I’m glad to hear Western Digital investigated this clicking problem and found the connection to the power management instructions. That firmware update on Dell’s site was released as a solution for Dell laptops and for specific series of hard drive models: 40G - X7571 - WD400VE-75HDT0; 60G - C8579 - WD600VE-75HDT0; and 80G - W7962 - WD800VE-75HDT0. I figured WD came up with newer revisions (not 75HDT0 for the 80 GB model, for instance) and newer firmware. It’s very nice of them to find a solution for all models of the Scorpio line and publish it. I’ll give it a try too.

Apart from the firmware upgrade I have previously done to my hard drives, the Intel Application Accelerator gave me control over the power management and performance settings for the hard drive. But, this worked only under Windows; while running Ubuntu Linux, the hard drive continued to click ocasionally. Hopefully this Western Digital Hard Drive Optimization utility will do the trick for Linux as well.

After asking for support WD send me an email with the following link: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1414

Here I could get the latest firmware update, solving the clicking noise problem, and a little explanation.

Bye,
Alexander

Thanks for visiting my blog! The R99309 firmware upgrade only applies to certain Western Digital Scorpio models, so if you have another brand or model of hard drive it won’t help. Search for updated firmware corresponding to your hard drive line and model on the manufacturer’s website and Dell’s site. Also, you might want to download and install the Intel Application Accelerator which greatly improves performance and enhances power management settings.

Let me know how this works out for you and give more information about your laptop — the Latitude model number, the laptop’s BIOS version (press F2 key when it starts up to see the version), the hard drive brand and model.