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Using your iMac 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week?

J

JWSandi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 19, 2008
120
0
Trashville, TN.
I run my iMac an average of 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week.

But when not in use I usually put it to sleep and I shut it off completely at nights.

Its about two years old and recently I've notice a very light "click" sound.

Not clicking, just a click...

It happens at random. Sometimes I can go hours without hearing anything at all then out of the blue, just what sounds like a light click.

Now I'll admit I could be over reacting as the sound is very low, what some might describe as almost inaudible.

I've listend to the sounds people have posted on You Tube of iMac fans and Hard Drives going bad, the buzzing the screen makes etc...

And this is nowhere near close to anything posted.

So I was wondering, could it just be the heating and cooling of the plastic/metal, or is it just a random noise any computer would make and for whatever reason I'm just now noticing it?

Thanks!
:)
 
Could you perhaps try record the noise? I know it might be tough since it seems random, but it would really help.

In the meantime, just in case if it is the hard drive (which can still be likely), try run some diagnostic tools like the hardware checker thingy on the OS X discs.
 
The click is more likely to be the logic board maybe switching from a sleep state. check your energy saver settings. I run my Macs all day everyday. The Mac Pro has a more obvious click when I wake it. But, to be safe always run Disk Utility in the Utilities folder under Applications.
 
Under energy saver, you'll see "put hard disk to sleep when possible."

A soft click would simply be the head of a big hard drive parking itself.
 
I just ran the Apple Hardware Test from the the main CD and no problems or errors were detected.

My HD is not set to sleep thru the energy saver menu. I put the whole computer to sleep manually.

I doubt I could record the noise as it is very random. Which is why I was wondering if I was just over reacting and the noise was just a byproduct from heating and cooling.

OS X Applications Disk utility says the HD appears OK

So I'm a bit perplexed.
 
If the usual diagnosticy things don't turn up anything, just make sure your Time Machine backup is secure and ignore it. It's true that HD make sounds sometimes, etc etc, it could well be something you hadn't noticed before or some sign of wear which is non-fatal.

I don't think there is any issue with leaving iMacs on all the time per se, many businesses do this and my C2D iMac was on pretty much 24/7 for a year or two.

Writing this I'm presuming "12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week" doesn't mean "12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week transcoding AVCHD to mp4" or something ;).
 
sounds like the usual "head parking" issue (issue? hardly). if you have regular backups you have nothing to worry about. 2 years is when you start to worry about hard drives dying but nothing major should come from it if you have backups.

and honestly, you should leave your computer on, rather then turning it off/sleeping - more power cycles weaken the computer more, they prefer static states.
 
DoFoT9 said:
and honestly, you should leave your computer on, rather then turning it off/sleeping - more power cycles weaken the computer more, they prefer static states.
Click to expand...

This is true, startup is a shock to the components; if it is on 80% of the time, it's better to leave it up 100%.

At the same time, nice to be a good global citizen - set your monitor to dim and save some power (and lower temps too).
 
aki said:
This is true, startup is a shock to the components; if it is on 80% of the time, it's better to leave it up 100%.

At the same time, nice to be a good global citizen - set your monitor to dim and save some power (and lower temps too).
Click to expand...

then if you have 100% uptime, then the parts get used TOO much lol! you simply cant win! just do what you think is best, as the situations will vary from person to person.

i personally never switch my machines off, iMac had 65 days uptime until it froze (OSX still needs some more things fixed)- it doesnt go to sleep either.
 
sammy2066 said:
I'm running my iMac 21.5" 24/7 ... I hope this doesn't turn into a problem a few years down the road ... :p
Click to expand...

It'll burst into flames when you're not around and all that'll be left is a pile of ash...

Well, assuming all iMacs have the same build quality, you'll be fine. Been running my 06 iMac 24/7 for just over 4 years now, and aside from the well-know screen-lines issue (7 lines and counting), it's fine.
 
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