2011 13" i7 noisy hard drive

[ninjaboi21]

Hearing the 7200RPM HDD on my 15" top-end machine too. Thinking about returning the machine and get the larger, but slower 5400RPM harddrive. In some months, if the price are lowered, I'll buy a larger SSD and replace the HDD totally.

Can you please post wether it's a 13" or 15" and wether you're using 5400RPM or 7200RPM? I hope it's only the 7200RPM that is annoying, and the 5400RPM is pretty much silence.

To cancel out the sound of the HDD, I have to boost the fans to around 3500RPM, so I would say it's pretty loud and annoying when sitting in a room for myself.

 

[shoegal]

What kind of noise are you hearing exactly?
Because if I watch a movie, i don't hear it, but if I'm in a room alone I hear like an air like noise coming from bottom right.
Right now I'm 95% idle, and fan is 2002 rpms and I hear that noise (bottom right). Could it be the same problem (ie: shoud I bring it to be checked out?).

Thanks!

I returned mine, new one had exactly THE Same noise issue. I'm thinking it's 'supposed' to be like this. Bit of a bummer.

 

[bpnjon]

Mine is just the 5400 RPM 500gb drive.

So I took it to the Genius bar, and they couldn't really tell anything because it was pretty noisy in there, but they took it away and replaced the hard disk. Got it back now and the noise is just as bad if not worse. I'm thinking of just returning the thing and keeping my 2010 one instead.

Annoying to waste so much time on a brand new machine...

 

[shoegal]

Mine is just the 5400 RPM 500gb drive.

So I took it to the Genius bar, and they couldn't really tell anything because it was pretty noisy in there, but they took it away and replaced the hard disk. Got it back now and the noise is just as bad if not worse. I'm thinking of just returning the thing and keeping my 2010 one instead.

Annoying to waste so much time on a brand new machine...

The service provider also offered to replace my HDD buy I'm worried that the problem won't go away. My replameny MacBook pro had the same noise! Apple executive customer service checked with the engineers for me and they told them that it's typical noise for the 13" i7 because of the big HDD in a small casing. That's why the fans work harder apparently or something.

Let me know if return it

My baseline 2010 mbp was much quieter but this one is way faster! Used final cut pro today and it was great super fast!

 

[imaginex20]

I have a 2011 13" i5 MBP and I could slightly hear my hard drive spinning in a quiet room with the 5400 RPM drive. I just replaced the drive with an Apple 128 GB SSD drive and now its quiet!!!

 

[mr1]

I have the same problem with my 13'' i7. At first thought I would get used to the noise but every time I am in a quiet room it drives me nuts.

The fact that the noise stops with light pressure on the hard drive area makes me think that it could be something as simple as a loose mounting in there though.

Has anybody tried inserting some sort of dampening material between the hdd and whatever it's resting against?

 

[bpnjon]

I returned it and got another one just to check. Same noise level also. So I decided to keep it but I might go to the Genius bar this week and see if they can offer any solutions to quietening it down a little. I like the idea of finding some dampening material so I'll post back if there's any progress on this front.

Failing that when I have some spare cash I'll probably try to find a quieter disk, or just wait until 500GB SSDs become a viable proposition...

Thanks for all the responses.

Jon

 

[adnoh]

Swap it out for an ssd and see the difference

 

[Gazmac2010]

Same Here!!!

Any further updates on this would be great.

Last weekend I purchased a 15" 2.2 i7 with a stock 5,400rpm HDD and was very surprised at the noise of the hard drive compared to my girlfriends 2010 i5 MacBook Pro and my 2009 MacBook Pro.

I was due to visit the Genius Bar today to have a chat about this but due to a train strike, wasn't able to make it. Will try to make it this week sometime. May have to wait until Saturday.

The new MacBook Pro seems great, its just a shame about this hard drive noise.

 

[Ryu02]

This is not the only thread about the noise problems.
In this one on Apple Discussions you can find an audio example (User BIOH, Posting #10):
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2766458&start=0&tstart=0

Direct link to the audio example:
http://s658.photobucket.com/albums/...?action=view&current=MacPro2011HDD_Sounds.mp4

 

[MultiBat]

I have the 13" i7 with the standard 500GB drive in it and I am surprised that it is so quiet. I was importing a huge load of pictures and I actually had to lean in to be able to hear the HDD at all.

I'm sorry for those who have problems with noisy HDDs. Maybe I was just lucky?

 

[mr1]

I have the 13" i7 with the standard 500GB drive in it and I am surprised that it is so quiet. I was importing a huge load of pictures and I actually had to lean in to be able to hear the HDD at all.

I'm sorry for those who have problems with noisy HDDs. Maybe I was just lucky?

What one may think as quiet another may think as loud. Its all relative... My new MBP is silent compared to my 6 yr old dell, but loud compared to my buddy's 2010 MBP.

 

[Gazmac2010]

I think it must be down to the new HDD.

I'm now onto my second 2011 MBP (various problems with the first one, it rocked and I mean literally rocked!!!) and the stock HDD is the same noise as the last one and it is differently louder than my girlfriends 2010 i5 MBP.

Think I'll change it for a WD later down the road.

 

[AnnaTheresia]

Hey guys, I picked up my mbp 13' i7 yesterday and have the same issue (noise that disappears with slight pressure on the right side of the track pad).
I'm pretty sure I can learn to live with the noise (coming from a really old HP that sounded as if it was about to explode daily), but I was just wondering if anyone knows if this is actually a problem beyond the noise?
Ie, is my computer more likely to crash/die if I have this noise issue....Just worried if it's something with the harddrive?

I tried asking in store today, but they had no idea what I was talking about and as it was quite busy (people talking, music playing) they couldn't hear anything...

Is it worth spending time trying to resolve this, or should I just turn on spotify and get on with it..?

Thanks,
A

 

[skiltrip]

The fact that the noise stops with light pressure on the hard drive area makes me think that it could be something as simple as a loose mounting in there though. I'll take it down to the store when I get a chance but it's a pain to have to waste all that time...

My 2010 is like this and so is my 2011. With my palm on the computer it quiets the hard drive. I honestly think it's normal. Some drives are louder than others and produce more vibration.

If you want to check though for loose mounting it's easy to do it yourself, just unscrew the bottom plate. The hard drive and mount are right there in plain view.

 

[superego]

Hey guys, I picked up my mbp 13' i7 yesterday and have the same issue (noise that disappears with slight pressure on the right side of the track pad).
I'm pretty sure I can learn to live with the noise (coming from a really old HP that sounded as if it was about to explode daily), but I was just wondering if anyone knows if this is actually a problem beyond the noise?
Ie, is my computer more likely to crash/die if I have this noise issue....Just worried if it's something with the harddrive?

I tried asking in store today, but they had no idea what I was talking about and as it was quite busy (people talking, music playing) they couldn't hear anything...

Is it worth spending time trying to resolve this, or should I just turn on spotify and get on with it..?

Thanks,
A

I don't think it will destroy your hard drive, but it's not exactly good to have the HDD vibrate loosely either. I would be most concerned with the extra noise, because it can be a major nuisance in everyday use.

I have used a couple of 13" 2010's and they didn't have this problem, so it looks like especially the 2011's are plagued with poor hard drives. Apple probably got them the cheapest and now you're paying the price as a customer. I know I'd be annoyed if I were you and would probably return it. The problem is that the chances are the replacement is just as bad.