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General discussion

Strange noise from my iBook... anyone know what it is?

by grimgraphix Aug 20, 2007 7:34AM PDT

My iBook started making a strange, new noise about a week ago. It has started making the noise more and more frequently. I have not a clue what it may be and any hint will be appreciated.

The machine is a 1.2 ghz G4 iBook - 12 inch screen - approx. 3 years old - model M9623LL/A

The sound is like an electrical motor starting up. Very low in volume to begin and gets louder (but never too loud). If I could type out the sound, it may sound something like this... "ma - waaaaAAAHHH"

It starts out low pitched and gets higher pitched and then drifts off until the sound disappears. The sound lasts anywhere from a second to as much as three seconds before it disappears. The sound seems to be coming from the lower, left hand corner where an air intake is positioned. Is there a fan or transformer located in that location?

There is no disc in the cd drive and the hard drive continues to make it's regular faint clicking sound. I use Smart Reporter to keep track of the physical well being of my hard drive. I use iStat Pro to keep track of other system functions. I am using my second battery after the first one was recalled. iStat Pro says my current battery health is only 84%.

I would appreciate any information anyone can give me. I can live with the noise but if it foreshadows future problems, I would like to catch it early.

thanks in advance...

grim

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2 Posts

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I'll break this to you gently,

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Aug 20, 2007 9:50AM PDT

the lower left hand corner of the G4 iBook is exactly where the HD is located.

As to what the sound may be, it sure sounds like a fan getting itself settled but the only fan on that machine is located at the rear of the machine, just to the left of the words iBook G4.

Curious

P

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Hmm...

by tleMega Aug 21, 2007 3:03AM PDT

My MBP has two fans, and both are opposite each other; one by the power button, and one on the left side.

Of course that's what it always appeared to be. If your iBook had been built the same way, I'd say the fan was doing it, but mrmacfixit said the fan is positioned more at the rear by the iBook logo.

If the HD is doing it, you can try to run some scans and test for bad blocks. It could be rotating abnormally because of this. My fans will start up and go crazy if I'm constantly using all of my processor's power and all of my RAM, but not for just one to three seconds.

Sounds like your HD could be having issues, or your fan. If want, you could take it into the Apple Store for a diagnostic if you can't find the problem. Even better if you had any AppleCare left, but you probably don't.

Hope this helps.
-BMF

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