I searched on that. All I came up with was 'accoustic management' which seems to dampen the the seek response in order to reduce noise. I'd be interested to hear more of your suggestion. BTW, googling 'musical maxtor' came up with lots of hits concerning storing music on hard drives.

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There is a company that makes all sorts of computer testing gear. I recall seeing a drive tester that just replaces the IDE cable. It has multicolored leds and a dip switch programable microprocessor built in. If I can find them I will post the link in this thread. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid...

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You should find what you're looking for amongst these. http://dmoz.org/Computers/Hardware/Test_Equipment/ I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid...

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Hi First suggestion of a google search for #musical maxtor# Well I'm glad you had the same problem I did. I know, mid year someone emailed me describing a similar problem and suggested a similar problem would be found if I google for "musical maxtor" and the identifying info about the link.. I got nada (plent of other links). They sent me the above link after I asked. Must be a popular link now.

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Setishock, No doubt that your information is good. Who's question are you answering? Palookaville, Have you come back yet? Anenefan, Most fascinating! I really can't explain that one. If it were a repeated monotone, I would suspect that the drive was trying to start. The recorded sound certainly was not something as simple as that. Being an incurable skeptic, I am thinking hoax! That sounded just like a wristwatch alarm to me. Especially as that thread is over two years old and nobody else has reported anything like it. Then of course there is the claim by maxtor (who probably should know); "Maxtor hard drives do not contain audio speakers. Some failure mechanisms may make a regular repeating beep from the computer's internal speaker. This may or not be hard drive related. Check your system documentation for an explanation of system beep codes. If a drive failure is possible, it is always important to make an immediate backup." Sounds like a case for Agents Skully and Mulder!

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Hi Thanks Rimfire. I know it was somewhat off topic, but I was curious to see what members made of discussions about the beep many maxtors made and the connection to the "little box". "Strangely" there are now, only a few links offered by google for "musical maxtor" As far as a single monotone beep I'd blame the vibration from the spindle motor and voice coil on boot up. An acoustic device does not necessary emit noise. If there was a little box full of little balls, I'd guess some sort of noise and vibration reduction. (And so does not have anything to do with a method of coping with "stiction" on bootup.) If it was amplifying sound, I'd guess moisture or some other contaminant in the box, had caused the balls to bond together. Someone mid year emailed me, with a similar problem. At the time there were various links to chooose from, but it was that link which described their problem best. They said it sounded "kind of small chirp maybe 10-12 times" (I would have guessed by their written description, it was "just" the common sound of spindle motor or voil coil strain, as it makes a flat almost monotone noise when platters are stuck. - The platters amplify the vibration ) I think from that link, dunbar has the best assumption. In cases where strange musical repetitive tones are heard, I'd guess the IC chip which controls the voice coil has broken. The voice coil can move as quick as any speaker. If the IC chip that controls the voice coil were to become defective, I'd suspect that a built in feedback loop is trying to locate the head in the "correct" position, quickly and repetitively until it times out.

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Not as far off topic as some you have replied to this thread! You know who you are. The chirping sound could well be a click of death without the platter spinning. I'd imagine that's what the heads would sound like as they dragged rapidly across the inert platter. If I was to design an audio device to overcome stickage, I would probably go for low frequency rather than a melodic tone. More Barry White than Kate Bush or the Chipmonks! When chips fail, generally a transistor goes open or short. The chance of failure that causes the results in the description listed in that other thread is extremely slim. Perhaps Hollywood could turn such things into a SciFi thriller! If you hadn't noticed, I still believe that thread to be a hoax. Perhaps even enough to begin a folk lore of its own. Look out for 'Elvis has been reincarnated as a floppy drive!' In another thread I noticed that you were from the land of Oz. Whereabouts? I'm a little cagey about revealing too much personal information, but across the Bega river from me is a factory that makes cheese. That might just be crytic enough for any non Australian to be confused!

