[ApeInTheShell]

Dun Dun Dun!!!

The Curse of the iMac G3 and Dirty iMac will not be seen tonight

Instead we bring you A Werewolf in the iMac

[P]

My usually quiet iMac G5 was suddenly very loud last night. Thing is, I don't think the fans were full blast, they were just a lot more loud than usual, and I didn't realise that something was fundamentally wrong until I finally turned everything else off to go to bed. After trying to endure for a while (I've had my Macs in the bedroom since the LC III, over a Performa 5300 and a slot-loading iMac, and it has never been a problem before - I could even sleep with the 5300 blasting, although it was usually off in those Internet-over-modem days) I got up to see put the thing to sleep. Before doing that, I shut down all apps and daemons that are usually running, but just before sleeping the machine I noticed something odd - the CPU meter in the menubar was maxed out.

Activity Monitor showed a runaway process called (null) eating 98% of CPU. Killing that process, and within a second the fans spun down to their usual level. I'm not saying that this is a general cure, but it might be worth trying if your machine is suddenly very loud.

[Simon]

Originally posted by P:
Activity Monitor showed a runaway process called (null) eating 98% of CPU. Killing that process, and within a second the fans spun down to their usual level.

Interesting. Can anybody here say what this process 'null' could be?

[AliP]

Originally posted by Londor:
Watashi,

Take the computer back and ask for a new one. The iMac should be very quiet. Read David Feliciano posts in this thread (he had a similar problem)

http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]

Blimey that is an annoying sound, as this is the first mac i have owned that has fans (previous is a G3 iMac) so i was slightly perturbed when i turned on my G5. But after a few days i have grown accustomed to it. It is certainly quieter than my girlfriends windoze laptop. Mine is nowhere near as noisy as that.
KRO
Ali P

[tonyibook]

I was playing Nanosaur 2 during which the fans slowly get a bit louder. When I had finished playing the fans did not spin back down as normal. I checked the process monitor and also found a process running called "null" taking up 98%. I killed the process and then the fans slowed down again.

[P]

Originally posted by Simon:
Interesting. Can anybody here say what this process 'null' could be?

Not much. It was owned by me, parent was either loginwindow or Windowserver (don't remember) so it wasn't a daemon. Had been running for a while, counting backwards put it as being started in the middle of the day before. Likely an app or a game that I started and then went haywire.

[solbo]

I have noticed my fans getting louder over the last few weeks. When I say louder, I mean louder sooner. When I first power-on or wake up, it is completely quite, after about 30 minutes one fan revs up slowly to a make a semi loud blowing noise.

Then after about 60-120 minutes, depending on work load, the second annoying fan of doom starts up. This fan makes a more high pitched noise than the first fan and it can be heard across the room.

Oddly enough there is one spot on the back of the iMac where the long vent strip is, that if you put your hand over it, the sound is cut in half. The air is still coming out full force but the sound is severely muted. Which makes me think it is just a design flaw in the way the air is exiting the iMac. Makes me wish I had stuck to my guns about never buying a Rev. A Mac.

I imagine a lot people may never hear this level of noise because they won't be using it long enough, or heavily enough, to have the fans ramp up full force.

I really love the machine, but I am not sure if I can handle the loudness, it is really quite annoying, especially given the "whisper quiet" marketing spin. Whisper quiet for about 30 minutes. I may have to sell it and get a PM G5, they are actually whisper quiet. Also this is not the buzzing power supply noise, I have that too but it is hard to hear over the fan noise.

[tonyibook]

solbo,

Definitely sounds like a faulty iMac to me. My fans speed up whilst playing a game such as Nanosaur or Snood, and whilst ripping CDs. As soon as I stop any of these tasks then my fans spin back down to be very quiet.

I have a feeling my CPU fan is a bit noisy, a slight buzzing noise, but I do not have another machine to compare it to. However, the iMac is quieter than any other machine I have used.

As I am typing this it sounded like my fans were speeding up a bit, but I just noticed that Safari is now using 60% of my CPU. If I shrink Safari then it goes down to 0%. Maybe it is the animated Smilies ??? Or the spell checker ???

[DoeJury]

So I rec'vd the 17" Superdrive w/Bluetooth, 1gb RAM, & 160gb hard drive last week.

