Robin Hoods Playground

hi, my collegue just bought an xbox premium brand new and gave it to me to check it out and i flashed his drive and everything it was benq and thought mightasswell check it out so, i checked it, i did not put any sound on and i was listening to the drive and i must say it was really quiet less clicking and everything. when i tried mines, man you could hear a lot of clicking. is this because i have the plexi installed so you could hear it alot or its really something with the drive.
thanks

It very well could be that the modifications you made to it could cause it to be a little louder. Some drives don't read backup media as well as others and that could also be part of the problem. It may be working harder to read the media.

I was actually going to post something similar, except mine doesn't "click". I've been flashing Benq's for a lil bit, but never my own...Well the oppertunity presented itself for me to get a brand new Elite for $50 and still keep my premium. So i did what i had to do and got an Elite manufactured Jan.30 08'. It's a "Falcon" /Benq of course and so far im loving it....Just gotta figure out how im going to fill up that 120gb.

Sorry i went off track...Anyways, i flashed with iX 1.41 @ 12x. I never take the chance with any Benq below 12x with all the stuff about longer loads and stuttering cutscenes etc. Ok so mine seems like its making a knocking noise or rattling a bit as if the laser is reading that disc hard. I've been told this is normal and that it's just the laser skipping around the disc streaming data. O-K...Im fine with that, but i thought these Benq's are supposed to be silent? The only time this thing is silent is when its not streaming & leveled @ 8x in a game.

One thing that seemed to lessen the "rattle", is tucking the connections a bit better under the drive in the system. Sounds wierd, but it kinda worked! *shrug* Oh and btw...The media i use are Verbs, TDK & 8x Memorex when im strapped for cash(i dont burn @ 8x though)

I guess i based my judgement too soon. Lately all i've been playing is MLB 2K8 on a TDK burned @ 2.4x and i guess there's a lot of streaming from the disk with that game? I tried Saints Row on a Verbatim burned @ 2.4x thinking there would be even more streaming kind of like GTA on PS2, but to my surprise, the drive was more quiet.
I then tried S vs. R 08' on a 8x Memorex burned @ 4x and even that was less strenuous than MLB. Only time i heard that noise as if the disc was "rattling" around is during the loading right before an entrance and it was minimal.

hMMm I guess different things come into play....Like the media,speed of burn & burning program. For the record, im burning with a Pioneer 115BDK, XBC and the media i listed above. Im going to give IMGBURN a shot and see if it makes any difference.

Any feedback from people who own a benq...Feel free to contribute. Thanks!

well is the drive bit louder than it was unflashed if so then you mighht be expering the problem i have its not the media, maybe a bit but not entirely true it may be media because i had two benq drives and i used the same backup. when i put in my xbox it made a heavy noise rattling and clicking. but when i put it in the otha one man so quiet even using the same media so i guess something wrong but i cant figure it out.

Still may be a weaker laser on one than the other. If it was made on Friday afternoon (mind on the weekend)or Monday morning (hung over) the tech may not have tuned it as good!

Also check and see that the drive is seated in the case right. If its not it can get a bit twisted, which may cause issues.

well the stuff people say about the benq not making noise is bull.Mine make as much as the other drives.
i do hear a little laser tracking sometime (no much)
burn slow on verbatim .

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking i should return it and get another one, but i don't want to waste my time if this sound is normal. I wish i had a vid camera to record the noise...hMm i guess i could record it with my phone & see how the quality comes out? I hooked up my premium again to see the difference and it made a lot less noise, all i heard were the fans. But then again, my premium has a Hitachi @ 8x not 12x like this Benq.

It really just sounds like the laser is seeking for data. I've heard these noises on PC drives out of case before, so maybe it's nothing to be concerned about

well flash in the benq 8x and see what the difference is

Thinking logically, running at 8x would cause the drive to be more quite as far as disk spin goes, but any other noise would be more noticeable as a result.

Yeah I'm with the other guys, just stick with quality Verbatim's and burn no faster than 4x and you should be fine. The 360 has enough problems without throttling the laser with dyes manufactured by lemurs of the Amazon. Stick with the quality MKM dyes and all is good.

sadalius wrote:Thinking logically, running at 8x would cause the drive to be more quite as far as disk spin goes, but any other noise would be more noticeable as a result.

I think you're right. I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who bought his Elite a week before mine, but its manufactured Feb.08' and he's telling me he hears the same thing. He said its not all the time, it's when the disc spins up real fast, that's when he hears the rattling of the disc around inside the drive. I just wanted to know if that's normal? I was just playing COD4 on a Memorex and the noise of the drive & fans are leveled out(probably going 8x) while playing in campaign. Only time i hear that sound is for a second after i die & it's loading. *shrug*

Well, disk spin noise is quite different than laser tracking (reading) noise. If you can pin point what the actual noise is, then you would be more apt to know if its normal or not. I don't have a benq to compare to my samsung ms-28 or my hitachi 0078FK but if you think it's noise related to disk spin, it could be that a spindle may be a little warped or something, but one would think that if that was the case, it would do at any 8x as well and not just at certain times. I think to actually answer your questions, your going to need to do some experimentation. But if it were me, as long as the games play fine, no DRE's or disks getting scratched up, I wouldn't be overly concerned, but thats just me.

yep could be.

well that just begs the questions dose it make the sound on a orig disc.

If you do think it's linked specifically to the dyes on the different backup discs you are using, you can run the discs through Nero CD-DVD Speed for quality and disc surface checks. In general the scans need to be taken with a grain of salt, however you may discover that the disc quality and surface scans of the Memorex discs are significantly worse than your Verbatims and in turn explain the extra noise. Get CD-DVD Speed here:

http://cdspeed2000.com/files/NeroCDSpeed_47715.zip

Here's a user guide with pictures: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f96/cd-dvd-spe ... de-192563/

Scan the discs at the same speed they were burned. Make sure you don't use the quick scan feature, the results are not accurate.