High pitched "silent" noise at idle?

[katyoshi]

I'm getting this softly high pitched sound at idle. I did not have this sound before until this month. I bought this thing in January 2010, yes this year. Does anyone know what could be going on? 😕 It does not make that sound when I'm using it, it's only at idle. I can even hear it when I'm lying in bed since this is in my room. Check out my signature to see what I have.

It sounds like a idle fan issue? The computer works fine, but it's just that high pitched noise that bothers me. I should take it to the apple store huh?

I decided to keep my current set up and use my mac mini as a desktop that mostly works as a media server like set up that holds my media for my apple TV if I run out of space on the ATV and later use it as a home theater computer when i get another HDTV. 😀 this is just fyi on why I have my mbp and mac mini still yet instead of having only one computer...

 

[now i see it]

I have a 2007 Mac Mini that has been completely silent now going on 3 years..
Sounds like you have a fan issue. Download the free iStat Pro widget and you can see your fan speeds.. maybe you can see what RPM it whines at.

I'd take it back to Apple if its still under warranty... Best thing about the Mini is its silence.

 

[Heilage]

Depends on what kind of noise, but it could be several things:

- Broken fan, unable to stabilize speed, bad ball-bearings or stuff like that
- Condesator issues on the motherboard, a high frequency noise can be heard when electronic components are about to fail
- Could also be a speaker issue, if you have external speakers (of course, it can be the internal speaker too)

If you can try to isolate the issue, you could verify the malfunction and get it fixed.