problem might be just based on this?

Here are my temperatures:

2020-11-21-22h17-11.png


Thank you very much in advance!
 
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Solution
EDIT: I disconnected my HDD. The noise is over. It seems it must be faulty despite diagnostic softwares analyzing and saying it is in good condition (~90%). I will get it looked at, in the meantime I'll just have to be more efficient with the remaining 1TB total SSD capacity.
Sorry, not a sound I've heard.
My machine does fit your description a bit which I tracked to my first platter drive, it would read or write and then park the head making a short buzzing sound.
Watch your disk in the performance tab of task manager, do you see any spikes that happen with the sound?
 

adamkiss994

Reputable
Jun 12, 2018
32
1
4,545
Sorry, not a sound I've heard.
My machine does fit your description a bit which I tracked to my first platter drive, it would read or write and then park the head making a short buzzing sound.
Watch your disk in the performance tab of task manager, do you see any spikes that happen with the sound?

EDIT: It did spike as it made the sound. I did not do anything, my PC was only supposed to be using the SSD. Does this mean the HDD is faulty? Or is this normal?
 
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Can you see which program in task view/
It does it on my system and I have read of others complaining of this noise / rattle.
Was it you first HDD in disk order?
To me it does not seem normal for a data drive to be accessed when not in use. If it was being virus scanned it would be more than a blip. Every time I hear it I wonder if Windows is slowly killing my drive? Why not the 3rd or 4th disk why only 2nd disk?
 

adamkiss994

Reputable
Jun 12, 2018
32
1
4,545
Can you see which program in task view/
It does it on my system and I have read of others complaining of this noise / rattle.
Was it you first HDD in disk order?
To me it does not seem normal for a data drive to be accessed when not in use. If it was being virus scanned it would be more than a blip. Every time I hear it I wonder if Windows is slowly killing my drive? Why not the 3rd or 4th disk why only 2nd disk?

The HDD is a secondary drive with downloaded data, no installed programs. The OS and every installed program is on an SSD. Nothing should be accessing my hard drive.

I also completely turned off indexing yesterday in every possible way, so that should not keep it awake either.

So, I tried turning on again the automatic sleep function on the HDD, to 30 mins idle time. A few minutes after turning off, it spun up again, very loudly, while I was sleeping. What the hell would want to access it? (I use a sleep aid audio to help me sleep. The media player and the music file are both on the SSD. I exited every other program.)

Before this, for a while, the automatic sleep on the HDD was 60 mins. It literally never turned off, so it seems that something, always, consistently, wants to access my HDD within one hour.

Could it be Windows Defender? I can't think of anything else.
 
Turn computer off when not in use.
I found this when I set up a camera, it would access drive every 2 seconds and was annoying.
Turned off program and now randomly/intermittently it will access drive.
I have taken ownership of the drive, removed all access to windows 10, no indexing, no recycle bin ( minimum) Nothing should access this drive but it still happens.
Good luck, so much with win10 i'm learning to live with.
 

adamkiss994

Reputable
Jun 12, 2018
32
1
4,545
EDIT: I disconnected my HDD. The noise is over. It seems it must be faulty despite diagnostic softwares analyzing and saying it is in good condition (~90%). I will get it looked at, in the meantime I'll just have to be more efficient with the remaining 1TB total SSD capacity.
 
Last edited:
Solution