Is there a way to lower a Hard Drive's RPM?

[imported_squire]

Hello-

I was wondering if it is possible to lower a hard drive RPM. My laptop hard drive is a 7200 RPM and it is making too much noise and overheating like crazy...

This is not a gaming laptop or a laptop that needs high power... I just want it to use it for word proccessing and for use at starbucks. But the sound and heat is unbearable. I also underclocked the built-in Mobility Radeon 9700 to the bear minimum and lowered the Intel Centrino proccessor 1.7GHz to 600MHz.

 

[Steve]

Some drives will have this option available, to change between "Performance" and whatver the other setting is called. If you don't see that in your BIOS, you may need to try a different drive.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: sm8000
Some drives will have this option available, to change between "Performance" and whatver the other setting is called. If you don't see that in your BIOS, you may need to try a different drive.

That usually doesn't lower the RPMs; it just makes the spindle seek more slowly (so it increases seek time, but uses less power/makes less noise).

If a laptop hard drive is making "unbearable" noise, it's almost certainly defective. And I think the power output on those things is like 10-15W, so it's probably not the source of your overheating issues either.

 

[imported_squire]

Yea... the part of the laptop that contains the Hard drive gets BURNING hot and noisy even when its on idle... I can even use it as a furnace in cold days. I guess I'll try to RMA it. Too bad it's a laptop bought from cyberpowerinc.com and their return policy SUCKS. But the price for the laptop was extremely cheap.

 

[ribbon13]

nah man, you should have waited for Wal*Marts black friday deals. $400 laptop

 

[Zepper]

Sounds like time for a replacement - newer drives are faster and cooler running too. Rotation speed of all hard drives is fixed and locked in by servo.

.bh.