weird sound when moving macbook

Question

weird sound when moving macbook

i know there is that usual click when you pick up and move around your macbook but this one time i picked it up while it was running an application and there was a scratching noise of some kind. Should i see an Apple Genius?
(So far my Mac runs fine no problems except the first time i restarted it it wouldnt turn on and it would stay on the boot logo for like 5 min till i shut it down manually.)

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 28, 2009 11:09 AM

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Answer 1

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Aug 28, 2009 6:57 PM in response to wannaget iphone

Does it consistently make this noise? If so, by all means have a Mac genius listen to it. One possibility is that the noise is coming from your hard drive, and if so, it could be an early warning of hard drive failure.

Check the S.M.A.R.T. status with the System Profiler or Disk Utility and if it says anything but verified, that is bad news. For a more comprehensive check, download and run S.M.A.R.T. Utility:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32454

Also, be sure you have a good up to date backup, just in case the noise is your hard drive going south.

Good luck!

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Answer 2

Aug 29, 2009 12:14 PM in response to S.U.

Thanks!
So I did the smart utility check and it said it was fine.
The sound only happened once and I was afraid the HD disk or whatever got scratched.
I guess im fine..

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Answer 3

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Aug 29, 2009 2:27 PM in response to wannaget iphone

That's great news! It's always good to know your hard drive is good!

Another possibility could be that the fan made the noise due to some piece of debris that got caught in it and subsequently blew on out. Or maybe briefly rubbed on the housing at whatever angle you were holding it. If you hear the noise again or start hearing it on a regular basis, you could run the Apple Hardware test to check that the fan is OK.

Happy Computing, and thanks for the star!

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Answer 4

Aug 30, 2009 3:18 AM in response to wannaget iphone

another thing it could be is if you have a disk in your optical drive and when you pick it up it causes the disk to wobble and rub on the inside of optical drive casing

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