Rattle / rattling noise!

When do you hear the rattling noise? If it's the hard drive, yes I'd be concerned.

Where exactly do you hear the noise coming from on the MBP? Have you run Disk Utility, selected your Hard Drive and checked the SMART status?

I'd have it checked out by the genius.

Depending on your proficiency in dealing with hardware you may want to have a skilled technician look at your MBP. Did the rattle go away as the MBP cooled down (and therefore as the fans slow down)?

Inside there are few moving parts = fans and drives. I am not sure about the newest models, buy my (2.5 year old) MBP has 2 fans - 1 each in the upper left and right corners above the keyboard.

Last month one of mine started making a rattling noise at around 3000 RPM. So I ordered a new left fan (they are built differently for L and R sides) and replaced it myself. The process probably took 30 minutes start to finish. iFixit has guides for doing the work and you can order many parts from them (at competitive prices it seems).

I assume that now, nearly 3 months after your original posting) you have done something about it. If it is a fan, you definitely need to replace it or your MBP will definitely overheat and possibly suffer expensive damage.

"What caused my fans to do this? How do I prevent overheating?"
As Sig previously stated:

+"have it checked out by the genius."+

As for overheating, make sure your MBP is getting proper ventilation. Remember the MBP is NOT a laptop. According to the user manual it states in part:

+"Do not operate your MacBook Pro on a pillow or other soft material, as the material can block the airflow vents. Never place anything over the keyboard when operating your MacBook Pro. Never push objects into the ventilation openings."+

Grinding Hard disk.

I have slow downs and spinning wheels accompanied by 3 grr grr .....grrr where .... is a second length pause. Repeats every 2 seconds. 10 slowdowns with spinning wheels while writing this. It makes this noise whenever there is a spinning disk. Every 10 - 20 seconds!
This seems to be since 10.5.8 update - although time capsule has been getting stuck on backups for a month.
Back up to a firewire G-tech drive gives me a lot of read/write errors and can't copy files on iphoto files and one mp3 file. No way round but to copy in batches to find the culprits. Finder freezing and have to force quit on the copy error.
So - is my hard drive on the way out ???
Spotlight indexing has just stopped - was 8 mins to go now 3 hours remaining !! With no blue bar progress for 20 minutes.

Like Terry, I am not up for an archive and install. I don't think it will help............
I tried to compress my i photo "originals" folder but to no avail - error half way through I presume on one of the files that it can't copy.

Anyone any suggestions.
A verify disk gives the disk a green light. I don't have my original install disk with me (me in France - disk in UK).
Is there any way to create a startup disk with disk tools on so that I can repair the HD if it will repair?

MBP 2.5 Mac OS X (10.5.6) 4 GB

Hi p,

Try running fsck.