NEW, NOISY DELL INSPIRON 1520 - IDEAS??

mouse08 · June 12th, 2008, 08:25 AM

Hi, Just unpacked my brand new Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop 2.5Ghz, 4gig RAM, 320gb HD, 256Mb Graphics card running Vista. I was wondering if anyone has had issues or have heard about this model being really noisy? I have contacted Dell and they thought it was the fan,but i ran the tests they said to do and it isnt the fan. It sounds like a ticking/crunching sound from within the laptop and does this whilst idle on the desktop. I have also shut down all processes/programs using task manager and it still makes the same noise. I thought it may be the hard drive or processor??? Does anyone have any ideas? If anyone has heard of this issue or owns a dell like mine and it either makes this noise or doesnt, id like to hear from you. Thanks guys!!

#43 fan · June 12th, 2008, 08:58 AM

From what you have described, it sounds like the hard drive.
I think Laptop hard drives aren't as quiet as desktop versions, as my Lenovo's is also noisy.
How loud is the scratching noise?
Welcome to TechIMO, BTW.

mouse08 · June 12th, 2008, 09:06 AM

The noise is pretty loud and very annoying, its giving me the s^*ts at the moment. I dont understand how it could be the hard drive especially when i shut all the programs down and wasnt loading anything. I have a friend who has a HP with exact specs and it is quiet as a mouse. I'll be persuing Dell to have a look at it! Thanks mate.

carousel266 · June 13th, 2008, 10:03 PM

I have the exact same problem with my new dell inspiron 1520... not very impressed. Its sounds like the old computer i used to have about 5 years ago!!

Whenever it is 'thinking' it makes this incredibly annoying creaking or ticking noise. Even when there are no processes running it is still doing it.

It also makes this other random noise when it is just sitting there which I wouldn't know how to describe..

Dell are sending out someone to replace the hard drive for me, but if this doesn't fix the problem I'm sending it back under the 15 day total satisfaction policy!

I didn't pay $1600 for a creaking laptop that drives me mad when I'm trying to study

deplo · January 20th, 2009, 10:06 PM

i bought a inspiron 1520 with the same characteristics (2.3 ghz, 4 g ram but with XP). it used to do the noise pretty frequently but now it does not anymore.. only a few times in the day..
i think the OS plays a role. xp is more stable. also, i did several partitions with partition magic (one for linux). that might also stress the HD less..
ciao
Andrea