Hi

If my video woes were not enough, my iMac makes a weird sound as well.
Exactly every 10 minutes, some gears rotate inside it.

The sound is like:

njiii, njeee, njooo

with every "word" lasting a second. It sounds like something moving
with a rack and pinion. It makes the sound when a CD is in it and when
it is not. Ejecting/swallowing the tray makes a completely different
sound.

Has anyone heard this sound? It is not loud, but it is weird. I can't
imagine that every iMac makes this sound. I can't find any reference
to it on the net. Yes, it did make this sound when it came new from
the box.


Another question: do you guys hear the fan? I'm surprised it makes so
much noise for a table-top device. The air that comes out of the top
is very cool, so there is no need (IMHO) to have such a high fan
speed. This may be related to the repair too: we immediately noticed
the fan sound when we turned it on after it came back.

The fan sound is that bad, I had to place the iMac on a folded towel
(not covering the lower ventilation holes) to keep it from using the
table as a sounding board. Again, no real mentioning of this on the
net as well.

Groeten,
Diane Verbaan

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 00:13:37 +0100, Diane Verbaan <diane@xs4all.nl>
wrote:

>Another question: do you guys hear the fan? I'm surprised it makes so
>much noise for a table-top device. The air that comes out of the top
>is very cool, so there is no need (IMHO) to have such a high fan
>speed. This may be related to the repair too: we immediately noticed
>the fan sound when we turned it on after it came back.
>
>The fan sound is that bad, I had to place the iMac on a folded towel
>(not covering the lower ventilation holes) to keep it from using the
>table as a sounding board. Again, no real mentioning of this on the
>net as well.

My fan-speed regulator is definitely toast. If I turn on the Mac, the
fan starts right away at full throttle!

During boot there was a loud PLOP! from the speakers as well. I never
heard that before and I've rebooted this Mac more than 50 times :-(

This iMac is bad, very bad.
Groeten,
Diane Verbaan

On 11/9/03 5:25 PM, in article etitqvg4jocqvptc9323h4ovog1m6ttlm3@4ax.com,
"Diane Verbaan" <diane@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 00:13:37 +0100, Diane Verbaan <diane@xs4all.nl>
> wrote:
>
>> Another question: do you guys hear the fan? I'm surprised it makes so
>> much noise for a table-top device. The air that comes out of the top
>> is very cool, so there is no need (IMHO) to have such a high fan
>> speed. This may be related to the repair too: we immediately noticed
>> the fan sound when we turned it on after it came back.
>>
>> The fan sound is that bad, I had to place the iMac on a folded towel
>> (not covering the lower ventilation holes) to keep it from using the
>> table as a sounding board. Again, no real mentioning of this on the
>> net as well.
>
> My fan-speed regulator is definitely toast. If I turn on the Mac, the
> fan starts right away at full throttle!
>
> During boot there was a loud PLOP! from the speakers as well. I never
> heard that before and I've rebooted this Mac more than 50 times :-(
>
> This iMac is bad, very bad.
> Groeten,
> Diane Verbaan


I'd agree with your assessment; without an actual sound clip, I'd say the
"gear" sound might be a bad hard drive. Don't know the lemon laws over
there, but here in the states, after three repairs, it's a lemon and has to
be replaced.

The two flat-panel iMacs I've had (one I bought and one I got free after it
was flooded) both were extremely quiet. Yours should be, too.

Brian