[Jeepster]

This has been happening for a week, whenever I hit the key to take my 3+ year old Mac out of "sleep" mode, I hear a light grind noise, about 4 times, then a light whirling "wind down" noise. It sometime won't start up again right away, and a few times we've had to unplug the power, and start over from scratch.

I've a similar sound on a video-game console in it's death throes. The noise is coming from the back of the upper part of the unit. There is no CD-ROM in the computer.

Is it time to do an "Old Yeller" on my iMac?\

-Jpstr

[ghporter]

It's almost certainly your optical drive "seeking" a nonexistent disc in the drive. Most newer drives do this when they are activated, which happens when you wake the computer. The "grinding" sound is the arm with the lasers moving back and forth across its sweep to try to detect a disc. No big deal there.

Now the "sometimes it won't wake up" thing is another matter all together, and I think it's worrisome. Unfortunately I don't have any ideas about that part of it.

[jmiddel]

It also could be the HD failing, which explain both noise and startup problems. 3+ years exceeds most HD warranties. I'd clone to an external, then boot off of that and see whether the problem continues.