27" iMac hard drive noise

I have a 21.5 inch iMac with a 500gb hard drive. The noise I hear appears to be coming from the right side of the iMac and it sounds like a little woodpecker. It comes and goes after it has been on for a few minutes. It drives me nuts to have a "super quiet" machine that is not super quiet.

It does not appear to be related to any computer activity because I can hear it without applications on and just sitting on the desktop.

I have already had to take one back for a stuck pixel. The Genius bar was really cool with that one. He did not even open up the box to turn it on.

I want it to be perfect--at least quiet. I certainly don't want to have it returned only to have another stuck pixel or a louder noise.

How loud is the noise for others? Mine is noticeable in a quiet room, but certainly does not sound like a grumbling stomach. It is a faint tapping noise that occurs for five seconds, then is quiet for ten seconds, repeat, etc.

What should I do?

Edit: I just checked and apparently I have a Western Digital hard drive: WDC WD50000AAKS-40V2B0, which is apparently quieter than others.

Could my noise be a fan? I am not sure where those are located on these new iMacs.

Message was edited by: whatnotwhatnotwhatnot

That's exactly what I had. I say had hoping my new one doesn't do that. It's not the hard drive. I can hear the hard drive working on what I think is the right side. I think the is coming from the middle right. It sounds like a loose fan hitting the edge of the casing or something.

A picture of an exposed imac. I think it's coming from the round black thing under the disk drive.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/10/ifixit-imac-20091022-600-2 .jpg

Message was edited by: imracin68j

My sound appears to be coming from the same exact place as you describe (both visually and textually). Today it is more of a constant tapping, whereas before today it seemed to come and go at regular intervals. I don't think it is related to the hard drive either. It does sound like it is fan--either loose or butting up against something else. It is all I hear in a quiet room with this big, beautiful display in front of me.

I have a genius appointment for this Saturday morning. I wonder how receptive they'll be since this is already my second iMac. I hope I can convince the genius to take it in the back and imagine he is in a quiet place. I also know it is a gamble to take it back since you never know what you'll have next time.

Do you think they would be open to have it unboxed there in the store to make sure all is o.k. with it? I live about an hour away from the nearest apple store. While for some, this short of a drive to one of the greatest places on earth would be a dream, it is a bit of a hassle.

Why is this relevant, you ask, to this thread? =)

The 1TB hard drive is dead silent. OK, I can hear it seek when it's got lots to do, but there's no stomach grumbling sounds like others have reported. And according to System Profiler, I really lucked out and got a Western Digital model WDC WD1001FALS-40U9B0.

Weirdest thing - I have that drive and think it's noisy! In context though - my previous 320GB WD in the 24 iMac was, as near as ****, silent - a sort of feint rumble. This one, the WD, makes a seek/write 'crunch', and is silent at idle. And the seeking sound is not intrusive, especially if anything else is happening - say, radio on quietly.

Do you got any new informations, 'bout this issue?
My iMac 27" with that harddisk, is loud too, like my stomach when i am hungry... i hate that.
When i put the music on, everything is well, i cant hear the harddisk 😀

i need help, Apple, please help us.
Can i contact Apple? to get a new harddisk or something like this?

Adios,
sirnica from germany

DrummerGS wrote:
Oh my God, I am freaking out. Should I order my i5 now or wait until Apple says something about these problems and have them fixed? (The screen flickering and DOA machines)

I live in El Salvador, Central America and I am having the machine sent from the States from a friend and as you may imagine, the returning may be a pain in the butt... Please help

I'd advice Drummer to have their friend check it out first prior to internationally shipping it to them so itd make the return process, if necessary easier.


I'm currently looking at replacing my 30" APple Display to pick up a 27" C2D 3.06Ghz iMac myself witht he 1TB drive.

My i5 27" has a WD WD1001FALS 1TB drive and it is silent. I asked the store to let me check out the unit in the back while they upgraded the RAM to 8GB and they let me. It's nice and quiet back there so I was able to verify that everything was quiet -- disk drive, display at low brightness -- and that the screen didn't flash upon wake from sleep, etc. I ran the TechTool from the AppleCare disc and the DVD drive did make a lot of clunking noises on that disk, but the tech let me try some other discs and they all worked fine. He said the TT discs always seem to make this racket, probably due to the formatting for diagnostic purposes.

I have a week 51, 27'' 3.06 iMac with the Seagate ST31000528ASQ drive. I haven't noticed any noise unless I am in a COMPLETELY silent environment, and even then it's just normal humming from the fans and not the HD. Much quieter then my old 2.4GHZ 24'' iMac, which I could here the HD rumbling whenever I copy large files or did other HD intensive tasks. I haven't had any issue with the screen or graphics either, no yellowing, no fuzziness, no flickering.

The only odd thing was SD cards were acting strange at first, it would just randomly unmount, but then after using it a few times I haven't had anymore issues so maybe it just had to break ing or something????

Message was edited by: Cory Senecal

What I hear is some small knocking coming from the right bottom part of my screen, it is hard to describe it and I don't know whether it is the hd. Can someone tell me where it is located?

And as a totally new Mac-user I can't compare this with anything. Are you guys telling me that the iMac should be totally silent while working, except from some small fan whispering that is?

Thanks

Does someone know where there is a sound recording or youtube vid that describes the bad hd noise. Because I can tell for sure (always used PC) whether it is normal.

These are the facts: The computer is making some weird grumble every now and then, see it as some silent knocking on a table or your stomach grumbling when you have the flue.

I called Apple support and they told me that I should get it back. They aren't ok with my second problem too which is, 7 dead pixels in the iSight.

Should I send it back when you read these issues? or not?

The hard drive is located in the center of the iMac. Refer to this image: !http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/TLfSqZEZWnTwKylR.large!

I'm not sure how much you know about computers, but If you can't tell what is the hard drive in that picture, it's the only part that has a green board/chip there.

Is the sound more of a random knocking/tapping sound? That comes and goes even when the computer is idle?
Or is does it sound more like beetles being crushed, and only makes that noise when the computer is not idle?


Hope that helps you 😉

Thanks for the picture, now I can say that I have seen the inside of a Mac too.

Well, it always occurs, even when the computer is in idle. What I also here is a very hard click right before he goes to sleep mode, metal one. But I guess that is normal? No idea.

Which we could have someone who could manage to record his/her drive noise so I can compare it.

@gr8fl4295

Can you put that recording online? Would like to compare it with the noise I hear.
Thanks!

@talar

I have the same disc. Do you hear any grumbling? Even while you are not copy pasting stuff?

Message was edited by: edrush001