Clattering noise from Superdrive

My iMac G5 has started making a fairly loud clattering noise during wake from sleep and when ejecting an optical disk. It lasts about 1 second or so and is coming from the area next to the disk slot on the right side of the screen. I am assuming it's the superdrive making the racket. The superdrive itself has no problem reading and writing CDs and DVDs.
This is definitely a new phenomenon that just recently started. Aside from being disconcerting it is causing no functional problems. I use my iMac everyday in a home business and hate to have to lose it to be serviced. Has anyone else experienced this anomaly? Is there a way to fix this yourself?
Thanks for any friendly counsel on this!
iMac G5 Rev B Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have the same loud electric razor-like noise while burning discs. Someone had mentioned previously they find it soothing or whatever, I certainly do not. It's actually quite emberrassing when people to whom I extoll Mac virtues are here when it happens. Far too loud and disconcerting for me. What is to be done for it? I hope this isn't my 2nd consecutive Mac with super-drive issues...
Rich

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Boot up and wake from sleep noise from superdrive normal???

whenever booting up or waking from sleep, the superdrive seems to make a loud, not grinding, but close to grinding noise.
this noise is on other mbp's that i tested at the apple store, but it's really annoying, like your drive is about to die.
this happens every time on boot up and wake from sleep. do others find this acceptable or normal?
everything else is great. i do have the cpu idle whine, but it's intermittent and running the mirror widget definitely resolves the issue until the next restart.

that's really unfortunate. coming from pc side of computing, i don't recall such an awful sound when booting up laptops tha t had similar drives.
as for previous apple notebooks, i could only comment on the ibook g3 model which had a more pleasing mechanical sound...kind of like whirring(although not a superdrive).
also, a car cd player mechanism is much smoother and much more quiet. apple should pay more attention to this area like bmw does.
the only solution is to keep a cd or dvd loaded in the drive, but peace and quiet comes at the expense of battery longevity.

Siren Like Noise from SuperDrive with Windows Disc??

Hi, I was attempting to install a program from pinnacle for my Dazzle, but when I inserted the disc my drive made a very strange sound. At first I thought it was coming out of the speakers. It would not let me eject immediately. I tried on Mac and same thing happened, so it was not a driver issue. Surprisingly a DVD ran fine. The disc I was using was not cosmetically damaged.
Not a big deal but very odd:
http://creganfamily.com/temp/1274727150.mov
http://creganfamily.com/temp/1274727679.mov
it is difficult to hear, I used my iPhone

That does not sound normal at all. The SuperDrives on both my BlackBook and first gen G5 iMac are a little louder than in my PCs, but there is no grating or scratching sound at all.
Are the disks scratched in any way? If so, definately take it in to Apple as there is something wrong. I would probably take it in anyway as I would hate for a disk to get scratched or stuck in there.

Everytime my phone vibrates it makes this loud noise from inside that sounds like a weird cracking noise or something help!!

Okay so I noticed a week or two ago that there was something lose on the inside of my iPhone 5s and ever since then when my phone vibrates sometimes there is this weird noise. It sounds almost like a cracking noise from the inside or a weird electrical noise. I think something is wrong with the vibrating part. Does anyone know if this is fixable or what it is?

Hello ashliz17,
After reviewing your post, it sounds like the phone makes a cracking noise when it vibrates. I would recommend that you read these articles, they may be helpful in troubleshooting your issue.
iPhone Other Repair Options - Apple Support
Apple - Support - Service Answer Center
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

Noise from hard disk

Hi, everyone.
I bought a new mackbook pro in this Jan. Recently, I hear some not continuously noise from hard disk, especially when i open a file in hard disk or verify the hard disk. Is something wrong with my hard disk?
Thanks

