Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

8minute · 09:28 AM

Whenever I move my 12" alu when it is on, whether it is slightly tilting it or picking it up and moving it to another location, there is a weird and load buzzing/droning sound. Kinda sounds like a lightsaber moving through the air if you know what I mean. The sound stops when you stop moving it.

It's not the soft static noise from the GPU that I have read about on the forum. It is much louder than that.

I've noticed that it only happens if the powerbook is tilted when you move it. If you move it perfectly horizontally or vertically (and I mean perfectly) the sound does not happen. Happens if it is plugged into power or running off battery, and seems to come from HDD area.

It's really bugging me cos the only time you don't hear the sound is when the laptop is sitting perfectly still on my desk ... which isn't why I bought a laptop!

Does anyone know what this is and if it is easily fixed? Just my luck that the warranty just expired one week ago too!!!

tobyg · May 11, 2005, 10:42 AM

Are you listening to a CD or watching a DVD movie at the time? Or for that matter, have anything in the optical bay that is spinning? I've noticed when I move mine, the machine can flex ever so slightly and if theres something spinning in the optical bay at the time, it may make a noise similar to what you're describing. I think it's the disc hitting part of the drive and rubbing... not something I like to hear!

Bleekerstreets · May 11, 2005, 12:48 PM

Same thing happens to my 15 inch...its a very odd sound, and no i do not have a cd or dvd in the machine when it makes these sounds.

crazeazn · May 11, 2005, 01:34 PM

i had this same problem!!! your hard drive is about to fail, backup EVERYthing and check your S.M.A.R.T. status in disk utility (more than likely it will show up fine) i was explaining this to the applecare people but they ran the diagnostics and all showed up clear. few weeks later i lost all my data.

8minute · May 11, 2005, 11:43 PM

Yeah, I have no disc in my drive when the sound occurs either.

Damn ... I hope my drive doesn't fail as well! Hmmm ... might give me an excuse to open up my powerbook and add a faster drive in

legacyb4 · May 12, 2005, 12:15 AM

Is it coming from the left side (12")? I thought I was going crazy until I realized it was either the fan or hard drive. I'm on extended Applecare good for another two years so I only hope my drives fails before then...

Alezone · May 12, 2005, 12:42 AM

my 15" ti PB makes some buzzing noise too, when the fan is not on, i can hear it near the power button... every 2 secs... beep... beep... not really noticeable, but I found it out last week.

8minute · May 12, 2005, 01:38 AM

legacyb4: Yep it's coming from the left side of the powerbook. Just my luck this happens right on 1 year of owning it!

Alezone: It's not a beep beep sound, it's a loud buzzing sound whenever you move the powerbook.

OpenStep · May 12, 2005, 01:30 PM

I'm guessing it's normal. I've noticed this on 2 800 MHz iBook G3s and 1 iBook G4 all with Toshiba hard drives. I would say it's the way the Toshiba drives are.

8minute · May 12, 2005, 08:36 PM

Hmmm .... I have a toshiba drive in mine as well. It's pretty alarming behaviour if it's a feature of these drives.