I don't mind the processor fans - that power up when the CPU is taxed. They sound like fans, very noticeable, but the sound is uintrusive and expected.

What I HATE is this CONSTANT whirring sound - I don't know if it's a cpu or the hard drive. Not so much the sound, but the FREQUENCY of it. It's a whirring, which isn't so bad - but it's such a high frequency that I can always hear it - not over headphones or speakers, but sitting here with the TV off, I can hear it in the next room. The hz this whir is at is horrible and should be muted/muffled.

And I agree, with a freakin G5, hard drive, monitor AND power supply all right in front of your face - that noise is inevitable.

I don't know WHAT people are talking about with the cover top part makes it quiet.
MY sound is coming from the lower left corner - period, end of story. And it doesn't kick up when stressed, it's ALWAYS there - but yes gets worst with application increase. The pitch gets higher and starts to whine - then I can hear the CPU fans kick in.

Since it's always there, does that mean it's the hard drive? Do I have a bad hard drive?

If anyone gets what I'm talking about - it is VERY easy to figure out. Sit with your iMac in silence with nothing running. Hear that? Does it bother you? If not, you're fine.

If it DOES bother you. Here's what makes ir better right? Take your palm and stick it under the left speaker (opposite side of power light) - the grill on the bottom, press your palm fully against it - BAM. Sound is muted. Only there if you REALLY try to focus on it - but it's frequency is lower because muted and totally tolerable.

I'm going to have to put tape or something on bottom left grill.

Did anything I said make sense? Anyone? Should I call Apple? Ask for new drive...? Wish I could hear someone else's in person outside of a store.

[toti]

In the lower left of the 17" there is:

a) one speaker
b) one CPU fan and the airduct for the CPU

The hard drive is at top left.

[Love Calm Quiet]

If you install MenuMeters (free) you'll have an indication in the menu bar that CPU is in fact working harder. That would alert you to which apps are culprits shortly after the fact.

For example, while writing this post CPU is doing HARDLY ANYTHING, unless I enlarge the window so that the animated GIFs are displayed -- then Meters max out and fans start soon after. :grumble: In Safari 35.2 this is supposed to be fixed

[Boswell]

The fan over the Hard drive is the offending one. It seems to be tied to the process activity. As soon as I start doing something that engages even the slightest CPU usage, the fan starts to wind up and make an irritating 'whine'.

You can test this by showing the activity monitor, going into iPhoto and engaing in some scrolling of all your pictures (or some other processor intensive activity). The variable speed fan will engage after two or three seconds and get to the whinning noise.

I do not mind the noise once it gets to the highest pitch.. it's the ramping up of the high pitched noise that irritates me.

Maybe if enough 'noise' comes from customers Apple will create a firmware update that 'steps' the fan instead of the current situation.

Hey Apple... pick a speed and stick to it!!!

BTW... I really like this machine otherwise!!

[d0ubled0wn]

FWIW, Firefox and Camino are much more efficient with respect to animated gif images. Apple really needs to fix this problem with Safari... 75% cpu utilization just to animate some smilies?? Ridiculous.

[iv_zar]

The fans are supposed to keep the mac cool, right!

Then I am told that you cant use the mac in 35 degrees celcius or more.

What is wrong with this thing.

The fans just arent doing the job they are supposed to

First they sound like hairdryers and now they cant withstand temperatures over 35 degrees celcius

Come on Apple!!!

[toti]

Originally posted by iv_zar:
The fans are supposed to keep the mac cool, right!

Then I am told that you cant use the mac in 35 degrees celcius or more.

What is wrong with this thing.

The fans just arent doing the job they are supposed to

First they sound like hairdryers and now they cant withstand temperatures over 35 degrees celcius

Come on Apple!!!

You DID read the Tech Specs, right ?

Electrical and environmental requirements

Meets ENERGY STAR requirements
Line voltage: 100-120V AC or 100-240V AC, depending on country of purchase
Frequency: 47Hz to 63Hz, single phase
Maximum continuous power: 180W
Operating temperature: 50� to 95� F (10� to 35� C)
Storage temperature: -40� to 185� F (-40� to 85� C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet

These are their specifications, available for all to read. If you live in an area where the temperature is generally higher than 35�C and you can't afford air-conditioning, you shouldn't be playing with compact-design computers. Stick with big watercooled iron, and run them at a clocked-down speed on warm days

[iv_zar]

Thank you

As you can see, I am new to all this

[Parky]

Is this a 17" problem only?

