Powerbook G4 noisy hard drive- is it coming to an end?

I have had my powerbook for four years and it has done hard work on the road in inhospitable places for most of that time. Now that I'm back home, I've noticed that it has started to sound like a lawnmower (or is that some kind of fan inside?) and it gets very hot.
Should I be preparing for the worst, or is this normal?
Many thanks, Rose

Hello Rose,
What temperature is hot? Download and install a free widget called, iStat Pro. It will appear in the dashboard and give the operation temps of many parts of your machine. The Powerbook's normal operating temp should max out at around 65-67'C. This is normal! As for the noise: When hard drives start to fail they do get noisy. There is a very distinctive whirring sound as the drive starts up and the machine will become sluggish. There is also the high pitched screaming sound as the drive fails and stalls. However, if you think the sound is just that of noisy fans, it is much more likely to be just that. Have you ever opened the machine and cleaned it? When you do, you are sure to find a major (and slightly disgusting) build up of dust and grit around the fans making them noisy and inefficient. You can try cleaning them although, the noise may not go away because the damage has already been done to the small bearings controlling them, thus making them noisy.
Should I be preparing for the worst
Regardless of the symptoms of this event you should always be prepared for the worst when it comes to computers. All computer users should develop stringent back-up plans. I use a collection of large capacity USB flash drives (8GB) as my back-up database. As long as they are stored correctly their shelf life is much greater than that of DVD-R discs (5 years max) and much more stable than an external hard drive (life expectancy unknown and unpredictable). It may be a little more expensive to use flash drives as back-up, but can you put a price on the digital memories of the first decade of your kids' lives?

Similar Messages

New iMac: Screen Issues and Noisy Hard Drive

Hello,
I'm writing regarding my new 27" iMac which I purchased just under a week ago (spec: 3.1GHz Intel Core i5, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM).
When I got my iMac home and unboxed it, all was fine, however once I had began to install some applications and use them, I noticed an unusual issue with the screen. I had a Skype window open on the left hand side of my screen, with an ongoing chat, Obviously, the chat 'stream' was moving, but the menu items on the far left remained the same. The iMac had been on for about 10mins, with the Skype window open for the same duration. After which, I opened iPhoto, and made it full screen, filling my screen with a dark grey background. I could still see the outline of the text from my Skype window through the iPhoto window. Thinking the window may have been semi-transparent, I closed the Skype window, however when I re-fullscreened iPhoto, the test was still there, as if it was burnt into the screen.
I understand the concept of screen burn, but surely this shouldn't happen after just 10mins? It's nothing permanent, as it fades away again within another 5mins or so, but it is annoying knowing that I can't leave a window open for very long without worrying I will have text burnt into my screen for a period of time. As a graphic designer, I could be working on images that are dark, and likewise, I don't want to see remains of my chat or emails over the top of my design work.
Has anyone else had this issue? Is this an issue that can be repaired by myself (eg. installing a firmware update, although I have all the latest updates from Software Update)? Or should I just return my iMac to the store and get them to look at it? I'm worried that if I take it back, they may fail to see the issue, as the lighing is a lot different in the store to at home.
The other issue I am experiencing is I have a very noisy hard drive, that seems to click and make a grumbling noise rather a lot. Obviously at times when the computer is working hard, this is to be expected (I think), although most of the time it is grumbling away whilst I'm just browsing in Safari with one tab open.
Has anyone else experienced this issue, taken it back and has a successful replacement? I've read that it could be to do with Mac OS X Lion, because people have reported that their hard drive ran silently on Snow Leopard but has got noisier with Lion. Should I wait for a Lion update before returning it? Other than the issues above, everything is fine.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to someone being able to shine some light on my issues.

