IMac loudly whirs and freezes. please help!

I have a 27" iMac purchased November 2009. Have tried searching discussions for help but am unsure what to call the problem as it is so peculiar!
Several times an hour it makes a strange loud whirring noise (which does not appear to be a fan to me as it is not a smooth sound, sounds more like a hard drive 'thinking' possibly?? but I have no idea) and freezes until the noise stops (which generally takes anywhere between 10-30 seconds). Very frustrating as it interupts my workflow and all I can do is wait it out. It does not seem to matter how many/which applications are running. it happens when i have creative suite open but then it also happens if all i have open is chrome!
It is within warranty, however I have no time to take it to be fixed until November as I can't be without it until then, so am hoping someone will have a suggestion to help me out!
I don't know what other information would be helpful, but just in case, it has 4GB of RAM and has a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and still has about 775GB of hard drive space free.
would doing a fresh install of my OS help?
any advice you can give me would be appreciated! or point me towards an existing discussion (all i could find were people describing their whirring noise as a buzzing, and mine is definitely not buzzing)

My first thought would be the hard drive, you may not have time to get it check out until November
but think about what you might loose if you don't. Just have a great backup plan for a just
incase scenario
If its not a harddrive, what ever you have going on is not good, as your aware of, you need to
reevaluate and think about if you lost what you have verses not having access to your files.
I assume you have contacted Apple support on the phone, to see what they might have to say
Its nothing to fool with in my opinion
Mike

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Except for the keyboard & mouse, disconnect all devices from your computer.
Repair your disk from your System DVD.
Repairing permissions from the Tiger or Leopard DVD
Boot up from your Tiger or Leopard Install DVD while holding down the "c" key.
Select the language you wish to use, and then choose "Disk Utility" from the menu bar.
Your HD should appear in a panel on the left hand side of the window which opens. Select it and then click on the "repair disk" button in the right hand section of the window.
If Disk First aid is able to complete the repair now click on the "Repair permissions" button.
Once this process has been completed restart your computer.
===============
Get a larger HD
===============
Use Software Update to update your OS to OS 10.5.6.
Afterwards, repair permissions & restart your computer.
Your system info confirms you are still using an outdated version - OS 10.5.4.

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Hello everyone..
I come here to see if anyone can help me... Ive done it all and nothing is working.
I just recently started having problems with my computer, im not sure why this happend but ill try to explain everything as best as I can.
The problem started a few days ago while I was playing SWG's. I was playing and all of a sudden my machine froze, the screen locked-up and then after about 2 min the entire system restarted. I then logged back into my windows and after a while a system froze and restarted yet again. I though it was a SWGs issue but then the computer would freeze while browsing the net and doing other tasks.
I have formated my machine, re-installed my drivers, and re-installed the hardward. Nothing has worked.
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MSI K7n2 nforce2 8xagp mobo
athon 1700xp
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SB audigy x-gamer sound card
MSI geforce4 ti 4200 8xAGP graphics card
Hope thats enough..
One last thing... When my computer restarts after the problem i get a message asking me to report the problem to microsoft... i located the error file and this is what was writen in it....
// Watchdog Event Log File
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Created: 2003-07-19 01:30:24
TimeZone: 300 - Eastern Standard Time
WindowsVersion: XP
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// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
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ShutdownCount: 5
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DriverInternalName: nv_disp.dll
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DriverProductVersion: 6.13.10.3100
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If what you are saying, and I am reading correctly:
The machine and game was working just peachy and all of a sudden the problem manifested itself?
Did you do ANYTHING to change your system prior to this happening to possibly have an effect?
the fast that you said you have re-loaded the OS and removed and re-installed the hardware with the same result tells me that there may be some sort of hardware failure and this could get difficult to troubleshoot.
First things first, try a memory testing software like memtest86 to see if you get any errors.
http://www.memtest86.com/

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Thanks. I was just going to post that I had more information. Luckily, it seems to jive with what you suspect.
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Message was edited by: davelovesmac

Kenichi Watanabe wrote:
Did Verify report any errors? Did you try starting up from the Leopard installation disk and running Disk Utility from the Installer's Utilities menu, then running Repair Disk?
Verify didn't report any errors so that didn't really help.
I have just popped in my Leopard disk but there doesn't seem to be a menu for "utilities". My options are "Install Mac OS X", "Optional installs" (which doesn't have a Repair Disk option", and "Instructions".
Did your MacBook come with Leopard, or did you install the upgrade over your Tiger system?
The machine came with Tiger so I bought Leopard seperately, formatted the HD and did a clean install. But this was back when Leopard came out and I haven't had any problems with the OS until now.