I have a 20" and don't have a noise problem at all, not fans or whine.

Ian

[Kermy]

It seems the problem is on both, just that it's more pronounced on the 17" since it's smaller and requires the fans to operate faster. It's not really the "loudness" that's the problem it's the pitch of the sound the fan blade makes.

For all you iMac G5 owners, try going into Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Options and turn Processor Performance to highest. When I do that the whining is more apparent. But if I leave it on auto, it's quieter.

[P]

Just got the same thing again - one null process that eats CPU and runs the fans. This time I think I can narrow it down. The machine was quiet, then I watched some movie clips and it kept going. While I did use a few other programs in that time period, I'm betting that it was VLC. It took forever to quit, and I sort of suspected that something was wrong even then. I also remember watching movies the last time it did this thing.

[klinux]

Believe or not, despite my deslike for Apple's choice of GPU, I have just gotten my iMac G5.

I have not stressed tested the iMac yet (waiting for the 1GB DIMM and 200GB HD to come so I can install it) but my impression too is that the fan is too loud. Seeing that there is not that many tunnels/air guides within the iMac, perhaps future iMac updates may incoporate more perforated panels in the back.

[macshome]

Right after the G5 iMacs came out one came back to us with a fan that sounded like a weed whacker. It was just one of the plastic pull tabs inside had come loose and was hitting the blades of a fan.

Tab tucked away properly, and all was silent again.

[Podolsky]

For some reason loud fan threads are often replete with mean spirited and shallow posts.....this one is no exception.

I am really intrigued by the new G5 iMacs and would like to buy the next rev. Does anyone have a reasonable clue when the next rev might appear? For Xmas perchance? Any indictation that production has been modified to address any of the early concerns?

[P]

A new revision will not be here by Christmas. At least 9 months from the launch, probably more, before the next revision. Apple will however adjust the production process continously until they are satisfied, and with this many reports, I can't think they're satisfied yet.

[hayden_303]

I'll chime in here, just to add to the user experiences. I have the 20" model and there is no loud fan noise. There is a slight buzzing noise that comes from the power supply, but I cannot hear it unless it is perfectly quiet in my room. I asked the guy at the Apple store if the had any returns so far on any of the iMacs (this was a few days ago) and he said no. They have sold out of their stock twice and he was surprised they even had any. This dude was cool too.. not some hustler trying to get me to buy something.

[technohedz]

Take a look at the apple discussion boards. Some units have fan problems (particularly when you increse/decrease screen brightness). These should be user installable parts (as almost everything else is) and MAY be part of the midplane assembly. I'm not sure you need to send your machine to Apple for servicing, you do qualify for exchange when it's brand new regardless of corporate policy.

[discotronic]

Here is my experience so far. I have a G5 17" 1.8GHz model. The fan is loud. I called Apple and they agree (since they had me hold the phone up to the area of the fan) that it was louder than normal. I was sent a power supply for replacement. That helped for about an hour and the noise just came back. Adjusting the brightness of the screen doesn't cause a change in pitch of the sound. I am going to call Apple again today to see what else can be done.

The discussion boards at Apple are full of people who are having the problem. Apple is trying to fix it but in most cases it isn't working.

[Lulu Bell]

Hello Everyone ---well, I am a refugee from the Apple Discussion thread re the FAN NOISE ISSUE. Today, the Apple moderators removed a smokin' thread of 580 + posts concerning very unhappy customers who got the loud whining-shrill-earpiercing-jet engine-hairdryer on steroids-drilling-high pitched frequency on their shiny new G5 iMacs. As I type these bytes, I myself am being subjected to the high-pitched shrill. Excuse me while I stuff cotton in my ears. Tomorrow, I am carting this beautiful $2,224.00 17" lemon to Fed-Ex. I reordered another G5-iMac ... a 20-incher in the hopes that another model will not make me deaf. Butt alas... there are a fair share of troublesome reports with the big kahunas, too. (not as many)

That Apple removed the Fan Noise Issue thread is of major contention over yonder and some think it was totally out of integrity. If you have the shrill fan noise ...call Apple and talk to a specialist, not just a tech. --they know about this problem. It's not good for your hearing, btw. Protect yourself. I know it's difficult to type with your fingers in your ears, but what else can we do??? They are sending new midplanes out to folks who have this faulty fan but most of the midplanes either make the problem worse or duplicate the status.

