[newpwrbook15]

New powerbook 15"/1.5ghz/512mb/combodrive bought in June. Real happy with it until about a week ago. When running multiple applications (lots of browsers open and streaming video simultaneously...ahem) or single apps requiring lost of RAM (iTune backup to CD) the machine starts making a soft grinding/hard scratching sound when it's accessing the hard drive. The faster the drive spins, the louder the sound. Creeps me out. Eventually the rotational sound slows and eventually stops when the apps stop running. The computer otherwise is functioning flawlessly. I'm planning on taking to mac store soon, but I can't seem to reliably reproduce sound. Anyone have similar experiences or recommendations?

[phoenix78]

I think it is normal actually. everybodys hard drive makes noise when it loads files/apps the first time.... and also if you dont have much ram you get what is called 'thrashing' (your hard drive is accessed alot!). possible solution is to get more ram if you use alot of apps at once or if one takes up alot... your programs will run smoother/responsive and have less disk accesses.

if it is VERY loud i would sya you have a problem but if it is soft grinding nose like you mentioned then it is normal. mine also makes the soft grinding noise and i can live with it. but that is just me lol... in a quiet room you will hear everything hats going on... but in an environment with people/close to main roads with traffic etc... you will get background noise that will make it impossible to hear yout pc working...

try listening to other laptops in the store and see what ya think...

I doubt you will get a swap but try if you think it is worth it.

cheers,
robM

[No Time 4 Love Dr. Jones]

You need more RAM, plain and simple.

[newpwrbook15]

I agree that it probably is the RAM. However, I just checked activity monitor when the disk is spinning pretty fast and making that soft scratching sound, and I still have 120-130 MB System Memory (total 512MB) free. Why is the system accessing the hard disk for memory with so much RAM still free? Any ideas?

[Dark Sailor]

I have a 15" AlBook, 55 GB HD (21 GB used), 768 MB RAM. My HD makes that soft scratching noise all the time. The annoying thing, though, is the loud *clunk* every so often (i.e. every couple of minutes). I asked others about this and they said it was normal—it's just the drive parking. Some dude from Russia sent me an app that would supposedly quiet that down, but I never installed it because...well, I felt a little uncomfortable about it.

The program is called APM Tuner and I still have it backed up on a CD. Anyone else ever hear of this/use it?

[newpwrbook15]

Well, I suppose it is my RAM. I finally found some other people with similar problems on this forum by using the search "thrashing". I don't understand why this just started happening a few weeks ago. I haven't been using more programs simultaneously on my Mac recently compared to when I first got it. I still have about 55GB (of 74 avail) on my HD. Why did my HD start thrashing recently as opposed to when I first plugged it in? I rarely get the "beach ball". As for startup items, I only have "Mail" running at startup. Ideas?

[newpwrbook15]

Looking at activity monitor, I have 340mb available memory (inactive + free). My Page Ins/Outs is 18521/0. But my CPU usage is 100% (running a program called Prep SA- ~90% CPU usage). Could my CPU usage be causing the thrashing? I ran Smart Reporter, and it says my hard drive is fine (green icon). I ran XBench, and I got an overall score of 32.60. Confused. It seems I still have plenty of RAM not being used...

[newpwrbook15]

um, it was the fan. the drive was never thrashing. but the fan was screeching and scratching in it's last throws of death prior to completely frying. sent it back to apple and they fixed it. sorry to waste everyone's time...

[aaronm_k]

Originally Posted by newpwrbook15

um, it was the fan. the drive was never thrashing. but the fan was screeching and scratching in it's last throws of death prior to completely frying. sent it back to apple and they fixed it. sorry to waste everyone's time...

Not at all! I'm relieved to know that the awful grinding noises my iBook occasionally makes aren't necessarily the sounds of the hard drive being torn to shreds! This would explain why my "hard drive" (or apparently, hard drive fan) sometimes seems to get "stuck" and then makes scratching noises for a while before running smoothly again, even though none of my data has ever been corrupted. If sending the computer to Apple to get it fixed is all you did, I guess I'll try that, too. How long did yours take before you got it back again?

[madmaxmedia]

I would tend not to completely trust the system meter. If your PB is caching lots of stuff on the HD, the free RAM figure will go up.

Most people say 256MB is barely enough for the OS, so 512MB isn't much more especially with Tiger (from what I hear.)

Regardless, the hard drive obviously makes noise when it is working. I would try to figure out some combination of apps and commands to reproduce the sound, and take it into the store to be safe.

My PB hard drive starting making loud clunking noises, and about 20 seconds later it failed (computer totally froze and wouldn't boot up again.) Fortunately it 'came back' at one point, long enough for me to back everything up. Totally different sound than you, but from now on my motto with HD's is 'Better Safe Than Sorry."

Also, you should keep regular backups (with or without noise.) I didn't, but was extremely lucky to be able to copy my HD after my HD started giving out.

[madmaxmedia]

delete

[madmaxmedia]

delete

[madmaxmedia]

how do you delete?

[madmaxmedia]

delete

[PER3]

Originally Posted by Dark Sailor

I have a 15" AlBook, 55 GB HD (21 GB used), 768 MB RAM. My HD makes that soft scratching noise all the time. The annoying thing, though, is the loud *clunk* every so often (i.e. every couple of minutes). I asked others about this and they said it was normal—it's just the drive parking. Some dude from Russia sent me an app that would supposedly quiet that down, but I never installed it because...well, I felt a little uncomfortable about it.

The program is called APM Tuner and I still have it backed up on a CD. Anyone else ever hear of this/use it?

If you do a Google or MacNN search for APM Tuner, you will see that it is a known entity. The OS X version works fine.

Set it to above halfway, hit the button and that's it. You will hear a system error sound which is meaningless.