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View Full Version : Harddisk Spin up problem

Kaician
10-01-2004, 17:50
I am wondering if I should send in my M3 for service or not. It works perfectly but I can hear it spin up when it is searching for a song and I can hear a definitive click when the disk stops spinning after the song is loaded (not through the headphones, from the body of the unit) Is this normal, are other people experiencing the same thing?
Rev. Nathan
10-01-2004, 18:15
This is normal, with all DAP HDDs.
Kaician
10-01-2004, 18:41
Is this a point where the ipod engineers won out? My friend's 4G ipod really doesn't make a sound when it spins up, you can feel it but you can't hear it. The sound that i'm talking about from is audible a foot away from the device in a quiet room. I'm sorta disappointed if that's the case.... Oh well, i would defect to the ipod camp as quickly as I could, but there are too many points that the M3 has for it that make it the ONLY mp3 player i'm willing to buy in the current market (file formats, UMS, equalizer setting, etc...)
Rev. Nathan
10-01-2004, 19:10
Is this a point where the ipod engineers won out? My friend's 4G ipod really doesn't make a sound when it spins up, you can feel it but you can't hear it. The sound that i'm talking about from is audible a foot away from the device in a quiet room. I'm sorta disappointed if that's the case.... Oh well, i would defect to the ipod camp as quickly as I could, but there are too many points that the M3 has for it that make it the ONLY mp3 player i'm willing to buy in the current market (file formats, UMS, equalizer setting, etc...)
No, I've heard it with the iPod, too. Maybe the generation iPod you tested had a better acoustic barrier (so the HDD spinning isn't so noisy), but all the DAPs do it. I also noticed the iPod's beloved scrolling thing makes noise, too. And it gets louder when you move your finger counterclockwise.
Terry
10-01-2004, 22:56
Yes that is not specifically due to the M3 and isnt not a bug that can be fixed by iAudio. It is due to the harddrive. Even the 4th gen ipods have this click.

I dont see how this could annoy you that much as it is the tiniest of click every 5 minutes or so. So tiny that you have to try and listen for it.

However if it does any you THAT much you could probably wait a few years and get one that has a smaller or no click. But I personally didnt care about small things such as that when i was buying my player. I concentrated more of the features, quality and dimensions.

Terry
SeveR
10-02-2004, 00:20
Kaician: ipod minis have microdrives in them. If you would listen to a regular ipod I imagine they would produce the same noises. I don't understand how this could really bug you this much, just put your headphones on and listen to the music ;)
Kaician
10-02-2004, 01:27
Note about the iPod, that click when using the scrollwheel is made by an internal speaker that can be turned off or switched to the headphones by an in-menu option :rolleyes: , and it bothers me because i would rather that my dap was silent when it spins up. Just like I like my computer to be as silent as mechanically possible within my budget. It's the reason why there is a whole industry devoted to quieting technology down, there's a demand from people somewhere, at least the apple engineers think so.

And the mini is not an option due to having 10x less space than the M3 (i have about 120MB left on the M3 that is only open for carrying files if i need to)
Kaician
10-02-2004, 01:29
In any case I guess I am partially relieved that it is not a problem with my M3 specifically because sending it in for servicing would be a horrid two weeks or more (if the player is not in the dock it is in my pocket, always)
Kaician
10-04-2004, 12:24
just to note I said I was talking about a 4G (40GB) iPod, not a mini...
Guillaume
10-13-2005, 19:03
Sorry to bump such an old topic, but since some time I experience a much louder click then before. And when I left my player at a friend of mine, he also immediately said he was hearing a much louder click when the drive stopped spinning, unlike he heard before when he copied some files off it.

I haven't got any corrupted data (yet), only that when connected to the pc it suddenly disconnected itself (during a reading operation) and then reconnected.