I’ve got a fairly new 14tb Seagate Expansion. It works fine, and I’ve been using it for a month and a bit.
I don’t know how long it’s been doing this, but the power supply is making a very faint alarm sound. The power supply is plugged into a Belkin surge protector powered on and with the “protected” status light lit, and it is plugged into an outlet. The HDD is currently not plugged in to a computer.
It’s not a beep or electricity. It’s a distinct weewooweewoo. I couldn’t even determine the source until I pressed my ear against it.
Googling just points me towards typical “my HDD is making a sound, how long do I have until it dies”, but nothing pointed me to the alarm sound from the power supply.
I’ll check again if it makes the alarm in other conditions, but in the meanwhile, I was hoping someone here might know something.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: The sound only happens when…
- Power adapter is plugged into the HDD, AND the outlet
- HDD is NOT plugged into the computer.
Plugging it into the computer stops the noise from the power adapter.
It’s not an intentional noise, it’ll be a shitty bridge rectifier.
It’s just a cheap shitty power supply.
What’s a bridge rectifier?
The power supply is “universal” (comes with different attachments for different regions’ outlets), so I could see it doing something weird like that.
But it only happens when it’s plugged into the outlet, but the HDD is NOT plugged into the computer.
Could it be expecting some extra power from the PC or something?
It’s not the bridge rectifier, but it’s an artifact of the operation of the switchmode power supply. Similar effects are often described as 'coil whine '.
The switching operation varies in duty cycle and frequency depending on load, and isn’t absolutely stable so oscillates a little bit. This switching supply is often in the audio range; typically between about 5kHz and 200kHz depending on design and load.
Changing current and magnetic field causes the physical components (particularly transformers/inductors) to change size and shape, and this vibration causes audible noise. At some conditions, it will resonate at an audible frequency and be loud. At other conditions, it might not resonate and/or the frequency is outside the audible range, so it’s silent.
Mains transformers do the same, causing the characteristic 50/60Hz hum. You’ll also hear the same out of cellphone chargers.
Nothing to worry about.
Thank you for that! I’ve gotten into the habit of unplugging both cables (power + data) when I’m done with it, which is probably better anyways…but at least now I don’t have to fret if I forget one.
(Always safely ejecting, of course!)
Thanks!
No, it’s nothing to worry about, it’ll be just a handful of super cheap parts in the power supply. Essentially when the power supply converts ac to dc, it has a bunch of standard parts, and if you cheap out on them, sometimes they make high pitched noises. The noises can vary in pitch too.
You say the sound comes from the power supply and the HDD is not plugged into the computer. My diagnistic: the power-supply makes a noise when it operates at very low load (almost 0mA of current), it is probaly making the cyclic noise because of some blinking LED or another very small variation of the loaf somewhere. This is a very common symptom of cheap power-supplies, but it doesn’t necessarly mean it isn’t working normally, just an annoyance.
Check the SMART data with crystaldiskinfo
Will do, thanks. Did lots of thorough checks when I got it, so I didn’t expect there to be any issues now.
HDDs can fail at any time, with or without warning.
Can you record the sound? I’ve never heard of a power supply having any kind of noisemaker. It’s probably just electrical interference or coil whine or something, where the waveform happens to produce that periodic sound. (You might even look around and find a nearby device changing its power draw with the same periodicity.)
Yeah, interesting. I’ll see if I can record it tomorrow!
