Chirping noise on Mac Mini problem

Mac Mini makes chirping noise-stops when top icons selected
New Mac user here, upgraded to Leopard but problem also occurred under Tiger -- Problem: periodically (no apparent reason), while browsing with either Safari or Firefox, Mac mini starts making a chirping noise -- chirping will stop under a few conditions -- e.g., if icon on top (i.e., Bluetooth, Wireless, speaker, etc) is selected) -- chirping will resume when mouse is brought back down on desktop -- eventually closing browser or some other action will stop the chirping -- doesn't "appear" to me to be hardware as indicated in other previous posts --- anybody have any thoughts?
Thanks in advance --

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
While it hasn't been reported very often at all, this 'chirping' has cropped up a couple of times with new minis, though there has not been any apparent cause or cure that I recall being discussed.
First thing to do is test to see if this is drive related. I would download a copy of MenuMeters (http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/) and set it to display at least the disk activity and paging indicators (the latter in the memory tab). Watch to see if the chirping is then associated with disk read or write activity. If it is, then you may have a drive problem, and at the very least should ensure that you take regular backups, or indeed have the system examined with a view to possibly replacing the drive.
If the chirping is not associated with disk activity, then it becomes rather harder to pin-point, but if the system is still under warranty, I'd be inclined to have Apple, or an authorized service provider, look at it. If not under warranty but you have an Apple store in your area, you could take it in to have a 'genius' look at it, though beware that in the bustle of a retail store, noises may be harder to hear of course.

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i've seen people asking about this type of thing before, but i've never heard an answer. perhaps it's coming from the HD, which makes me concerned. any ideas?

here's my plan.
i'm actually thinking that a recent update (10.6.2?) made my mini start chirping. i don't think my HD or graphics card is about to fail...this thing is brand new. and i'm almost positive that it was not chirping for the first few days (before a bunch of updates were done). i think i'm going to ignore it until the next series of updates, and see what happens. maybe it will go away...if it doesn't, i'll probably take it to the apple store near me. i have the complimentary year of coverage for a while, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
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Chris,
You'll probably get a whole lot better responses and less chatter by posting each question separately, but we're here, so let's dig a bit on some:
1) No idea - it should just work. Are you sure you gently but firmly inserted the cable in both ends? Better to wait for someone with toslink experience on this one.
2) Not sure what forum this is best for - third party software questions? In general - you get better video settings by telling handbrake (or any codec) to not compress so much. Try giving it two passes to compress and allowing more data on the output end. There are lots of tutorials online
http://handbrake.m0k.org/documentation.php
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Chirping noise on Mac Mini problem

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