Imac noise

I just bought a new imac i7 quad core and it is a piece of crap!
Since 1984 I have purchased over 50 mac computers for my business, and am loyal to the brand. Moreover, I have endured Apple's abysmal quality control issues, and still... I remain loyal.
But today was the final straw.
Yo... APPLE...
Fix the external noise/sound problem. Over 2800 posts on your own support site, and if you google, over 68,900 quires for the same problem.
SOUND... CRAPPY, NOISY Sound!
The new iMac i7 computer makes a hi pitched (or low buzzing sound), whenever used with a sound card or external audio interface. Whenever you hook up external speakers, the crappy sound is present.
I do audio for a living and you can't make it work without noise????
I've taken this in to the MacStore and the dummies there can't figure this out either.
Fix this ******* thing!

Hi James
Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Mac.
Just FYI - this is a User Support Community, and posts are not really read by Apple
Your opinion would be better voiced here.

Similar Messages

New iMac Noise

Hi all.
2 weeks ago my new 20" Nvidia iMac was delivered. I was replacing a Rev A G5 17" iMac. I noticed that the noise the machine makes whilst quieter is not 'really' quiet like my dad's 24".
The HDD fan speed is around 1600 and the noise does appear to be coming from the drive.
Has anyone else noticed a similar problem with theirs or do you think I should contact somebody about it?
I bought the machine from PCWorld's UK online website (OK I would have preffered to get it from apple but there was a pricing error I was able to take advantage of saving me quite a bit).
Eitherway i'm not sure PCWorld would overly interested so would it be OK to take it to an Apple Store if you think it's worth taking at all?
Any idea's are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi David. I have not used one of the new iMacs yet so all I can speak for are the ones that I have seen. The 17" iMacs at my work have a default HDD fan speed of 1200rpm. What can sometimes happen if you change the fan speeds then uninstall SMCFC when you reinstalled the fan controller it takes whatever the current fan speeds are as the default. So in order to fix that you would have to uninstall the fan controller, do a proper SMC reset, then reinstall SMCFC.
17" 2.16GHz CD2
ODD: 1000
CPU: 1000
HDD: 1200
20" 2.16GHz CD2
ODD: 800
CPU: 800
HDD: 1400
24" 2.33GHz CD2
ODD: 600
HDD: 1300
CPU: 1000
20" 2.0GHz ALU(2007)
ODD: 1000
HDD: 1200
CPU: 1200
24" 2.8GHz Extreme(2007)
ODD: 700
HDD: 1200
CPU: 1200
24" 2.8GHz-3.06GHz ALU(2008)
ODD: 700
HDD: 1200
CPU: 1200
George

IMac noise/sound

Hi,
My 11 month old iMac had it's hard drive replaced in November and ever since has made a strange noise.
It makes a sort of 'blip' beep sound at random intervals. Similar to submarine, although not quite the same. I don't get the sound on start up, but I always get it when the screensaver has been on. Otherwise it seems totally random. I also hear it with the sound switched off.
I'm guessing it's some sort of alert sound, however I've looked for ways to identify it or switch it off and come up with nothing. It's only done this since it came back from repair.
Any help with identifying it would be very gratefully received as it's starting to drive me mad!
Dani. x

Sorry to hear of your pending insanity.
You can start looking in System Preferences and checking the preferences for any applications that are open when you hear it. I suspect it just going off because some preference is checked.
You can also do a SMC reset, I doubt that will do anything but it won't hurt it either.
*SMC RESET*
• Shut down the computer.
• Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
• Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
• Release the power button.
• Attach the computers power cable.
• Press the power button to turn on the computer.
*PRAM RESET*
• Shut down the computer.
• Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
• Turn on the computer.
• Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
• Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Roger

Emacs and imacs noise?

How do you compare the noise emacs and imacs make?
The only thing I don't want for my eMac is the noisy fan. And maybe I'll switch for an iMac.
Thank you

eMacs are noise pollution city.
I registered the constant noise from a old eMac 800 mhz at being 73db.
It drives you batty.
The iMac's are virtually silent, only making a slight kechunk sound when eatting and spitting cd's. You'll love it. They are quieter than most PowerMac G5's.
Problem right now is the new iMac's are intel processor based core duals, they are fast, but not a whole lot of software is ready for them natively yet, but will run at reduced performance using PPC based software under emulation (rosetta). Some games might not work either.
If you depend on Photoshop performance, Adobe might not have a native Intel version ready for another 14 months.
Coming from a eMac, the iMactel with Core Duo proccessors will seem very fast to you.
http://appleintelfaq.com/

Intel iMac Noise Issues?