Someone in Quality Control made a big oops and de folks unhappy.

[pliny]

The loud fan noise posts remind me of the "whining bee" noise of the gumdrop iMacs posts.

[joe]

Originally posted by Lulu Bell:
Tomorrow, I am carting this beautiful $2,224.00 17" lemon to Fed-Ex. I reordered another G5-iMac ... a 20-incher in the hopes that another model will not make me deaf. Butt alas... there are a fair share of troublesome reports with the big kahunas, too. (not as many)

I went the same route as you (17" -> 20" G5 iMac). Having upgraded the memory in both, I noticed the 20" iMac has larger fans than the 17" iMac. Larger fans don't need to spin as fast to move the same amount of air as smaller fans. This may account for reports of the 20" models running quieter than 17" models.

Unfortunately, my new 20" model comes complete with a very nasty hum - similar to a large flourecent light. It seems to be related to the brightness level of the display. The hum sound reduces as you reduce the brightness level - but is always louder than the fans. So in my case the 20" G5 iMac is actually much louder than the 17" G5 iMac. I suspect the power supply is causing the hum (a known issue) or possibly the inverter. I haven't contacted Apple yet. I'd rather wait until they resolve the problem before spending time shipping parts back and forth. I ran into a similar situation before with the now-infamous "white spot" problem on an early model 15" AlBook. Early repairs were made by simply swapping in a new LCD. But the problem would return within a few weeks. Apple ultimately identified the LCD panel as the cause and switched to a different LCD panel which solved the problem permanently.

Someone in Quality Control made a big oops and de folks unhappy.

I've been a Mac fanatic for years. And I've noticed early adopters of Apple's latest products tend to run into these sort of problems. I suppose it's to be expected when you have such a sweeping design change. Still, I agree with your statement about QC. Perhaps longer and more thorough QC testing of an entirely new product design would've identified these problems beforehand. I suspect these problems will be ironed out by the refresh next summer.

[javadesigner]

Unfortunately, my new 20" model comes complete with a very nasty hum - similar to a large flourecent light. It seems to be related to the brightness level of the display. The hum sound reduces as you reduce the brightness level - but is always louder than the fans. So in my case the 20" G5 iMac is actually much louder than the 17" G5 iMac. I suspect the power supply is causing the hum (a known issue) or possibly the inverter.

It's the LCD invertor. I had the exact same problem with three
different 17" G4 aluminum powerbooks. I've also encountered this
problem on some large (non-apple) LCD's panels. I even emailed
the hardware designer of a (non-apple) high end panel with this problem -- turns out it IS the LCD invertor. The noise can often be reduced
by turning up the LCD brightness to full.

[WinTroll]

Originally posted by Lulu Bell:
Hello Everyone ---well, I am a refugee from the Apple Discussion thread re the FAN NOISE ISSUE. Today, the Apple moderators removed a smokin' thread of 580 + posts concerning very unhappy customers who got the loud whining-shrill-earpiercing-jet engine-hairdryer on steroids-drilling-high pitched frequency on their shiny new G5 iMacs. As I type these bytes, I myself am being subjected to the high-pitched shrill. Excuse me while I stuff cotton in my ears. Tomorrow, I am carting this beautiful $2,224.00 17" lemon to Fed-Ex. I reordered another G5-iMac ... a 20-incher in the hopes that another model will not make me deaf. Butt alas... there are a fair share of troublesome reports with the big kahunas, too. (not as many)

That Apple removed the Fan Noise Issue thread is of major contention over yonder and some think it was totally out of integrity. If you have the shrill fan noise ...call Apple and talk to a specialist, not just a tech. --they know about this problem. It's not good for your hearing, btw. Protect yourself. I know it's difficult to type with your fingers in your ears, but what else can we do??? They are sending new midplanes out to folks who have this faulty fan but most of the midplanes either make the problem worse or duplicate the status.

Someone in Quality Control made a big oops and de folks unhappy.