Thanks for the advice.
Today, I returned my iMac to the Apple Premium Resellers where I purchased it. The helpful chap there looked at my screen and acknowledged the issue, before giving me a brand new iMac.
My previous model came with Snow Leopard pre-installed, which I upgraded to Lion. This new, second iMac is a relatively new one as it has Lion pre-installed. Feeling hopeful, I've just arrived home and unpackaged my new computer.
The result? EXACTLY the same issue. My Twitter window on the far left of my display has been open for no longer than about 7 or 8 mins, and I can clearly see the display pictures from my follwees burnt into the screen when I full screen a dark app like Snow Leopard.
I'm wondering whether this is a Lion issue? Should I wait for a software update before returning it again? It's not something that's going to be annoying on a day-to-day basis, but now that I know it's doing it, I can't help but keep checking when I open iPhoto.
PEOPLE WITH NEW 27" iMAC's: Would you please perform the following test for me and let me know the results?
1. Open up a white backgrounded application, such as Twitter, Skype, or Safari.
2. Leave it on screen (anywhere, but far left seems to be worst) for about 5 to 10mins.
3. Open up iPhoto with it's grey full screen background, or set your wallpaper to a flat colour dark grey.
4. Now minimise the white backgrounded windows, and switch to a grey background with no windows in front of it.
5. Look carefully at your screen: can you still see an outline of/text from the window in the position that it was, like it's burnt into the screen?
Thanks in advance to anyone that can perform this for me.

Noisy Hard Drive IS NORMAL!

I just got back from my local Apple Store, where I exchanged my less than 2 week old 5G iPod because of the clunking/clicking hard drive noise that many people have been noticing.
They had many 5G iPods on display, so I went to each one, loaded up the U2 video, and listened closly to see if I could hear the clicks of the hard drive while it works to load up the video. Guess what? They ALL had the same clicking noisy hard drive, same as the one I had just returned. And also, my new one does the same exact thing.
So there you have it. Guess this is just the normal operation of these new hard drives. Now, the noise I am referring to is the clicking/clunking sound when you load up a video file or a photo album. This sound is completely normal. So, no worries! Enjoy that new iPod!!
Cheers...Kerry

it's a hard drive. of course its goining to make noise, doesn't your computer make noise when it starts up? Just about every kind of hard drive makes noise, its normal.

Modifying Powerbooks? RAM, Hard drive? Worth it?

Hi everyone!!
Basically I have a Powerbook G4, 12" that I bought new when it came out. So is about 3-4 years old i'd say, can't remember exactly - and I've had to previously replace the CD-RW/DVD drive a year after the warranty ran out.
My dilemma is that I want a faster mac, but don't really have the cash to buy a new one. I was wondering how you go about improving things like speed, i'm presuming thats RAM? And also increasing my hard drive,as my mac is infuriatingly slow at times. So is it worth the time, effort and money changing all these things, like how would it cost? Or should a buy a new one either macbook or pro?
I hope i've explained it! Plus the **** keys are coming off it argh - to date i've lost Q,O,G,H, you don't realise how many words have an 'O' until you lose it!! haha
Thanks in advance for your help
Tday - mac goddess

Wow - you're running CS and Tiger in 256mb - no wonder you see things slow down. Looking at your page ins/outs, if page outs are greater than 3163 (10% of page ins), you can use more memory for what you run. In your case, page outs are greater than 3163, so you can use more memory.
Apple says the max memory capacity in your system is 640MB, which you'd get by adding 512MB (128MB are already on the logic board). So, for example, adding 512MB of memory would cost, from Crucial £30 with VAT. Crucial's UK web site is at http://www.crucial.com/uk/ . To see how to change the memory, see http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Al-12-Inch/RAM/53/2 .
Replacing the internal hard drive is not difficult, but it is technically tedious. You can also view how to do that at the ifixit.com site. You'd probably want to pay someone to do that. You can find an Apple Authorized Service Provider at http://www.apple.com/uk/buy/locator/ . I'd recommend not having an Apple store do the upgrade, as they typically keep your old hard drive. An Apple Authorized Service Provider could do the upgrade for you, instead of an Apple store. In this case, you could have a faster drive installed internally, then put your existing hard drive in an external case and use it to backup files.
Another option would be to not upgrade your internal drive, rather, buy a fast external drive, and use that as your primary drive. It would have to have a firewire 400 connection, so you could boot your system from it. An example of what you could use can be seen at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go where a 60GB to 80GB 7200rpm drive costs around $135-$140 (about £70). Doesn't have to be physically larger, and some external drives are larger (especially if they use a 3.5" drive inside). If you go this route, your existing internal drive could then become your backup drive.
Many vendors offer external drives, so you can find something locally (OWC does ship worldwide, if you ordered from them). While there are various chipsets in the external drives, if they use any of the Oxford chipsets, they'll work fine with your mac. When you buy an external drive from one of the hard drive vendors, like Western Digital or Seagate, they don't specify a chipset, however, they do say they work with a mac.
So you can spend £30 on memory and £70 on an external hard drive (or around £40 for an internal hard drive and perhaps another £40? for someone to install it) to spruce up your system. I haven't seen Leopard specs yet, however, as Network 23 pointed out, if the 867Mhz CPU is gating your system performance, the fix is a new system, and you probably already know that Macbooks start at £699.
Oh, and on the keys, have you contacted your local Apple store to see if they can replace them?
A bit of a lengthy response - please post back with any other questions.

