my dad bought me a vibrator....

[celebrian23]

well, not quite. He bought me a mbp. However, I've noticed in the past week the hard drive vibrations are well...large. For example, if I put it on my bed, and I sit within 6 inches of my mbp I can feel my bed vibrating underneath me. the first time this happened, I thought my cellphone was on vibrate near me or something. How do I know what's normal?

 

[GoCubsGo]

How do I know what's normal?

Are you smiling?

Ok but seriously, I don't know about that. I'd take it to an Apple retail store and let them check it out. But leave out the fact that it was on your bed. Somehow they find it bad to have it on your bed...don't ask me why.

 

[Bern]

Are you sure it was your MBP and you didn't slip a quarter into that slot thingy on your bed head?

 

[baby duck monge]

Also, you don't happen to have a CD in there or anything do you? I know that can cause some shaking.

 

[celebrian23]

I'm pretty darn sure I can pick it up and my hands shake because of the vibrations

EDIT: nothing is in it, CD wise. Also, I can feel the vibrations on the end table it sleeps on.

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: my dad bought me a vibrator....

I'd only be very weirded out by the title if your dad showed you how to use it.

But nice to know you do take your vibrator to bed with you.

 

[baby duck monge]

If you're near an Apple store I would take it in. If you're not near one I would call and see if they will have a look at it. If they will, be very sure to back up all your important stuff before sending it in to them.

 

[idea_hamster]

I would definitely take it in to an Apple store if you have the option. The folks at the Genius bar will be able to tell if it's normal or not (pretty much an on-the-spot diagnosis) I would bet.

The reason you need to know is that vibration is the #1 killer of hard drives, IIRC.

My TiBook had a vibration problem with the Combo drive and I never got it fixed. (Not the same thing, I know, but, hey....) I wound up replacing the drive at my own cost and the case bottom never really seated right after than. Everything still worked, but was never quite the same.

At least call Apple on the phone....

Best

 

[26139]

Um, seriously?

Dude, how cool is a vibrating laptop?

You can get work done AND get your woman warmed up at the SAME time!

Brilliant!

 

[bobber205]

Brilliant! Briliant! I agree.

But to get any benefit, she may be blocking the screen...

 

[celebrian23]

Dude, how cool is a vibrating laptop?

You can get work done AND get your woman warmed up at the SAME time!

Brilliant!

Personally, I'm more into men

 

[Makosuke]

Since you don't have anything in the optical drive (which can vibrate like crazy, espeically with a slightly unbalanced CD in it), that sounds VERY not normal to me. Even desktop hard drives have little if any discernable vibration, and I've never seen a laptop drive that you could even tell was running. It's probalby dying, and I'd get it checked before you get anything significant put on the drive. You can always launch Disk Utility and see what the SMART status is, but that'll only report a problem if the drive itself thinks it's dying, which it may not realize (yet, anyway).

That said, sure sounds like a "feature, not a bug" to me. Have fun with your Mac while you have fun with your Mac! Add in integrated remote control via iChat, and you've got the ultimate long distance relationship helper. Apple could sell millions.

There was an obscure PS2 attachment for a particular game that had the same effect, if memory serves.


(On an unrelated side note: Between this and the "I lost my virginity" post, what's with all the eyebrow-raising thread titles recently? I admit, it does get a lot more views than "I think I have a hard drive problem," though perhaps a much higher signal-to-noise ratio.)

 

[mad jew]

Excellent advice from Makosuke, as usual. While you're in Disk Utility, maybe use the Verify Disk function too.

 

[davegoody]

Be Careful !

well, not quite. He bought me a mbp. However, I've noticed in the past week the hard drive vibrations are well...large. For example, if I put it on my bed, and I sit within 6 inches of my mbp I can feel my bed vibrating underneath me. the first time this happened, I thought my cellphone was on vibrate near me or something. How do I know what's normal?

When I had my TiBook, the original 20Gb Hard drive did something similar, I was in the middle of backing it up when it started to suffer from the "click of death" and I lost a bit of work. Get this looked at NOW, back up your work with no delay.

Good luck

 

[erikamsterdam]

Damn, this thread makes me scared. My brand new MB also vibrates a bit, you can feel it when it is on an uneven table, and it sits only on 3 feet. Guess I have to take it back then before my drive dies.

 

[zami]

You are typing in ENGLISH, no wonder your computer is shaking in anger. All you need to do is switch to a proper language like Welsh.

 

[celebrian23]

You are typing in ENGLISH, no wonder your computer is shaking in anger. All you need to do is switch to a proper language like Welsh.

So the 5 MR members who actually know welsh would be the only ones to understand me

At any rate, I'm going to bring it in on Monday, which is the very earliest I can get it there.

 

[gallagb]

Personally, I'm more into men

*looks right
*looks left

yup, i'm available & i qualify

 

[mad jew]

celebrian23, have you tried verifying the disk (and maybe repairing it too)? It may help so it's worth a try.

 

[PlaceofDis]

wouldn't hurt to possibly try out the Hardware test disc that came with your mac too just to make sure it gets a clean bill of health.

 

[celebrian23]

I tried verifying before I posted actually, so it didn't change anything. It said it was fine. I hope it's just me blowing things out of proportion- I'd be a little stuck if it had to be sent in

 

[celebrian23]

Horrified

So i verify stuff one more time...it says it needs repairs! But then my entire computer starts freaking out. I can only access the internet by clicking the icon in my dock, not by just clicking the already open window. So disk utility closes itself and when I try verifing it again it says everything is fine. However, whenever I try to verify the disk every application beachballs for a few minutes. Even with stock RAM it shouldn't do this should it? I also couldn't eject my ipod (it wouldn't even drag). I'm too afraid to attempt using itunes at this point. Like I was in firefox so I try to click out of the firefox window, which causes finder to beachball. I'm a little scared. This doesn't seem normal, even if you don't take the vibrations into account.

 

[celebrian23]

I also had my pacman game going, and it froze as it said game over. When it unfroze it wouldn't let me enter or cancel entering my high score. The window is just sitting here, off to the side. I can't use command+q to close the game either. The red, yellow, and green lights don't even come up when I put the cursor over them.

Edit: It finally worked after a few minutes, I could close out. this can't be normal

 

[gallagb]

_call apple_
or _go_ to the apple store.
(do not pass go, do not collect the $$...etc)

just back up whatever u've got if u've got an external & go get help.

 

[Makosuke]

A-yup, sounds like the drive is starting to go. There are other "bad luck" issues that can cause symptoms a little like what you saw, but it sounds entirely like a dying hard drive to me. Usually the symptoms you describe are caused when the computer is stuck waiting for a disk to respond (which is most frequenly caused by a network volume that's not there, but a misbehaving hard drive will do the same).

You do have a backup of anything worthwhile on the computer, right?

By the way, you said Disk Utility said that it needed repairs, which would indicate directory damage that, in this case, is probably caused by the flakey drive, but did you look at the little SMART status thing down at the bottom? That'll tell you if the hard drive itself thinks its failing. Extrordinarily poor response and a lot of beachballs is actually normal during verification, but the rest of the behavior isn't.

And if you boot from the hardware test disc (the disc that came with it, I think holding down "D" at boot time) as suggested, you can see what that says.