Fed up

I bought my iMac in March of this year. For the first 2 months I was in love with this computer. Right now, I am ready to sell it and buy a last revision powerbook. It has progressively gotten worse. I have archived and reinstalled OSX but my computer is still getting the pinwheel many times a day! I'd say over 20 times. To add to that, my harddrive is ALWAYS making a little noise, even when opening something like a folder. This machine has gone from a superfast PERFECT computer to a laggy machine I am about done with. The only other thing I can think of to fix its problems is completely wiping the harddrive...but I tell myself I shouldnt have to do this...I bought a mac to get away from having to do that. I am honestly contemplating selling my iMac...I love OSX and was completely thrilled with the machines speed for the first months of owning it, but right now I cannot stand it.

Sorry you're having a bad experience...

I own a last rev. Powerbook and I have never had a problem.

I would recommend wiping your hard drive as a last ditch effort, though.

You are still under warranty, make apple fix it if there is really something wrong

all electronics have the chance of being bad, call up or visit an apple store and try to get a replacement or it fixed
-chris

Yes, get it fixed or replaced.

I think your one point tells me the problem, the click coming out of the Hard Drive. I see it on PC's all the time. Take it back to Apple since it's so new and make them fix it. I am sure they will. Point out the sounds that are coming from the Hard Drive. A lot of times even brand new hard drives fail. I have had that with all major brands at one time or another.

It is still under warranty correct?

The intel iMac was introduced in January, so yes - your one-year warranty is still valid.

You only have 90 days of free phone support though, so if it's a software issue your having, they might charge you.

But in this case I also think it could be a hardware issue, so definitely give them a call and see what they say.


Too bad your experience hasn't been a good one, it's definitely atypical of most people's!

Im going to echo others here, since I am a PC repair tech. The first thing I though when I read your post was "bad harddrive". Call Apple if you dont have a store near you to take it into. Call apple and they'll help you get it shipped back. I bet you a new hard drive will solve your problems.

Would apple replace the hard drive just because it clicks or rumbles when opening everything (such as folders, safari, going to a new webpage)?

They should. Not sure what their policy is with hardware that is on the verge of complete failure that is still working.

What does Disk Utility say about the drive. Click on the topmost drive in the source window then check the S.M.A.R.T. status in the lower right corner, you're hoping is says Verified. Have you tried to Verify the the disk under the First Aid tab? Let us know what you find? If the Verify Disk fails then boot from the Install DVD and run DU again this time you should be able to Repair disk.

I don't know if you use Adobe software but there is a bug that can cause directory problems and cause significant slowdown and CPU usage. I only bring this up because I had this issue and the symptoms resemble a drive failure.

Either way its good to run through the stuff in my first paragraph.

Good luck

**Edit have you looked into a corrupted font. They are a notorious cause of system failure. If you do archive and install you just bring them with you.

Alright I am going to completely reformat the mac, including removing the windows partition. I hope this fixes the harddrive clicking. If it does, I will attribute the laggy-ness to 10.4.7 as my friends mini is also running laggy since the update, and will upgrade to 1.5 gigs of ram. If the harddrive still clicks, I will be mad I had to delete everything and then take my iMac to the mac store to get it checked out where I am pretty sure the guys will just say "I dont hear anything" and then I will leave unsatisfied.

Can't even uninstall Windows because Boot Camp Assistant is nowhere to be found...

So I guess you didn't run Disk Utility.

^^ Ran it and it is verified.

playm0de said:

^^ Ran it and it is verified.

Click to expand...

Ouch. I feel your pain. You can clearly hear that the drive is no good if its clicking. But the techs will go by the tools to check the disk. What those tools dont check, my best guess is, is the arm swinging around inside, or the bearings. Near as I can tell, they dont have a way to check those via software, but if you can hear it knocking around, then you should be able to get it swapped out. It all depends on the guy you talk to.

If this was me, I'd take it to an Apple store and have the genius listen to the drive clicking. Hopefully he'd make the diagnosis that its the arm or the bearing going out and just swap the drive for you.

Or you could take it to an Apple AUTHORIZED service dealer and have them do it. Those shops are like me, small independant dealers who're auth'd by Apple to make warranty repairs. Those guys live to work and are a bit more... liberal in what they fix. My guess, you'd have better luck getting it replaced by one of those guys than by apple. Why? Because they're going to be charging Apple for the repair and their defenition of a bad drive might have a wee bit more wiggle room than the local genius.

Just my idea, since being in Portland Or, there were like 20 different Mac specific shops in town that were not Apple corp stores, just auth'd sales and repair.

kinda off topic but, since your talking about repairs... could I take my macbook in to a authorized store and have them fix my macbook plastic cover? Because Its starting to turn yellow. Or do I have to send that in?

iDVD is next to unusuable...click one thing and I get the beachball for a minute. This is what $1800 buys you.

So take it in and get it repaired. You obviously have a defective machine.