High-pitched noise from hard drive?

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Level 1

6 points

High-pitched noise from hard drive?

My MacBook makes a very high-pitched noise from the hard drive. When the machine is accessing the HD, it briefly stops the high-pitched sound (in exchange for the normal clicking/mechanical sounds that hard drives make when they are being accessed--not the sound a failing HD makes).

Does anyone else have this problem? When I'm at work and there are other noises around, it really isn't noticeable. But when I'm at home where there is very little noise, it's quite noticeable and rather quite annoying/irritating.

Here is something very strange I noticed:
I normally have Airport and Bluetooth turned on all the time as I use both quite frequently. When the bluetooth is on and is connected to a device (my Motorola V557 phone), the hard drive does not make the high-pitched sound at all. It completely stops making the irritating sound.

I use a program called BluePhoneElite on my MacBook which is pretty much always running and is connected to my phone. As soon as I have BPE disconnect from the phone, the high-pitched noise returns. In addition, when it's making the high-pitched noise (and the bluetooth is not connected to the phone), turning bluetooth on or off does not make any difference. If bluetooth is turned off, the machine makes the high-pitched noise. Quite strange if you ask me.

Anyone have any suggestions? How does whether or not something is connected via bluetooth affect whether or not the HD makes a high-pitched noise? BTW, it's the original HD that shipped from Apple in the machine (80GB HD), not something I put in it.

Any advice is much appreciated.

MacBook 2.0GHz Core Duo, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.7)

MacBook 2.0GHz Core Duo, 1GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 25, 2006 10:20 AM

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Answer 1

Mac-Medic

Level 6

17,301 points

Aug 25, 2006 1:16 PM in response to RobertM

How do you know for sure the noise is coming from your hard drive? I would uninstall BluePhoneElite, disconnect the phone and turn off BT. Does it do it now?

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
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Answer 2

RobertM Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 26, 2006 4:09 PM in response to Mac-Medic

How do you know for sure the noise is coming from
your hard drive? I would uninstall BluePhoneElite,
disconnect the phone and turn off BT. Does it do it
now?

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 

I suppose I don't know with certainity that it's the HD, but it would seem to be since the high-pitched noise stops for brief moments whenever the machine is accessing the HD.

I tried what you mentioned, but unfortunately it made no difference. As soon as the phone is not connected to the machine, the high-pitched noise returns (even with BluePhoneElite uninstalled and BT turned off).

I also noticed that if the machine connects to the phone via iSync (BT), the noise goes away while it syncing, then returns. Also, if I go to the BT menu and select >Browse Device >Browse, as soon as it connects to the phone, the noise goes away. All of these are with BluePhoneElite not running whatsoever.

Any other ideas?

MacBook 2.0GHz Core Duo, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 3

Aug 29, 2006 12:02 AM in response to RobertM

Just out of curiosity, is the noise you're having similar to what is described in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=599003&tstart=0

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Answer 4

RobertM Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 1, 2006 2:33 PM in response to Chris3495323

Just out of curiosity, is the noise you're having
similar to what is described in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5990
03&tstart=0

No, mine seems different. In the post you linked to, the problem seems to develop some time after the machine has been running (maybe heat related). Mine does it immediately after the machine starts up. Any ideas? Or should I be off to the genius bar?

Thanks.

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Answer 5

farok

Level 1

5 points

Sep 20, 2006 12:44 PM in response to RobertM

got the same thing.
i think it's something in a power circuit in macbook. Some kind of element in motherboard is working in heavy conditions (for example some kind of voltage regulator or similar element). It stops when HD is operating, or BT is on because those elements drain a lot of power when in use. At that moment that element in power circuit is changing it's state and stops to make that sound. I have spotted a lot of devices (laptops, tv and so on) doing that sound and all of them are working till now. So I'm not going to send my macbook anywhere unless there is something really wrong with it (in fact if your nearest apple store is nearby you can go and check, but mine is hundreds of hundreds miles away:\ so i have no choice).

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Answer 6

etresoft

Level 8

46,330 points

Sep 20, 2006 1:17 PM in response to RobertM

How high-pitched is it? Is it closer to a dog whistle or a chalkboard. It may not be the hard drive at all. Intel chips and PC motherboards do tend to make a very high pitched noise that not everyone can even hear. The sound comes and goes as the processor works. Are you less than 30, or over 30? As people get older their hearing range tends to decrease (not always, I'm 37 and I can hear it). You can buy high-pitched noisemakers that you can't hear but will keep those @#%@&# kids off your lawn.

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