Aluminum iMac making very odd and loud noise

I have the base model 20" 2.0ghz imac and just got it for christmas. It has been running perfect besides the recently frequent problems with wireless, but after i got out of the shower not twenty minutes ago and brought the computer back from sleep it made this very odd, fairly loud noise.

Its not a noise ive ever heard a computer make, but it doesnt really sound bad. Ive never heard a fan on this computer so I couldnt tell you how it sounds compared to that. i hear the hard drive 'think' or whatever(i call it thinking ) when i open pages, itunes, adium, and safari at the same time but it doesnt sound quite like that. I might just be a little paranoid here, but it slightly sounds like the noise dial up makes.

I turn it off every night, and bring it back up around 5 or 6 when I get home from school.


PLEASE HELP! i just got this computer and am loving it, i do not want to give up my baby already!!

thank you

sometimes the CD spinning up can be fairly loud. Similar to a fan noise. It does that when you bring it back from sleep, but should stop after several seconds.

Yes, I'm sure what you're hearing is the optical drive. The optical drive will most usually make a big scary noise when the computer wakes up. The noise might sound like REEE-UURRNN-T--ZZZzzSSSHTT-iiiiiTTT (but low pitched, haha)

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

It is not the optical drive(or at least not because of a cd in it), the only disc i have put in my iMac was the Fargo DVD a week or so back and it was fine then. The noise is constant, and i can hear it over half volume itunes songs, and lasts a good 20 seconds after shut down but never goes away if i just restart the computer.

im getting kind of annoyed

Well, you got it for xmas, so it's under warranty. 'nuff said.

So I can just have apple replace it like that? The closest apple store is about three hours away and I dont want to waste the time just for them to say 'oh, thats a normal noise, we cant do anything about that.'

But it would be a great opportunity to check out the MBA.

well call them first, and see if they can diagnose it over the phone. If they can't, then yeah, gotta drive in. My closest store is even further, so I feel ya there.

Here's to hoping it gets sorted quickly. Good luck.