Intermittent "whir click" sound on L speaker 27" iMac

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Strangely, after eight months of usage, my 27" iMac has developed an intermittent, low-volume 'whirr-click' type sound that comes through on the L speaker only.

I believe it only happens when I'm in Firefox. Muting the speakers does not stop the sound.

Anybody? It's annoying . .
 

chscag

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Are you sure the sound is coming thru the L speaker? If you've muted the speakers, the sound shouldn't be coming from the left side speaker. It may be coming from something else in that area. It's difficult to say what it is, however, my advice is to start making backups using Time Machine if you have not already done so. It's possible the "clicking" sound could be coming from your hard drive which might be getting ready to fail.
 
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Are you sure the sound is coming thru the L speaker? If you've muted the speakers, the sound shouldn't be coming from the left side speaker. It may be coming from something else in that area. It's difficult to say what it is, however, my advice is to start making backups using Time Machine if you have not already done so. It's possible the "clicking" sound could be coming from your hard drive which might be getting ready to fail.

Thank you for your quick reply. Really!

I sure 'sounds' like it's coming from the left speaker. Sure doesn't sound internal. But the sound is NOT exclusive to Firefox being active. Onyx directed me to boot from the install disk and do a disk repair. I've done so. There was need for repair and it was repaired successfully. However, upon re-boot, the low "whirrr-click" was present. Currently gone.

I am running Time Machine, so should be sufficiently backed-up, etc.

Still think my HD is getting ready to bail? Akkkk!?

thanks
c
 
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Are you sure the sound is coming thru the L speaker? If you've muted the speakers, the sound shouldn't be coming from the left side speaker.

Me again.. may not be the speaker. . but it IS definitely the very extreme left of the bottom screen frame. Sounds like it's right there, rather than a more internal . .echo. . .
It *seems* to be initiated only when accessing media (?). . .a song or podcast in iTunes. . .or a Flash video embedded on a site, etc. HD accessing something saved to disk or cached? And quits a bit after when said item is closed. . i.e. quitting iTunes or browser (Firefox in this case) or shutting down application that accessed a file saved (i.e. Label file in Discus). There's a definite cause and effect here. . .starts when something is initiated. .but then it stops shortly after said item's application quits.

Freaking out a bit, here.

thanks,
c
 

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