[D-community-offtopic] A Little Cacophony of Sounds [Long-ish]

[Freeman]

(Possibly an exaggeration.)  

However I have never had a laptop make sounds I didn't understand.  And, if
the harddrive began making extra noises, I knew to devote all remaining
session time to updating backups.

But my Inspiron 1721 makes weird noises.

1. Mystery Beep

Although this one worries me, I have become accustomed to it.

It does not repeat. It only occurs about once in three sessions. It has
never occurred a second time in a session.  It often occurs about an hour
into a session but it has occurred after 12 hours.  It first occurred about
2 years ago on a laptop about 3.5 years old.

I have not noticed any associations.  It occurs more often when I am typing
away, but it has occurred when the laptop has been idle for long periods.

It is definitely not on my media speakers.  But I don't think there is an
internal speaker?

It is a high pitched beep. It is very consistent in pitch and
duration--maybe 300 milliseconds in duration.  As if from an internal
speaker on some hardware like the old modem speakers.

The frequency is pretty close to this. 

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=114497


2. Burglar on Creaky Stairs.

I assume this is my radiator and thermal tube to my sink/fan assembly.  It
is a jumble of casually spaced creaks and snap-ish noises.  The first time I
heard it, I spent a good while looking for broken plastic.  It doesn't
always happen.  As a matter of fact, I haven't noticed much for a few
months, winter.  So, cooling system most likely.

3. Tiny Turbine

A mild, small whir noise, rising in pitch like a tiny turbine powering up.

                                                        "
                                                    -r
                                                 -ir
                                           -ir-ir
                                  -ir-ir-ir
                     -ir-ir-ir-ir
      -ir-ir-ir-ir-ir
"wh-ir

It is a very faint sound.  Impossible to hear in a cafe, for example. 
Duration is about 2 seconds.  But repetition can be crazy, like 3 or 4 times
per minute.  Or not so crazy, but it always repeats.

It may not happen with ever session.  I haven't paid close enough attention. 
But I does not happen throughout the entirety of long sessions.  It can come
and go.

I may not have noticed it until now because I just moved into a quiet place.
But I can't be sure.  I may have noticed it at first and dismissed it as a
harddrive spinning up for some reason, then simply not noticed the
repetition.

It doesn't correlate with the CPU fan speed or the main fan speed.

Actually, I thought it was a harddrive continually spinning up, which
concerned me, and I tried to verify that for this post.  (They are quiet,
and insulated.)

I started with the back of this large-ish laptop held to my ear for 5
minutes.  Of course, it promptly ended a cycle of repetitions for that
period.

Things were complicated by the fact that this laptop has two harddrives.

SAMSUNG HM250JI
WDC WD5000BEVT-8

I got the back plate off and the main fan had stopped so I was only
listening to the drives and, presumably, the CPU fan.  One drive was
noticeably quieter and cooler than the other but I think it, the WD with
Debian on it, just runs that way.  I have noticed it running cooler on
thermal monitors.  (They are both still obscured by their caddies.)

In conclusion.

I hope this computer is going to last me a long time because I am going to
miss its characterisms when it is gone.  At least, it has caused me to
contemplate it all the more.

-- 
Regards,
Freeman