And many thought I was being overly "fussy" about the noise when I first posted about this problem.

Again, it sounded just like an RC Model Airplane buzzing around. It was the hard drive fan. It was NOT defective either, it was fine, just annoyingly loud.

An MDD G4 owner, would not complain. But any Powerbook or iMac owner certainly would.

I really did NOT want to return the computer. It was simply awesome, but that noise was too much to handle.

[nJm]

Originally posted by Boswell:
The fan over the Hard drive is the offending one. It seems to be tied to the process activity. As soon as I start doing something that engages even the slightest CPU usage, the fan starts to wind up and make an irritating 'whine'.

You can test this by showing the activity monitor, going into iPhoto and engaing in some scrolling of all your pictures (or some other processor intensive activity). The variable speed fan will engage after two or three seconds and get to the whinning noise.

I do not mind the noise once it gets to the highest pitch.. it's the ramping up of the high pitched noise that irritates me.

This is the problem I have with my 17" 1.6 G5. As soon as you turn it on there is a constant whine/wirring noise. As CPU usage increases it changes pitch, and you start to hear the whoosh of the other fans. I rang Apple support and they got me to put the phone against the computer so they could hear the noise it makes when it is idle. They agreed it was noisy and told me to take it to an Apple Service Centre. I left it with them and they rang me back saying there is nothing wrong with the computer. I wasn't happy with this as it also has uneven backlighting on the screen (dark left corner, 'shadows' along the bottom, a really bright spot in the right corner). They told me it was because my background picture ("Solid Grey") was a gradient... I told them exactly what I thought of their service and have asked for a refund, so I can buy another one from a different reseller (we don't have actual Apple stores in Australia).

[nJm]

I'm getting a new one today! They finally agreed the fan was much louder than it should be (you needed to turn iTunes up to maximum volume using the internal speakers to mask the sound at idle).

[Warhaven]

Could also try replacing the default fan with one of those nifty uber-silent fans? *shrug* Dunno if these would work on an iMac or not:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/silentcpu.html

Originally posted by WinTroll:
I notice lots of people in the Apple Support Discussions complaining about this issue too.

I installed another 512 to bring it to 768 megs of RAM.

Lack of RAM is not the problem. I set the CPU to reduced (let's see....buy a fast Mac, then forcibly reduce the CPU speed?!?! So why buy a faster Mac?)

The fan is noisy. No doubt.

So I installed Command & Conquer Generals and let it rip at 1024 x 768 at medium settings. The game was VERY playable by the way! Smooth scrolling and absolutely no pauses or jerkiness in the game (I kept playing the skirmish for about 2 hours).

However, the fans were at FULL blast during the game. I actually had to turn the game sound up because they were so loud.

Once done, I exited and the fans went back to simply annoying instead of incredibly annoying with the game running full tilt.

Sitting here after a reboot and only running safari. Fans are making the hair dryer, RC model noise. It even interferes with iTunes. Forget about listening to classical, jazz or new age on your iMac. Play Metallica and you might not hear the noise, but other than that.

This thing is going back to the Apple Store tomorrow at noon.

But now what do I do? Can't really exchange it since there are no others (long backlog), I could upgrade for the PowerMac, but I would imagine that I am going to have the same problem.

The days of silent and quiet Macs are gone.

The nVidia 5200 Ultra with 64 meg held up very nicely to my C&C test though. I was somewhat surprised. I sort of expected him to crawl, but he did great.

Wow, I pulled the back off to install the memory (and again to remove it before reboxing him) and the G5 cover is very hot (expected) but the hard drive is nuclear hot (and its a 5400 rpm right?).

I am SOOOOOOOOO disappointed right now. I was so excited when I bought this.

