New Laptop Making Noise - PC Hardware Questions & Answers

Shirley writes in with a hardware question

Question:Yesterday I received a brand new Sony Vaio FS515E laptop. It has only been used for about 4 hours and when I switch it on it makes a lot of noise loading up. Nothing major but its like cracking, something I wouldn’t expect from a new laptop I thought it would be quiet. When the laptop does anything search for example it also makes this noise but it is very low compared to when starting. Is this odd because I’m thinking i should ask for a replacement. Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Answer: What you are hearing is most likely the hard drive spinning. It will spin a lot more during startup compared to when it’s already running. When you perform most tasks like opening a program etc then the hard drive will be active again. This is a normal sound. Some hard drives are louder than others but it shouldn't be so loud that you really notice it. If you bought it locally you may want to bring it in and have them listen to it. If not maybe you can go to a store that has the same model and try it out to compare it. See if they will let you restart it for a comparison.

Navigate: Computer Help > PC Hardware > Main Answers > PC Hardware Questions