I am considering the new iMac Intel Core Duo. My brother has the original iMac G5 and has always complained about how loud it is with fan noise (and it is loud!). I was curious if the Intel iMac has removed this issue? I've seen them at the Apple Store here in San Francisco, but in the retail environment of that large space there is no way for me to know what it would sound like sitting in my home.
Thanks for the feedback ...

From all reports it would seem that Apple has corrected whatever caused all the noise in the first gen and ALS model G5 iMacs.

IMac noise - low Hum

Hi All,
I've had my Intel based Imac now for 3 years, I've woken it from sleep this evening and its begun to make a low pitched humming noise, the noise was louder for about 5 seconds then reduced in volume but is still there. the noise is coming from the lower rear of the iMac.
I have restarted it twice and disconnected and eliminated all sound (volume), the sound remains.
It's a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo machine.
Any idea's ?
Dylan

Hi Dylan
Sounds like the CPU fan or power supply.
Reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
+1. Shut down the computer.+
+2. Unplug the computer's power cord.+
+3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.+
+4. Release the power button.+
+5. Attach the computers power cable.+
+6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.+
Also while disconnected, vacuum any dust off the grill work on the bottom and the small port under the stand to make sure that it is cooling properly.
Your CPU fan should be running between 1000 to 1400rpm depending on the model, to check download and install the iStat Pro widget > http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
Dennis

IMac Noise Update

I Hear My iMac making A Tiny Noise when My Room is very Quite In order to hear it, the room has to be pretty quite. It's a ticking noise, is this Normal? I Just had to get an Update on the this? I Heard about temperature monitor and iMac Fan Control is this 2 good for me? & also will this noise get worse? I Just needed an update cause i heard i have to clean inside the iMac is it true? what should i do?

I confirm that my iMac 21.5'' Core i5 2011 has a constant HDD humming as well. It's not too loud, but very recognizable in a silent room even from some meters away. the HDD access noise does not bother me as it's quiet enough. Actually all Apple coomputers I have had a crappy loud hard drives, which is weird for the computers of such price. While the silent drives do exist on the market, Apple prefers to install a cheap hard drives to save some bucks. I am really disappointed that 2011 models have a proprietary hard drives, which limit the upgrade. I tried to listen to this Mac at the shop where I purchased it and heard nothing, but the room was not perfectly silent. When I ran it at home I've got the noise immediately. I have Hitachi 2 Tb drive (it's pretty old model to install in 2011 computers, what a shame Apple). While the drive speed is good, the humming just kills the entire iMac idea , because you have it right at your face. I don't wish to go back to the shop cause it's actually in another country and it will be not easy to move it back and forth.. And I doubt they will be able to help me.
I am just curious is this humming in every iMacs with 2 Tb Hitachi, or mine is not OK?
BTW there are LOTS of complaints on noisy iMAc HDDs for years, and it's weird Apple does nothing to fix it.
I would probably prefer to have a 1 Tb HDD without a humming, than pay so much extra for BTO iMac just to get this problem. I think I will try to replace my HDD at some moment, but with 2011 iMac limitations that could be some problem if you are not in the USA.

Imac noise ? with startup disc

imac snow , Will not start up from startup disc, cd rom will not work I hear like a dropping sound. Bought external hard drive to see if I could load mac ox on it. Tried hold c turn on mac. Any help would be great.Cd will eject by paperclip.
imac snow Mac OS X (10.3.2)
imac snow Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Donna, we need the correct model of your G5 iMac. Please see the following & correct your system information so that the knowlegeable users can provide you w/the proper troubleshooting solutions. Thank you.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301724#301724 How to identify your iMac

My iMac: Apple or Lemon?

