Hard drive is loud

[bjames105]

I had this computer sent to HP support technicians. They replaced the hard drive. Still the sound persists. Is my laptop supposed to make any noise? It first started after it was sent back from the previous repair.

[bjames105]

I've recorded the sound from my laptop microphone by setting my power options on my laptop to not sleep when the lid is closed.  I've included a link to this recording following this sentence. skydrive: laptop sound.wma

[corystal]

It's probably your cooling fan working overtime because your heatsinks are filled with debris (do you have pets?). You will need to open it and clean it out real nice like.. if you are still under warranty i suppose you could send it in for hp to do it. then blow it out regularly when you get it back

[bjames105]

I do have a pet but it stays away from my room where I keep my laptop. My laptop is 90% of the time on top of a wooden desk.  It isn't the fan because I can feel out of the exhaust that the fan doesn't blow.  When the fan does blow, however, is when I play a 3D video game on it. So I'm positive it isn't the fan.

[bjames105]

I have confirmed now that the hardware device making this whirring sound is the heat sink.  I took a look at a picture of the motherboard on the internet and I checked it with where the location of the sound is and I agree with the HP Expert that it is definitely the heat sink.  I will need to call HP again to explain that my laptop needs to be sent back again because although they fixed the heat issue with the laptop, the constant noise is still present.  It is not the hard drive.