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iMac high pitch sound (4th iMac in a week). Any improvements?

Hello,

I know there is a lot of forum posts on the internet about this, as I've spent about two days reading them (primarily from my iPhone as my screen sound drives me up the wall).

As some people have experienced, this is a result of changing the brightness (0% and 100% are fine, anything in between emits a high pitched whine...some people believe this is a result of the capacitors vibrating at around 15-16Hz, which would make sense).

I have actually gone through four separate iMacs in a week to try to fix this problem (and two being upgrades over the model I had in hopes of a different production run). I have checked the serial number on all of them and they were all build between September and October, at various weeks between, mostly within a 4 week window.

I am beyond my wits with this issue and not sure what to do now. I have spent nearly 20 hours setting up four separate computers only to format them to take back in a chance I am lucky enough to get one that I can dim at night time without getting a ringing sound in my ear.

I was wondering if anyone else who has experienced this issue has come across a solution, or at least a replacement that has worked? I am debating to go for number five, but honestly, I am almost too tired of boxing and driving, boxing and drive (rinse and repeat). (I even tried three separate stores in hopes to get a different production week that didn't have this issue).

Looking forward to your responses, and any guidance. I love this machine and I wish it just stopped having these issues so I could do some work...

Setup(s):

First two:

21.5" iMac 3.06GHz Intel Core i3
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
ATI Radeon 4670

Next two:

21.5" iMac 3.2GHz Intel Core i3
4GB RAM
1TB HDD
ATI Radeon 5670

Thank you,
Adam

21.5" iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 6, 2011 8:32 PM

Reply
7 replies

Feb 7, 2011 4:48 PM in response to den.thed

Thought I would follow-up...

I just bought my 5th iMac this week, and it appears to be fine! Ridiculously.

It's a week 50 machine built sometime in December. It appears to be without fault that I can tell so far.

Definitely way too much effort on my end, about 200km of driving, and 5 swaps later...

I will keep an eye on it and upgrade where needed.

For everyone with this problem: They don't all have the issue! Get the latest build week you can. All my week ~40 builds all had the issue.

Mar 2, 2011 9:44 PM in response to AdamMoore

I bought a 27 iMac a few days ago and returned it twice. The first 2 both had the high pitch whine/noise related to the screen brightness/LED capacitors.

The third one didn't have it but is now starting too. Very disappointing. I even made sure the third one was of a different batch. Can't be bothered to exchange it again and will wait a few month until I bring it to the Apple store to have it fixed.

Mar 5, 2011 12:14 PM in response to tz12

Your situation sounds familiar.

I'm on my third 21.5-inch iMac, having been through two that had various issues, including a high pitched whistle noise that changed pitch in relation to the screen brightness. You could almost play tunes on it, by tapping F1 and F2 to lower and raise the pitch.

My current (third) 21.5-inch doesn't make a noise that changes in pitch. However, it does still emit a VERY high frequency sound when you get to 10 brightness bars which goes away when you get to 14 brightness bars. Outside of that range, it is totally silent.

The second 21.5-inch iMac I had, had very noticeable issues with its whites. The top of the screen would produce a nice pure white, whereas at the bottom it was obviously an off-white/yellow.

Apr 13, 2014 9:58 PM in response to AdamMoore

I started having this problem yesterday on my late 2009 iMac 27 inch after I changed my HDD.


It was perfectly fine before however after the swap however after a high pitch noise occurred when I increased the display brightness. So Just this morning I pulled my iMac apart again and unplugged the screen again and had a look at the connectors. all were fine except for the Vertical Sync ribbon


The 4 flat wires/ribbons that are exposed on the end are supposed to be glued to the thin piece of plastic that plugs into the socket on the circuit board. This circuit board is on the top left hand corner of the iMac as well which is where people say the sound is coming from.


I am not sure if this will solve all the problems out there but its worth a look.


Follow this link to the ifixit guide to see what I mean (Look at Step 5)


http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2309+and+2374+Hard+Drive+Repl acement/1634

iMac high pitch sound (4th iMac in a week). Any improvements?

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