I purchased a refurbished iMac from Apple last November and thankfully also purchased the Apple Care. Initial reaction... very pleased though the display really isn't 25 bit and can only fake showing millions of colors though that only comes into play on certain occasions.
My first problem was that the iMac buzzed after it warmed up and the display brightness was anything but the brightest two settings with the sound peaking at the middle brightness. Ok, a quick search of these apple support boards reveals that this is a known issue with some of the display power boards. Called Apple support, and they got someone out here quickly (I'm far from an Apple store but in a larger city). Almost fixed. The sound still occurs but is not as loud. I was willing to live with that (for now at least) but then came problem 2.
Problem 2. My iMac ate my CD. I was starting to install Aperture but the disk wasn't catching the way it should and pulling it in after a partial insertion. Thinking it may be a bad CD, I inserted one of my known good Photo CDs and thar she went. Into the computer, not recognized and no way to get it out though the optical drive kept trying to eject it every five seconds. Very annoying and scary to think what is happening to my CD. Back to Apple Care.
After talking with Apple Care, I realized I was going to Sacramento that evening for several days so I thought it may be just as good to take it to the Apple store for in-house service. Monday night finds me at the Apple store and we go over the problems. Nice but a no go. Because it was Monday night, the needed parts wouldn't arrive in time for my Thursday departure so it is back to in-home service.
The in-home service guy was kind enough to stop by late Friday for another service attempt. Apart comes the computer to replace the optical drive. Apple uses a lot of tape in their computer assembly which makes computer repairs a bit entropic (i.e. each repair makes the computer a bit more haphazard). Out comes the optical drive but no obvious way to get the CD out so we end up having to dismantle the optical drive and pry it open a little to get my photo CD. Whew.
Apple sent two parts for the repair. The new optical drive and.... drumroll... instead of a new display power card a power cord!!!! That was useless. So I still have the noisy display power card. Oh well, at least it all works now... right? The Mac guy reassembles the computer and we test the drive - not with my photo cd but with an Apple Developer CD. Drumroll....... the CD goes in but isn't grabbed so I let the Mac repair guy try. No dice. The disk goes in but is not read. Well at least this time the drive ejects the disk.
That's fine. At least I have a usable computer sans a working optical drive. But wait.... now that the Mac guy is gone the house is quite.... except for my iMac. The vide display still buzzes and I have a new iMac noise. The OCC fan is now noisy. (I determined it was the OCC fan by downloading smcFanControl and varying the speed of the different fans).
This is great. Every time I get my iMac fixed, it gets worse. Now I need a new video power card, optical drive, and occ fan.
I'm still an Apple fan boy (this is the first of six macs that I've had a problem with but sheesh, what ever happened to Apple design? Anyone else in the same boat?

I think at this point Apple will replace the Mac.
If the Apple Care Representative wants to have it repaired again ask politely to have your call transfered to a Customer Relations Representative. This will escalate your case to someone tasked with making you happy and should get the Mac replaced with a brand new one, based on other folks reported experiences. The key is to be syrupy sweet as can be with the reps, but firm in your request to have this resolved quickly and without any more inconvenience on your part. You have complied 100% with Apple's attempts to repair the Mac and now it is time for them to step up to the plate and make the purchase of a long-time customer right.
Good luck.
BTW - that one is a LEMON!

My Aluminum iMac WiFi performance not good. How is yours?

The new Airport Extreme has a great little utility which shows the WiFi bit-rates for all connected devices.
Here's a screencap from my 802.11n network (running at 5GHz).
It shows that the iMac is not doing great here. One tenth of the data rate of the AppleTV.
All three machines are equally distant from the AEBS. Yes, the signal is passing through walls and floors. But it's pretty much the same for all of them.
If you have an Aluminum (or Aluminium) iMac - it would be interesting to compare notes. I think this level of performance is much less than I would expect.
Glyn

I guess what I am saying is I would experiment.
I wonder why your AppleTV noise is so much lower than your iMac noise. Noise in this case refers to interference so I wonder what devices are interfering with each other. If your imac had a signal of -81Db and a noise floor of -92Db like your iTV does, your throughput would at least increase. I guess it's possible that noise is coming from inside the iMac al case as well so the iMac could be inherently "noisier" than the other devices.
Did you try turning off all the devices connected to the AE except the iMac and see if that changes anything?
Signal propagation is hard to predict if there is no LOS. 3 or 4 feet in one direction or another can sometimes make a 10Db difference depending on the interfering material, the antenna's receive sensitivity, and the chipset variations.
In rudimentary tests with my imac and macbook side by side connected to airport express:
(signal, noise, rate)
macbook -53 -96 18
imac -66 -88 54
So, for some reason the macbook which has better signal has a lower rate. When I disabled my Imac's airport card, my macbook jumped up to a rate of 54. Looks pretty clear that they were interfering with each other.

