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Mini noise

I've had my Mini (Late 2012, 2.3, i7, fusion drive) a couple of weeks now and I love it.


One thing, though. I hear a slight buzz from the Mini when I, for example, move to a website in Safari, or scroll down my inbox in Mail.


I know sounds are hard to describe, but a low-volume short buzz is how it seems to me. It's not loud, but it's there. I'm assuming it's some kind of disc noise. I'm moving on from an old iMac, and I don't recall any particular disc noises from that.


You know how it is when you have a new machine and you're hyper-sensitive. So, is it normal?

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 13, 2013 4:28 AM

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31 replies

Mar 14, 2013 3:42 AM in response to RRFS

Thanks RRFS.


Do you have any links to those similar comments? I'd be interested to see if they're the same as my experience.


I wasn't sure what you mean by the drive "seeking". Can you explain?


I'd too had thought, from what I'd read, that the SSD should be handling most of the new and current business of the Fusion drive, so that is a further mystery.


Anyone else here got any thoughts or similar experiences?

Mar 14, 2013 8:22 AM in response to nigmia

On the right side of this page there is a panel with "More Like This". There you can peruse the postings of similar issues. It tends to change with each new thread you view allowing for broad searches. Seeking is when a hard drive head moves back and forth alot. Some drives/mfgs are noisier than others.

Mar 14, 2013 3:48 PM in response to nigmia

Out of curiosity I have been running a lot of instrumentation on my new Mac mini so I have had the opportunity to more closely observe what is going on in the hardware than I usually do -- or even care to do. My configuration is 16GB memory, and a 1TB Fusion drive. My observations are:


  • The only noise I ever hear is from the fan when it gets above roughly 3500 rpm, and the mini is in a relatively quiet room where the only background noise is an electric cat water fountain.
  • I have a bit less than 1/2 of a 1TB Fuasion drive used and after about three weeks of use, I very seldom notice much HDD activity unless I am running iTunes or Filemaker.
  • Intermittent SSD activity is a moderately constant on and off almost too fast to notice unless you are looking for it.


Based on my observations I suspect the noise you are hearing is the fan running at moderate speeds and not related to the hard drive. I you would like to verify that on you own the App Store lists several apps that will measure all sorts of system parameters including temperatures, device activity, and fan speed. Probably the most complete is Marcel Bresink's System Monitor, but Temperatuire Guage is a close second.


If you are seriously concerned about the condition of your hard drive, according to Google Labs extensive tests of hard drive failure the most definitive predictor of impending failure is not the manufacturer's S.M.A.R.T. test, and certainly not the composite results reported by Disk Utility, but the presence of newly found bad data blocks found in a full surface scan of the drive. Unfortunately the only two apps I know of that perform a surface scan are Drive Genius and Tech Tool Pro about $100 each. (Before someone asks Diskwarrior does not perform a surface scan.)

Mar 15, 2013 5:42 AM in response to Joe Bailey

Thanks Joe. Some useful suggestions and thoughts ... but In the meantime, I found this ...


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4602505?tstart=0


... and so I booted into Safe Mode, as it suggested, and the noise did indeed go away.


The poster there said once he observed that, he "restored the complete system via Timemachine by starting in recovery mode". Maybe I should give that a go. If I do, my TM backup excludes System Files & Apps. Will that be a problem?

Mar 15, 2013 6:45 AM in response to nigmia

You still have not isolated the cause of your noise. Fan noise and head clatter are veery different sounds. Fan noise is a whooshing sound and head clatter could be described as a clattering or clicking sound. Booting in safe mode could potentially eliminate whatever is causing either sound.


Since you still don't know for sure what is causing your problem and your system is not backed up in TM, I would go ahead and install the OS X 10.8.3 update that came out late yesterday and see if that solves the problem. If not then you can do a restore from TM, but it seems to me you would likely be reinstalling the original source of the problem. Sort of like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.


If, and I stress the word IF, the noise is head clatter from your HDD that is not a good thing and the drive needs to be replaced.

Mar 15, 2013 9:30 AM in response to Joe Bailey

Joe, thanks again.


I'm pretty sure it isn't fan noise - certainly no whooshing. But then it isn't quite clattering or clicking, either, to my ears. As I said, a sort of low-volume short burst of hum or buzz, no more than a half-a-second at a time, is the best way I can describe it.


I've just done the 10.8.3 update. No different.


Maybe I should next try the TM reinstall. I haven't done that before. What's the deal? As I mentioned, I have System Files & Apps excluded from the backup, so how do I get back to exactly where I am? Deck chairs and all.

