New WD5000BPKX Making Periodic Repetitive Loud Tapping Noise

Internal Drives WD Gold
1

At the end of November I purchased a WD5000BPKX from Amazon. From the outset, at irregular intervals,  it have been making a loud tapping or clicking sound that from what I can’t tell is not related to normal operation. It will operate relatively quietly for hours and then suddenly starts making the noise several times in a row and then stops only to start up again a few minutes later. Then it make go hours or minutes before doing it again. I’ve downloaded the WD hard drive utility and the drive passed.

My obvious concern is that I have a defective and possibly failing drive. Before I go through the whole process of either copying the entire contents to a back up drive (I do back up my personal data regularly) or start from scratch again as i did with this drive, I thought I would check here first.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

2

Hello Doc_Zoidberg, welcome to the WD Community. See if the following link helps. 

How to tell if the noise or sound the drive is making is normal

3

Are you sure that some program isn’t running that hammers the drive with read/write requests? I would suggest looking at Event Viewer to see if any strange events are occurring. Also, I’d use Performance Monitor to look at performance over the period you expect to hear strange noises. Both of these are found at Control Panel → System and Security → Administrative Tools.

4

PC_Cobbler;

Thank you for directing me to the event log, though now I wish I had not done so. I have been so involved trying to sort out a problem on my wife’s computer that no one can seem to solve that it didn’t occur to me to take a gander at what’s going on inside my machine.

Now that i think about it, in the last couple of days, I’ve started noticing a slight degradation in overall performance. I started to panic at the number of errors I saw on the event log until I realized that most were just repititions. However, the very recent ones I saw were a bit more disturbing. What follows is a list of the error that have been repeating almost coninuelly since I put in the new HD and did a clean installation of Windows 7. Clearly, Imy macchine need help.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Disk
Date:          2/4/2015 4:06:55 PM
Event ID:      11
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Disk
Date:          2/4/2015 4:06:53 PM
Event ID:      11
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1.

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Client/Admin
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Client
Date:          2/4/2015 3:59:17 PM
Event ID:      1001
Task Category: Address Configuration State Event
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          LOCAL SERVICE
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
Your computer was not assigned an address from the network (by the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with
network address 0x00FF9EC72E1F.  The following error occurred: 0x79. Your computer will continue to try and
obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          2/4/2015 3:58:29 PM
Event ID:      7034
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The CrypKey License service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).

Log Name:      Application
Source:        DNS logging
Date:          2/4/2015 2:23:46 PM
Event ID:      0
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The description for Event ID 0 from source DNS logging cannot be found. Either the component that raises this
event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the
component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
Logger:
Socket error: 10054
Eve

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-PrintService/Admin
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-PrintService
Date:          2/4/2015 2:23:36 PM
Event ID:      808
Task Category: Initializing
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Print Spooler
User:          HAL9000\Gerry Goldshine
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The print spooler failed to load a plug-in module C:\Windows\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\UNIDRVUI.DLL,
error code 0xc1. See the event user data for context information.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Schannel
Date:          2/2/2015 8:31:58 PM
Event ID:      36888
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
The following fatal alert was generated: 43. The internal error state is 252.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        VSS
Date:          2/2/2015 8:23:15 PM
Event ID:      8194
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HAL9000
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface.  hr =
0x80070005, Access is denied. This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process.

Operation: 

Gathering Writer Data

Context:
   Writer Class Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Name:

System Writer
   Writer Instance ID: {d58b0f87-35da-4000-bed6-a1c1c6f87732}

As I said these are the ones that repeat most frequently and to which I can’t ascrib anything I did or a software glitch I was aware of.

Thanks in advance for any assistance or direction. I’m not looking forward to juggling two computer issues now.

Doc Z

5

I’ve since discoved that part of the problem lie with my having tried out Paragon’s Backup software. Apparently, thier rpoducts are almost impossible to remove all traces from one’s computer. That’s what the whole “UIM module failure” or whatever is about. I spent hours last night rooting around my system but there are still bits remaining. Several people resorted to doind a reinstall to remove it via Revo Uninstaller, which I have.

I am also going to try uninstalling and then reinstalling the HP printer drivers to see if that will resolve the whole print spooling error. I’m having no problems printing wirelessly from my computer but clearly there is some conflict. It is interesting, though, that the major problem I am having with my wife’s desktop is centered around the HP printer drivers as well. That issue is a firewall problem that won’t allow the drivers to install all of which happened following a Windows update and a driver update.

Obviously, my main concern is the drive controller error. So far this morning after bootup, no problems but then the tapping issue doesn’t surface right away.

Upshot is that I haven’t directly linked the problem to any specific event or error.

6

Per HP’s suggestion, I uninstalled their print driver and other programs. Naturally, I cannot get the driver to reinstall properly. I also  reinstalled Paragon’s Backup and Restore to see if I could get rid of the “UIM” errors, which is apparently a very common issue with all paragon products. I tried using Revo uninstaller’s Forced Uninstall for both the HP driver and Paragon. No joy as there are still remnants of both causing issues. 

In checking for solutions for both issues, I find a shared frustartion with others as neither HP and especially Paragon, have been forthcoming with answers that actually work.

The randon HD tapping noises persist but one thing I did note was that it doesn’t start until after the computer has been running for a couple of hours or more.

Since I’m only a month into the new HD and new install of Windows 7 SP1, I’m seriously considering either doing doing a reformat  or returning the drive to Amazon for a replacement and start all over.

Anyone have any better ideas? I’m open to trying anything at this point.

7

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“'Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;

Only this, and nothing more."

* * * * *

Sorry for not getting back sooner. You have an interesting problem. My opinion is that if the drive had a physical problem, the tapping would occur sooner. EXCEPT: is it possible that the drive is not getting airflow, causing it to overheat? That’s really a stretch, I admit.

It is always difficult to debug from far away, but it sounds like the HP or Paragon software might be the culprit. Is it possible to go back to a system restore point created before either one of them was installed?

I think you might be best served by wiping the disk and reinstalling. I realize this does not help your immediate problem, but here is a suggestion for the future. Build Windows completely and create a restore point. Then add stuff that generally works, for example, Office, and create another restore point. Just before installing the printer, create another restore point. That way, you can easily go back in time before something was installed. And one more thing: do not install Paragon until you are sure that the HP software is not the problem. Right now, you do not know which to blame. You need to run the PC for a while without Paragon. Don’t forget to create a restore point before installing it.

P.S. HP printers are notorious for funny stuff. Installing an HP printer always causes the PC to start much slower. I never install anything except the actual drivers, no extra software or utilities (HP makes that confusing). I’ve never used Paragon products, however.

8

PC-Cobbler

Thanks for the assistance. Since Amazon has a 5 year warranty on the HD, I’ll probably try a reinstall. IF it’s a hardware issue, I should know it fair soon after.

Actually, whenever I’ve done a reinstallation of Windows, I always keep a running list of each peice of software I install along with making sure a retore point is created. That way, if there’s a problem that crops up, I know when it started and what program caused the issue. This time, I may take things a little slower, allowing for some time in between program installs, just to see how the system is operating.

I first have to do a reinstall on my wife’s Gateway desktop, in part because of issues with the HP drivers.

Again thanks.

Doc Z