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G5 iMac, anything but QUIET

bdomz said:
whisper quiet means alot of different things to alot of people, personally I would consider a whisper pretty loud for a computer. Anyone know what the decibel rating for the G5 iMac is when it's at its loudest? Anything that's that close to your ears is gonna make some noise. I've had experience quieting PC's down to damn near inaudible but it takes some really quiet fans, the right kind of case and a super quiet power supply, and even then with the tower under the desk it makes a huge difference than if it was 1 foot from my ears.
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like i say macs and pc are different... im saying a whisper isnt very loud and annoying... apple have said that there might be a problem a few guys i know and have spoken to have ahd a problem...some guys havent...its a fault..whats the problem?? if its loud then its not right,, as a whisper implies its not loud and annoying..he is not asking it to be SILENT
 
ebook said:
Like I said, I was at a store looking at a 17" model last night and it WAS whisper quiet when I was on the internet. Now, I'm on this one and it is not whisper quiet. I can tell a difference between the two computers and I probably shouldn't be able to.
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ebook, don't worry, I do believe that your iMac does have a problem, I just wanted people to realize that the iMac is not silent. From the moment you turn it on, to the moment you put it to sleep, it is making noise.

bdomz said:
whisper quiet means alot of different things to alot of people, personally I would consider a whisper pretty loud for a computer. Anyone know what the decibel rating for the G5 iMac is when it's at its loudest? Anything that's that close to your ears is gonna make some noise.
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You are right, whisper quiet does mean different things to different people, and some people seem to believe that it means "silence." Apple claims that a whisper is 35 decibels, and that the iMac G5 when idle produces 25 decibels. You have to remember too though, that someone doesn't sit there constantly whispering next to your ear the way the iMac does, so some may be bothered by the constant sound. Apple didn't say how loud the fans are when at full speed, but I can tell you it sounded like my iMac was getting ready to take off off my desk. Nothing I've used the iMac for has gotten the fans to run full speed, though. This was when booting off a disk that didn't have the proper iMAc fan controllers installed.
 
Elan0204 said:
ebook, don't worry, I do believe that your iMac does have a problem, I just wanted people to realize that the iMac is not silent. From the moment you turn it on, to the moment you put it to sleep, it is making noise.



You are right, whisper quiet does mean different things to different people, and some people seem to believe that it means "silence." Apple claims that a whisper is 35 decibels, and that the iMac G5 when idle produces 25 decibels. You have to remember too though, that someone doesn't sit there constantly whispering next to your ear the way the iMac does, so some may be bothered by the constant sound. Apple didn't say how loud the fans are when at full speed, but I can tell you it sounded like my iMac was getting ready to take off off my desk. Nothing I've used the iMac for has gotten the fans to run full speed, though. This was when booting off a disk that didn't have the proper iMAc fan controllers installed.
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elan tell me, how much ram have you got??

im thinking a 1.8ghz g5 with 256mb ram might have problems.... a ram uhm... underload...
 
AL-FAMOUS said:
elan tell me, how much ram have you got??

im thinking a 1.8ghz g5 with 256mb ram might have problems.... a ram uhm... underload...
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I've got one 512MB DIMM in there now, and my second 512MB DIMM just arrived. I haven't installed it yet, though.

I agree though, I don't think 256MB would work well at all.
 
Well, as awkward as it may sound...I really wish I had an iMac G5 that was loud, as opposed to no iMac at all.
 
Elan0204 said:
I've got one 512MB DIMM in there now, and my second 512MB DIMM just arrived. I haven't installed it yet, though.

I agree though, I don't think 256MB would work well at all.
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maybe the processor is number crunching but that amount of ram struggles to cope with the info at that speed and makes it hot trying to deal with it??

just a theory
 
AL-FAMOUS said:
maybe the processor is number crunching but that amount of ram struggles to cope with the info at that speed and makes it hot trying to deal with it??

just a theory
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A theory about what? I wasn't entirely sure why you asked the RAM question to begin with?
 
Elan0204 said:
A theory about what? I wasn't entirely sure why you asked the RAM question to begin with?
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well if thats making the the ram hot then that means the fans will want to spin up and make the noise... but it probably is just a faulty fan...
 
Man, it just seems like they are getting louder! Oh well, I guess I happy that Apple is taking care of it! This is really my first dealings with them, I've had Mac's but I've always had e-bay or a hand me down. Seems like good service.
 
Elan0204 said:
Apple claims that a whisper is 35 decibels, and that the iMac G5 when idle produces 25 decibels.
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Thanks for the decibel specs. 35 dbs would definitely drive my nuts but hopefully a typical G5 Imac doesnt get anywhere near that even at full load. But if the thing sounds like it's gonna take off from your desk then something is definetly wrong. Can you hear it from another room? If so I'd say you have a problem.
 
bdomz said:
But if the thing sounds like it's gonna take off from your desk then something is definetly wrong. Can you hear it from another room? If so I'd say you have a problem.
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It only got that loud when the fans were running at absloutely full uncontrolled speed. If you boot from a disk that doesn't have drivers for the fans, then as a safety precaution they go to full speed. When I boot from the internal hard drive, I don't have any fan problems.