Apr 9, 2013 3:45 AM in response to nigmia

OK, an update. I went to see a Genius, and he said my Mini was fine, certainly no disk problems, and he could hear nothing. Nor could I. He even took it into the (I presume) quiet of the back room, away from the din of the store, to have a proper ear 'ole. Nothing. So "everything is fine". Except it's not.


I've just tried booting into safe mode again, and the noise is gone.


Joe, you reckon there's no point in reinstalling from TM? I see your point about reinstalling the problem along with everything else.


Anyone else have any ideas what to do next?

Apr 9, 2013 8:17 AM in response to nigmia

Rule of thumb: Any time an otherwise inexplicable event occurs with a computer, like a mysterious sound, all o fus immediately become hyper-aware and symptoms/sounds we would otherwise never notice start to sound like a rock concert at full volume. 😮 That does not necessarily mean there isn't a problem, but it may help put it in perspective.


At this point, I presume you want to prove/disporve that there is a serious problem in your Mac mini -- correct? That means it is essential to isolate the source of the noise and that means you are going to have to do some serious troubleshooting. The noise you have described could be several things including a cooling fan brushing against its housing, a rough bearing causing a vibration perfhaps at a given rpm, an HDD problem as yet unidentified, etc. Identifying this kind of problem, if indeed it is a problem, is a tedious step-by step process. It is important that you only do one thing at a time or you risk never identifying the issue.


The process starts by reviewing what you do and do not know.

  1. You do NOT know whether or not the sound is indicative of a real problem.
  2. You have no indication of data loss, the Mac mini is not mysteriously rebooting, no clicks or pops followed by a flash on the monitor, no blue screen of death, etc.
  3. You DO know that you do not hear the sound when booted in the safe mode. That would tend to indicate the problem is related to software, but NOT the system software. Booting in safe mode...
    1. loads only required kernel extensions (some of the items in System/Library/Extensions).
    2. disables all fonts other than those in /System/Library/Fonts
    3. It moves to the Trash all font caches normally stored in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/(uid)/ , where (uid) is a user ID number such as 501.
    4. disables all startup items and any Login Items.
  4. You do NOT know if the sound is related to the Fusion drive, but that is your fear. There is a way of pretty well clearing the HDD as a source of the problem but it requires a third party testing utility that costs about $100. The best indicator of impending HDD failure is to perform a surface scan of the the entire drive. There are three utilities that will do this: Micromat's TechTool Pro or Checkmate (Checkmate is purely a test utility and performs no repairs, TechTool Pro is a volume repair utility as well, but AFAIK the repair functions have not yet been validated on a Fusion drive) or Prosoft Engineering's Drive Genius (in addition to doing a surface scan, DG also has a HD "stress test" that will wring out a drives mechanical functions pretty well).


Assuming the noise is somehow software related the testing is free but time consuming.

  1. Narrow the scope of your search by determining if the problem is something in your user account or is at the system level. You do this by creating a Test account (If you d not have one
    1. go to System Preferences > Users & Groups, click on the padlock at the bottom of the window and enter your administrative password,
    2. then click on the Plus âž• sign to create the test account).
    3. Boot into that account and see if the sound is heard. If it is then the problem is in the System area, if not it is something in your user account.
  2. If it is in your user account,
    1. Repeat the System Preferences steps
    2. Select you user account and click on the Login items bar
    3. One at a time,
      1. Delete a login item
      2. Quit System Preferences
      3. Reboot your system
      4. listen for the noise.
      5. If the noise is heard go back to system preferences, reinstall the deleted login item, and go back to step 2.3.1.
      6. If the noise is NOT heard you have identified a potential souuce of the problem. Be sure the item is still needed and if not delete it, If it is still needed check with the vendor to see if there is later version.
  3. If it is in the System area:

    In the Library folder at the root of your HDD find the LaunchDaemons folder and one at a time

    1. Drag the LaunchDaemon to the desktop
    2. Reboot and listen for the sound
    3. If you still hear it, replace the LaunchDaemon in hte LaunchDaemons folder and go back to step 3.1.1.
    4. If the noise is NOT heard you have identified a potential souuce of the problem. Be sure the item is still needed and if not delete it, If it is still needed check with the vendor to see if there is later version.

    Repeat this process in the StartupItems folder

  4. If you still have not found a source of the problem try instrumenting your system as I suggested in a previous post and watching fan speeds when the sound occurs.

Mini noise

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