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Date/Time: 2007-09-14 16:01:40.610 +0100
OS Version: 10.4.10 (Build 8R2232)
Report Version: 4
Command: Logic Pro
Path: /Applications/Logic Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Logic Pro
Parent: WindowServer [101]
Version: 8.0.0 (1437.23)
Build Version: 12
Project Name: Logic
Source Version: 14372300
PID: 328
Thread: 0
Exception: EXCBADACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000000
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 com.apple.logic.pro 0x0041d863 0x1000 + 4311139
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x0042395b 0x1000 + 4335963
2 com.apple.logic.pro 0x0041da09 0x1000 + 4311561
3 com.apple.logic.pro 0x002e242c 0x1000 + 3019820
4 com.apple.logic.pro 0x002e386b 0x1000 + 3025003
5 com.apple.logic.pro 0x003f5cda 0x1000 + 4148442
6 com.apple.logic.pro 0x003ec250 0x1000 + 4108880
7 com.apple.logic.pro 0x000121fa 0x1000 + 70138
8 com.apple.logic.pro 0x001a9ebb 0x1000 + 1740475
9 com.apple.logic.pro 0x0052f621 0x1000 + 5432865
10 com.apple.AppKit 0x933503af -[NSWindow sendEvent:] + 5279
11 com.apple.prokit 0x959aa206 -[NSProWindow sendEvent:] + 268
12 com.apple.AppKit 0x93342350 -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 5023
13 com.apple.logic.pro 0x004cced7 0x1000 + 5029591
14 com.apple.AppKit 0x9326cdfe -[NSApplication run] + 547
15 com.apple.prokit 0x95987958 NSProApplicationMain + 324
16 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00003bf2 0x1000 + 11250
17 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00003b19 0x1000 + 11033
Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90009cd7 machmsgtrap + 7
1 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9082d2b3 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 2014
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9083e188 CFRunLoopRun + 60
3 com.apple.DVCPROHDMuxer 0x193ee0fb AVS::DestroyAVCDeviceController(AVS::AVCDeviceController*) + 297
4 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 2:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90009cd7 machmsgtrap + 7
1 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9082d2b3 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 2014
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9082cace CFRunLoopRunInMode + 61
3 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x9146941e HALRunLoop::OwnThread(void*) + 158
4 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91469239 CAPThread::Entry(CAPThread*) + 93
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 3:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9001a1cc select + 12
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 4:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x900248c7 semaphorewait_signaltrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00622e80 0x1000 + 6430336
2 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00622f47 0x1000 + 6430535
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 5:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x900248c7 semaphorewait_signaltrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00622e80 0x1000 + 6430336
2 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00622f47 0x1000 + 6430535
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 6:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90047dd7 semaphoretimedwait_signaltrap + 7
1 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x9147665c CAGuard::WaitFor(unsigned long long) + 212
2 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x9147657e CAGuard::WaitUntil(unsigned long long) + 66
3 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91474efa HP_IOThread::WorkLoop() + 690
4 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91474c43 HPIOThread::ThreadEntry(HPIOThread*) + 17
5 com.apple.audio.CoreAudio 0x91469239 CAPThread::Entry(CAPThread*) + 93
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 7:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90037b57 machwaituntil + 7
1 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x90ce6319 Delay + 118
2 ...opellerheads.rewire.library 0x235fc7e8 RWPUnregisterDeviceImp + 21574
3 ...opellerheads.rewire.library 0x23617a5c RWPUnregisterDeviceImp + 132794
4 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 8:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90047dd7 semaphoretimedwait_signaltrap + 7
1 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x90ce1da9 TSWaitOnSemaphoreCommon + 163
2 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x90ce8d91 TimerThread + 87
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 9:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00111218 0x1000 + 1114648
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 10:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00111140 0x1000 + 1114432
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 11:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00111068 0x1000 + 1114216
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 12:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00110f90 0x1000 + 1114000
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 13:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00110eb8 0x1000 + 1113784
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 14:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x00110de0 0x1000 + 1113568
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 15:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002493f semaphorewaittrap + 7
1 com.apple.logic.pro 0x0011132a 0x1000 + 1114922
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90024227 pthreadbody + 84
Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x00000000 ecx: 0x00000000 edx: 0x00000000
edi: 0x00000000 esi: 0x00000001 ebp: 0xbffff678 esp: 0xbffff660
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010246 eip: 0x0041d863 cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037

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