MiniStack: Just how loud should the fans be?

[Unspeaked]

So a friend of mine just picked up a Mini and a MiniStack external hard drive.

The MiniStack was fine the first day he used it - he said he copied some stuff onto it, etc.

The next day, I was helping him setup the Mini and the drive worked for 20 minutes or so, and then the fans kicked in super loud. I mean, SUPER loud. Like a tortured cow or something.

The fan sounded broken to me, but after it cooled off, they went away and it was fine for another hour or so.

Then, he called me last night saying the fan came on and it sounded just as bad again when he used it the next day.

I've looked online and seen some posts about fan noise with the MiniStack, and people saying it's VERY loud, so now I can't figure out if this is the normal noise it makes, or if this unit's actually broken.

Any help?

 

[Hytower77]

So a friend of mine just picked up a Mini and a MiniStack external hard drive.

The MiniStack was fine the first day he used it - he said he copied some stuff onto it, etc.

The next day, I was helping him setup the Mini and the drive worked for 20 minutes or so, and then the fans kicked in super loud. I mean, SUPER loud. Like a tortured cow or something.

The fan sounded broken to me, but after it cooled off, they went away and it was fine for another hour or so.

Then, he called me last night saying the fan came on and it sounded just as bad again when he used it the next day.

I've looked online and seen some posts about fan noise with the MiniStack, and people saying it's VERY loud, so now I can't figure out if this is the normal noise it makes, or if this unit's actually broken.

Any help?

Mine to this point is just fine. It doesn't make any noise except for when the HD is spinning up. I can't even hear it when I'm reading or writing a ton of data to it. (It's my music drive.)

But...I wouldn't think that it's normal by anymeans.

 

[Unspeaked]

But...I wouldn't think that it's normal by anymeans.

I guess I'll have him call OWC and see what they say; from what I've read, they're pretty good about returns.

 

[MattyMac]

Yes, I would give them a call if it is obnoxiously loud. I have a lacie external hd and it makes noise, but nothing out of the norm.

 

[9Charms]

There's a couple of dip switches on the back that you can adjust. I have mine set up to A(utomatically) come on at a L(ow) speed. By default it's on A and H(igh) speed. The other option, is to set it to M(anual) and the fans never come on.

BTW, read the manual. It's all in there.

I have 2 ministacks on my mini. It's a mini-tower... I'll also be adding the DVR that looks like a mini too...

 

[Unspeaked]

There's a couple of dip switches on the back that you can adjust. I have mine set up to A(utomatically) come on at a L(ow) speed. By default it's on A and H(igh) speed. The other option, is to set it to M(anual) and the fans never come on.

BTW, read the manual. It's all in there.

I have 2 ministacks on my mini. It's a mini-tower... I'll also be adding the DVR that looks like a mini too...

This one doesn't seem to have any switches to adjust. It says it's all auto control in the manual.

Anyway, we called OWC twice and were on hold for 45 minutes BOTH times. After that, we just gave up and he emailed them about it.