Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Strange clicking/popping coming from iMac late 2012

Beautiful 27" i7 fusion delivered 2/7/13.
I experienced the same problem, exactly as you described.

I ordered replacement/return today as my 14 day return window was closing. I did not want to deal with the hassle & downtime of going back & forth for service, or worse, the tech tell me he/she can't hear it.

Maybe the replacement will have the same problem, maybe not. But when it still had the problem this morning, after trouble shooting w apple yesterday, I jumped on the return.

I will post on the replacement when it arrives. At least I know exactly what to listen for this time.
 
How did the Support appointment go?

Hi Belito - I was curious how things went after you spoke with the techs. I have the same exact sound and can recreate it exactly the way you described by pressing on the glass. Did they come up with any resolution?

belito said:
Hi guys, I'm a newbie in this forum. My native language is Spanish, so apologies for my use of English. :)

I received my brand new imac 27' late 2012 last 22th January and after dealing with the humming sound due to the resonance effect with a cheap ikea desk, I decided to move it to another table, placed in a lighter room. At this moment, I noticed the weird clicking/popping noise in a random fashion that appeared to come from the bottom part of the screen and which seemed to move from left to right.

After many tests, I thinnk it is caused by the screen glass itself due to the warming of the display. This is the reason why I didn't realize before, when it was placed in a darker room. In that place, the dimmer was very low and the screen barely made those sounds, so they were almost not noticeable. But when in a lighter room, the "Orchestra" began.

I've arranged an Apple Support appointment and they are going to call me this afternoon. I was thinking on asking for a replacement but I'm not pretty sure about it because other people said their replacement units made exactly the same noise and don't want to assume the risk of receiving a unit making the same clicking noise and with an extra defect like dead pixels or so.

This morning I realized that if you gently press the black part of the glass in the near down left or right corners, you can reproduce the noise, even it stops for a while. As I said, I think it is caused by glass dilation cycles, and increases when the dimmer is set high or when the screen is in resting mode.

Anyway, it's quite annoying for a very expensive machine which should be perfect.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

Exactly the same problem... It's my fourth replacement and i'm still waiting to find a solution to fix this problem...
I tried many things to find a solution but no way..
I called 3 times applecare but nobody is able to fix this pb...
I ordered my imac 27 '' 1 To fusion drive the 04 January 2013, we are now on march and always the strange cliking coming from my iMac 2012....

Maybe somebody has found a solution ?
 
YoOn TaE GoO said:
Maybe somebody has found a solution ?
Click to expand...

The posts I've found seem to always be people who got the fusion drive (Including me). Anyone out there with a non-fusion having this problem? Still, it seems unlikely that it's the drive if you got 3 replacements and all doing the exact same thing.. Everyone would be reporting the issue if it were that common. Curious to see what happened to the person above if/when they brought theirs in for diagnosis.
 
"Originally Posted by myuserid08
I had the same issue - it latest 4 weeks or so.
I'm fairly sure its the tape securing the screen to the aluminium - guessing it needs a few heat cycles to cure."

Can somebody confirm this information ???
 
jon01721 said:
The posts I've found seem to always be people who got the fusion drive (Including me). Anyone out there with a non-fusion having this problem?
Click to expand...

My 27" late-2012 iMac has the same problem, but i don't have the fusion drive, it has 3TB running at 7200rpm. There was no problem until last week when it started doing the alternating ticking sound, it's driving me crazy! other than that it's perfect. It definitely sounds like electricity is sparking somewhere in the speakers to me, but i'm not certain.
 
Just a thought but I wonder if it could be something to do with the adhesive tape that holds the panel in.

Perhaps has the LCD panel heats up and cools down, there could be a tiny bit of movement between it and the adhesive tape, thus causing this sound, just a thought.

----------

From the sound in the clip, it sounded like a heating up/cooling down sound.
 
Just as I was about to start a thread I saw this one and you guys have done all the work for me. I'm in the same situation. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and recently I've started to hear a little clicking noise every now and then in the bottom left corner. As someone said, it seems like it could be related to the screen because when changing the brightness I started to hear it more. I've not heard it in the past few minutes but just before I came on here I heard the noise quite a few times. Hmm.
 
Same problem

No additional insights other than that I noticed it happening about a month ago, didn't see so many forum posts about it, called Apple and they weren't aware of any known issues. Now at least I know I'm not crazy. It's not worth me returning it, though the tech did say that for such a big machine, they would probably be able to send someone to my house to take a look at it. That's probably not an option for everyone, depending on where they live. I didn't notice it happening within the first few weeks of owning the machine. It definitely is mostly happening after powering on or waking up from sleep, does it regularly for 5-10 minutes and then seems to go away (or maybe is so intermittent that I don't notice).
 
I am having the same problems, but it seems to be coming from the upper right of the display. It is a quick snap discharge sound, exactly like the audio file in this thread. It seems to occur somewhere between every 5-10 minutes and can be loud enough to catch my attention. Call into Applecare today with the SMB/PR reset and it is continuing. I can take them up on a replacement as it is right at 14 days.

