Annoying ringing sound from Mac Pro

[Ivandovich]

I just got my new Mac Pro today. As a musician I was hoping this would be a very quiet machine, but when I turned it on I right away noticed that there was a ringing sound coming from the machine. It's a constant pitch, kinda like a sine wave (the pitch is a high G). It's pretty subtle, but it gets annoying after a while (feels like having tinnitus), it gets louder/softer depending on where I position myself.
Is this a common sound for all Mac Pro or is there something wrong with my Mac?
Are anyone else experiencing this problem?

Do most people have their mac pros in a soundproof cabinet?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mad jew]

Unfortunately the Power Macs weren't silent and I don't think the Mac Pros are either.

Can you muffle the sound by placing the computer behind something? If you do try to muffle the sound, don't forget to leave adequate space for ventilation.

 

[Mackeyser]

check your power source

are you plugged straight into the wall? surge protector? UPS?

Also, I'm in a square room with hardwood floors and my 2.66 is plain silent. The only sound I hear is the HD once in a while (was used to laptop HDs which are pretty quiet in comparison).

If that sound is noticeable with ambient noise present, I'd take it in.

 

[klaus]

Unfortunately the Power Macs weren't silent and I don't think the Mac Pros are either.

You are right about the Power Macs, but have you used a Mac Pro before? Or why do you say the Mac Pro's aren't silent, just because you think?

The general concensus seams to be that they are very quiet compared to the Power Macs, i've read literally hundreds of reports of owners saying how quiet theirs is, even with the 1900xt.

So.. just because this person maybe has a component inside which produces this annoying sound, doesn't make it a general issue

 

[mad jew]

You are right about the Power Macs, but have you used a Mac Pro before? Or why do you say the Mac Pro's aren't silent, just because you think?

True, I don't have a massive amount of experience with these things and I agree, I think the Power Macs were louder, but I still think (yes, think), the Mac Pros are a little bit noisy. I work with quite a few Macs and I read these boards quite regularly. Having said that, I apologise for insulting your baby.

 

[klaus]

No problem mate, you didn't insult me or anything Actually, I don't own one myself, so you didn't hurt my baby!

Just pointing something out, that's all. Toedels.

 

[mad jew]

Fair enough. Admittedly, almost every Mac Pro I've seen has been working its arse off. Still, they have a bit of CPU whine when idling (unless that's the GPU).

 

[Mackeyser]

must be the GPU

I played Warcraft 3 at full res and all graphics maxed for a whole day (sick with a cold) and it never made a peep. And with hardwood floors, if it were whining, I'd know.

I got the 2.66 with the x1900 and I have yet to hear anything other than a fan burst when it wakes from sleep. Other than that...whisper quiet.

 

[Ivandovich]

I will call apple today and see what they say, maybe I'll also drop by the apple store and put my ear to the mac pros there to see if they have the same sound.

 

[Abulia]

Sans the X1900 on load and the chatter of drive access, the Mac Pro in my experience is dead quiet. It's kinda spooky!

So yea, I'd get Apple on this one.

 

[THX1139]

I think it's your drive. Sometimes drives spin to cause a high pitch squeal. You might try swapping out the drive to see if it goes away. If you haul it to Apple Store they will do it for you.

 

[daveporter]

I am also a computer musician and I purchased my Mac Pro to replace a PC based recording system as soon as all the UB versions of all of my software is available.

I have built many DAWs over the years for myself and for a number of other studios and have always worked very hard to make them as quite as possible. i can tell you that my Mac Pro, with three disk drives, is the most quite DAW that I have ever used; plain and simple. It is virtually noise free except when the disk drivers are accessed and then there is only a slight amount of seek noise. I have no wine what-so-ever that is noticable.

I would take off the side panel and carefully listen to each section of your Mac Pro to see where the noise is coming from. I would not be surprised to find that it is the hard drive. If so, you have two alternatives: 1.) Live with it, and 2.) call Apple and tell them that you think you have a defective hard disk drive and see if they will swap it out for you. My Mac Pro came with a Western Digital hard drive which happens to be very quite. The two that I added in are Seagate drives and they are also very quiet. I believe that some Mac Pros came with some other brand of drive so perhaps that one is not as quite as that others.

Hope that this helps,

Dave

 

[danhig123]

Agree with the above. I also had noise problems from a new mac pro and I located the problem from a fan. It could be the superdrives ribbon cable buzzing against the PSU fan... that was my problem.... or it could be another fan... You can easily locate the problem by taking the side off and using your ears. It will hopefully be user fixable!

Danny

 

[eMagine]

Sans the X1900 on load and the chatter of drive access, the Mac Pro in my experience is dead quiet. It's kinda spooky!

So yea, I'd get Apple on this one.

Have to agree with with Abulia on this one.
My Mac Pro is dead quiet. (I have a 7300GT).

 

[YoYoMa]

I've had three Mac Pro's due to the bluetooth issue and they've all had the ringing. I'm thinking it's the two RAIDed Raptor drives I'm booting from though. I should try it without the drives one of these days. Dead silent would be amazing though and I may rid myself of these drives if that's a possibility.

 

[Fanshawe]

I've heard a ringing sound before from my Mac Pro once: when I accidentally forgot to lock the handle on the back after I installed another hard drive.

Drove me crazy for a good 15 minutes. Now if I can only get my DVD drive door to close all the time.

 

[YoYoMa]

I had that drive door closing problem with my second Mac Pro

 

[technicolor]

I had this happen last nite, it stopped tho, hope it dosent come back..it was extremely annoying.

 

[Mantishead]

Lucky Me

Been using Mac Pro for over a week. Doesn't make a peep, apart from the tick tick ticking of hard drives.... I can't wait for solid state mass storage..

 

[michaeljs]

Whine on Macpro

Check the side panel is firmly in and that the grey plastic cover over the fans at the front is sitting properly - just push it with your finger a bit. It solved my whine!

 

[theblotted]

I've heard a ringing sound before from my Mac Pro once: when I accidentally forgot to lock the handle on the back after I installed another hard drive.

Drove me crazy for a good 15 minutes. Now if I can only get my DVD drive door to close all the time.

funny, i actually get less noise/hum when the lock handle is open (positioned up). this is true for me on both G5 and MP.

thankfully, the MP can keep its cover on without the handle. somehow the front edge of cover needs an extra "push" to close it tightly. is this the same experience for you MP users?