Solution for Dual G5 noise.

[Tiauguinho]

There is a lot of complaining about the chirping noise that the PSU makes on the Dual G5, there is a thread on the Apple discussions that is has already 330 replies. Mine makes it as well... its very sad, cause the rest of the machine is extremely quiet. The chirping noise is very low, but if you have your machine right beside you, you can hear it perfectly. Its annoying, cause you have a such a nice machine, that looks like it has a very tiny cricket inside...

However, I found a solution for this probelm. When I have Folding@home running, the chirping is completly gone! I know that installing CHUD solves the problem too, but this is a weird situation as well. Cause its not related to CPU intensive tasks (like running Folding). When Im doing intensive things on Photoshop and i have folding on, the machine is completly quiet. If i do the same thing on Photoshop without Folding running, the chirping from the PSU comes back. This happens on all the energy settings (Auto, Highest, Lowest). Odd...

Can another Dual G5 user test it and see if it works for him/her as well?

 

[Rezet]

I would highly discourage you from messing with DUAL's cooling system. Especially installing programs that override auto settings. There are alot of factors for fans spining faster. Some of it has little to do with intensity of running tasks.

PS. As of my 1.8, it seems that the bottom 2 small fans from power supply are the most annoying.
But overall it is quieter than my pc, so I don't complain.

 

[Sun Baked]

I thought there were quite a few places in the Apple discussions where they said NOT to use CHUD to eliminate the noise.

Since it's a set of fans on the dual's Power Supply making the noise, and Apple is working on upgrade kits.

Though it doesn't help that the ATI 9800 cards are a source of whine in the computer for some people.

 

[Tiauguinho]

Originally posted by Rezet
I would highly discourage you from messing with DUAL's cooling system. Especially installing programs that override auto settings. There are alot of factors for fans spining faster. Some of it has little to do with intensity of running tasks.

First of all, do you even know what folding at home is? Why are you saying that you discourage me from messing with the Dual's cooling system? I didnt and wont mess with CHUD. My point was, that running Folding (go check what it is) made the chirping go away. Of course that the fans on the CPU's spinned just a little bit faster (since folding was using 100% of 200% of CPU power), but even like this, the machine was extremely quiet, since the chirping goes away as soon as folding starts to run.

PS. As of my 1.8, it seems that the bottom 2 small fans from power supply are the most annoying.
But overall it is quieter than my pc, so I don't complain.

I thought that the problem with the chirping was only with the Dual's... But if you dont have chirping coming from the PSU, then you are lucky.

From my point of view, this is the best solution for the chirping. Since you dont mess with anything. You loose the annoying sound and you help discovering cure for diseases while helping our Macrumors team climbing the ranks. Put those G5's folding!

 

[Makosuke]

Those weren't very helpful replies--you're suggesting a completely reasonable and entirely nondestructive fix--basically just load the processors with something (running Folding@Home hardly qualifies as "messing with DUAL's cooling system") to keep them from changing speed on the fly and causing whatever the chirp is.

I'd try that for you, except I hear the chirp so rarely I'd have to way of easily knowing whether F@H is doing anything to help or not. If I ever find an operation that repeatably causes the chrip, though, and I find it annoying, it'll be an interesting fix.

As for me, it's that whiny 9800 fan that Sun Baked mentioned that's my problem. "a very tiny cricket inside" I can handle, but a maddening whine is somewhat more of an issue.

Related (or unrelated) note about G5 noise: For those considering buying a new SATA Hitachi drive for their G5s, it seems to do some sort of "head slew" to avoid heat buildup or some such business every 10 minutes, which sounds somewhat similar to the G5 chirp. Lasts for about a second, but if you're the type who hate noise in their computer, I'd look at Seagate's or WD's drives instead (the stock Maxtor I got from apple makes quite a bit of noise on seeks relative to my Seagate, WD, and Hitachi drives). I'd have gone with a SATA Seagate, but unfortunately they have a stupid 1-year warranty on the SATA versions.