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Hard drive click + beep

I recently purchased a new MBP 15, 3 Ghz, 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, build-to-order. The hard drive appears to be a seagate ST9500420ASG. I am experiencing a strange hard drive click followed 80% of the time by a beep. It is definitely not a beep from the speaker. Additionally, it happens at any time, even when the computer is sitting on a perfectly still table. It is exactly the same sound as what is documented at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gOhgaIMpPI

and mine too appears randomly approximately 15-20 times per day. It does not appear to matter if the computer is under light or heavy use and it seems truly random when it occurs. Another user on youtube has also experienced this with their new MBP 15 and sent me a wav file with the same sound mine is making. So far, his experience is that it does NOT occur under bootcamp. This leads me to believe that it is something specific to OSX. Turning off the "put hard drive to sleep when possible" does not seem to make any difference. I have not personally tested bootcamp on my machine to confirm that mine is the same, but the original poster of the youtube video linked above also seems to think it is OSX specific.

Any clues? Should I try to get apple to swap the HD for a new one? Any help is greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro 15 Mid 2009, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Hard Drive ST9500420ASG

Posted on Jun 20, 2009 10:14 AM

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2,010 replies

Jun 21, 2009 7:45 AM in response to wessto

I have a two day old new Mac book pro 17'' 3.06 8GB ram 500GB 72rpm and havimg the same issue. I call apple and tried to explane what was going on but they had no clue and ask me to take into a apple store. it makes the sound every now an then but, you can close it to sleep and reopen it and you can hear the beep sound from the left side. Also do anyo f you find a strange cracking sound near the track pad? like somthing is lose? when you sorta mash the bottom?

Jun 22, 2009 7:50 AM in response to wessto

Add me to the list of new 3 GHz/500 GB 7200 RPM owners who are experiencing the same thing. I get the same, infrequent beep from the hard drive at seemingly random times. The drive checks out completely on S.M.A.R.T. and other tests, so it doesn't seem to indicate a problem.

I'm curious to see what the guys at the Genius bar have to say. My guess is they'll have no clue. This will be a learning experience for them as it's undoubtably a specific issue with the new Seagate drive. My big hope, of course, it this isn't indicative of a pending drive issue that will affect data. I'm doing regular backups, but I'm nervous.

Jun 22, 2009 11:21 PM in response to wessto

INTERESTING... there seems to be a trend here. I'm also using a new uMBP with: 3.06GHz, 8GB RAM, and 500GB 7200RPM...

Sounds like must of us have those specs...and I too have this annoying BEEPING sound and I can't seem to pinpoint where it's coming from but it sounds like it's coming from the right side near the CD/DVD side... (not sure).

Anyone talk to Apple Care or a Genius and find out what is going on with our uMBP's?

Jun 23, 2009 11:14 AM in response to wessto

Nope, I'm STILL getting that "click and beep" sound... it's very slight and happens randomly. There's no specific thing I can do or application I can open that will force the sound... it's just random...

...also, i've had the new firmware update since last night,... so that did not solve it...

I'm wondering if it has to do with the configuration that most people on this thread have (3.06Ghz, 8GB, and 500GB@7200) there must be something to that figuration that causes the click and beep sound...

Message was edited by: ADKIM

Jun 23, 2009 2:59 PM in response to KBeat

I have a stock late 2008 low end mbp. It STARTED making this click beep and i got really worried that it was basically, dying. But it was just a phase and I still don't know why it did it in the first place. Fine out of the box, then a few beeps clicks after running it for a couple of weeks, then it just dissappeared after a couple of days. Double-you Tee Eff?

Jun 23, 2009 3:44 PM in response to wessto

I just took it to the Monterey, CA Apple Store to see what the Genius Bar had to say. They reset the "PRAM" by doing a combination of buttons at start-up.

Just got home and as I am writing this blog post to all of you... it did the "click-beep" again....AGAIN...

It's getting annoying and I can't determine what is causing it. It would be nice if it was caused by some definite physical movement but it just seems very random...

Anyone else out there get this thing fixed yet or have it still continuing?

Hard drive click + beep

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