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Droning hum from new hard drives

S

speekez

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 19, 2003
350
2
Greetings

My MacPro sits inside a wooden desk cabinet. I leave the front door open when working, and the back part of the desk is removed to allow circulation.

I have the stock 250 and a Western Digital 500 installed. All was fine.

I just installed two 750GB Western Digital drives (thereby filling up all for slots). When sitting at my desk, I now hear a low droning sound - up, down, up, down... very low pulsing, but present. I think it is resonating with the wooden desks. What steps might I take to dampen this -- feet under the Mac Pro.

(Ideas aside from removing MacPro from cabinet) :)

thanks
 
I've had that issue with a few older PC's. What I did, was to place some rubber under the computer (like a mat).

What worked best, was the rubber mesh material (looks similar to fishnet stockings) that is sold in the kitchen section of most stores. It's usually used to line the cabinets and drawers in your kitchen.

I found that if I folded it over a few times (making it two or 3 layers deep), that it deadened the sound quite a lot.

I hope this helps.
 
flyinmac said:
I've had that issue with a few older PC's. What I did, was to place some rubber under the computer (like a mat).

What worked best, was the rubber mesh material (looks similar to fishnet stockings) that is sold in the kitchen section of most stores. It's usually used to line the cabinets and drawers in your kitchen.

I found that if I folded it over a few times (making it two or 3 layers deep), that it deadened the sound quite a lot.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I have some of that in the house somewhere. I'll give it a shot later after I've turned the machine off for the evening. I'll let you know how it works
 
Just setting up a resonating beat frequency, those silly aluminum cases and pathetic feet do nothing to damp out vibrations on a hard surface.

Hopefully that rubber will work.

Can alway try the neoprene mouse pads also.
 
just02 said:
Sweet. Aren't those on sale at Best Buy now? ;)

(Couldn't resist.)
Click to expand...

The typical rube goldberg solution by a nerd to a problem that the floor manager usually solves for 50¢ in 10 seconds.

Somebody please take the sugar and coffee away from the nerds before they mess with the coke machine.
 
the other thing you can try is to change the frequency of/in your cabinet by adding mass, e.g. a concrete slab:eek: or bricks or extra wood + the rubber and/or the distance between the drives and the wall.
 
I did experience the harmonic droning after putting in 4 500Gb drives. The case design and hard drive carriers do contribute to this noise, and wooden desktops can amplify it. Some people have cured it just by re-seating the hard drives, a damping material under the computer can help, as can moving it to a different location on your desk (away from room corners would help, too). Some people just lift the latch on the access door, as this also can change the harmonic vibrations of the case. Experimentation usually comes up with a compromise that is liveable.
 
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