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Noisy Thomson DHD4000 Fan
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OK, so, who else has a Thomson DHD4000 at the end of their bed and in no cupboard/enclosure?
I do, and as much as I love the box and all it does, the noise has been driving me crackers - in the last week that I've had it, I've not had much sleep!
Initially, I thought the occasional 'clicking/grinding' noise I kept hearing was the hard drive (it sounded like an old PC I once had), but after getting the 1.7.7 update (which switches off the hard drive in standby) and still hearing this, I looked a little further...
I unplugged the small fan underneath, and, SILENCE! When the box is running, you can barely hear the HD and when it is in standby, the drive spins-down and the unit becomes totally silent. It has been on standby all night and is only 'luke warm', which is no different to normal.
So, has anyone else found this? Does anyone else have any experiences/thoughts on whether the unit runs too hot with the fan unplugged? Or, has anyone managed to find a replacement fan that fits straight in and is almost silent (A Zalman, perhaps?).
Your experiences/thoughts/comments/advice on this one would be greatly appreciated
I do, and as much as I love the box and all it does, the noise has been driving me crackers - in the last week that I've had it, I've not had much sleep!
Initially, I thought the occasional 'clicking/grinding' noise I kept hearing was the hard drive (it sounded like an old PC I once had), but after getting the 1.7.7 update (which switches off the hard drive in standby) and still hearing this, I looked a little further...
I unplugged the small fan underneath, and, SILENCE! When the box is running, you can barely hear the HD and when it is in standby, the drive spins-down and the unit becomes totally silent. It has been on standby all night and is only 'luke warm', which is no different to normal.
So, has anyone else found this? Does anyone else have any experiences/thoughts on whether the unit runs too hot with the fan unplugged? Or, has anyone managed to find a replacement fan that fits straight in and is almost silent (A Zalman, perhaps?).
Your experiences/thoughts/comments/advice on this one would be greatly appreciated
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Providing it's still only a 5,400 RPM drive with no more than a 2mb cache, it should theoretically run at around the same temperature as the original drive.
I'm going to try recording two things at once this evening without the fan running - I'll let you know what happens in terms of heat...
The unit is of course warm, but not noticeably any warmer than it was with the fan running. In fact, the area above the hard drive (where the fan is) is completely cool!
Looks like I'm in for a second good-night's sleep without that dam fan clunking away randomly through the night...
C'mon Thomson... Sort out a quieter fan for the future boxes and offer us all a replacement!
If anyone is interested, the power connector for the fan is simply a small plug that goes into the mainboard, so can be easily 'unplugged' with a gentle pull and plugged back in again if needs-be. Certainly no need for any wire cutters etc!
As I've said, this has made my box completely silent in 'standby' mode and hardly audible when the drive is running. I can quite happily sleep in the same room when it is recording now and the 3am update doesn't wake me up either.
Not being to technical what would be the worse scenario if it got very very hot?
I'm guessing the worst case would be failure of either the HDD or the power supply if run for long periods at higher than normal temperatures. Don't know how likely this is in practice though.
Someone in another thread mentioned raising the box an extra inch or so on supports. This should improve the natural air flow to the underside and through the unit.
Heheh - It's like a "mass fan disconnection-party"
On 'Rekall's recommendation, I think I'll buy the chunkier rubber feet from B&Q to raise it higher. For the sake of a couple of quid to potentially improve the airflow, it's worth it.
I personally don't know because I am still using the one that came with it (don't want to void the warranty if poss!).
As you probably know, 7,200 RPM drives "tend" to give out more heat, so disconnecting the fan could be a potential problem, but this isn't always the case...
If I were in your situation, I'd probably try and have a look at the manufacturer's specs for both the original Seagate and the one you have replaced it with to see what (if any) difference there is.
Trouble is, some manufacturers don't tend to put much on about heat. You generally have to rely on posts in forums such as these!
Anyone else got any experiences of this?
That'd be really interesting to hear what your findings are on that one - By the time I get round to upgrading my hard drive (i.e. in 10 months' time when the warranty has expired) I'll probably struggle to get a 5,400RPM drive, so your test would be really useful for me and anyone else looking at upgrading.
If it was me doing the test, I think the main thing I'd want to know is what temperature the manufacturer's drive runs at, and compare that to the 7,200RPM drive.
HDD - temp during file test - temp 15 min after (settled)
Seatgate - 36 degC - 34degC
Maxtor - 45degC - 41degC
Samsung - 36degC - 33degC
I have an IBM deststar that I may test as well, also a 7200rpm drive.
From my test results it looks like the Maxtor drive gets very warm even when in idle (drive spinning with no activity) about 8degC higher than both the seagate and samsung! It would be interesting if a few others could do the test to see if there any differences in results. HDD Manufacturers say the HDD working temperture should not exceed 50degC otherwise there is a two fold in possible data failure! If the Maxtor drive where put into in enclosure where ambient temperture where to increase by 10degC with no fan then there is a great risk of data errors! running at 55 degC, where as the other two would be safer running at 46 degC (using the file test temperture as the HDD are in constant use in a DVR).
From those results, it would seem that one could fit a high performance/capacity drive (the Samsung), and not suffer from any more heat than what is generated from the original Seagate drive.
Combined with the fact that with the latest firmware, the drive spins down when not in use (so the extra RPM wouldn't be a problem noise-wise), I think I know which one I'll be looking at! (The Samsung, of course).
Mar 12 13:30:50 homebox smartd[4305]: Device: /dev/hde, SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 38 to 39
Mar 12 13:30:50 homebox smartd[4305]: Device: /dev/hdf, SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 41 to 42
Mine still has software version 0.3.1. Does anybody know when latest version will be downloaded?
Did you get a yellow card in the box telling you of the new features? If so, have a look at the instructions I put on another post, here: http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showpost.php?p=3549911&postcount=763
If not, try it anyway but you'll probably have to wait a few days.
Let us know how it goes!
My Thomson has a 80GB 2.5" drive - from my Pace Twin!!