PowerBook 145B - strange hard drive interface?

I opened up a PowerBook 145B from a friend that had died (the PowerBook, not the friend) and pulled out the hard drive to recover the data. I thought I would find some type of regular SCSI interface on the hard drive, but...
I've spent some time Googling and found people who can't figure out how to get data off this drive (IBM Model WDS-2120, 120mb) and no solutions. It says 2.5" SCSI 17mm on the drive, but the interface is something I haven't seen.
Does anyone have ideas on how to get the data off this drive?
Thanks!

Hi,
I don't think a cable exists which would handle the data and power requirements of the WDS-2120 and allow connection to a more standard SCSI interface.
The adapter that I have is part of the external case mentioned above. It has made it possible to supply power to e.g. a WDS-2120 drive, and to connect that drive to the HDI-30 SCSI port of a PowerBook or the DB-25 SCSI port of a desktop Mac. However, as indicated, it may be difficult to buy something like that today.
(It looks like 8 of the pins are for power on the HD.)
If I remember correctly, the ID selector is connected to some of the pins in the separate group of eight. Since the internal hard drive always is ID 0, the selection can even be simplified (meaning that the complete interface may not be needed). So, do not be surprised if you see a connector covering merely the main portion of the interface in some computer models.
For more on pinouts, try a Google search for this or any other (maybe Quantum) 2.5" SCSI hard drive. Also, you may be able to find something of interest in the Apple hardware documentation here.
Jan

Dead powerbook with operational hard drive: how to extract the data?

I've got a very old (2006/7) powerbook which cannot be powered on; the battery is dead and can't be charged due to assorted catastrophic power issues. I've long since replaced it so I'm not really interested in resurrecting it on a long-term basis. Is there a way to get the data off it? I'm aware I'd have to physically remove the drive.
So far the only instructions I've found online are for getting data off a crashed hard drive, but that's not the problem here. The hard drive is totally operational, it's just that the computer it's located in cannot be turned on.

I bought one of these HD adapters http://tinyurl.com/7455nek to get the files off of an old PB G3 hard drive. Worked great and a reasonable price.
 Cheers, Tom

Noisy Hard Drive

I have the newest PB G4 12" and once in a while my hard drive spins so loud I can hear it from across the room. It tends to happen when I move the computer while it is on and the screen is open. When it spins that loudly, the computer freezes with the color wheel and then when it "calms" down the color wheel goes away. This is the second hard drive for this PB already. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks

You really shouldn't move the computer around while it is awake and the hard drive is spinning. Think of your hard drive as a little record player. If you were to carry a record player accross the room while it was spinning you'd expect it to skip... same idea pretty much.
Are those noises of the metal-on-metal grinding variety? As with all suspect hard drives you should backup your data. This cannot be overstated.
I dunno what it is but I've replaced more hard drives in 12" powerbooks than any other model...