This hard disk clicking is a know problem for many laptops. If you search it on Google, you will find a lot of discussions about it in the Unbuntu Linux forums. In most cases, it is due to the Advanced Power Management (APM) feature of notebook hard drives. The default APM settings of these drives are aggressive so as to extend notebook battery life. As a consequence, the HD tries to park its actuator head to the ramp whenever it judges the system as idle. However, OS X or some third-party applications may access the hard disk quite often, resulting in a park/unpark cycle every few seconds.
Every of these cycles is counted as one load/unload cycle. Most notebook drives support up to 600,000 load/unload cycles. If a hard drive parks its head every few seconds, it may shorten its life by "using up" the cycles more quickly.
I had the same problem on my Powerbook with a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 80GB PATA drive. I heard the frequent clicking sound right after I installed it into the laptop. The SMART status appeared to be Verified, and there was no problem with the drive itself. After searching on Google and Hitachi web site, I found the causes and solved the problem using the Hitachi Feature Tool. For other HD brands, I have no experience at all.
Basically, Travelstar 5K160 drives have three idle modes, from which a user can set one as the deepest idle state:
1) Active Idle: the actuator head is parked near the center of the disk, and power usage is 45-55% less than performance level. Recovery time to active mode is about 20ms.
2) Low Power Idle: this is usually the factory default idle mode. The head is UNLOADED to the ramp and the power consumption is 60-65% less than the performance level. Recovery time is about 300ms.
3) Low RPM idle: in this idle mode, the hard disk will spin down to a lower RPM speed. More power is saved but recovery time is much longer. (I can hear the disk spin down and spin up again a few times per minute. There is also a lag in system reaction time.)
To get rid of the hard disk clicking, you need to set Active Idle as the deepest APM idle mode. To do it on a Hitachi hard disk, you need Hitachi Feature Tool, and a Windows laptop with the same HD interface as your drive (PATA or SATA). Sadly, the feature tool is only for Windows and Linux.
You can download Hitachi Feature Tool 2.10 as an ISO image here: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool and burn it into a bootable CD. The userguide of the tool is available on the same page.
Then, take out your hard drive from your Macbook and install it into a Windows laptop. Boot the machine using the Feature Tool bootable CD. Choose "Change Advanced Power Mode" from the drop-down menu.
The default value is 128 (Low Power Idle). Just increase the value toward Performance, until you see the APM mode over the value bar becomes Active Idle (starting from 192). Click OK and Exit the feature tool. Switch off the Windows laptop and take out the hard disk. Install it into your Macbook. You will not hear the clicking sound again when system is idle. The lowest APM mode will be Active Idle and hence the drive will not park its head to the ramp during operions.
If your hard drive is a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160, you can find the 5K160 specifications version 1.1 from Hitachi web site. On page 69 of the document, it explains the APM idle modes. On page 145 about the register values of the APM modes.
To set Active Idle as the deepest idle mode may adversely affect battery life. (I haven't yet tested it myself) However, there seem not to be a big difference than the Low Power Idle, according to the datasheet of 5K160. For this model, power consumption of Active Idle is 0.8W, while that of Low Power Idle is 0.6W, on average.
Hope this is helpful.

"Squelchy" noise from external speakers plugged into headphone jack

I get a strange, warmly, high pitched static continuous "squelchy" noise from my external powered speakers when I have them plugged in via cable to the headphone jack of my iPad (3rd gen). The noise occurs only with the iPad - the noise is not present with other devices, such as my iPhone 4S, older iPhone 3G, or my Samsung Galaxy or Toshiba Thriven (both Android devices). Also, the noise is present only with external speakers - never with headphones. Doesn't happen with Bluetooth audio.
The pitch of the squelchy noise seems to be related to how much load the iPad processor is under, though I can't say for sure. I honestly have no idea why it's making this noise. I thought it might be a ground loop issue which occurred only when I had external powered speakers plugged in while the iPad was also plugged in, but the noise happens when the iPad is running on battery, as well.
Does anyone have any ideas how I might get rid of this noise?

I don't know if this could be your problem, but...
On some systems the BIOS will sometimes disable the on-board audio controller at startup if it doesn't detect anything connected to the inputs or outputs (older HP computers did this to me ). You usually need to enter the BIOS and permanently enable the On-board Audio by changing the setting from 'Auto Detect' to 'Enabled'.
Hope that helps.

I have a mac pro g4 when i load a cd or dvd there is no start up noise from drive and icon will not show on desktop or in itunes. How should i troubleshoot? pioneer 105 mirror door

I have a mac pro g4 when i load a cd or dvd there is no start up noise from drive and icon will not show on desktop or in itunes. How should i troubleshoot? pioneer 105 mirror door

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105:
Firmware Revision:          A506
Interconnect:          ATAPI
Burn Support:          Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache:          2000 KB
Reads DVD:          Yes
CD-Write:          -R, -RW
DVD-Write:          -R, -RW
Write Strategies:          CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media:          Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds
yes its a power mac thanks its been a long month and Merry Christmas thanks for checking my question im hoping its a driver problem but not liking some other stuff looking like replace drive

I recently downloaded the latest OS update and now I have a constant "humming" noise from my MBP and my audio output is no longer working. Any suggestions?

