Is there a strange sound coming from your iMac?

Greetings.

I've been reading through this thread (I'm very glad I found it) but the strange noise I'm hearing from my 20" iMac (aluminum) seems to be the hard drive. Three times now, upon start-up, it sounds like the hard drive is making a mechanical 'clicking noise' (similar to the noise the mighty mouse scroll wheel makes, only amplified) and it disappears after several minutes.

Any insight? Is it indeed the HD, or something else... and it is benign? Any help would be most appreciated.

I have recently noticed a buzzing sound almost like a "short circuit sound" coming from my iMac over the past few weeks. Theres no particular timing too it that I've noticed. The maching still seems to be functioning alright and theres no funny smell coming from it either (thanfully).

Is there anyone who knows what the sound could be?

I too have noticed strange noises coming from my new iMac. However, I have conclusively determined that it is an alien civilization with special messages intended only for me. Therefore, I don't want to do anything to disrupt the flow of information. I'll post back upon completion of the transmissions. I'm not sure, but I think it may have something to do with insurance rates and a company called Geico.

Sorry, couldn't resist. A little levity never hurt anyone, did it?

Jeff

only me, I'm hurt, your uncle gee ko"

I have a 20" Intel iMac and we just got wireless internet. So I was going to test out my wireless connection. I began by unplugging the current ethernet wire from the back of the computer, once I unplugged it my screen went black and an alarm started going off. I had to hold down the power button and restart the computer to get it back to normal. But what in the world happened? All I did was unplug the ethernet wire.

Hi!
I have an Intel core duo iMac 2 GHz 20" running 10.4.10 that was working just fine until today. It now refuses to boot up. When it tries, it sounds like the hard drive clicks 6 times twice and then clicks 2 times thrice more and then just a grey screen, until the flashing folder (with the question mark on it) comes on.
Since I'm hearing a faint noise sounding like the hard drive is spinning down, I suspected the WD SATA drive has failed. And when I booted it up with the 10.4 install CD, it displayed only the CD and network drives as startup disks. Using disk utility it shows WD ROM with 0 bytes (what does that mean?), which leaves me nowhere to go. I'd love to pull an error code, or better yet learn the keystrokes to start it up as in target disk mode and using my G4 Mac mini or my G5 20" 2 GHz and a Firewire cable attempt running disk utility on it. I looked on the web and discovered what a huge pain it is to disassemble an Intel iMac as opposed to a G5 iMac. Hey, if the drive died, I'll just pull it apart and install a larger SATA drive in it, but why make it such a pain to work on?

Hi BCGreg!
Sorry to hear of your trouble.

It may still be possible to recover your data using Target Disk Mode, as some others have been able to do soon after their drive has gone out, although some have not had success. Any of the Intel-based iMacs can be used as the Target, making the hard drive available to your mini or other iMac.

I have frequently used TDM with all three models of iMac G5 as well as with Intel Core Duo iMacs and never had a problem, but then I never had a dead hard drive to contend with, either:(

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

I would try TDM first to try and pull off your data. If unable, then search this forum for Data Recovery. There have been plenty of successes with online software programs that can be purchased and downloaded to successfully recover data from a dead drive prior to pulling it and replacing it.

Later I would run the Apple Hardware Test to get an error code to give to AppleCare.

Best of luck:)

when putting my new 24" Imac to sleep manually with the Apple pull down menu, I get a repeated Basso sound. It's really annoying. Is there a way to turn this off besides muting the sound? I've looked in the sound menu. I have a friend whose Emac does the same thing.

The fan of my computer will not turn off. I was on my computer and all of the sudden the fan of the computer turned on and turned off. I turned the computer back on and now it won't turn off. Please help me! I really don't like the fan sound!

Hi Fan!

The SMC reset should make your iMac quiet again:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446

I have white iMac that I bought new a couple of months ago. I have a squeak that repeats a couple of times a second. At first, I thought it was coming from another machine and it was the sound of a disk moving its head and returning to its original position - it had that metal-on-metal high pitched sound. Otherwise, the only sound I get is a very low rumble produced by the fan. That goes on and off too according to the load on the machine. The squeak is very weak, however, and I am wondering if it could be normal. You can hardly hear it when siting in front of the machine in a quite room. Sometimes it stops, even though the fan is still running. It might have been getting more noticeable over time, but I am not sure of that. I'd like to hear from someone with the same machine - the last white iMac model. Model Identifier: iMac5,1

I have a 2 week old 20" iMac that is doing this same buzzing noise-related-to-screen-brightness thing. Anybody know if this is an indication of something dying? I may want to send the &%$*! thing back, but I have installed and downloaded a bunch of stuff, so it is inconvenient to say the least.

Thanks.

hi,
i have the same buzzing on my new 20" aluminium imac...it goes away on full screen brightness and goes away when brightness is set a little lower than mid-way...

i have a pair of high quality studio monitors attached to the headphone out... the buzz on these is very noticeable... however not noticable on the internal speakers or altec lansing computer speakers.

please let me know if this is fixable or is something i just have to live with.
i really dont want to have to go through the whole business of re-installing all my programs.
ps. i bought this from john lewis.
cheers

There are 3 blowers in the iMac - Disk, CPU, Disc drive. The problem seems to be coming from the disc drive blower, when the drive is not being used. Thus, I conclude that it results from that blower turning over so slowly that it doesn't move smoothly on its bearings. This might be a sign of trouble down the road, but at the moment it is working fine, even under heavy disc activity.

Thanks a lot, last night I was blogging, and I fix the bright down, it was ok.

This morning I start the computer and I heard the buzz sound, I was concerned about this, I read your post and I fix the screen bright y the buzz disapear, thanks a lot I´ll go to the apple store for a fix up...
I change the bright and the buzz soun came again.

thanks again...