my PR4100 with 4 x WD Red 8TB makes occasionally (3 or 4 times a day) strange noise.
The noise appears when idle or while reading or writing.
I have done the expanded hard drive test on the PR4100 and I have also testet the hard drives with another PR4100 and with a QNAP NAS => Same noise.
I have recorded a Video, where you can hear this noise clearly.
i have a similar noise issue with 2 x red pro 10 TB hard drives… not the buzzing sound at the beginning of your video but more like the clicking that follows it.
did you return and replace the entire PR4100 3 times? same noises with each replacement? i submitted a case to WD Support for my situation, not very helpful- they pointed me to the same “How to tell if the noise…” link, then i responded to let them know that the Data Lifeguard Quick and Extended tests passed successfully, and their response was to RMA the drives- how are they coming to that recommendation?? i provided no feedback to indicate that the noise issues i’m encountering are problematic- i made note of this to WD Support and have received no response since, so i’m less inclined to RMA the drives now.
at this point, my gut tells me that the drives are fine, as there seems to be a pattern of users reporting similar issues, which i think means that my issue is not as likely to be a one-off bad set of drives. i don’t want to RMA the drives only to receive two new ones that have the same noise- i feel like maybe this is what happened to you? my biggest concern with keeping the drives is not knowing for sure if these noises are considered normal, and then one day they quit- wish i could get a straight answer from WD Support…
Hi, i have the same exact issue with 10GB WD RED HDDs in a QNAP TS-253A NAS. The drives seem fine. No errors after testing with the WD test utilities and no errors after long term SMART tests.
Wish someone from WD could shed some light on those this issue.
Yep. I am sitting here right next to my pr4100 with 4x10tb drives and it is giving me the exact same buzz sound as what I heard in your sound clip. This is why I am here. I searched for “pr4100 buzzing sound” and found this thread.
I have had this drive for perhaps 6-8 months? My first pr4100 (purchased sometime around nov 2017) failed and i lost all of my data (terabytes worth). They then sent this one out to me.
you know what? something told me to put my hand on the case to see if that is contributing to the cause. Low and behold, I simply laid my hand on the top of my case and the vibrating noise was dramatically reduced. The question now becomes, what is going on in the case (what is spinning or moving) that causes the buzzing to start up and then go away after a while. In fact, after putting my hand on the case a couple of times the buzzing went away after i took my hand off.
That sounds like a dry fan bearing. The easy way to tell which one is to touch the hub (not the blades) of each fan in turn and see if the noise stops. The power supply fan is the hardest to test. There should be a rubber seal under the sticker in the middle of the fan. Fill the space under it with a light machine oil. Some cheap fans don’t have a rubber seal and just use the sticker. You will need to replace the sticker in that case. With proper oiling, a fan can last a long time.
WARNING: If the power supply fan is the culprit, get a professional to oil it for you. The warnings on power supplies are no joke.
I have a PR4100 with 4x10tb that make the same noise every night at nearly the same time and it pulses for about 1 - 2 min. I also have two EX4100 right beside it that do nothing of the sort. The CPU activity doesn’t show any usage that would help pinpoint what its doing, but the pattern is to consistent for it not to be some sort of utility, maintenance, or scan running. What do you have them doing on a routine?
Did more testing and changed the time zone to see if it was a service based on the time of day, had not impact same noise same time that night.
Evidently some of the disk models mentioned are know to be drive managed shingled models which need a few seconds once in a while to lay down a few more layers of data. Shingled disks are not as flexible as some management is necessary.
