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iMAC and Humming Noise

sgtbob

sgtbob

macrumors regular
Original poster
Just recently my 24" iMAC (bought Sep 08) has started an annoying buzz/hum, and I can't tell where it is coming from. It generally begins when I start the machine or awaken it from sleep mode and will last for about 5-10 minutes then subsides. Sometimes it is longer than that, but this seems to be the norm. Anyone have any idea as its origin? I have not called Apple yet, but would like some insight from others who may have a similar annoying problem.

Bob
 
sgtbob said:
Just recently my 24" iMAC (bought Sep 08) has started an annoying buzz/hum, and I can't tell where it is coming from. It generally begins when I start the machine or awaken it from sleep mode and will last for about 5-10 minutes then subsides. Sometimes it is longer than that, but this seems to be the norm. Anyone have any idea as its origin? I have not called Apple yet, but would like some insight from others who may have a similar annoying problem.

Bob
Click to expand...

Do you have a disc in the optical drive? It often makes a buzzing sound when it first spins up the disc. Both my iMac G5 and my new iMac 24" do this on occasion.
 
No disc in the drive. Just the humming - sort of off key 🙂 but so am I....

Bob
 
My 24" iMac has a slight hum to it also. It's nothing bad enough to cause me too much worry, but when the room is quiet, it can be annoying. It goes away somewhat when I tilt the screen and isn't related to the brightness up/down issue I have researched. From what I can tell, it may just be the hard drive because it has a Western Digital hard drive while my 24" iMac at work has a Hitachi and is whisper quiet. Anyone else have any ideas? It may be time to give AppleCare a shout.
 
I have a new (April 2009) iMac 24" which started to make funny noises after a week. It seemed like one of the fans was slighty out of balance resulting a very soft, but irritating ticking sound, especially in a quit room. Although my family thought I was complaining about a very minor detail I decided to call Apple. Yesterday I brought my iMac to a Apple service point and they replaced the GPU fan within the hour. Fortunately this fixed the problem and even my family now hears the difference!

So, my advice: your Mac should not make that sound. Bring it in for service while you still are under warranty.
 
PoweredbyNorth said:
So, my advice: your Mac should not make that sound. Bring it in for service while you still are under warranty.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If it's not the fans running due to software, it's likely a hardware issue that may need to be looked into.

Oh, and side note to the OP: Just so you know, typing "MAC" isn't the same as "Mac". When you type MAC in all capital letters, it actually means "Media Access Control", which is a term used in networking multiple computers together, including PCs. Sometimes it can just be a little confusing if you type the wrong one. 🙂

So, for future reference, just know that a Mac is a Mac... especially when asking tech questions online! (It looks better than typing all caps, too!)
 
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