My new 921-Noisy

[Frobbo]

I got a 921 yesterday and am in the process of working through the settings etc (am sure more questions to follow) but it is making a whirring hard drive type of noise that doesn't stop. As near as I can tell, it did it all through the night and is warm to the touch this morning despite being turned off (but obviously not unplugged). Is this a problem?

[jsa_usenet]

Frobbo,

No, it's operating the way it's supposed to be. Yes, the hard drive runs
all of the time, and yes, it does get warm. Be sure to keep it well
ventilated, and always make sure to do a soft power-off (by hitting the power
button) ten seconds prior to unplugging it, unless you're crashed and
have no choice. This parks the hard drive heads and avoids any potential
damage to the hard drive... I've read only a few reports of that ever
happening, however.

You get used to the noise. In a home theater I'm building, I keep the 921
in a well ventilated closet with a longer DVI cable. The UHF remote makes
this easy.

I've also read that there are plans to include a hard-drive spin down in
future software releases, though I don't know if this is confirmed or even
possible. I hope so, as the moving parts is what generates much of the
power consumption and heat dissapation.

-Jay

I got a 921 yesterday and am in the process of working through the settings etc (am sure more questions to follow) but it is making a whirring hard drive type of noise that doesn't stop. As near as I can tell, it did it all through the night and is warm to the touch this morning despite being turned off (but obviously not unplugged). Is this a problem?

[finniganps]

It's funny how folks complain about the noise on the various DVR's - 921, 721, and occassionally the 5XX. It's a device with a hard drive (like a computer). When you turn on your computer do you complain about the noise it emits??? I think people want the functionality, but don't think about the fact that it does make noise since it has a hard drive (they're used to the old boxes w/o HD's).....I got used to it very quickly. My 7100 was A LOT louder than either my 508 or 721.

[SimpleSimon]

The noise you're hearing may be the system fan, not the hard drive.

Listen close at various points around the box. Sorry, I don't remember if the 921's fan is thermostatically controlled, but most E* boxes DO have that feature, so if it's the fan, change the boxes home to be cooler and that might do the job.

[joebird]

Yeah, mine's pretty noisy too. I think it's the fan.