I recently downloaded the lastest OS update (Lion X 10.7.4) on my MBP that I purchased in November of 2011, and since downloading it my MBP has been making a constant "humming" noise from the right speaker/disc drive area. I also don't have any audio output for FaceTime or Skype. I attempted to use Photo Booth to record a video and it doesn't record any audio. I attempted to reset SMC and reinstall Lion with no resolution of the problems.

Click the Finder icon on the Dock.
Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup
Built-in-Output
Output tab
Move the Master volume slider to the right a bit.
Best.

Bizarre High-pitched noise from K8N-NEO *I have read the other posts*

Hello.
I just got a new system to build, but it has decided to pee in my Wheaties.
Here are the specs:
MSI Neo Platinum
Nvidia 6800 video
Athlon64 3200
Kingston Hyperx PC3200
Antec Tru430 - 430watt
+5 +12 +3
36A 26A 28A
The board, CPU, memory, and video are installed in a new Antec case. The CPU is installed properly and I am using some ArticSilver 5 paste.
When the board posts, I hear a horribly loud and high pitched squeal. It sounds like a smoke detector going off.
I have read a number of posts regarding loud noise from the MOSFETS or from a loose chipset heatsink or as a result of a poor power supply. I think that this power supply should be adequate and the noise seems to be too loud to be a result of a loose component.
The board appears to go through the post procedure and stops on the "processor initialization" stage. After about 2 seconds of being powered on the video fans stops spinning. The HS Fan (which is the one that came with the retail package) does not appear to be spinning at full speed, neither is it running too slowly. As a result, I have not put power to the board for more than a few seconds (fear of heat damage, though the HS never gets warm...)
I am at a loss here. I have reseated everything several times, if this is a defective board then I am really irritated that it would pass QA and be sold. Any suggestions that you could provide will be greatly appreciated. If you prefer you can send me an email at [email protected]
Thanks again!
Moe

Cheers !

Clicking noise from back-ups

Since replacing my G5 with a new mac mini I hear frequent clicking noises from the APC Back-UPS that I have it plugged into. The only obvious difference is that the mini has an ungrounded two-prong plug while the G5 had a grounded three-prong plug. The clicking noise consists of two clicks in succession, the second one slightly lower in pitch. This occurs at random intervals but also in response to anything that I'm doing on the computer such as opening or closing an application, resizing a window, visiting or exiting a website, etc. Occassionally it will happen when the computer is asleep in which case I will hear the fan running briefly in the mini although the monitor doesn't wake up. When this happens I will often see the internet activity monitor light flashing on my dsl modem. I don't know if these noises are a sign that something isn't working properly or just an annoyance. In either case I would welcome suggestions on how to stop it as well as any ideas as to what might be causing it. The APC unit provides battery back-up power in the case of a power outage and surge protection. I submitted my question to APC support but got no response. I also talked to someone at AppleCare and he had no idea what was causing this and wasn't even sure if he knew what I was asking about. However lots of people use back-ups units so someone out there must have experienced this phenomena besides me.

I checked that box but wasn't around the sleeping computer long enough to tell if it made a difference. I plugged in a lamp with a dimmer and turned it up and down with no effect. Then I had an idea. I'm going to wait a couple of days before marking this as definitely solved, but here's what happened:
The UPS has three outlets marked "controlled by master." Anything plugged into these gets it's power turned off when the computer is sleeping. I had long ago moved the peripherals to the other outlets because I didn't like having my computer and monitor wake up whenever I turned on the printer just to use the copy function. Near the power button on the UPS is another smaller button with a graphic symbol. If you hold this down for a few seconds it turns off the "master enable" function. After I did this the clicking stopped.
This still leaves some unanswered (though no longer important) questions: Why was this an issue with the mini but not with the G5? Why was I getting clicking noises in response to doing things on the computer even with the usb connection to the UPS disconnected? Why was I also getting them even when the computer was asleep? One possible factor is the usb hub. The old one was on a pci card, while the new one is external with a power cord connected to the UPS. Another factor may be the ungrounded power plug on the mini vs. the grounded one on the G5. At any rate it looks like the problem is solved, at least for now.