[Satane]

So I got a iMac G5 1.8 17" about a month ago. I beleive it was the first shippment made to Thailand, where I live. One dead pixel (what can i do about it btw), but apart from this it works well, and it's beautiful, and it's compact blah blah blah

Of course sometimes fan is quite loud. And sometimes even louder. Uploading or downloading big or multiple files for instance, even using unix command line wget or ftp, usually leads to heavy CPU load, preventing me from performing any other task, which is kind of sad for a G5

And the most "funny" thing is this: plugging the headphones in or out will turn the fans at full blast, noisy as hell, with a overloaded CPU, mostly because of the LoginWindow process. It usually lasts about 15 minutes until it finally cools down again

Pretty anoying. But turned off, the iMac G5 is one of the coolest thing I've seen on my desk for a long while

[yellowlab]

I just found this great forum!
I have a G4 20" iMac that I got last May, (1 G ram total)and I must say that it is really nice and quiet.
I live in a very quiet area, no sound except for the wind, occasional automobile, and our dogs either snoring or barking. So if this machine was loud, I would have returned it. My old PC and G4 towers are rather noisy to compare.
I would love to have a new G5 iMac 20", planning to get one this spring. So I sure will be watching this forum to see how this fan problem works out.

By the way, I did have the CPU revving up problem when I first got this Mac, Applecare couldnt help, but the people I got it from led me thru a long convoluted process that solved it.
Please keep this information going, as I will give this link to my classmates. We are all looking for the pleasure of buying the new G5 iMacs.
Thank you,
Jane

[Link]

Never ever.. EVER.. believe what apple markets their imacs to be.

The phrase "whisper quiet" was evicted from my memory regarding the imac g4 when my bro got his, and since then I've held the same belief, if they could squeeze a g5 into an even more constricted space with no convection help whatsoever (with convection, the heat would be going through the top 1/8 of the screen) -- there was no way in heck the g5 would be "whisper quiet" if they couldn't make the imac so.

Ironically, I believe the noisiest thing is the HD. Still though, never believe this kinda stuff sight unseen

[P]

Originally posted by Link:
Never ever.. EVER.. believe what apple markets their imacs to be.

The phrase "whisper quiet" was evicted from my memory regarding the imac g4 when my bro got his, and since then I've held the same belief, if they could squeeze a g5 into an even more constricted space with no convection help whatsoever (with convection, the heat would be going through the top 1/8 of the screen) -- there was no way in heck the g5 would be "whisper quiet" if they couldn't make the imac so.

Ironically, I believe the noisiest thing is the HD. Still though, never believe this kinda stuff sight unseen

There is convection help. The intake is on the bottom (the grille) and the outflow is near the top - not on the topside, but near the top of the backside. The topside would of course be even better, but convection does help in this case.

Apple's definition on whisper quiet is the dB of a whisper, and you would hear a whisper if you were 1-2 meters from it, which is more or less what you are from your iMac. You might not be able to hear what the whisperer was saying, but you would hear that someone was whispering.

[gonadman]

I've had my 17" 1.8GHz iMac G5 now for a couple of days and coming from an iBook (no sound at all) the fan noise in the iMac is a little irritating. The sound itself isn't loud but the pitch is annoyingly high pitched, like a mini-motor revving up and down with CPU usage. I must say, however, that the sound isn't as lound as those in the demonstration sounds/videos so I guess I got a good one.

All in all the machine is really great and it's nice having so much screen real-estate after living with 1024x768 for so long!

[KrypToniK]

I posted this over at Apple and would like you all to read it, too:

I have a question for those of you with "normal" iMacs. I have the 20" iMac G5, and I can definitely hear noise coming from it. So I was wondering, for those of you which have no problems, can you hear you iMac's fans when the room is absolutely silent? I've been getting mixed answers and people's varying definition of loud. I just want to know if you can hear the fans when your iMac isn't running any cpu intensive processes. I know I can and was just wondering if you can because some are claiming they can't even hear the iMac make any noise.

----

Sorry but I am getting a little paranoid with all this. If my system is defective I want it to be fixed or know that it is defective at least.

[doxtorRay]

My 20" iMac is not completely silent. "Whisper-quiet" probably describes it accurately. It is about as loud as a healthy exhale of breath. If I position my head so that my ears are 18 inches or more from the screen, other room sounds (including a quartz clock on the wall across the room) easily dominate the whirl of the fans.
The sound that the mouse makes as I move it on my mouse-padless desk is louder than the iMac, as is the sound of the keys as I tap on the keyboard.
I must admit that the particular pitch of the fan noise is a little annoying.
However, compared to my eMac and the fan in one of my FireWire external hard drives, the iMac is refreshingly easy on the ears.

[P]

No computer is ever completely silent. I can hear my fan-less slotloading iMac, because the HD still makes some noise. However, I have no problems sleeping in the same room as my iMac G5.