Don't install Firmware!!!

It makes my iMac noiser than before!!! and i can't use the restauration firmware : it doesn't WORK!!!!!
all that story of firmware is ç/=)%&(=/+()/)(=ç"!!!!!!
and all that sh**it because of this stupid WINDOWS boot!!!
I hate you Windows!!! and please APPLE make your firmwares better next time!!!
That's the beginning of bad week-end ...

Firmware Restoration CD v 1.0
About this update
About the Firmware Restoration CD
Your rights to use this update are subject to the terms of the software license agreement that follows and accompanies the update. By downloading or using this update, you accept the terms of the software license agreement.
The Firmware Restoration CD is used to restore the firmware of an Intel-based iMac (early 2006), Mac mini (early 2006), or MacBook Pro (early 2006) to original factory condition.
It can only be used to restore the Firmware after an interrupted or failed update.
To restore your computer's firmware, first create a CD using the disk image named "FirmwareRestorationCD.dmg":
1) Launch Disk Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities).
2) Click on the Burn icon or select the "Burn..."menu from the Images menu.
3) Navigate to where FirmwareRestorationCD.dmg is located and click the Burn button.
4) Insert a blank recordable CD or DVD.
5) Click the Burn button to create the Firmware Restoration CD.
The files are burned to the disc.
Using the Firmware Restoration CD, restore your Firmware back to factory condition:
6) Insure that the machine you are trying to restore is plugged into an AC outlet.
7) Power on the computer and hold down the power button until the LED blinks rapidly followed immediately by a successive series of blinks (3 quick blinks, 3 slow blinks, 3 quick blinks), then release the Power button.
8) Insert the Firmware Restoration CD into the optical drive.
After 30-60 seconds, the startup beep sound is played and a progress bar appears beneath the Apple logo on a gray screen.
The progress bar indicates the firmware is being updated.
DO NOT unplug, shut down, or restart the computer during the update or you will need to restart the restoration process beginning with step 6.
9) The computer will restart automatically after the firmware is updated.
This information is also available at the following url: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n303469
Download Firmware at the following site:
http://wsidecar.apple.com/cgi-bin/nph-reg3rdpty1.pl/product=10024&cat=1&platform =osx&method=sa/article.html?artnum=303489

Is anyone having flickering or visual noise issues with the latest 27" iMac (2012-13)?

Hi everyone,
I received my 27" iMac a couple days ago via the online store. I've been so busy that I've hardly been on it, but I noticed last night that the entire screen was flickering to black. I looked closely and also noticed that there was very faint visual noise (or "snow") when the display would flicker on. In a panic, I shut down my computer and plugged it into another outlet to see if that could be the problem. I haven't noticed any problems since then, but I am skeptical as the initial incident was so random.
I have called Apple Care twice and they have been very helpful, but I also heard different versions of what to do: 1) Get an official diagnosis that it is in fact the hardware, and do a straight-up exchange, and 2) take it to an official Apple repair shop.
Either way, want to know if anyone else has had a similar problem; and if so, is it worth trying to get repaired? The repair shop was suggested because I'm about an hour drive from the nearest Apple retail store (which is frustrating in itself), but I would much rather get it exchanged than go back and forth with diagnostics and repairs.
Thanks for the help!
*Disclaimer: I am very satisfied with the Apple Care service I have been given thus far, just frustrated and disappointed that my brand new expensive computer is giving me problems out of the box, and that I'll have to travel to get it replaced. Not to mention I've already installed a bunch of fonts and software! Ugh.

I'm using a Spyder3Pro with the new iMac and haven't run into problems. I did bring down the brightness three notches before calibrating - that LED is very bright.
I know there were problems with the previous generation's glossy screens (too bright) but I've gone from the old matte version to this one and I'm loving it.

