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WD 4003FZEX failures. Install problems?

T

Tom_S

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
323
Update: WD offered to refund the original purchase price of the drive instead of accepting my request to downgrade, I have received the check today 7/2/14. All that I am out is the return shipping on the original drive, about 10 hours on the phone to WD support and a few hundred hours installing, testing and wiping the 3 drives. WD customer support was always courteous, but appear to have dropped the ball twice on follow up communication, although 1 instance might have been attributable to GMail.

I have RMA’d this disk twice in the last 2 months and now I am preparing to install it again (fresh from WD RMA). Both disks exhibited the same symptoms, I notice that the disk “thumps” ~every 3 seconds when idle, this occurred 1 to 3 weeks after installation. So then I test with WDdldiag extended and the test fails: Disk #1 the test terminated itself after 10.25 hours stating that there were too many errors, Disk #2 the test terminated itself after ~3 hours stating Error Code 8 too many bad sectors.

The drive is used as a data drive with one GPT partition, NTFS format, three directories: Video, Music and Disk Image. I first thought the “thump” was OS induced so while the first disk was installed I defeated many of Windows 7 disk related features in services, autorun, schedule, etc. such as indexing, defrag, sharing.

My boot drive is a Crucial M4 512 with one MBR partition, NTFS format and the hidden Windows reserved partition, Win 7 Pro SP1 installed (SSD firmware is up to date). All temporary variables are pathed to this drive and the swap file is there too, hiberfil.sys is disabled. S.M.A.R.T. and Superfetch have not been disabled.

I thought that the changes I had already made had solved the problem, as the second drive worked for about 2 weeks without a “thump”. I was wrong! Can I be doing something wrong during installation of the disk or is my OS or BIOS setup wrong? I have discovered that once the “thump” starts it will occur without fail whenever the disk is idle and not asleep, whether it is in Windows, Linux or at the BIOS screen, as well as on other motherboards such as, ASUS P9X79 Deluxe, ASUS Z87-A, ASUS P8Z77-M. The “thump” continues even after a DBAN DOD Short (50+ hours) wipe.

I have read the pertinent threads in this sub-forum as well as the KBs and forum posts at Microsoft, Intel, Western Digital and I have worn out my Google Fu.

[H]ere I have learned that sector errors might be caused by a faulty PSU, Sata cable or Sata port so I have replaced a nearly new Seasonic X 750 gold with a new Seasonic SS660XP platinum and I have swapped my boot drive from Sata port 1 to Sata port 2 where it is now using the Sata cable that was on the failed drives.

At Western Digital I learned that there is already a hand full of FZEX owners reporting this same problem on various size drives and there is not much other info there.

From Intel my understanding was to use legacy Bios instead of UEFI, then AHCI mode, with Irst/IaStor installed, no raid. Set this up during the OS install with only the Boot disk installed and install the data disk after the OS install was complete and up to date.

Microsoft KB and forums indicate that there might be a hotfix and a roll up update related to disks with 4k sector capability but after reading about them I don’t think that they will solve my problem.

On the chance that this could be a mechanically induced problem I will be shimming the hard drive tray to eliminate the possibility of any movement in the drive cage. Currently you can move the tray in all three axis but you would need a dial indicator to tell how much as it is pretty minimal.

I am considering either a repair install of the OS or a complete wipe and reinstall however I don’t think this will resolve the problem. What do you guys think? Have I missed something fundamental?

The failed drives had a couple of terabytes of movies and music as well as a MS image of the boot drive, both times I was able to copy all the files with no apparent problems, these files are all now backed up to a 4 Tb NAS device.

System is:
Fractal Design Define XL2
ASUS Z77 Sabertooth (most current Bios)
Intel I7 3770
GSkill F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL
ASUS HD7970-DC2-3GD5
Crucial M4 512
Seasonic SS660XP
LG GH24NS95
AFT PRO-55U
CM Hyper 212+
Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit

Device Manager = No Issues
sfc /scannow = No integrity problems
Event Viewer = No critical/error/warning
MSE = no virus found
MalwareBytes = no issues found
Kaparsky online scan = no issues found
Kaparsky anti-root kit = no issues found
Process Explorer = nothing unusual found
No processor or memory OC
ASUS GPU Tweak runs at start up but is only used to control fan speed and monitor temps, no OC.
DBAN finished with no errors
 
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Drive #3 has failed with the same test result as Drive #2.

Is there any way to convince Western Digital to refund my money?

Is there any best day of the week and/or time of day to contact WD RMA Support?
 
This doesn't sound like you've missed anything fundamental, but there is very little chance WD will refund any money (manufacturers don't really do that, only retailers/wholesalers).

There may very well be a QA problem with these drives and/or you may have had an exceptional string of bad luck. I would go through the RMA process again (as WD would expect) before requesting special treatment from them; if you can show that you've already been through the process a couple of times it'll become easier for their support reps to make it right.

Here's an idea--install one of the replacement WDs in a different system entirely for a few weeks, or however long it usually takes to show a fault. Run with a different drive in your main system for now. See if the problem recurs, and where. Main system? Then it's not likely WD's fault.

I have not had such bad luck with any HDD manufacturer before, but I have certainly seen failed drives from WD, Seagate, Samsung, Maxtor, etc.
 
Thank you Thug Esquire, I figured there was little chance of a refund.

The 4 Gb drive replaced a WD6000HLHX Velociraptor that performed flawlessly in this rig for months and continues to do so in my Sig rig.

Drive #3 failed nearly out of the box, in about 30 minutes, no thumping this time but it made such a strange noise in the short test (passed) that I immediately ran the extended test.

Drive upgrade is in the RMA scripted responses but there is nothing to up grade to. I would accept a downgrade to a different family of hard drives but that is not in their scripted answers/solutions.

Is there any way to get to a technician with more authority/knowledge than the rep's who answer the phone at WD RMA?
 
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