Clicking Noise from hard drive_U410

Hi,
I hear regular clicking noise from the new Lenovo u410 (windows 8) hard drive.
How can I fix this?

weizhou12 wrote:
HI,
I hear constant noticeable noise from hear drive_U410. I have this Ultrabook for almost 2 years. Is it still under warrenty? Any suggestions to fix the noise?
Thanks!!
The noise you are hearing might just be the normal sound of the hard drive. Most hard drives aren't 100% quiet. The link below is for a Seagate article on hard drive noises for your reference......
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/174571en?language=en_US
Are you experiencing any errors or problems with the hard drive ? Seagate also offers a free SeaTools utility that can be used to check the health of your hard drive. You can download that free tool at the link below.....
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
As for warranty, the hard drive would be covered under your computer's warranty and that would have expired after 1 year.
As for fixing the noise, the only way to fix the noise would be to replace the hard drive with a new one. Then again the noise you are hearing maybe just the normal sounds of the drive.
As with any hard drive it is always a good idea to have a back up of your important files on another media. Hard drives have been known to fail without notice.
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Question Mark clicking noise from internal seagate HDD

this morning, my six months old MacBook black (2.16Ghz) screen froze. After force to reboot, my MacBook will not boot anymore while hearing a repeated clicking noise from the hard drive.
I tried Disk Utilities from Original Install Disk but the internal HDD is not recognized.
Then run the Apple Hardware Test, 01 Error found with these code; 4SNS/1/40000000:TB0T.
I don't know what that means.
Boot up MB from Data Rescue II boot CD, still the internal HDD cannot be found.
I know that the internal HDD is not completely dead because I still hear a repeated clicking noise from the hard drive. Is there any ways to recover data from the drive?
Someone suggested me to create "image" out of the hdd by using "dd" command under Terminal.
Would it be possible?
I have Apple OEM (Seagate) *ST9160821AS Momentus 5400.3 160gb.*
Any suggestions? Thanks!

I've had my share of hard drive failures, and that repeated clicking sound is a telltale sign. Yours is not the infamous Firmware 7.01 drive which were all of the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series. Sounds like a simple random crash. Unfortunately, these things happen.
You might be able to recover it yourself. If you can't, any repeated efforts to do it yourself could reduce your chances of recovering data if there's something like a failed head.
If your data is that valuable, you might want to bring it to a data recovery service. Most will give an estimate and only charge if they can recover data. Their services will typically be very expensive - around the cost of a new MacBook.

Constant Fan Noise from Hard Drive

My power book runs with a constant 'fan' like noise from the hard drive (front left of pd)
My friend has same machine and has No sound,
checked with display models in Apple Store (ear right necxt to pb) - No sound
I have had this low level noise from new.
Anyone else have the same problem.
John

hello there!
When I upgraded to 1.4.0 and I notice that ear piercing noise and it was quite annoying. I called Apple and they advised me to look into the activity monitor. And YES, it ws the anti virus that came with .mac that 1.4.2 for some reason did not like and the process was running for such a long time consuming the resources including of course HD. I removed the anti virus (which at this point was useless) and the machine was just wonderful again.
I think what I may say is that you may want to look for a process (using the activity monitor) which is eating the cpu alive - if you can remove it the better, else try to deal with. Good luck - an OSX convert!

Chirping Noise from Hard Drive Causing iMac to Freeze Up!

Hope someone can give me some pointers to figure this one out!
The computer will begin making high-pitch, squeaky chirping noises from the upper left corner (near the hard drive I think):
http://homepage.mac.com/adamntaya/.cv/adamntaya/Sites/.Public/Chirping%20Noise.m p3-zip.zip
Then after a while it will totally freeze up and I have to reboot. It is happening more and more frequently. Already tried doing a Hardware Test, with good results. Already tried downloading MacJanitor. Already tried a PRAM Reset. Nothing has helped the problem yet.
What can I try?
iMac G5 20" 1.8 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4) 160MB HD, 1G Memory (1st Gen)

I had this exact problem, (exactly the same sound) with an eMac I had about a year ago. Our situations were the same, and after many calls and hours talking to Apple I got wound up getting a new iMac to replace to eMac, just paying the difference. They first wanted to take the computer in, which is what will happen when you call, but I would say that you would like to have a new one sent to you, as I assume you ordered it offline. Your problem and the one that I had seem to be quite rare, but nonetheless you should get a new computer.

Is normal at power mac make noise from the optical drive?

when I power , the mac make some noise from the optical drive , I guess, This is normally? this noise just appear when I update my Mac to Mountain Lion 10.8.2
Thank you everyone!

Normal, normal, normal. Don't know the reasoning behind it - I suppose the MBP is trying to load anything that might be in the drive at startup. Had me confused for awhile, way back when...
Clinton

Clattering noise from Superdrive

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