Q: iMac Single beep on waking
I have an iMac, 27", mid 2011, running El Capitan 10.11.6. Over the last two months, on waking from sleep, it gives a single fairly quiet beep...but it is inconsistent, i.e. not every time nor even every other time. I've searched various forums for what would cause this with no result for this particular situation. Plenty for three beeps on MacBooks and iMacs, but nothing for a single beep that I've found so far.
Anyone experience something similar and discovered a cause and any solution? Thanks,
Tom
iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)
Posted on Aug 25, 2016 10:37 AM
As noted by Klaus, the more consistent beep warning tones are usually not faint.
Some can point to logic board or hard drive issues, perhaps even failure of a
connection or cable to/from a hard drive or other component attached to board.
If you do talk to an expert or product specialist who should be qualified to run
in-depth or long-run diagnostic test; or perhaps stress test the unit to force a
failure, be sure you have backed up all content to known good off Mac backup.
An Authorized Apple service provider, an independent repair shop with good
reputation, should be able to take the time to find the cause & estimate costs.
While an appointment with an Apple store Genius, may help narrow the cause
or offer fair options that may result in a repair; for older hardware, expect offsite.
The article about all standard tones the computer usually is known to make, text
taken direct from the Support article, I'd copied for a different ASC discussion:
"The sounds a Mac may make on startup, are covered in this article:
• About Mac computer startup tones - Apple Support
Learn about the different sounds your computer makes when it starts up and what they mean.
Mac computers can produce several sounds when starting up.
Your Mac should produce the familiar single tone on start up.
If you hear one of these tones, it might mean there's a problem with your computer:
- 1 tone, repeating every 5 seconds: This indicates no RAM is installed.
- 3 successive tones, a 5 second pause (repeating): This indicates RAM does not pass a data integrity check.
- 1 long tone while holding down the power button: Indicates an EFI ROM update is in progress on a computer manufactured before 2012.
- 3 long tones, 3 short tones, 3 long tones: Indicates EFI ROM corruption is detected and the computer is in EFI ROM recovery mode.
If you need to restore the EFI ROM on certain Mac computers produced before 2008, you'll
need to use a Firmware Restoration CD to restore the EFI ROM. Search Apple Downloads
for the right CD image for your computer.
Newer computers automatically recover from a corrupted ROM; when this occurs, a progress
bar appears on the screen during ROM recovery mode. Do not disturb the machine while the
ROM recovery is taking place. It will restart back into OS X when recovery is complete.
More:
Pressing and holding keys when the startup tone sounds can make your Mac function in different ways.
To learn more, see Startup key combinations for Mac..."
Yet from looking around, and thinking back, the tone you hear may be from a component on
the logic board, not regular 'chime-related notice/warning device' that also gives start sound.
There may be some kind of Console log or other hardware test diagnostic report that could shed
light on the probable source of this oddity. Indications suggest hard drive or other failure warning.
In any event...
Good luck & happy computing!
Posted on Aug 26, 2016 3:44 AM
