Seagate Expansion external HDD power supply making a very faint alarm sound

I’ve got a fairly new 14tb Seagate Expansion. It works fine, and I’ve been using it for a month and a bit.

I don’t know how long it’s been doing this, but the power supply is making a very faint alarm sound. The power supply is plugged into a Belkin surge protector powered on and with the “protected” status light lit, and it is plugged into an outlet. The HDD is currently not plugged in to a computer.

It’s not a beep or electricity. It’s a distinct weewooweewoo. I couldn’t even determine the source until I pressed my ear against it.

Googling just points me towards typical “my HDD is making a sound, how long do I have until it dies”, but nothing pointed me to the alarm sound from the power supply.

I’ll check again if it makes the alarm in other conditions, but in the meanwhile, I was hoping someone here might know something.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: The sound only happens when…

  • Power adapter is plugged into the HDD, AND the outlet
  • HDD is NOT plugged into the computer.

Plugging it into the computer stops the noise from the power adapter.

moosqueak,

I’ve come across it once with a laptop power supply. I believe it correlated to a voltage issue of some sort. We just replaced it with a new one and the problems disappeared. It definitely wasn’t coil whine, but I didn’t believe the person complaining about it until I held it up to my head myself.

otp,

Was it like a little tiny weewoo alarm? Because that’s all I can describe it as, Lmao

synapse1278,
@synapse1278@lemmy.world avatar

You say the sound comes from the power supply and the HDD is not plugged into the computer. My diagnistic: the power-supply makes a noise when it operates at very low load (almost 0mA of current), it is probaly making the cyclic noise because of some blinking LED or another very small variation of the loaf somewhere. This is a very common symptom of cheap power-supplies, but it doesn’t necessarly mean it isn’t working normally, just an annoyance.

otp,

It’s weird – the sound happens when the power supply is plugged into the outlet and the HDD, but it turns off when the HDD is plugged into the PC.

I could look for a blinking LED, but it really does sound like a noise maker rather than something electrical. But I’m not an expert.

synapse1278,
@synapse1278@lemmy.world avatar

I suppose, when you plug the HDD to the computer, it spins up and start drawing more current from the power-supply and the noise disapears. This is because the PSU has a buck-converter, the switching frequency increase proportionally with the current drawn by the load. When the current it almost 0mA, the switching frequency can be audible (electromagnetic forces can make some components vibrate, e.g: coils). When the current is nominal, the frequency will be ultrasound and you won’t hear it. I have observed this with many electronic devices. If you are worried, you can try another power-supply, after checking it has the same voltage and polarity on the plug, and can deliver at least as much current as the original one.

otp,

Thank you for the reassurance. I guess I’ll just either let it be noisy or leave it fully unplugged when not in use.

First world problems… having to choose between barely audible noise, or having to plug TWO things in to access my 14TB, lmao

Appoxo,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

My monitor status LED makes a faint beeping sound when in standby.
Also the panel makes an audible whine when the content changes to a specific amount of white.

As another user already said: Probably low quality electronics.

notthebees,

It’s probably just coil whine.

ArbiterXero,

It’s not an intentional noise, it’ll be a shitty bridge rectifier.

It’s just a cheap shitty power supply.

otp,

What’s a bridge rectifier?

The power supply is “universal” (comes with different attachments for different regions’ outlets), so I could see it doing something weird like that.

But it only happens when it’s plugged into the outlet, but the HDD is NOT plugged into the computer.

Could it be expecting some extra power from the PC or something?

ArbiterXero,

No, it’s nothing to worry about, it’ll be just a handful of super cheap parts in the power supply. Essentially when the power supply converts ac to dc, it has a bunch of standard parts, and if you cheap out on them, sometimes they make high pitched noises. The noises can vary in pitch too.

SheeEttin,

Can you record the sound? I’ve never heard of a power supply having any kind of noisemaker. It’s probably just electrical interference or coil whine or something, where the waveform happens to produce that periodic sound. (You might even look around and find a nearby device changing its power draw with the same periodicity.)

otp,

Yeah, interesting. I’ll see if I can record it tomorrow!

otp,

Haven’t been able to record it yet, but the sound only happens when the power supply is plugged into the HDD and the outlet (not one or the other), and the HDD is NOT plugged into the computer.

Plugging the HDD into the computer stops the sound. I was unplugging it from the PC to keep it offline when I didn’t need it. (After safely ejecting and waiting etc. of course)

I guess I’ll just need to unplug the power when I’m not using it, too.

scottmeme,

Check the SMART data with crystaldiskinfo

otp,

Will do, thanks. Did lots of thorough checks when I got it, so I didn’t expect there to be any issues now.

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