Hi, Our ReadyNAS 626 has horrible coil whine when idling. It's so loud I can hear it 30-feet away in another room. Here's what it sounds like: https://soundcloud.com/dhl/readynas-626-coil-whine/s-qQ5Aq We're using 5 Seagate ST8000NM0055 8GB drives in XS-RAID confguration. Can anything be done to make this better? It's really awful. Thanks for your help! --David

I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS. If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good. Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks? Then see if you still hear the sound. If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.

StephenB wrote:I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS. If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good. Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks? Then see if you still hear the sound. If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.Thanks StephenB. That sounds like a good idea. These drives should still be under warranty. None of them show any errors. I'll have to look around for a 3.5 dock, We should have a couple around here. Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac? I believe its been doing this ever since we set the 626 up last year and I guess it doesn't bother my partners, but it really bothers me!

dhl wrote: Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac? No, as long as you are careful not to format the drives. If you want to test them while you are at it, then you want to plug them into a PC (as WD's lifeguard program requires Windows). Of course a drive will make some noise during normal operation. But your drives should be quiet - spec'd at ~28 db when the drive is idling. That's about the level of a whisper. If you test with the drive connected to a USB adapter ,then listen with the drive on a pad of paper, or something similar to prevent the drive from vibrating the table surface. FWIW, the noise spec for the RN626x chassis itself is about the same as your drives (spec'd at < 28 dbm). So it should also be quiet. If the noise of the NAS continues w/o the drives installed, then it is likely a fan. That could be covered by the NAS warranty - you'd need to RMA the NAS to resolve it. I think you can set that up so that Netgear ships the replacement NAS first, so you'd have no downtime. Also, you'd need to pay for the shipping of your current NAS. If you want objective data, there are some phone apps that can measure the noise level. To get an accurate measurement you'd need to calibrate the software - but you should still get a reasonable ball-park measurement w/o calibration.

StephenB wrote:dhl wrote: Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?No, as long as you are careful not to format the drives. If you want to test them while you are at it, then you want to plug them into a PC (as WD's lifeguard program requires Windows). Of course a drive will make some noise during normal operation. But your drives should be quiet - spec'd at ~28 db when the drive is idling. That's about the level of a whisper. If you test with the drive connected to a USB adapter ,then listen with the drive on a pad of paper, or something similar to prevent the drive from vibrating the table surface. FWIW, the noise spec for the RN626x chassis itself is about the same as your drives (spec'd at < 28 dbm). So it should also be quiet. If the noise of the NAS continues w/o the drives installed, then it is likely a fan. That could be covered by the NAS warranty - you'd need to RMA the NAS to resolve it. I think you can set that up so that Netgear ships the replacement NAS first, so you'd have no downtime. Also, you'd need to pay for the shipping of your current NAS. If you want objective data, there are some phone apps that can measure the noise level. To get an accurate measurement you'd need to calibrate the software - but you should still get a reasonable ball-park measurement w/o calibration. StephenB Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm pretty sure it must be the drives. I did a search on the drive model number + "coil whine" and found a couple threads where people were complaining about this exact noise. A couple people posted that they were able to fix the problem with a firmware update, and a check at the Seagate website shows that a firmware update is avaible for these drives. unfortunately, the frimware update utility instructions very clearly state "DO NOT run this firmware update on RAID systems." so I guess that eleminates that option :( I have a calibrated db meter on my phone and I mearure ~50db at the NAS ~39db at my desk about 10 feet from the NAS. That seems pretty loud to me. It's ~31db in the room with the NAS shutdown. When the disks are accessed, it's about ~34db but it's not a bad sound. The whine is loud and very unpleasent and only happens during idle, not when the disks are being accessed. I'll try to find one of our old SATA docks and do a test during off hours. If it's the drives it would be good to figure out which one(s) of the 5 are causing the problem.

dhl wrote: DO NOT run this firmware update on RAID systems." so I guess that eleminates that option :( I'm thinking that the issue they are worried about is running the firmware update software on a system with a hardware RAID controller, not that the new firmware isn't compatible with RAID. You might follow up on that with Seagate, since if it's about the RAID controller you could update the firmware while the disks are connected to the PC.

Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

14 Replies

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Oct 23, 2019
I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS. If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good.

Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks? Then see if you still hear the sound.

If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.
- dhl
  Luminary
  Oct 23, 2019
  StephenB wrote:
  I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS. If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good.
  
  Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks? Then see if you still hear the sound.
  
  If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.
  Thanks StephenB. That sounds like a good idea. These drives should still be under warranty. None of them show any errors. I'll have to look around for a 3.5 dock, We should have a couple around here. Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?
  
  I believe its been doing this ever since we set the 626 up last year and I guess it doesn't bother my partners, but it really bothers me!
  - StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    Oct 23, 2019
    dhl wrote: Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?
    
    No, as long as you are careful not to format the drives. If you want to test them while you are at it, then you want to plug them into a PC (as WD's lifeguard program requires Windows).
    
    Of course a drive will make some noise during normal operation. But your drives should be quiet - spec'd at ~28 db when the drive is idling. That's about the level of a whisper. If you test with the drive connected to a USB adapter ,then listen with the drive on a pad of paper, or something similar to prevent the drive from vibrating the table surface.
    
    FWIW, the noise spec for the RN626x chassis itself is about the same as your drives (spec'd at < 28 dbm). So it should also be quiet. If the noise of the NAS continues w/o the drives installed, then it is likely a fan. That could be covered by the NAS warranty - you'd need to RMA the NAS to resolve it. I think you can set that up so that Netgear ships the replacement NAS first, so you'd have no downtime. Also, you'd need to pay for the shipping of your current NAS.
    
    If you want objective data, there are some phone apps that can measure the noise level. To get an accurate measurement you'd need to calibrate the software - but you should still get a reasonable ball-park measurement w/o calibration.

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Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

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