Anyone else have a hard drive pinging sound?

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Level 1

10 points

Anyone else have a hard drive pinging sound?

A little after I got my Macbook Pro, it developed a strange pinging like sound (similar, but not quite like the sound of a broken hard drive) coming from the hard drive area. It sounds like a metal on metal pinging, is very faint and only happens once a minute or so. That is, a single ping occurs about once a minute, but not every minute. Sometimes it is more frequent.

I thought the sound went away after a little bit, but it came back yesterday after I rebooted the computer for the first time in about 2 weeks.

Also, I think the sound is more frequent when the battery is charging.. not sure if it has anything to do with that.

Just a few minutes ago, I was working on battery and didn't hear the sound a single time...

This doesn't affect performance at all, but being an IT professional, I always associated sounds similar to this coming from the hard disk to be signs of a dead drive.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 13, 2006 6:56 AM

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Answer 1

chinoLatte Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 13, 2006 7:06 AM in response to chinoLatte

forgot to mention, the pinging only happens when the computer is in use, it does not when it is sitting idle

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Answer 2

Jun 13, 2006 7:23 AM in response to chinoLatte

I spoke to seagate and the guys at the apple store and they said it sould not make this sound very often. My old one made it 3x a minute and my new one has not made it at all, not once.

I guess from this you can say one of 2 things

1. some drives make more noise than others
2. the pinging is a sound caused by a fault in manufacturing and something inside the drive might not be sitting just in the right place and when the moving head hits it, the sound is made

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Answer 3

chinoLatte Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 13, 2006 7:25 AM in response to chinoLatte

Should I try to get my hard drive replaced? To me it sounds like I could have some problems with it down the road.

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Answer 4

Jun 13, 2006 7:38 AM in response to chinoLatte

Hello my friend. Based on your description, the sound is normal and does not require or justify replacement of the hard drive. Some have described this sound as a ping-pong ball bouncing on a table to a marble being dropped. In any event, if you really want to replace it then contact AppleCare and give it a try. Remember, you have a full year of protection against any real failure and three years if you purchase the extended warranty.
Regards,

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Answer 5

Jun 13, 2006 9:23 AM in response to chinoLatte

I think why the user is worried is that when a harddrive failes it will lose the data on it and that is not as straight forward as say a screen repair, which will not wipe your data.

You can always contact segate (make sure through the model number what make the drive is) and discuss the sound with them and take it from there.

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Answer 6

chinoLatte Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 13, 2006 11:36 AM in response to chinoLatte

UPDATE: The pinging sound seems to have gone now that the computer has been on for 6+ hours....

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Answer 7

Jun 26, 2006 8:18 AM in response to chinoLatte

I am having the exact same sound! If nothing else, it is refreshing to know that I am not totally nuts. It happens with the same frequency. I haven't tested if I get the same sound on battery power, but will try that. In a really quiet environment, it's pretty irritating...virtual chinese water torture. 🙂

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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Answer 8

Jun 26, 2006 9:10 AM in response to steelthread

i just noticed this clicking/pinging sound last night when it was quiet in the house. i never noticed it before...

it's really annoying. i'm actually heading to the apple store today for flicking screen at low brightness, so i'm going to mention this, too. i'll see what happens.

i'm not sure if it's the hard drive either. it doesn't happen when music is playing.

i also read this from another thread: "if there is only a single click every few seconds or so, sometimes this is not actually the HD but a defective audio in/out sensor switching the internal speakers on and off irratically. "

that sounds like what i have.. especially because i don't hear it when music is playing.

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Answer 9

Jun 26, 2006 10:09 AM in response to staticuxo

One Genius (who was not), told me it was normal. Apple Care also told me the same. Another Genius overheard the other, and with my description, said it is a hardware defect, and I should have it repaired. I have a case number, and will send in when possible. In the meantime, I am backing up frequently.

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Answer 10

Jun 27, 2006 6:26 AM in response to Peter K. Grether

I have the same pinging noise. When I open and close the mirror widget the pinging noise goes away (until I restart, much the same as the CPU whine which I also have).

By the way....I have had three replacement MBPs, and two of them had the pinging noise. Apple Care couldn't diagnose the problem. Would be great to hear otherwise. I look forward to hearing the outcome.

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Answer 11

camhabib

Level 2

247 points

Jun 27, 2006 6:57 AM in response to Lance Myers

The periodic "pinging" noise that you hear when your drive is accessed IS normal. It is a normal sound on most drives, for both notebooks and desktops. Out of the total number of drives I have owned (probably around 75) I would say that 90% of them made this sound, some louder then others.

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Answer 12

Jun 27, 2006 8:01 AM in response to Lance Myers

I have the same pinging noise. When I open and close
the mirror widget the pinging noise goes away (until
I restart, much the same as the CPU whine which I
also have).

By the way....I have had three replacement MBPs, and
two of them had the pinging noise. Apple Care
couldn't diagnose the problem. Would be great to
hear otherwise. I look forward to hearing the
outcome.

Hi Lance,

This really worked. I opened Photobooth, and the pings have stopped completely. I downloaded the mirror widget too. No more pings. If I could give you points, I would!! Thanks!

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Answer 13

Jun 27, 2006 9:40 AM in response to Peter K. Grether

I have the pinging sound too. Misery loves company 😉

I have an external HD that I back up all data on, so I'm not too worried. The only thing that will be a pain in the butt will be reinstalling all the software if I do have a HD crash.

That said, with so many of us reporting this noise, and with the brilliant packaging Apple uses for the MBPs (best I've ever seen for a laptop) I'm not too worried. Plus Seagate makes some good drives.

My recommendation is to just be diligent about data backup (you should be anyway), make sure to buy AppleCare (or equivalent--for laptops this kind of plan is not optional IMO), and relax and enjoy the MBP!

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Answer 14

Jun 27, 2006 10:49 AM in response to chinoLatte

Why is it that I don't see any mention of what hard drive you actually have?

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Answer 15

Jun 27, 2006 8:42 PM in response to Peter K. Grether

I'm glad it helped Peter. I'd love to know what actually causes the noise. The Apple Care guy originally said it was the hard drive until I explained to him the mirror widget fix. After that he was just simply confused. During his diagnosing the issue he managed to wipe all of my personal folders, which included two weeks of Masters assignments and exam prep. Nothing was recovered. After that happened he decided to replace my MBP.

My opinion is it isn't the hard drive if the mirror widget fixes the problem, however, the two MBPs with the pinging noise had Seagate hard drives, while the MBP that didn't have the noise had a Toshiba hard drive. I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone with a Toshiba drive has found the same problem.

Peter....please let me know how you get along with Apple Care if you still plan to send it in.

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