SSDs (Solid-State Drives) use flash memory technology; they are completely mechanically inert. This suggests that they do not make noise.
However, it should be obvious that SSDs still contain several different parts strictly speaking, i.e., capacitors and inductors.
These parts expand and contract because they are powered by electricity, and they may become slightly warm while in use. The temperature of nearby components may also have an impact on this.
The noise is generated from the power circuit which is known by a phenomenon known as Piezoelectric Effect.
In This Article
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Potential hardware issues & malfunctioning parts brought on by peripheral connections causing Piezoelectric Effect.
- File system and software problems that might be caused by a bad application. This causes the SSD to fail and make noise.
- Circuit issues and electrical voltage instability cause noise.
- Another potential cause of your SSD’s noise could be a frequent crash due to wrong part insertion.
4 Reasons Why SSD Makes Noise (with Solutions)
Slight vibrations can sometimes be produced by the expansions and contractions in SSDs, even though they are oftentimes very small.
The air surrounding it is moved by these vibrations. This noise, which is frequently referred to as electrical noise, is the result of the movement of this air.
A 20 Hz frequency is typical of electrical noise. The lowest noise levels that people can hear are roughly at this frequency mark on the hearing spectrum.
1. Malfunctioning Parts
If you feel your SSD is making a grinding noise, and you are completely confused about why this is happening, read on.
There are many movable parts inside a computer. They move around and make some noise as they toil and labor for the system.
SSDs do not contain any movable parts on their own. After installing an SSD, if you begin to hear grinding noises, do not worry—it probably isn’t your SSD.
Solution
When a component is malfunctioning, a grinding sound is frequently heard. One of the offenders in this situation is the fan. It contains tiny bearings that help with rotation.
They make a distinct grinding sound when neglected or when they are damaged. If you hear grinding noises after upgrading your SSD, check your fan bearings.
The use of flash memory cells is a feature of SSDs. The location of these memory chips, also known as NAND chips, inside the SSD is fixed.
HDDs (Hard Disk Drives), on the other hand, employ magnetic technology. As a result of this distinction, the HDD contains multiple layers of magnetic discs.
A magnetic head is attached to them, which reads and writes data to the discs.
The difference in architecture affects how read and write tasks operate when they must be completed.
When it comes to HDDs, the magnetic head is given instructions to move to the right disc and partition after receiving them.
To enable reading of the pertinent sector, the disc in question rotates. A read or write command cannot be carried out on an SSD because there are no mechanical components that need to move.
As a result, SSDs are physically unable to make any noise.
Start by restarting your computer. With this fundamental step, let’s begin our troubleshooting. The only steps are to reboot the computer after turning it off.
Following that, you must carefully inspect for any indications of activity, such as blinking power and data transfer indicators.
If your SSD can power on, the issue may be the result of a hardware or software configuration error.
Therefore, open the laptop or desktop before even considering changing the BIOS or formatting the drive. To guarantee that each component is correctly aligned, this must be done.
The cables ought to be located correctly. Furthermore, since an external device can produce noise, you should think about removing the available peripheral connections.
Check all internal parts carefully before restarting to ensure they are not responsible for these sounds.
2. Variable Voltage & Electricity
On computers, a high-pitched noise is not unusual. Just think about all the components your computer has. They are all made of various materials and all operate by drawing power from the PSU’s current electric supply.
Variable voltage and current requirements apply to various parts. This fact implies that they require a power-regulating component to operate properly, given the existence of this component.
The phenomenon known as “electromagnetically induced acoustic noise” takes place when an inductor is used. High-pitch noise is the term used to describe this sound.
This type of sound, which is made by an SSD on its own, is so quiet that it can barely be heard when it occurs.
The reports that SSDs do make some noises, however, are numerous. It is possible to explain this “noise” phenomenon. Connected to the PSU (Power Supply Unit) is every component of the computer.
Each component consumes a different amount of voltage depending on the requirements of the task it is currently performing and its settings.
However, when an SSD is said to be making noise, the noise is typically caused by another component, in this case, most likely the CPU.
It and other parts emit what is referred to as “coil whine” as current passes through them. In this instance, the SSD is being incorrectly blamed for this sound.
This also applies to NVMe SSDs as a PCI bus located on the motherboard connects NVMe SSDs to the computer.
They essentially share the same components despite having different form factors.
There are no moving parts in SSDs, so there is no noise produced by them. In this regard, NVMe SSDs are not an exception.
Solution
Occasionally, faulty applications that cause your computer to fail and experience errors could be to blame for the noisy SSD.
You must start your computer in Safe Mode when you turn it on to resolve this issue. Check to see if the SSD noise disappears or continues.
The best way to figure out if your computer’s software is malfunctioning is to use Safe Mode, which applies to a few drives.
When your computer boots up, pressing F4 will start it in Safe Mode. As an alternative, you can restart the computer while pressing the Shift key.
The primary OS, drives, and essential software must all be current.
3. Internal Circuitry
Any electrical device is familiar with the crackling sound.
In this situation, some investigation is required before blaming the SSD if you’ve recently added an SSD to your system and started experiencing a crackling noise.
Other issues that your computer might experience include those that make a crackling noise. The following are some most common examples:
- Initially, there might be an issue with your audio setup. This noise is to be expected if the speakers, connection, or audio drivers malfunction.
- Second, one of your circuits might have shorted out somewhere. If this issue is not resolved right away, it could become expensive.
This kind of sound cannot be produced by SSDs alone. Another because your storage device’s instability could be a damaged or corrupted file system.
To ascertain whether the SSD’s file system is functioning properly or not, it is necessary to launch disk utility. Additionally, search for any SSD errors that demand attention.
Solution
Fortunately, problems with the firmware on your SSD drives may be a sign of hardware problems. These issues, though, might not be as challenging as you believe.
The main task in this step is to attempt reinstalling the machine’s operating system with the aid of the built-in recovery tools. To ascertain whether or not the SSD’s instability will end, this must be done.
4. Not The Right Part
A clicking sound indicates that a conventional HDD is either no longer functional or is about to become so. The noise has another source if you are certain that the SSD you have installed is an SSD and not an HDD or hybrid.
Solution
When a clicking sound first appears, a clogged fan is the most likely suspect to clean your system or replace this fan.
You should also take into account other components with spinning parts, such as DVD drives.
The best sign or indicator of an SSD that is failing can be frequent crashes. The solid-state drive in your computer will start to make strange noises or clicks.
Other computer issues might be the cause of these crashes. But if there are issues with the machine’s bootup, this is a sure sign that the SSD is failing.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you some insight into the causes of why SSD make noise.
In addition to the aforementioned factors, there might be other factors that can result in SSD noise issues.
You should get your computer physically examined by an expert technician.