intel duo imac, click-whrrrrrr-buzzz

[TedReminder]

Picked up a used 20" iMac intel duo on ebay. It seems pretty slow compared to my 17" iMac. After it runs a while it starts into a click-click-whrrrrr-buzzz, and repeats every 5 seconds or so. Any suggestions? Is it going to die or can a good Apple tech get it right? Also, could this get expensive?
Trying to get the wife off windows and on a mac.
Thanks,
Ted

 

[Jozone]

Sounds like a dead hard drive, if you have a firewire cable handy boot the other iMac into target disc mode and then from the 20'' hold option at boot and run from the other machine (with the machines linked via firewire).. If this solves the issue it is most likely going to be a hard drive replacement which on iMacs is not trivial

 

[MacAndy74]

Sounds like a dead hard drive, if you have a firewire cable handy boot the other iMac into target disc mode and then from the 20'' hold option at boot and run from the other machine (with the machines linked via firewire).. If this solves the issue it is most likely going to be a hard drive replacement which on iMacs is not trivial

http://bit.ly/16v3B

^
Instructions. But not for the faint hearted.

 

[Jozone]

http://bit.ly/16v3B

^
Instructions. But not for the faint hearted.

Ah good link, have seen it before.. if you end up replacing the drive pay close attention to the drive/revision you buy (check the list on that site), you wouldnt want to end up opening the thing twice

 

[TedReminder]

Any ideas about what it would cost if I take it to an Apple store?
Ted

 

[mstam]

Replacing the HD is very easy. You need a T6 and T8 torx, medium Philips screw driver, rubber cement (office depot), some regular tape, a sharp hobby knife and some 1" EMI shielding tape.

In stead of peeling the shielding tape off of the monitor, cut it with the knife around the far bottom edges. When you put the monitor back on, use the EMI tape to reconstruct the shielding.

Also, after removing the bottom casing screws and lifting it, the top is held by 2 mounts with levers. With a regular screwdriver you can lift the levers and the top will come right of.

A 640GB or 1TB Western Digital Black Edition will work very fine.

 

[TedReminder]

Took it to the Apple store. They ran some tests and said the OS was wankered. They re-installed the OS. Got it home and it can't find the printer. Tried loading the printer driver cd and it won't load. Look in system profiler and it says I don't have a cd drive. Weird. Could the click-click-whrrrrr-buzzzz have been the cd drive going south??
Ted

 

[Jozone]

Took it to the Apple store. They ran some tests and said the OS was wankered. They re-installed the OS. Got it home and it can't find the printer. Tried loading the printer driver cd and it won't load. Look in system profiler and it says I don't have a cd drive. Weird. Could the click-click-whrrrrr-buzzzz have been the cd drive going south??
Ted

When the superdrive in my intel imac died it would spin up the cds, make that strange almost "crunching" sound, then eject, cant remember if it showed up in the profiler.

 

[TedReminder]

Problem solved.. I called the guy I got it from off ebay. He had another one just like it with warranty into 2011. Couple hours later he drove over and swapped. The replacement is running very good.
Ted