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Archadius

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 6, 2011
4
0
Hello,

I just received my new iMac yesterday and am getting problems. I've owned 4 iMacs and never had an issue even close to this one until now.

First off, my system specs are as follows:
- 3.4GHz Intel Quad-Core i7
- 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM (2x4GB)
- 1TB SATA HD
- 2GB DDR5 Radeon HD 6970M GPU

It's a relatively basic custom build straight from the mac store, ordered in at the end of June, so I assume that nothing would have changed on the site yet.

On to the issue...

When I got it home, I started personalizing my settings (appearance, preferences, etc) updated to the latest software, and had installed only Firefox and Thunderbird. I started noticing a random beep-click noise occurring at random intervals that came in sets of three (it sounds similar to when you eject a disc from the drive plus a beep). I started going nuts immediately, doing research and couldn't find anything to resolve my issue. Eventually I called Apple Support and they though I had an alert sound playing when I receive mail in Thunderbird, turns out that wasn't the issue because it persisted later that evening even after I adjusted Thunderbird settings. In addition, I was noticing that the issue had "evolved". It started doing a series of repeated (around 10+) clicks in a row at random intervals. Immediately I was thinking "hardware issue", and now I'm at work performing an extended Apple Hardware Test diagnostic.

Upon further research, I still can't find something that sounds exactly like my issue, only similar occurrences, and from what I can gather, defective RAM or a defective RAM slot "may" be the issue. I need further proof to isolate this though. I intend to care Apple Support again when they open, but any assistance provided is greatly appreciated.

Please post if you have any comments or need further information to assist me.

Thanks!
 
Update:

The first pass of my extended AHT diagnostic passed with "no issues found", proceeding to further passes. After 5 or so passes with no issues, I will stop.
 
Pass 2 completed, no issues detected. Proceeding to pass 3. I have a call scheduled with Apple Support for 10am this morning but I'd like to be able to provide as much information as possible so that they can resolve my issue. I'm hoping I won't have to send this unit back as defective because I need it for home business.
 
Onto a 4th pass now, probably the last one I can do before Apple Support calls me. Still no problems detected. This is such a pain... -.-
 
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