new 2012 imac 27" bloody noisy ticking all the time!

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

i just got my new 2012 late 27" delivered and all i can hear is the hard driove ticking chattering away all the time ... i swipe to a previous web page and it ticks away more each time, i scroll up the page and theres a mass of ticking each time ...

i really didnt want a hard drive in it, i just wanted a 256gb ssd .. thats all .. but apple wont give that option only the 700gb ssd for over a grand! no thanks

ive had it for an hour and there is no rest from the ticking hard drive sound, its just too loud .... theres always different annoying patterns to ...

anyone else have this problem ? ill contact apple maybe try another one, but i do think having a harddrive (fused drive) is probably gonna be too noisy for me ...

any ideas? right now its squeeking away like an annoying furby !!!! gaahhhhhh

help

DerekS · Dec 19, 2012

Is this like a high pitched chattering sound?

It may not be the hard drive, it may instead be what some on here call "C3 idle noise" from the CPU. Does it stop when you do something CPU intensive such as open Photo Booth?

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

1TB or 3TB version?, What HDD model is in it?, you can check in the system profile. I have the 3TB fusion with Seagate drive and mine is silent.

eyebex · Dec 19, 2012

sounds faulty

send the POS back, get them to ship you a replacement

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

torana355 said:
1TB or 3TB version?, What HDD model is in it?, you can check in the system profile. I have the 3TB fusion with Seagate drive and mine is silent.

its a 1tb and i cant find in the system profile what make it is .. where would it say ? all it says is APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 Media...

i tried to video the noise but my camera didnt pit it up ...

thanks for your comment

snugja · Dec 19, 2012

Sorry to hear that. I'd take it back. Glad I went with the SSD now.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

DerekS said:
Is this like a high pitched chattering sound?

It may not be the hard drive, it may instead be what some on here call "C3 idle noise" from the CPU. Does it stop when you do something CPU intensive such as open Photo Booth?

i just opened photo booth and it went crazy, yes like a higher pitch sound bit like the old dial up internet sound you used to get ... when photobooth is not open its back to its normal clicking away etc ... it does sound like its writing all the time to hd, but its just too loud for me to cope with ...

could be c3 idle .. i dont know much about that .. apple arent gonna like me much as i bought a new macbook air and after a week one of the keys snapped and they sent me a new one that is great ... now i have another bad computer lol ,,, they gonna think im jinxed lol

another thing i noticed when i drag a safari window bigger there is a lag to open it , its not smooth like my macbook air with ssd ,,,

cheers for your comment

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snugja said:
Sorry to hear that. I'd take it back. Glad I went with the SSD now.

thats what i wanted to order .. but not pay £1000 for the 700gb ssd ..just a 256gb would have done me and connect a usb3 portable hd ... why couldnt they just give that option ? ... and i havent even noticed that its super slim edges ... probably coz i jusy look at it straight on like most people ... shame that its super slim but no one would ever know coz it doesnt show lol !!!

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
its a 1tb and i cant find in the system profile what make it is .. where would it say ? all it says is APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 Media...

i tried to video the noise but my camera didnt pit it up ...

thanks for your comment

Yeah that's the 1TB Seagate. I would take it back if it's as loud as you say it is as mine is dead silent with the same brand HDD. Mine does not have any C3 idle noise either.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

torana355 said:
Yeah that's the 1TB Seagate. I would take it back if it's as loud as you say it is as mine is dead silent with the same brand HDD. Mine does not have any C3 idle noise either.

yeah, thanks i think it will have to go back .. shame ... i had to have my last 2012 macbook air replaced too because the kybd broke

they got it to me before xmas .. but it wasnt the imac i put on santa's list !! hahahah

maybe ive been a bad boy this year :-(

JustMartin · Dec 19, 2012

How much stuff have you got on it? Couldn't be spotlight indexing could it?

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
yeah, thanks i think it will have to go back .. shame ... i had to have my last 2012 macbook air replaced too because the kybd broke

they got it to me before xmas .. but it wasnt the imac i put on santa's list !! hahahah

maybe ive been a bad boy this year :-(

Sorry, it sux, ive had to return many electrical appliances and it really is a pita. Hopefully Apple send you a freebee for your trouble

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

JustMartin said:
How much stuff have you got on it? Couldn't be spotlight indexing could it?

i did think it might be spotlight but ive had it just an hour so far and i havent put anything on it ... and there is no dot in the spotlight glass or saying updating spotlight .. so im guessing no to that

i also thought maybe the fusion drive is moving stuff constantly ... i dunno how a fusion drive works, but if it sounded like this all the time i wouldnt want that ...

im guessing its probably an over loud hd or something is telling it to write all the time, its like a dripping tap but much worse lol .. well its good to know it shouldnt sound like this ... but i have a feeling that a replacement might be exactly the same ... ill have to think what to do

thnx

WilliamG · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
i did think it might be spotlight but ive had it just an hour so far and i havent put anything on it ... and there is no dot in the spotlight glass or saying updating spotlight .. so im guessing no to that

i also thought maybe the fusion drive is moving stuff constantly ... i dunno how a fusion drive works, but if it sounded like this all the time i wouldnt want that ...

im guessing its probably an over loud hd or something is telling it to write all the time, its like a dripping tap but much worse lol .. well its good to know it shouldnt sound like this ... but i have a feeling that a replacement might be exactly the same ... ill have to think what to do

thnx

Run this and tell me if the sound stops when it's running.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23935/cputest

If it does, it's the C3 idle of the CPU. Are you running an i5 processor or the i7?

