Why is my laptop making a grinding noise?

Question

Level 1

9 points

Why is my laptop making a grinding noise?

I bought a new 2016 MBP for some classes I'm taking this summer. I used my work laptop (in it's sleeve) as a platform for it to keep it off of the blanket I was using. Everything was fine at first. I was downloading some files for school and moving them to separate folders. Then all of a sudden I was getting this horrible grinding noise. I picked the laptop up off of the other computer and it stopped. Both computers have SSDs so I don't think it'd be a magnet issue with a HDD. Either way this is the first time it's happened. The laptop has less than 3 hours of use. Should I just keep using it (without using my other computer as a stand) and see if it happens again or should I go ahead and call tech support/schedule an appt at the Genius Bar now?

Posted on May 26, 2017 8:00 PM

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Answer 1

Poslen

Level 1

4 points

Sep 7, 2017 5:09 PM in response to SullyATX

Hey, My MacBook is doing the same thing! Its like a scratching noise for me and happened 4 days ago and happened briefly a few minutes ago, since then i've been searching the web wondering why, this is what i found so far:

Sometimes, when a hard drive is failing or about to fail, it can make those kinds of grinding noises. It’s a precursor to something much, much worse. Internal destruction is usually what’s next.

That grinding noise is something loose inside the hard drive, where there simply shouldn’t be anything loose. That typically means that when that thing becomes completely loose, it’s going to go flying around in there and cause all sorts of destruction within the drive itself.

Though, it could be the fan, i am terribly scared. Did you fix it, by the way? If so, what was it?

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Answer 2

Rysz

Level 8

44,443 points

May 26, 2017 8:34 PM in response to SullyATX

It might be fan noice, especially if you're using a sleeve and are restricting air circulation.

Try without the sleeve. You have 14 days to get a refund (in USA). If the problem persists, make a backup of your files, make a Genius appointment at your local Apple Store and have it tested.

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