[krx]

I need a reality check. Received my new 12" iBook last week and have got it all set up and running great (an odd migration assistant issue notwithstanding) - except for one thing: it makes noises my 1 GHz 14" iBook didn't make. It's hard to describe but the noises are very brief little clicking and scraping noises. Kind of like tiny metal gears engaging. The noises happen every 10 to 20 seconds on avg, even when I'm not using it (tho not when it's asleep). Does anybody else's new iBook make these noises? Is there an explanation for them?

It scares me because I"m pretty sure my first 12" iBook from 2001 made these same noises - and it was a complete lemon.

The noises seem to be coming most strongly from the left front sector. And it's not the normal, low-grade humming of the HD.

[one sick puppy]

It's probably the hard drive access noise, assuming its the same noise that mine makes. This noise should be similar to when you wake your computer up from sleep mode, i.e. the hard drive re-engaging/spinning up from sleep.

[krx]

Is that noise supposed to happen all the time? I just put the 14" to sleep and then woke it up; the noise my 12" is making is similar to that - the sound of gears engaging. But it also makes other noises too, one of which I hate to say is kind of crunchy. And it doesn't just happen when waking from sleep or during heavy use. It happens while just sitting there doing nothing.

Found a link on Apple's discussion board that addresses the same problem - so apparently I'm not alone.

[Mojo]

Since you have owned another iBook I would expect you to know what normal operating noises are like. If your new iBook is making unfamiliar, "crunchy" sounds you should prepare yourself for the possibility of failure of the drive. In my experience a failing drive can make strange sounds which can be described sometimes as "grinding gears."

I would not rely on the drive at this point. If you have an external drive I would suggest cloning the iBook drive or at least backing-up everything regularly, whether on an external drive or by buring CDs. Cloning is the best bet because if the drive should fail, you will be able to work from the external drive, as long as it is bootable.

Don't think that new drives don't fail. I had an iBook drive replaced and the new drive worked three days before it died.

Hopefully what you are hearing are just normal drive sounds. But if you have the feeling that something isn't right about that drive I would go with it and prepare accordingly.

[krx]

Originally Posted by Mojo

Since you have owned another iBook I would expect you to know what normal operating noises are like. If your new iBook is making unfamiliar, "crunchy" sounds you should prepare yourself for the possibility of failure of the drive. In my experience a failing drive can make strange sounds which can be described sometimes as "grinding gears."

There's been a lot of discussion of the disturbing noises some new iBooks are making over at the Apple.com discussion boards. It appears that some new iBooks have been fitted with a rather noisy and potentially inferior hard drive. Mine is a a 60 gig TOSHIBA MK6025GAS, which I know has been around awhile. But it is a noisy little bugger. I don't think my drive is about to crash, but there is absolutely no doubt that it makes a lot of funny noises my 1.07 GHz (April 2004) iBookG4 didn't make. I am backing up daily - just to be on the safe side.

Surprising, tho, that no one on this site seems to have one of the "noisy" new iBooks.

[one sick puppy]

I just noticed the other day that my iBook does the same thing. Clicky noises every 10-20 seconds. It's been doing that for over a year now, since I bought it. I'm under the impression that this is "normal". In my estimation, it sounds like the drive is engaging for one reason or another. I tried adjusting the power management to high performance, from maximize battery, but that didn't change anything. This is my first iBook, so I've just assumed this is normal. I'm well experienced with PCs, and this seems like one of those cases where the drive may be defective or not, but I'm siding more towards the latter.

[krx]

I too have come around to the view that these are "normal" noises for certain hard drives to make. I just can't help but feel that only an inferior HD would make such noises (compared to my 1.07
gig iBook that just purrs like a kitten). But here's an interesting response from someone on the Apple.com site I linked to above. This from MacKiwi:

"Well I thought I would post an update on this issue for those still having problems. I was not happy with the noise level and activity of the HD in my new iBook 12" 1.33 so took it into an Apple store here in Boston and let them have a listen. While they did not think that the noise level was "loud", they did admit that it seemed more noisy than a typical drive should be so agreed to ship it off and have the drive replaced. 7 days later I have my iBook back again with a new FUJITSU MHV2040AT (original was a Toshiba) and PRESTO! I have a nice quiet iBook."

So maybe it's worth pursuing a replacement. I'll bring mine in and see what they say.