NB510 - noisy hard drive

Hi
I have just treated myself to a brand new nb510-11j and having owned and loved my old nb250 I thought this may be a better replacement as my boyfrind kept telling me the nb250 wasn't going to last forever and I should upgrade.
I recieved the new one yesterday and registered the warranty with toshiba and I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. The new one makes a low "rattle" noise from the minute I turn it on till it gets switched off. I assume it to be the hard drive but is this normal ? My mb250 ran pretty much silently and you only heard the hard drive kick in every now and then. Also it felt "warm" after a couple of hours, not boiling like an old laptop but just warm and my OLD computer never gets warm so I am a tad concerned about this too. I just need to know if it is normal or should I send it back whilst I still can ?
The other question was if I get this one upgraded to 2 Ram (which I did on the 250) is the toshiba warranty still valid ?
Many thanks
Jen x

To be honest my NB520 is pretty quiet and I dont hear anything. Im very happy with my machine. It is quiet, run perfectly and battery life is excellent. Friend of mine has NB550D and it is also extremely quiet.
As Akuma already wrote clicking noise on some HDDs is pretty normal but very annoying.
I dont want to make some panic here but I think you should exchange it and compare it with HDD on other machine.
RAM upgrade will not cancel warranty and this option is for notebook owners. My NB520 has 4GB inside.
Please post some feedback.

Reformatting External Hard drive: Disk Utility crashes near the end

I recently updated to Leopard and emptied off my external hard drive and then wanted to (zero out data &) reformat it and start fresh so as to use it with the new Time Machine feature.
However, near the end of reformatting it with Disk Utility the progress just stopped and after giving it some time I did a force quit and sure enough it came to light that it had crashed. Since then I've tried again several times to the same result. I even tried doing it of the Disk Utility on the install CD and it crashed with one minute left!!
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!

Use a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior, or a product such as those listed here.
(108710)

PowerBook G4 12" Hard Drive upgrade not detected

Hi,
The original 80GB drive in my 12" PowerBook just died. I had been planning to upgrade anyway so I went out and bought a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue PATA drive. I followed the instructions on iFixIt to change the drive and reassembled the PowerBook. I checked all connectors and I can hear the drive spin up when I turn on the laptop. However, the Leopard install DVD does not detect the new drive. It doesn't show in System Profiler or in Disk Utility. I have verified that the drive works by connecting it via a USB enclosure to my iMac. Am I missing something? Is the 320GB drive compatible with my PB?
Thanks

Given that the HD works fine in an external enclosure but isn't detected at all when mounted internally, I surmise that either (a) you failed to get its flex cable firmly reconnected to the logic board, or to the drive itself, when reassembling it, or (b) you damaged the flex cable itself. Press the connectors very firmly into place, especially the logic board connector, then test again. If that doesn't help, you may want to order a replacement cable and see whether that solves the problem.

Powerbook showing full hard drive!!!after itunes update

Hi guys,
Ive got a 80gb powerbook. I recently firewired my itunes library from my powermac to my powerbook. I deleted the old library on my powerbook before doing this. Anyway since ive done this the laptop tells me there is only 2 gb of disk space left. Ive used whatsize to see where it is.
users: 16.7gb
applications 6.67gb
library 2.12gb
system 1.53gb
the rest all adds up to about 1.5gb
and thats it so where as all the hard disk space gone. ive looked at all the posts here but it seems when they use whatsize it shows where all the disk space has gone. On my laptop i cant see any strange files and it shows over 70gb used but it doesnt add up when you go through each area as ive shown above .. please help

Hi again guys, I downloaded onyx after being unable to find any files of any significant size that would cause this problem. Anyway i deleted the misc options area in cleaning. purely out of frustration to be honest. but hey presto my laptop no shows over 40gb of unused space. dont know what the problem was but thankfully it is now sorted...thanks

NOISY HARD DRIVE, CLUNKING OUT OF SLEEP

The HD is generally silent except when coming out of sleep, during which you get a fair amount of definitely mechanical clunking and clattering from the unit as it spins up. Once up and running, all noise aside from perhaps the normal slight hum/whir, are gone.
I'm fairly sure that it's done this for as long as I've had this new iMac, is not getting any worse, and hasn't so far caused any other sorts of problems at all. I suppose I might be looking for some warm 'n fuzzy feedback saying that it's no biggie, nothing to be that concerned about.
In the meantime, I keep everything backed up to two external drives and am willing to ping AppleCare on it, at least to get the problem registered with them. Any other good advice?
TIA.

