Though quiet at the moment,
my desktop sometimes sometimes makes a noise that I attribute
to either a disk or a fan on its last legs.
I'm looking for suggestions for distinguishing.
For the disk, I expect I should use either hdparm of fsck.
Even after reading the man page, I'm not sure how I would use hdparm.
If I use fsck, what should I take as evidence of a bad drive?
A good drive?
Is there a way to tell whether the OS thinks a fan is on?
Is there a way to turn a fan on or off manually?
Time for a backup.
--
Michael hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"Sorry but your password must contain an uppercase letter, a number,
a haiku, a gang sign, a heiroglyph, and the blood of a virgin."
-- someeecards
On Thu, 3 Dec 2015, Michael Hennebry wrote:> Though quiet at the moment, > my desktop sometimes sometimes makes a noise that I attribute > to either a disk or a fan on its last legs. > I'm looking for suggestions for distinguishing. > > For the disk, I expect I should use either hdparm of fsck. > Even after reading the man page, I'm not sure how I would use hdparm. > If I use fsck, what should I take as evidence of a bad drive? > A good drive? > > Is there a way to tell whether the OS thinks a fan is on? > Is there a way to turn a fan on or off manually?For a disk, smartctl is the way forward, and look at the attributes. T'interweb will advise on which three parameters are worth paying heed to. smartctl -a /dev/sda sensors (part of lmsensors) will report on some fans, maybe. jh
Michael Hennebry wrote:> Though quiet at the moment, > my desktop sometimes sometimes makes a noise that I attribute > to either a disk or a fan on its last legs. > I'm looking for suggestions for distinguishing. > > For the disk, I expect I should use either hdparm of fsck. > Even after reading the man page, I'm not sure how I would use hdparm. > If I use fsck, what should I take as evidence of a bad drive? > A good drive? >1. Have you looked at either /var/log/messages or dmesg for errors? 2. You can also use SMART: step 1: smartctl -t short /dev/sd[abc...] (one at a time) step 2, after 2+ minutes so the test's done: smartctl -a | more 3. The long way would be fsck -c (check for badblocks).> Is there a way to tell whether the OS thinks a fan is on? > Is there a way to turn a fan on or off manually?Depends on your m/b. If you've got a BMC, install OpenIPMI and ipmitool.> > Time for a backup.Indeed. *AFTER* you do that, you could take the system down, open it up, and vacuum it - don't forget the fans, heatsinks, and PSU. mark
On Thu, Dec 03, 2015 at 03:44:41PM +0000, John Hodrien wrote:> On Thu, 3 Dec 2015, Michael Hennebry wrote: > > >Though quiet at the moment, > >my desktop sometimes sometimes makes a noise that I attribute > >to either a disk or a fan on its last legs. > >I'm looking for suggestions for distinguishing. > > > >For the disk, I expect I should use either hdparm of fsck. > >Even after reading the man page, I'm not sure how I would use hdparm. > >If I use fsck, what should I take as evidence of a bad drive? > >A good drive? > > > >Is there a way to tell whether the OS thinks a fan is on? > >Is there a way to turn a fan on or off manually? > > For a disk, smartctl is the way forward, and look at the attributes. > T'interweb will advise on which three parameters are worth paying heed to. > > smartctl -a /dev/sda > > sensors (part of lmsensors) will report on some fans, maybe.for fans, take the long paperboard tube from a roll of paper towels, plug one end into one ear and wave the other around near each of the fans. the chancy part of having a fan go bad is tht after a while it seizes up completely and is then silent, so you forget about it til something in your system overheats. Fred --