When I move (especially tilting it) my powerbook, it makes a weird buzzing noise. However, when the computer is off or asleep, it doesn't make the noise. I think it's the hard-drive, which really worries me. I read somewhere that it's the resistance from the gyroscopic forces of the hard drive. Should I start a massive backup and hope for the best? Does anybody know what this is?
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Moving PB 12" Causes Buzz
- Thread starter WhizKid
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Lau
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Mine just started doing this this morning. 
I'm going to back up everything this minute. Did you ever find out what it was? Is your hard drive still ok?
I'm going to back up everything this minute. Did you ever find out what it was? Is your hard drive still ok?
California said:
True... but the original poster & the followup have a point. Original poster never posted after this post...
Yes, the buzzing sound may be caused by a HDD slowly dying. Backing up your important data -- including e-mails, keychains, etc -- is ALWAYS a good idea (tm, patent pending). The drive in my 12" Rev B Powerbook died after 2 years, I got it replaced under Applecare.
Run Disk Utility on the drive after you hear the buzz. It is located in Applications --> Utilities. Look for any errors, and also the S.M.A.R.T. status. I would also suggest getting Alsoft's DiskWarrior, which will also look at the 'health' of your disk... Or do like I did, after I saw the SMART status as "failing" once, I took it in to my local Apple Store and let the geniuses run DiskWarrior for me! (The S.M.A.R.T. status reported normal after a cold boot, which is why they ran another utility.)
From the day I got it (more than a year ago) my PB has done this, just thought that was that, as there's no reported hardware problems when running Disk Utility. Only buzzes on a tilt, no other time.
neocell said:From the day I got it (more than a year ago) my PB has done this, just thought that was that, as there's no reported hardware problems when running Disk Utility. Only buzzes on a tilt, no other time.
Interesting. I haven't had the buzz except when I had the disk problems (which I only thought to check after I had more & more beachballs...)
Other question, neocell: do you have a disc in the CD drive when it buzzes? Can you possibly be hearing something on the fan being loose?
My Rev. C 12" did this from new (Toshiba 5400rpm 80GB disk). About two months ago it started to stutter when reading audio from disk (Disk Utility checked the disk and was OK) then I started to see probs with saving. At no point did Disk Utility report anything wrong.
I backed it up and then sent it to get repaired under Applecare. It has returned with a new 5k80 Hitachi drive that is totally silent.
I backed it up and then sent it to get repaired under Applecare. It has returned with a new 5k80 Hitachi drive that is totally silent.
Not that I've noticed, but it's been that way the whole time I've had it so don't really have anything to compare it too. It does beat my iMac quite handily, though judging from the specs that would be expected. I'm happy with my PB, the buzz was never a concern to me, until I read this thread, but awsh, what's the worst that can happen. I'll need to replace the drive sometime, oh well. Maybe the whole computer by that timeshadow95 said:
neocell said:
It's probably something rubbing against the fan or something then. You'll always keep the possibility of HDD failure in the back of your mind -- and will notice if you get "spinning beach balls" much more often than you're used to getting them...
neocell said:I'm happy with my PB, the buzz was never a concern to me, until I read this thread, but awsh, what's the worst that can happen. I'll need to replace the drive sometime, oh well. Maybe the whole computer by that time
I'm sure there's plenty of us who would take it off your hands at that point