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
but i have a feeling that a replacement might be exactly the same ... ill have to think what to do

thnx

Nah its probably just a faulty HDD, your next one will be silent.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

torana355 said:
Sorry, it sux, ive had to return many electrical appliances and it really is a pita. Hopefully Apple send you a freebee for your trouble

i think the pity is that i cant order what i wanted ie just a small ssd drive without a mechanical one attached .. then im pretty sure there would be no noise ..

oh well ... i might try another imac or think what other mac to buy later in the year ... im def sticking with mac though ... been using macs for 27 years lol

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torana355 said:
Nah its probably just a faulty HDD, your next one will be silent.

hahha thats what i like .. a bit of xmas optimism !!!

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
i think the pity is that i cant order what i wanted ie just a small ssd drive without a mechanical one attached .. then im pretty sure there would be no noise ..

oh well ... i might try another imac or think what other mac to buy later in the year ... im def sticking with mac though ... been using macs for 27 years lol

Ok ive got another idea, just buy a Samsung 840 pro 256GB SSD and install that yourself if you feel confident enough. Its really easy tbh, i am doing the same thing on mine so ill have the 128GB apple blade SSD and a 512GB Samsung 830 SSD.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

WilliamG said:
Run this and tell me if the sound stops when it's running.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23935/cputest

If it does, it's the C3 idle of the CPU. Are you running an i5 processor or the i7?

thanks i ran the app and the noise went crazy like its wring fast ... i have a i5

right now the sound its making is tick toc, tick toc, etc ... but it changes to diff sound patterns ...

what do you think ?

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torana355 said:
Ok ive got another idea, just buy a Samsung 840 pro 256GB SSD and install that yourself if you feel confident enough. Its really easy tbh, i am doing the same thing on mine so ill have the 128GB apple blade SSD and a 512GB Samsung 830 SSD.

id love to but it sounds hard now you have to use a heat gun and take out the mother board to get to the hd etc :-(

torana355 · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
thanks i ran the app and the noise went crazy like its wring fast ... i have a i5

right now the sound its making is tick toc, tick toc, etc ... but it changes to diff sound patterns ...

what do you think ?

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id love to but it sounds hard now you have to use a heat gun and take out the mother board to get to the hd etc :-(

If that app makes the noise worse then it may be coming from your CPU as my HDD has zero activity when i run that test.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

torana355 said:
If that app makes the noise worse then it may be coming from your CPU as my HDD has zero activity when i run that test.

yeah could be, ill try a replacement ... the screen is solo bright! ... i have it on about 3 ,,, at 10 it can be seen from space hahahah

happy xmas

Arman · Dec 19, 2012

torana355 said:
Nah its probably just a faulty HDD, your next one will be silent.

I agree too. Probably hard drive. You should backup any data you have. Often this clicking precedes a complete drive failure.

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

Arman said:
I agree too. Probably hard drive. You should backup any data you have. Often this clicking precedes a complete drive failure.

the noise was right from when i started it up, so i havent put any data on to backup

my macbook air is doing great ,, completely silent ... as youd expect with just a SSD ...

im really amazed that i dont notice the new slim look at all on my desk.. for all you see it could be ultra fat .. no one would know lol .. silly apple!

ho ho ho

WilliamG · Dec 19, 2012

If the noise changed when you ran the app, it's not the HDD. You're not the first person to complain about being able to hear that CPU noise, and I'm not sure a replacement will address the issue for you. I hope so, though..

There would be more complaints about this, but most people simply don't hear it.

bobright · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
its a 1tb and i cant find in the system profile what make it is .. where would it say ? all it says is APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 Media...

i tried to video the noise but my camera didnt pit it up ...

thanks for your comment

Fusion or HDD?

2bcool2 · Dec 19, 2012

bobright said:
Fusion or HDD?

1tb fusion

also is the imac fan supposed to be on all the time ? i dont mind it but
not really used to fan coming on a mac unless im doing so hd video work ..

the iMac fans are on when just idle , or safari only is on ...

happy xmas !

WilliamG · Dec 19, 2012

2bcool2 said:
1tb fusion

also is the imac fan supposed to be on all the time ? i dont mind it but
not really used to fan coming on a mac unless im doing so hd video work ..

the iMac fans are on when just idle , or safari only is on ...

happy xmas !

Every single Apple product with a fan since the beginning of time has its fan/s on 100% of the time. Every single one. They're very quiet when the system is idling, but they are running.

new 2012 imac 27" bloody noisy ticking all the time!

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