It is annoying and disappointing, but the machine screams otherwise and I love going from 21.5 to 27 inches.
 
Are you guys still getting this noise? Mine is definitely related to the screen. If I turn the iMac off I hear that static noise every second or two for about 20 seconds. Couple this to the fact that when I turn my iMac on the right speaker gives out a buzzing/vibrating noise during the 'ding' sound I'm quite disappointed. It's a 2 1/2 week old 3.4GHz with the 680MX and 1TB Fusion Drive. I unfortunately don't have an Apple Store in my city (yes, the capital city!) so I'm not sure what to do.
 
EATTHERICH said:
I unfortunately don't have an Apple Store in my city (yes, the capital city!) so I'm not sure what to do.
Click to expand...

Ring up Apple and explain the faults, and they will send you out a replacement and pick up the old one when the new one gets delivered.

Go onto this site and find your country, and from there you will see the telephone number that you require.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
 
Fatboy71 said:
Ring up Apple and explain the faults, and they will send you out a replacement and pick up the old one when the new one gets delivered.

Go onto this site and find your country, and from there you will see the telephone number that you require.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply, it's much appreciated. If I call and they offer to send a replacement will it be brand new or a refurbished one? While there probably won't be any difference I'd be upset if I didn't get a brand new one after paying so much and only having it just over 2 weeks.
 
I had the same problem, got my new machine today via Advanced Replacement.

This machine has a fault with the fan and makes a constant loud whirring/clicking noise.

I give up.
 
EATTHERICH said:
Thanks for your reply, it's much appreciated. If I call and they offer to send a replacement will it be brand new or a refurbished one? While there probably won't be any difference I'd be upset if I didn't get a brand new one after paying so much and only having it just over 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

Of course it will be and should be brand new.

----------
mac.ross said:
I had the same problem, got my new machine today via Advanced Replacement.

This machine has a fault with the fan and makes a constant loud whirring/clicking noise.

I give up.
Click to expand...

Did you get it from Apple directly?
 
Hmmm mine has the same problem too...
I can see that all the models that demonstrate the issue are CTO/BTO custom builds... So there must be something related to the re-opening of the case to put the extra stuff inside... :)
It probably has to do with the adhesive or the case. It is not an electrical thing as it continues to click / pop even after there is no power running throughout the unit...
Strange thing really...
 
EATTHERICH said:
Thanks for your reply, it's much appreciated. If I call and they offer to send a replacement will it be brand new or a refurbished one? While there probably won't be any difference I'd be upset if I didn't get a brand new one after paying so much and only having it just over 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

I can't be 100 percent, but I would say it will be brand new.

Refurbished Apple products apparently get put through more tests than off the production line products. That was what I read on the Apple forums.
 
MasterLibrarian said:
Hmmm mine has the same problem too...
I can see that all the models that demonstrate the issue are CTO/BTO custom builds... So there must be something related to the re-opening of the case to put the extra stuff inside... :)
It probably has to do with the adhesive or the case. It is not an electrical thing as it continues to click / pop even after there is no power running throughout the unit...
Strange thing really...
Click to expand...

CTO machines are not re-opened, theyre assembled as the order processes and not machines already assembled.


this sounds like a PSU or Drive issue perhaps
 
Any way... Are all the machines that have this issue CTO ?
My first late 2012 imac (not CTO) didn't have this issue.
My second 2012 imac (i7,fussion,680) has it...
 
Arfdog said:
Why is 14 days relevant? You can take them up on a replacement for 1 year.
Click to expand...

14 days is the return period, no question asked for any purchase. One year limited warranty for your machine is for repair/replace. You do not get replacement as easily, mostly they will try to repair your machine first before they decide to replace the whole unit.

That's BIG difference.
 
Arfdog said:
Of course it will be and should be brand new.

----------



Did you get it from Apple directly?
Click to expand...


Yes, I purchased the BTO system through Apple Store on the internet.
The replacement was also built new and delivered through the same system.
 
iSayuSay said:
14 days is the return period, no question asked for any purchase. One year limited warranty for your machine is for repair/replace. You do not get replacement as easily, mostly they will try to repair your machine first before they decide to replace the whole unit.

That's BIG difference.
Click to expand...

Why does it matter in this case? They probably had a problem with the tape, so they replace it with improved tape and all should be good. I don't see why you need to replace the whole machine just to replace tape.
 
Arfdog said:
Why does it matter in this case? They probably had a problem with the tape, so they replace it with improved tape and all should be good. I don't see why you need to replace the whole machine just to replace tape.
Click to expand...

You were talking about getting the whole unit replaced, thus called "replacement".

You can have replacement under warranty/AppleCare, but may not as easy as the first 14 days. They will always attempt to repair first, then replace the unit when it keeps botched.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back