Try running the Disk utility application found in the utilities folder to see if it reports any errors when you verify the disk and check permissions. Disk Utility will also report the SMART status indicating whether the drive error parameters indicate it is in a failing state that would require replacement. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. for more info regarding the capabilities of SMART. The smartest thing you mentioned is that you maintain a backup. I too maintain two separate backups just in case.

Very noisy hard drive on 8460p

Making a whirring humming sound from under base. Not the fan. Started after I downloaded Hardware diagnostics to the partition.

If it's a late 2012 mini, you should still be in your 90 day window to take advantage of Apple phone support. The numbers are here.

NOISY HARD DRIVE UNIT

Have just had this i7 for a few days now and in a quiet room, the humming noise from the unit is very noticeable. Is this a common fault? Is there a test that can be performed at home or do I have to send the unit back to apple. I'd rather not do this but any suggestions are most welcome.
T12

Aunty June, you will probably not believe this, BUT, I had placed the mac on a wooden table about 6feet x 3' 6", in size. I replaced this with a smaller table about 3' 6" x 2' 6" with a laminate top and sturdier legs. Hey presto, humming is reduced dramatically. Maybe it is that the machine just needs a very firm foundation upon which to rest. Alternatively, could the stand be causing the problem?
seems to me that the stand may be adequate for the smaller imac but needs to be improved, to cope with the additional weight which it carries on the 27" machine. Any thoughts??
Kind regards,
T12.

Growling Powerbook - dead hard drive?

Hope someone can help with this. Basically about six months ago the PB started growling intermittently, and was stopped simply by tilting the PB slightly. Then for ages it didn't do it at all, and put it down to 'one of those things'.
In the last couple of weeks or so it started again, and today pretty much stopped being intermittent and became permanent bar for getting the machine in some ludicrous upside down position, and even then only for seconds - so basically is currently unusable.
When it growls, the beachball spins, and nothing responds.
My best guess is that it's a dead or dying hard drive - it's about 3.5 yrs old, and has been used exhaustively on a daily basis - so I can accept that it's wear and tear.
Fortunately I've been making regular back ups suspecting that this day was on it's way.
I guess I'm just trying to suss out now if it is most likely to be the hard drive, rather than, say, the board?
It's an 80GB HD, with 1GB RAM, and around 20gigs free.
Any pointers on this appreciated.

You may be able to find a local computer shop that'd be willing to take a stab at doing the repairs, or you could ask Apple itself for an estimate of what they're likely to charge for that kind of thing.
I would definitely study the instructions carefully before attempting to replace the hard drive in a laptop for yourself. The RAM is designed to be easily accessed/removed/replaced by a user for the powerbook, but the hard drive isn't. That doesn't mean that it's impossible to reach it, just that there's going to be more finesse involved. Find a guide that has pictures, preferably, so you can have a real sense of what you'll be getting into and whether you feel comfortable that you can do it, or if you'd feel safer paying more for someone else to.
I can't say that I've ever replaced the hard drive in my powerbook, but typically hard drives are one of the easiest parts to swap in and out on a computer, because their behavior in relation to the rest of the computer is very well standardized (in contrast to say... graphics cards, which need special drivers and still may not work properly after they've gotten them).
Typically, you can just swap the other hard drive into the system, attach the cords, insert the install CD, and away you go.
What I would suggest first, however, is that you see whether your computer can be coaxed into booting off of a "LiveCD". There are several operating systems (versions of Linux and BSD especially) where you can boot and run the entire system off of the CD or DVD rather than the installed system on the hard drive. (Often this is used to either repair a system or to test for hardware compatibility). At the very least, if the boot process can run from a liveCD all right, that'll be an indication that the other components in your laptop are still working properly.

Powerbook G4 noisy hard drive- is it coming to an end?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for