iMac rattling sound

Hello people!


I really hope someone can help me out here.


My imac is rattling! I've had a loud fan noise coming from my imac before, but back then it was my hdd.

That was, after crashing and dying on me, replaced.

Now i have a same sort of noise coming out of my imac. This time i opened it again, thinking it was my hdd or something.

It was not, it's actually the fan thats behind the stand of the imac. I tried googling this but no one mentions it.

If you open up your imac, it's very hard to reach this fan, its behind the logic board(?) and almost all other components.


Here is an image:


User uploaded file

It seems to be from there. It's (usually) extra loud when i'm rebooting or waking it up from sleeping mode.

It's less noisy under windows in bootcamp (odd?). In osx you need to play loud music to cancel out the rattling.

Still its varries in loudness but it does not seem to relate to intensive use or no use at all. Quite random.


Any tips? Really hope someone had this before and knows a way to fix it. It destroys my serene imac experience, especially cause i've been running windows lately.. Blasphemy😮!!


I recored the sound but it does not let me add it to the post.I'll look into that if someone wants to hear it.



Thanks in advance!


Greets

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), iMac 20" 2007

Posted on Apr 22, 2012 5:31 AM

Reply
3 replies

Apr 22, 2012 8:25 AM in response to Yorick88

On my 2006 I shutdown and vacuum out the air intakes (bottom grill work and HD vent behind the stand) a couple of times a year. I feel that vacuuming is better than blowing because it pulls the dust bunny's out instead of blowing them deeper into iMac and fans.


Sounds like one of three things:


1. The intake and fan are choked with dust.

2. A piece of tape or something has come loose.

3. The fan is going bad.


I would,


First give all the air intakes a vigorous vacuuming, then perhaps follow up by giving the HD air intake a good blowing out with canned or dry compressed air.


Second slowly ramp up the HD fan speed using smcFanControl 2.2.2 released. It's a little risky, but should help you to judge the overall condition of the fan.


Third dig out the Fan and either clean or replace it.


see > Installing iMac Intel 20" EMC 2133 and 2210 Hard Drive Fan - iFixit



If you need a fan,


see > iMac Intel Core Parts & Upgrades


or > TheBookYard : Apple iMac Intel, Alu 20" family

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iMac rattling sound

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