I bought a reconditioned WD Passport 2TB, direct from Western Digital, last year which I use to watch movies and other shows on my Sony Bravia TV.
It was working perfectly until about 2 months ago when it started clicking intermittently whenever I plugged it into the TV. It seems to work fine on my windows 11 pc though.
I requested support from WD and they sent me an email with several self-test suggestions, which all came out as “passed”
I have now created an RMA but I’m not sure that it will be replaced.
Will WD accept that the drive isn’t working properly when I use it on my TV or refuse responsibilty because I’m not using it only on my PC?
Any ideas or suggestions? Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Thanks
Sounds more like a problem with your Sony Bravia TV not providing enough power to the hard drive.
“Clicking” is usually an indicator of the drive not receiving sufficient power.
I would suggest trying another hard drive on your TV … if it clicks, then there’s something wrong with the TV’s USB port.
(you’ve already proven the drive works fine with your Win11 PC and it passes the Self-Test … so, i’m unsure why you’re ruling out any possible problem with the TV ?)
I have several WD Passports & Elements USB drives … all worked great on my PC and PS4 and Sony TV
One day … they starting clicking on my PC, but were fine on my PS4 and Sony TV.
Replaced the Power Supply in my PC … clicking stopped.
WD don’t guarantee support or compatibility with Smart TVs. Only Operating Systems (Win7/8/10/11 etc)
If they Test the drive … they’ll be testing with a PC, and not a Smart TV.
And, even if they ship you a replacement, and it’s the TV at fault, then you’re back in the same situation.
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I didn’t even think that the problem might be the tv. There’s nothing that I can do if there’s not enough power to the USB port on the TV though.
I don’t have another hard drive, only flash drives, which work fine with the tv, so I guess my only solution is to use the hard drive as storage for my movies, and of course my pc backup, and just copy onto the flash drive the movies to watch on the tv.
Thanks JoeySmyth for the advise. I won’t be sending the hard drive back to WD
Yes there is 
… buy a Powered USB Hub (something like below)
You’re looking at around $10 to $20 (Search Ebay / Amazon etc.)
Just make sure it has an external Power Supply.
WOW!!! You learn things every day 
I’ll go and get one now.
Thanks again.
