Annoying clicking noise inside my iMac

Hi,
I recently bought an iMac 3.06GHz and ever since I got it there has been an annoying clicking noise coming from inside the display. I had read loads of topics of this clicking whilst in sleep mode, or whilst it's doing something else, but literally, as I'm typing now, Safari is the only extra program running on my Mac and it's clicking, then stopping, then clicking some more etc.
I can best describe it as someone running a small stick over a set of small metal railings very fast and a bit more high pitched. If you catch my drift?!
I just can't seem to find a solution on the forums, so maybe I've missed it or something, but any help from you guys would be extremely well received.
Thanks.

Hi, thanks for the welcome
You think it's the hard drive? Eek, was hoping I wouldn't get that answer. What's my best option would you say? If I took it to an Apple Store, would they repair it for me? Surely I'm covered. I've only had my iMac since September.
Thanks for your responses. I shall be investing in an external hard drive for back up purposes.
Any additional info is still welcome. Thanks.

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Random (and annoying) Clicking Noise

First post. So, bear with me.
I'm semi-new to GarageBand, been using it for a bit now. I recently recorded a full song, drum track, 2 guitars, bass, vocals. I mixed it, mastered it, etc. That was all good and dandy.
I have, however, now wanted to go back and play around with it.
Yet, everytime i open the file, there is an incessent clicking noise. Sometimes it is on specific tracks and if I mute those, it goes away, but sometimes it permeates the whole song.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Oh, the clicking sound IS effected by any applied FX, and also happens on tracks which have no recorded media in them yet.
MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You said it wasn't the metronome - have you turned it off?
If you record a vocal with monitor ON but plug headphones into the Mac's headphone socket do you get the problem.
Are you getting overpeak warnings on GB's meters - track or main?
If you import a recording (one you know to be OK) from elsewhere into GB do you get the problem? (If you want one to try: http://www.macjams.com/song/28234 and click 'download' - probably not your sort of music but I can promise you it has no clicks, though it does have a fairly heavy bass drum.)
If you play songs in iTunes do you get the same problem?
If you reduce the master level in GarageBand does the problem stop?
How are you listening - the Mac's internal speakers, speakers connected to the headphone jack...?
If you turn down the Mac's output volume and/or any external powered speakers does the problem stop?

Does anyone else have a clicking noise inside there mac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN_3eAw2JcQ
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The problem is the back cover, approximately where the bit that says 8gb when depressed, it makes a annoying clicking noise.
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With an exchange, you will receive an iPhone only provided in a white unsealed box. You don't need to take everything included in the retail box when your iPhone was purchased new since your iPhone is being exchange only.
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I have since called Apple Support about the problem. They did not solve it, but did offer to call back. I was unable to be home for the call back. I will call them again, but they did not seem to be aware of any "clicking" problems the iMacs were having.
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i recently bought a new macbook pro and so far it has been great other then an annoying click noise i get from the machine from the bottom right area sometimes when i pick it up.
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Hi there,
do you know the "click" noise your MacBook HD makes when you shut down your laptop? Yes?
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Hallo everybody!
after having managed to solve the problem on my own the whole night and after a morning visit to the nearest Apple Service point, I got a solution, which I hope is not a mere "workaround".
Just to summarize: at the Apple point they told me immediately that such a noise would be absolutely normal; in particular, they told me about the "journling" of the HD the System is used to perform periodically in background (that sounds me strange, as I noticed no real activity when the noise was present). They suggested me verify the hd, initialize it and reinstall the system.
I did so and magically the disturbing noise was gone: as I anticipated above, I hope this struck at the root of the problem but I'll wait and see what is going to happen when my HD will be almost full again...
In conclusion, I thing the reason of the problem could really be some bad piece of software continuously causing "fake" HD accesses... it should be nice to know which piece of software it is.
Bye
Marco

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What are my options here? I'm not trying to spen a lot of money right now.
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I have been fooling around with it for a while, and have noticed if I put the >computer on it's side, or upside down, it will almost always power up and work >correctly.
Wow that's some good diagnostic technique. Good job.
The one thing that comes to mind is the flyback transformer. It's the big tall black thing on the computer's right side. I have seen them with bad soldering to the PAV board. If you take the bottom off (4 screws) you can see it through the hole that you can also adjust the screen voltage and focus. This thing puts out killer voltages so no messing with it with anything metallic or conductive. A 12" plastic ruler or plastic chopstick is good. Power the computer up and if you can make it fault by putting pressure on the flyback then it's probably the soldering on that part. Easy to do but hard to get that PAV out.
eMail me for more info.
Richard

Annoying clicking noise inside my iMac

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