Knocking noise during stress testing - UPDATE!

[Grumpywurzel]

The knocking sound you describe, did you ever locate the general area to where it's coming from? I tried to open the link to hear it but it's asking me for user names blah blah.

How fast is it knocking, I'd imagine if it's a fan imbalance or such like it would be a rapid vibration, Just wondering if you have a trapped air bubble in the pump or something?

 

[nigpd]

It's a rhythmical knocking sound like an old steam train running slowly over railway tracks. I can feel it through the case that the power unit is under.
Hope that makes sense

 

[nigpd]

Well, it's on its second RMA to try and sort out this rhythmical knocking sound coming from below the internal case that covers the power unit and whatever else is under there. This is happening while I'm running Prime95

PCS had requested that I send them a vid of the fault, which I did

The link is here

https://imgur.com/a/YRxfAX4

if anyone would like to look at it. Who knows, you may have a better idea of the cause than PCS!

I've also shown them the WHEA errors that @ubuysa kindly showed me are well documented, so I don't think they will be able to sort those out

 

[nigpd]

That is an odd noise....sounds almost like something is getting caught in something ie a connector getting caught by a fan blade...but then it would be more frequent if getting caught by a fan I imagine. Never heard that sort of noise before.

Yep, a fan was my first thought too, but like you say, frequency of the knock would be a lot more than it is.

Heaven only knows what it is. I just hope PCS find the cause and cure it

 

[RogWal]

Out of interest, with the room darkened, if you look into the rear of the PSU (obviously not too close) do you see any arcing or sparking when the knocking is happening?

 

[nigpd]

Hi @RogWal . Just did a check. No signs of any arcing or sparking. Just the usual knocking that I can feel through the side of the case and the bottom of the case

 

[ubuysa]

Hi @RogWal . Just did a check. No signs of any arcing or sparking. Just the usual knocking that I can feel through the side of the case and the bottom of the case

If you can feel it then there must be some sizeable mass moving. That would preclude a fan blade catching on something.

It has to be something moving though and that does mean fans. Perhaps an unbalanced fan or a loose fan?

A bit if wooden dowel makes a good sound detection tool. Hold one end to an ear and rest the other end on fans, PSU, etc. to see if you can locate the source.

 

[scarpa1]

Is this sound coming from the PSU or near it?

If so can you tell if the PSU fan is going when this noise is happening as it sort of sounds like something is trying to start, around 30 seconds left on vid the noise is very close together, sort of like it got more power from somewhere for a second.
Maybe the fan is trying to go round but something is stopping it.

Very weird, be interesting to find out what this is when you get it sorted.

 

[nigpd]

Yep, will deffo report back. Only does it when being stress tested, not under everyday use. But that's why we stress test new builds

 

[RogWal]

If you are fairly sure it is coming from the PSU, might be worth shining a torch into the rear PSU grill to see if you can see anything moving in sync with the knocking noise. Of course, keep a distance from the PSU.

 

[nigpd]

If you are fairly sure it is coming from the PSU, might be worth shining a torch into the rear PSU grill to see if you can see anything moving in sync with the knocking noise. Of course, keep a distance from the PSU.

Gave this a whirl. Didn't see anything
It gets collected on Monday, so hopefully PCS will spot the fault and get it corrected without too much delay

 

[nigpd]

Update from the RMA dept

"We have found where the ticking/knocking sound is coming from. We can confirm that it is the 4TB Hard drive. We have replaced the drive as a precaution but when the system is running high intense stress tests the ticking noise is still there as the hard drive is running a full speed. This is normal for a drive of such high capacity."

Is this really normal for a 4TB drive like the 4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE in my build?
Would really like to hear from the experts like @ubuysa and @SpyderTracks before I accept the desktop back

 

[ubuysa]

Update from the RMA dept

"We have found where the ticking/knocking sound is coming from. We can confirm that it is the 4TB Hard drive. We have replaced the drive as a precaution but when the system is running high intense stress tests the ticking noise is still there as the hard drive is running a full speed. This is normal for a drive of such high capacity."

Is this really normal for a 4TB drive like the 4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE in my build?
Would really like to hear from the experts like @ubuysa and @SpyderTracks before I accept the desktop back

A Web search does suggest that the Ironwolf is a noisy drive. The worst drive noise comes during seek so if the heads are moving back and forth a lot during the stress test they will be noisy - most HDDs make noticeable noise during rapid seeks.

I can hear my 2TB Samsung HDD when doing rapid seeks - and that's with the PC in a cabinet....

It might be worth checking whether the drive is a tad lose in its mounting? That would create a lot of noise.

 

[nigpd]

A Web search does suggest that the Ironwolf is a noisy drive. The worst drive noise comes during seek so if the heads are moving back and forth a lot during the stress test they will be noisy - most HDDs make noticeable noise during rapid seeks.

It might be worth checking whether the drive is a tad lose in its mounting? That would create a lot of noise.

@ubuysa They have said that the replacement drive has been tightened down thoroughly.

I'm just wondering if its worth the extra couple of hundred quid to get a 4TB SSD and make the problem go away altogether?

 

[ubuysa]

@ubuysa They have said that the replacement drive has been tightened down thoroughly.

I'm just wondering if its worth the extra couple of hundred quid to get a 4TB SSD and make the problem go away altogether?

It depends on what you're using the drive for really.

 

[nigpd]

It depends on what you're using the drive for really.

@ubuysa for file storage and retrieval eg video files, photoshop and lightroom files, microsoft 365 files

 

[ubuysa]

@ubuysa for file storage and retrieval eg video files, photoshop and lightroom files, microsoft 365 files

The video files will get zero performance benefit from being on an SSD but the others will.

Why not consider a smaller SSD for the photoshop/lightroom and 365 files (1Tb, 2TB?) and leave the videos on the HDD?

 

[nigpd]

The video files will get zero performance benefit from being on an SSD but the others will.

Why not consider a smaller SSD for the photoshop/lightroom and 365 files (1Tb, 2TB?) and leave the videos on the HDD?

good shout, will do. Thanks @ubuysa for your help, it's very much appreciated