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Hi It seems many of the other threads involing the malfuntioning but musical maxtors are gone. Well I'd have to pull apart a similar drive to confirm it one way or the other for a small clear box. I was sort of hoping someone had pulled one apart and had seen something like that. I don't have any Maxtor drives more recent than a 2.5G. (All the Maxtor drives I have are dead, hmmm plenty of other older brands alive here though.) I fairly cynical, but don't think the acticle is a hoax. Proper examination, may have revealed the true source of the sound. A hoax would have reported how sucsessful they were, but it is stated they failed. The tone of the comment that it did not work out, really reflects this I believe. Anyhow about the box itself by the link author. -"The sound appeared to be coming from that box. The box seems to be some kind of an air filter, since the box is connected to the underside of the drive through a tube." I don't quite know what to make of it, but moisture trap or filter are not conclusions I'd arrive at unless I could have a closer look at one. I'd say, if not noise reduction, it sits on the voice coil mechanism and acts as some anti vibration damper. Heads will smoothly glide across the platters whilst they are not turning, and emit very little noise. IC chips have many transistors. A lot of control circuits have feedback monitoring. The way a voice coil works would need feedback to determine if the correct track had been reached. Its hardly scifi. I think maxtor might have used a quantity of chips with a design/manufacture flaw. The voice coil control IC chip is generally the chip under the cover and failure is common. It is the next thing to suspect after replacing the controller board. I believe it would be the feedback loop (and resulting vibration in the actuator arm) which is responseable for the melodic tune. The older maxtors (I had) commonly they failed when the actuator arm started to travel back and forth about 4 to 10 times across the platter, hitting the stops at each end. (In one case hard enough to dislodge the heads) I believe this was due to very slow feedback loop, to the point there was no loop. Me I'm about one and a half hours drive south from Airlie beach. Never get to drive anywhere these days though. No wet season for 2 years, no real rain for about 4 years, but last month recieved 5 inches of rain in a few hours (no runoff) plus a couple of inches over a number of different days, just enough to turn this coastal country green again. Cryptic begad :-) ummm not maybe.

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Morning, just back from reading the entire thread! It has run for nearly three years now! I think grungebobs post on page three (Sep 10 2003) might be the real answer. He says that he works for maxtor and that this is a technique they use to try and unstick the heads. The photos which ScottW posted show the heads at the middle of the drive. Unless he moved them there to make for a clearer photo, I would guess he has a stiction problem. Others who posted the same problem also reported that the drive was not spinning. What I understand is happening is, when the heads are stuck, the drive begins to vibrate them rapidly to try and dislodge them. If this fails, they try a little faster and so on. Because the heads are stuck to the disk while this is happening, the platters will resonate at the frequency of the feedback loop. Hence the clarity of the tone. I couldn't quite work out what was in the filter box, perhaps a cocktail of activated charcoal to remove impurities in the air. Dessicant gel to remove moisture and some type of foam to dampen noise. It's a moot point really as the only signifigance is that the original poster said that's where the sound seemed to come from. Not surprising, as this sound would have to come out the breather hole. Whilst there now seems to be a logical explanation for this phenominem, I fully support the idea of maintaining the folklore that maxtor puts speakers inside their drives and won't admit it or explain why they are there! Thanks for letting me know where you are. I apologise,I don't think I'll drop in for a cuppa anytime soon! I think my clue, while not all that cryptic, is enough to not tell the whole world!

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Hi Hadn't even noticed this time there were additional pages. (whats that about- do I need glasses) Seems when I first visited I quickly perused those pages, but I missed the all important comment. Well grungebob has sort of brought it to a conclusion. Buzz routine. Could well be the little beep is just the first part of the buzz routine, and melodic tunes develop when the spindle continues to be stationary. Seems pointless to install a box connected to top and botton of the drive with no outlet to the platter encloser. Perhaps the paper membrane allows air to move through it. When I first looked at the ScottW problem, I had concluded they had a stiction problem. The heads would be freed up first thing, being typical of mild curiousity, they would have more than likely, turned the hub some part of a rotation. Yep, anytime you're on holidays in this part of the world, drop in.

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I'll bring a sixpack! Ah what the hell, I'll make it a slab!

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