Intel iMac 20' users - any problems with noise on your firewire interfaces?

Someone please tell me that they have a quiet intel iMac 20'/Firewire interface set up, I'm having problems with a lot of digital noise from my Saffire LE & badly am hoping it's 'fixable' or just a faulty unit but more so, praying it's not noise from the iMacs Power supply that will interfere with any firewire interface I get???
I've read many posts about G5's suffering from noisy psu's which was one factor in my choosing an intel iMac & I chose the Saffire on it's great reviews for sound quality, there's no way I can work with the noise I'm getting & I'm pretty much panicking that if it IS the iMac & firewire thats the problem I'll be screwed as i only have 6 pin firewire as a useable option (really don't want to use usb2)
Incidentally, the 'budget' set up I had previously (PC & soundblaster audigy) didnt suffer from any noise like this (at least not that was even audible with the mixer levels at conversational level!) which i guess rules out any blame of this on 'mains hum/interference'?
The noise is there with the saffire's monitor output knob at any setting & with no inputs connected, it;s even worse if i power the saffire with it's external psu instead of off buss power. I'm not using a firewire hub & I've tried switching firewire leads & removing the firewire hard drive i have in the other port in case this was affecting it.
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone with similar troubles or even better anyone thats NOT having this problem with a 20' intel iMac & firewire interface so at least i know there's light (& quiet!) at the end of the tunnel
Adam
Intel iMac 20' Mac OS X (10.4.7)

funnily enough I'm going the other way, I have a rack of external modules/>sampler/fx etc & a crate of looms I've just unplugged as they've not been >turned on in so long!!!
I hear you there!
The noise is there without any inputs at all to the interface, its defiantely >digital though, its like a toned version of the sound of an old telephone >modem.
What I mean, is try disconnecting everything, drives and all. You might even disconnect the interface and crank up the iMacs volume to see if it is there. If it is, you can try the UPS and see if that takes care of it. Then add them in one at a time. All it takes is one cheap power brick in the mix to cause all kinds of trouble (if your using powered monitors, that brick too). Noisy components can actually send noise back into the source power.
I know it can be really frustrating, especially if you have noise coming from more that one source. The key is to strip everything until it is quiet and then add them back in to see where the worst is. Then come up with a plan to try to get rid of the noise.

My IMAC is making a little noise - is that normal?

Hello Folks,
I got a IMAC 2.1gjz PowerPC G5 - 512mb ram
So just wondering if it normaly does a noise when its turned on... I gett its the fan inside the computer that is doing that... but i'll tell you where the noise is coming from and you can prolly tell me...
if you are lookin from the back of the Imac the noise is coming from the buttom right corner where the power button is...
Now the noise is not VERY LOUD... its a small noise .... so just wondering could it be that I need to optimize my computer? if so what optimization programs are good for MAC?
I believe my hard drive is 260gigs and I only used around 80gigs so I have 180gigs available... I dont abuse my IMAC - so just wondering if this is normal (and im just over reacting) or something serious... again it's not a loud noise, small minimal but still can hear it... I just thought that these IMAC's don't make noise when their on...
Regards,
Joey

Hi Joey,
From you profile, we must have the same iSight G5. Mine does not make any noise other than the very, very quiet whirring of the fans.
The only thing I can think of making noise in that area is the left side speaker. There is not much there, the HD is located above the switch area.
I do recommend tuning your machine: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html - http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html I do run the maintenance scripts via Terminal. My machine, to me, seems to run a bit quieter, and certainly runs cooler by a few degress after using the scripts.
Good luck, Rick
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD in Slimming Black - Mac OS X (10.4.7) - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS LP's - Canon 20D & A620

27" iMac processor / hard drive noise

I just picked up a 27" iMac with the 1 T HD. I can hear the hard drive any time the computer is "working". Took the first one back to the Apple store and exchanged it, thinking I had a defective machine. The replacement makes the same noise.
Anyone else having this issue? Are these things supposed to be this noisy?

Same problem with my iMac 27" C2D 3.33 with a ST31000528ASQ HDD.
Always working, but no Spotlight indexing and Activity Monitor reports no activity.
Every 5 or 10 seconds, there's write or a read.
Very annoying.
Any idea?

Imac noise

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for