[Fonzie]

I recently - like within days ago- got my new iMac G5 17" 1.8Ghz with Superdrive-model and I notice that the fan is loud but not overwhelming loud. I think it's supposed to give a little noise off of itself. Others I have read about complained about a high pitch noise while using the iMac G5, that is not the case here.

Overall I say that the noise here is not a whispering noise but more of a humming noise while the CPU is at "Automatic" setting.

Excuse me while I type this. I have not read the whole thread yet.

[gonadman]

I believe the fan noise in the iMac attracts attention to itself because it really ramps up and down with CPU usage (as it should, of course). If the fan was constantly on at the same noise level you probably wouldn't notice it as much. I think people have a tendency to ignore a constant drone but will instantly notice if the sound changes - rather similar to the effect of searching for a person in the dark. Movement always attracts the eye, and I guess a change in sound attracts the ear.

I've been playing Myst IV and doing other CPU intensive tasks on the iMac and must say the fans are still much quieter than my wife's PC so I can't complain.

Hope you all had a great holiday.

Cheers,

[discotronic]

I called Apple again today about the fan noise coming from my 17" iMac G5. Up to this point (an numerous phone calls) I have replaced the power supply, did a format and install of Panther, (because this was a suggestion by AppleCare) and taken it in to a Genius. The sounds couldn't be heard in the Apple Store. This doesn't surprise me because it is so noisy because of customers, overhead music, and tons of other background noise. After the usual round of Q&A I was transferred to one of the Engineers. I can't really say I am happy about the explanation I was given. Here is the short and sweet of what I was told:

Apple is aware of the issue and they are not happy about it. I was told that it sounds as if my system is having the same issue that numerous other iMac owners are experiencing. Replacing the mid-plane in the system probably won't do any good. Replacing any other parts probably won't do any good. A firmware update probably won't help. The engineers are working on a fix but it is unknown when the fix will be made available. At this point there is a possibility that replacing anything else might make the sound worse. We will contact you when a fix is made available. Keep checking Apple Support for any information that is released.

What does this say about Apple's QC? I have owned numerous Macs in the past. My 17" G4 iMac 1.25GHz wasn't anywhere near as loud as this thing. Granted my PowerMac 9600 was louder but at least I could put in on the floor. I am fairly upset that a fix for this problem hasn't been found. How can they advertise this thing as being "whisper quiet" when in reality it isn't. Should I ask for a new one? What other route should I take at this point? I have been patient since October but it is wearing thin.

EDIT: If Apple does know the problem exists then why are they still selling units with a known and apparently fairly wide reaching problem?

[cSurfr]

I just picked up a 1.8GHz 17" iMac and have run all of my programs, and no matter what it's still quiet. I have heard the fans kick on, but i can say without a doubt that my powerbooks are at least 3x louder with the fans on. Maybe i'm lucky, but I've never had the problems that all of you have. And yes, my hearing is just fine.

[jon l. dawson]

Just want to add my experience to this thread. I have the G5 1.6 iMac 17". If everything is turned off in the room, the fan is audible and annoying. I do want to make the distinction that it's not loud at all, it's as others have described- the pitch is erratic and unpleasant.

The PC nearby and the air purifier in the room tend to cover up the sound. I also wonder how loud it would be if my room was a bit cooler, since it's 26c/79f now. I'll have to open a window and see (it's nice and frosty outside).

I'm disappointed a bit, but I'm not planning on returning it. I hope Apple comes up with a fix for this, not like I expect them to.

[nredman]

sorry to hear about the loud fans people, could this go down as one of those "don't buy the first editions of a new product?" kind of like the whitespots on the powerbooks?

[P]

Originally posted by nredman:
sorry to hear about the loud fans people, could this go down as one of those "don't buy the first editions of a new product?" kind of like the whitespots on the powerbooks?

Not really. The noise should be fixed with a manufacturing adjustment, so I guess a machine bought now will be quiet.

[discotronic]

Originally posted by P:
Not really. The noise should be fixed with a manufacturing adjustment, so I guess a machine bought now will be quiet.

According to what I was told by Apple there isn't a fix for the problem. I am getting tired of the noise. This week I plan on calling Apple back and requesting a new machine.