My laptop started making a loud grinding noise
My laptop makes a loud grinding noise, it’s HP Compaq nx5000.
This laptop is about three years old. It’s been in for repairs multiple times, for everything from a dead LCD backlight to a destroyed keyboard (which, by the way, was my father’s fault; HE’S the one that sprayed it down with water). In fact, it just recently got back because of the keyboard.
So anyway, about a week ago, I was sitting on my laptop browsing the internet when I noticed it started making this loud grinding noise. Then the computer froze up. So, I popped out the battery, let it sit for a minute, and then put the battery back in and turned it on again. It started up without problems. Then, later on while I was using it that same night, it flashed this blue screen of death at me. I saw something about the kernel and memory dump, and then it turned off. When I went to turn it on again, the grinding noise was back and it wouldn’t start up, it would just say “Non-system disk or disk error.”
I let it sit for about three days over the weekend, and then come Monday I turned it on without problems. Then after a while it made the grinding noise again, so I had to pull the battery out again.
So now, it periodically makes the grinding noise when I’m using it, and it will freeze up. When I turn the laptop on and it’s not making the grinding noise right away, the fan IS spinning and I can hear it running and everything is normal. Usually the fan is spinning when I pull the battery out because of the grinding noise, too. I notice that everytime it makes the grinding noise, the laptop is hot when I turn it off. Sometimes letting the laptop cool off will fix it, and sometimes it won’t. Usually, if it persists in making the grinding noise, letting it sit overnight will fix it.
So I’m not sure if it’s the fan or not. I’ve noticed that tiliting the laptop will sometimes stop the grinding noise, but then it will come back and won’t stop no matter which way I move the laptop. When I listen it sounds like it’s NOT coming from the fan, but I could be wrong.
Any ideas about why my laptop sounds like it’s trying to eat its hard drive?
Here are some important moments you mentioned in the post above:
1. laptop started making this loud grinding noise
2. computer freezes up
3. laptop flashed this blue screen of death at me
4. “Non-system disk or disk error” on startup
I’m 99% positive that you have a failing hard drive. Back it up as soon as possible while you can access it, because the hard drive might fail any time now. Data recovery is very expensive, transfer data yourself while you can. After that replace the hard drive and reimage the drive using a set of recovery CDs or DVD you got from HP.
December 4th, 2011 at 8:46 am
I got an hp dvt6qe yesterday and opened it up. the graphics and sound is amazing so its good. but it keeps making a weird grinding sound. the laptop is brand new and has 800g disc and has an i7 quad core processor and an 8g ram. The grinding sound doesn’t occur when I am tilting the screen back and forth and it doesn’t occur when I place the laptop (keyboard, memory, cpu part) almost vertically with the screen flat on the ground
Can someone tell me why this is happening? I am going to transfer files to a recovery disc within the next 2 weeks.
October 14th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
you should be looking for a new hard drive that sound means it on it way out trust me i know had many do that to me i always had to get a new hard drive like one time i bought a brand new computer and the hard drive was no good just happens and sometime if you have it next to any magnetic energy it will make them no good either make sure you dont put it near your microwave when it on either thats all i can say,
October 5th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
@ Sarah,
This could be failing hard drive. Back up your personal data ASAP.
October 5th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Hi. i am computer illiterate so please just bare with me. My computer today started to make a loud noise that starts off quiet and then slowly gets louder then the blue screen of death appeared. After that I turned off the computer, logged back on and then my computer just showed me a black screen but I could still see the white arrow on the screen. Now keep in mind, like the original post, my computer is 4 year old and has been sent in for several repairs. One of the repairs just like a year or so ago was a brand new hard drive so I dont think that is the problem but yeah. Another weird thing that happens now is that right before all this went crazy, i tried to listen to Pandora but the sound wasn’t coming out of my speakers and when I plugged in my headphones, it sounded like the sound was heavily muffled. after about an hour of turning on the computer, checking the “repair feature”, and turning it on using safe mode, it finally started up again. Now it is acting normal but I am just worried that it will start again. Do you have any idea what is going wrong? I am seriously freaking out because I have two exams tomorrow and I need this laptop!
May 2nd, 2011 at 7:25 pm
when I go watch videos my laptop makes a disoriented noise threw the whole video and keeps doing this I have a HP netbook and its new. I use it almost everyday so is it overheated or what PLEASE HELP!!
December 11th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Fan noisy sounds — when u open a game or high end softwares u get this noise.actually the fan running faster than normal.try to check when do this fan sounds hign and try to stop such games or high end applications.or back up the system data and store in external HD.so that u wont affected badly.If u continue this your system may crash.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
My Sony Vaio VGN-CS215J has been making a very loud grinind noise, it doesnt freeze or do anything else its just a very loud and annoying grinding thats so loud you cant even watch tv with my laptop on. Is this my hard drive or my fan, ive taken the laptop apart and looked at the fan and it turned fine cleaned it and it still makes the noise. What do i do?
October 14th, 2010 at 8:42 am
hii i recently got a new laptop a few weeks back its brand new from pc world it was fine but I’ve just turned it on and it started making really high pitched noises and like a tickin noise it was also really slow and didnt load after the welcome sign i shut it down and rebooted and it did exactly the same whats wrong with it?? i havent had a blue screen it a acer 5551 series
October 13th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
ANSWERS!
First of all all hard drives should be backed up continuously, the best way to do that is just buy an external hard drive and back it up from time to time. If you have a desktop you should have some level of RAID implemented, any time you hear that grinding noise, it’s something called DISK THRASHING, it means your computer doesn’t have enough RAM and it’s trying to access the hard drive directly, but your hard drive isn’t fast enough to keep up and operate as ram hence the grinding noise you hear. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, hard drives are designed to put up with that a little, but it’s not a good thing. So first of all, back up your hard drive regularly, the only thing valuable on any computer is the information you have stored on it. Secondly, get more RAM, make sure your motherboard can support it, than buy the highest speed RAM you possibly can for your computer, the more RAM the better.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
my laptop is making a noise i cant really discribe but its coming from the top right and it is right after i played dota and i don’t know how to fix it it is a continues beeps but sometimes i can hear the music from the programe when i pluged in my ear peice i can hear the music but no noise from the ear peice but i can hear it on the out side from the right top corner what should i do? help!!