But, yes, it was pretty loud, louder than my PowerBook at full speed. If 35 decibals is what Apple says a whisper is, then this was way above that. But Apple is making claims comparing the idle volume of the iMac to a whisper, 35 decibals being a whisper and 25 decibals being an idle iMac.

edit: ebook, would you mind booting your iMac off the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with your iMac? It doen't have drivers to control your fans, so they will ramp up to full speed. This would let you draw a comparison between that and what you are normally hearing. Maybe your fans are stuck at full speed, even when booting your iMac from the internal hard drive.
 
The noise of the computer has nothing to do with HD or CPU cooling. Its related to the power alimentation. They have 2 providers and one of them had a deffect batch. They will send replacement parts very soon.

Babelfish this: www.macbidouille.com for more details.
 
Mantat said:
The noise of the computer has nothing to do with HD or CPU cooling. Its related to the power alimentation. They have 2 providers and one of them had a deffect batch. They will send replacement parts very soon.

Babelfish this: www.macbidouille.com for more details.
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yeah i kind of thought that might be the case...

slooksterPSV strange your not defending your "put your iMac in the freezer" theory anymore,
 
on an all in one machine i this is a big issue especially since its a selling point; hopefully apple sorts it out and not too many units are affected; that said i wont mind purchasing an affected unit 🙂
 
Well, an Apple engineer called me back and had me start the computer in open firmware to listen to the fan sound. That is definitely the sound that I'm hearing, although I'm hearing them continually at about 3/4 of full it sounds. He said that he was going to check and see if that is normal and then get back to me tomorrow (gotta love engineer help that works on Saturday). If they decide it's not (am I'm going to make sure they do) then they will send me something to replace...


...and that something is the mid-plane assembly. So, I guess I'll find out if it really is an easy upgrade to do.
 
ebook, now that you have heard the full speed fans, how would you describe the noise? I thought it was quite loud, so if you are always hearing about 3/4 of that, there is definitely something wrong with your iMac.
 
Yep about 3/4 I would say, except I just got done playing a game, NASCAR 2002, which is not exactly graphically intense and they have ramped up a little bit. So, I guess I'm waiting for my mid-plane next week. Do you think I should ask them to send a different Grapics Card on it??? LOL 😉
 
ebook said:
So, I guess I'm waiting for my mid-plane next week. Do you think I should ask them to send a different Grapics Card on it??? LOL 😉
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Worth a try. 🙂

I'm kind of surprised it it is the midplane that needs replacing, as it seemed from the links posted earlier in the thread that the general consensus was that the problem is power supply related. Who knows? I just hope that if Apple has you swap out the midplane, that it at least corrects the problem. Since it looks like you'll be one of the first to try out this new "do it yourself repair" thing, maybe you can take some pictures of what is involved in midplane replacement.
 
Just a quickie. Is the 20'' iMac quiter than a dual giga mdd (btw i'm used to that sound...I mean..it doesn't bother me that much)?
Man, I was about to order one this week... but have second thougts now.. 🙁

thanks

...
 
airmac said:
Just a quickie. Is the 20'' iMac quiter than a dual giga mdd (btw i'm used to that sound...I mean..it doesn't bother me that much)?
Man, I was about to order one this week... but have second thougts now.. 🙁

thanks

...
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I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you. I have played around with a couple of other iMacs at the store and they really were whisper quiet. Mine seems and a few others seem to be the exception rather than the rule. That's why Apple is going to send me a replacement part.

Go ahead, pull the trigger and buy one!
 
Constant Whispers

Elan0204 said:
You have to remember too though, that someone doesn't sit there constantly whispering next to your ear the way the iMac does, so some may be bothered by the constant sound.
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So those voices constantly whispering to me to get the ax out of the car and make them all pay - you're telling me that's not real?

What about the ones telling me I need an iMac G5? Are those real?

😉

While I'm sure the original poster does have a problem, I just wanted to throw in that comparing what you hear in a store (where your ears are already tuning out several other hums) to what you hear in your house is probably not the best way to judge the noise level. Even the flourescent (sp?) lights at the store add to the background noise there.
 
ebook said:
Well, I posted in the iMac post with joy that my computer has come. But, now that I have it up and running and I sit next to it typing on my iBook it is LOUD. Big time high pitched hum, fan like sound that turns on as soon as I turn on my computer and doesn't go away except when I put it to sleep. This is nothing like the reviews I read or like the 17" model I saw at CompUSA yesterday that had been on for who knows how long. So, what is the correct procedure about getting this thing fixed. I'm afraid I'm not going to have me new iMac very long am I....????
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CALL applecare's support line right away you are covered it is brandnew they should replace that one right away.
 
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