Humming sound comming from early Intel iMac

[second.exodous]

There is a new humming sound coming from my parents iMac, I think it's the processor cooler but I'm not sure. It could be the hard drive as well, I just know it kicks up sometimes when there is a lot of activity. The problem is they don't do a lot on the computer so it scares them.

They are convinced that it is going to die because it's soo old, I think under two years, but this is the second computer they owned. The first was the first 20" G5 iMac that, instead of turning it off the correct way, they just unplugged from the wall outlet. Needless to say it died, but they think it was because their son in law used it too much. I try to tell them that it's because how they turned it off, but they didn't like their son in law, who is now an ex-son in law, so they blame it on him. Yes, I know, my parents are the last people to own a computer.

They also don't want to spend any money on their computer, so worse case scenioro, taking it to the Genius Bar without this computer being under warranty and having them replace the processor fan and/or the hard drive, what would it cost? I think it might just require a new fan for the processor cooler, but what if they need to replace a lot more?

 

[Eidorian]

There are 3 fans inside the iMac and not to mention the power supply.

 

[Tomorrow]

Hearing a humming sound from a fan is normal in any computer, especially when you're doing something processor-intensive like watching or encoding video, music, etc. Unless the fan sounds like it's rattling or otherwise giving off sounds like a dying yak, I wouldn't worry about it.

Are you able to check your CPU temp? If it's still within normal range I wouldn't worry about the fan too much.

 

[second.exodous]

See, the problem is that I try to tell them this is normal. Since I don't use apple they won't listen to me, I try to tell them I've built 20 or so PCs for me and friends, and I know that when a fan gets dusty it makes noise, or when dust is in the fins of a processor cooler the fan has to kick up higher to get the same cooling.

Looking at the instructions people have posted on the net I'm sure I could clean all the fans, maybe replace them, I'm almost positive that the fans for the processor cooler would be special, maybe all of them. I could even get a bigger HD, one of the silent and cool running WD Green, and put that in there for them. The problem is they only trust 'Professionals' to do it but they're cheap so they'd rather to to a local guy that isn't Apple certified than take it to Apple Genus without knowing how much it is ahead of time. I just wouldn't trust it if it wasn't me or an Apple Genus. I called the closest Apple store, 4 hours away, and they couldn't give me a quote without looking at it first.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has had work done on their iMac at a Genus Bar and had to pay, and what they had done and how much it cost.

 

[Tomorrow]

I understand not wanting to work on a machine you've never worked on before.

What's sad is that they're convinced that their less than 2-year-old iMac is "old." Even a PC isn't old at 2 years, at least not for home use.