24" Intel iMac rattling noise

For 3 months now I'm the owner of a 24" Intel iMac. After 2 months of use it occasionally started producing a rattling noise coming from the rear left side. I am prety sure this appears when HDD read/wrte operations take place. This noise is audiable on occasions, but almost every time I use the computer for a longer period. Once the disk utility even reported a smart status fail for the hard drive. I've had an external hard drive fail longer ago on another computer but the sound was a bit different (clicking). Has anyone experinced this before? Should I suspect some fan bearings or the hard drive?

id take it back if i were you

I would just make sure you can repoduce this noise for the apple people. Then as said above take to back under your warranty.

This is the one thing that scares me a bit about the iMac form factor. Essentially, the hard drive, fans and all the moving parts are right there on your desk, only inches away from your face (and your ears!). If anything starts to make any sort of noise at all, you hear it, and very directly. With a unit that sits on the floor, like a PowerMac or Mac Pro, at least it can be remoted from your ears a bit.

I am nearly obsessed with quiet computers, and this little bug-a-boo will likely keep me firmly in the Mac Pro line whenever I chose to upgrade to a new Mac... which I won't do until they come out with one that is at least twice as fast as my current one... which I don't see happening any time soon! 4.0 GHz Core 2 Quad anyone?

vvangelovski said:

For 3 months now I'm the owner of a 24" Intel iMac. After 2 months of use it occasionally started producing a rattling noise coming from the rear left side. I am prety sure this appears when HDD read/wrte operations take place. This noise is audiable on occasions, but almost every time I use the computer for a longer period. Once the disk utility even reported a smart status fail for the hard drive. I've had an external hard drive fail longer ago on another computer but the sound was a bit different (clicking). Has anyone experinced this before? Should I suspect some fan bearings or the hard drive?

Click to expand...

Well it sounds pretty weird,

I have the 'same' thing with my old Windows, mostly when I access my HDD's it makes noise, but its old and crap, so I can live with it, and its far away from my head (like mentioned by Mac57)

But well, as people said before, go back to the Apple Store, and let them hear your noise,

They might just solve it there at the place, but it's also possible that they need to send it back to factory, but what ever, you payed enough for the iMac, so you want to run it just 100% fine

You can't call the apple help care thing, but just contact the nearest Apple store, they might help you out, making an appointment so they have time for you, I think it won't be solved in 3 seconds in the store

rattling new iMac

hello,
My new 1 month old 24", Intel 2.8GHz, 2 gig iMac is rattling. 99.9% sure its the CPU fan. I downloaded smcfancontrol and sped up the just CPU fan and the ticking/rattling just gets faster. At 3500 rpms and the ticking stops but then I can't hear myself think. Sad. Will it magically go away.... I've got to back up my hard drive before I'll call the Apple store. When anything new happens I'll post again.
Dave
p.s. WHAT!?