I'm looking for some help to figure out what this noise is on my Late 2009 iMac that has caused it to be extremely slow for the last couple years when it is occurring.
20 second clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUvzH3QqYs
The noise happens very regularly and the computer is extremely slow (but not unresponsive / no SBBD) when it the noise is happening. It has been an issue since 2011 and it occurs most noisily when you put a load on the CPU (i.e. launching a program, loading a project in iMovie, etc). However, the noise level seems to have no correlation to the level of the load being put on the CPU. For instance it is seemingly just as noisy at 15% CPU usage as it is when it gets near 100%.
My obviously thought was that is related to the read/write type function in the HDD. So, I assumed it was a bad hard drive and replaced it with a new 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 but it did nothing to help either help the noise or the sluggishness.
I would greatly appreciate any advice and help in diagnosing the issue.
iMac Stats:
Late 2009 27in iMac
Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 12GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
20 second clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUvzH3QqYs
The noise happens very regularly and the computer is extremely slow (but not unresponsive / no SBBD) when it the noise is happening. It has been an issue since 2011 and it occurs most noisily when you put a load on the CPU (i.e. launching a program, loading a project in iMovie, etc). However, the noise level seems to have no correlation to the level of the load being put on the CPU. For instance it is seemingly just as noisy at 15% CPU usage as it is when it gets near 100%.
My obviously thought was that is related to the read/write type function in the HDD. So, I assumed it was a bad hard drive and replaced it with a new 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 but it did nothing to help either help the noise or the sluggishness.
I would greatly appreciate any advice and help in diagnosing the issue.
iMac Stats:
Late 2009 27in iMac
Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 12GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB