Does anyone else's Mac Pro resonate?

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'll have to try fiddleing with the hard drives in mine later. Its good to see that I'm not the only one and that I'm not going mad!!

I'm running 4 drives in there at the moment, the stock Seagate 250GB one, two Maxtor 300GB Maxline III drives and a Seagate 300GB drive.

 

[rsvrmille]

partially fixed

well i had some grommets lying around so tried them in the hard drive (1/4) and (i hope this makes sense), I first put them between the carrier and the actual hard drive, this didn't work very well as i think the vibration was going through the screw which was touching the carrier element directly. Next up i put the grommet between the screw and the carrier and this seemed to work better. I think the best way would be to do both but I don't have 8 grommets yet.

 

[Origin]

I sometimes experiencing this kind of noise. But it's not so annoying...

Still interested in a easy solution to stop it as this is actually the only real noise that come from my MacPro (with the drives itselves of course)

 

[Monyx]

This humming / resonance is quite noticeable and annoying on my MP with x1900xt 1x160gb, 2x320gb drives. Fades in & out almost continuously only dissappears for 1,2s.Eenough to feel the vibration through my desk (MP on desktop) at its peak. I only installed my additional HDs tonight, was not present with single HD.

 

[Origin]

I also suspect the drive bays to be the main agent of this noise, because I currently have 4 drives and the sound was not earable before the installation of the 3 new drives.

 

[alien2108]

I emailed Samsung in Europe and this is their answer about HD401LJ drives:

Original German (From Samsung Germany):
---------------------------------------------
Vielen Dank fuer Ihre Anfrage.

Nach eingehender Prüfung in unserem Hause, und nach Recherche unter den von Ihnen übermittelten Link, bewegt sich das Verhalten der Festplatte völlig ihm Rahmen der Spezifikationen.

Vielmehr stellt es sich so dar, dass besagte HDD nicht für den Einsatz im Gehäuse des MacPro eignet.
---------------------------------------------
English translation:

Thank you for your enquiry,

After selftesting in our house and reading the forum (remark: macrumors, this link) everything is in borders of specifications for the harddrive.

It looks like the harddrive is not suitable for use in MacPro.
---------------------------------------------

Thank you Samsung! Mine is going back...

 

[technicolor]

I have found out that in my Macpro HDD (Samsung 400Mb/16Mb cache) is responsible for resonances. You can clearly feel it vibrates much more that stock WD in MP. I even exchanged it for new one, but same thing. Releasing the latch at back eases the problem a bit. Bit it is still very annoying sinusoid sound. I tightened the srews, tried to use some rubber washers....Nothing helpes....

This and your post regarding Samsung's reply is interesting. The extra drive I added to my MacPro is also a Samsung OEM SATA drive.

 

[alien2108]

I did dampen the noise now using rubber between HDD and Macpro HDD rack. I have put it over the screws (so screws go through rubber) and I must say noise is now much more berable (but still present)...

 

[Monyx]

Resonances appeared after I added 2x Western Digital WD3200KS 320GB additional to Apple Seagate 160GB. I also have ATI x1900XT and extras 2GB MaxSink RAM FWIW.

 

[rsvrmille]

Its an Apple problem!

This is a problem for Apple, bot the HD manufacturers. As a number of us are having the same problem with a variety of hard drive manufacturers this must be a design issue. I did wonder how it kept so quiet when I first saw the HD mounting straight onto the case structure.

Does ayone think that mounting them the other way up and by screws at the side instead of vertical would of helped? Never had this kind of resonnance in a PC case running multiple drives...

 

[twoodcc]

well i'm having the same noise today with my mac pro. it's pretty loud also. i guess i'll try the latch or tighten the screws on my hard drives. i have 3 in there right now. but it didn't start doing this until today. i've had the hard drives in there for at least a few days

 

[seanf]

I tried both Seagate 7200.10 and Western Digital WD3200KS drives in my Mac Pro, but they were just too loud (seek noise and vibration). I eventually decided that the Samsung SP2504Cs are the quietest when AAM is enabled.

Sean

 

[rsvrmille]

anti vibration grommets?

anyone know where we can get some packs of these? I've seen them as part of a larger pack at kustompcs.co.uk but can't find them on their own anywhere.

you can buy a pack of 100 at http://www.richco.co.uk but i don't really need 100....

 

[alien2108]

Hello all!

I have found a source of vibrations in my MacPro with stock WD 250Gb and Samsung HD401LJ 400Gb. After some time even rubber between HDD and HDD rack didn't help. So I started to test around and I have found out that placing foam between HDD and front part of HDD rack (where we grab it to pull it out) eliminates most (if not all) of vibrations. Looks like vibrations do cause the front part to vibrate slightly.

Look at attached pic. Try it out!

 

[milozauckerman]

I had a resonance problem after installing four drives, started going through bays until I figured out it was the fourth bay (process of elimination) - took it out again, reseated... and now the noise is gone. I think, maybe, the back latch was rubbing against the drive/sled.

If you've got the same issue, I suggest testing the fourth bay first.

 

[Jame]

I had the same problem on my Mac Pro with 4 hard drives. I tightened all the screws, but it still did it. What fixed it for me was taking a piece of heavy paper and folding it a couple times then wedging it between a drive and the top bracket. Hasn't made the noice since...

 

[tehsuck]

Just got my Mac Pro last week and I thought I was going to throw it out the window with that noise.

I opened it up and determined it was indeed the stock WD 250gb HDD vibrating, but the sound seemed to be coming from the optical riser / thingee. I took it out and re-attached everything and it seemed to go away.

Kind of annoying, you'd think that Apple would test for these kind of things?

 

[rsvrmille]

photos

can anyone post photos of what they did to fix it? i'd like to see the foam one and the paper one! I'll be attacking the drives tonight!

 

[clutchcargo]

+1 from me, I was complaining over in the macpro noise thread too

Mine wasn't a sine wave, it was always there, but when I lift the latch it practically goes away.

When it was at its worst I took a look in there and if I pressed up on the hdd screws it seemed to remove the noise, so it must be something about the hdd tray vibrating?

 

[Malthaeus]

For those of you that have used the silicon or rubber isolators, have you had any issues with getting the drives to connect to the mainboard after installing them? I'm curious about the displacement caused by the thickness of the isolator between the carrier and the drive.

 

[davepk]

A folded post-it note worked wonders for me. Placed between the HD bracket and the computer case.

 

[THX1139]

I solved my resonance problem. I went to Home Depot and bought a couple packages of rubber washers (6/32), some vinyl washers, packages of thin stick-on felt and replacement screws. You can find the felt in any hardware store or hobby shop. Just get the peel-off ones that come in a package of various sizes. Everything cost me about $5 and took about 15 minutes to install.

I removed the offending drive, placed rubber washers on top of the drive screw holes, then gently placed the bracket on top, making sure to align the holes. Then I threaded the vinyl and rubber washers onto the screws making sure the the vinyl washer were closest to the screw head (rubber towards the drive). I screwed them into the drive making sure to not over tighten because I didn't want to smash the rubber washer. So, the order is: screw, vinyl washer, rubber washer, drive bracket, rubber washer and finally, the drive.

Next, I peeled off a couple of the felt pads and stuck them on the front of the drive; on the end under the connectors. I thought the pads would help absorb the vibrations on the connecting end where it comes into direct contact with the metal. The rubber connectors on the drive bracket helps to address the rest of the vibrations. With this setup, I think the only metal-on-metal is through the electrical connectors.

I replaced the screws for two reasons. I wanted to get ones that were a touch longer to compensate for the washers. Plus the newer screws had a better head so that I didn't need to worry about stripping.

When I popped the drive back in, it was virtually silent.

Good luck.

 

[Sesshi]

One of the keys to not having drive resonance problems (apart from having everything bolted down correctly) is to have the same drives in your machine. If your drives are mismatched (especially in terms of speed) then it makes sense to suspect the HDD's first for any resonance issues, and to insulate it as THX has done.

 

[theblotted]

Next, I peeled off a couple of the felt pads and stuck them on the front of the drive; on the end under the connectors. I thought the pads would help absorb the vibrations on the connecting end where it comes into direct contact with the metal. .

great description on the screw part, but i don't quite get this part ^^^.

can you post a pic or elaborate a bit, plz?

thx.

 

[THX1139]

great description on the screw part, but i don't quite get this part ^^^.

can you post a pic or elaborate a bit, plz?

thx.

What part... the felt stickers?

I put the felt stickers on the end of the drive where the connectors are. The end of the drive that comes in contact with the side of the MacPro case. Every drive is a bit different with various thickness so you want to use the correct size felt pad. I found the felt pads at the local grocery store (Safeway) in the sewing/home supply section. It was a packet of various size thin round felt pads that you can peel off just like stickers. You might be able to find them at Radio shack or any hobby store. Since my drive is a fairly thick 500GB, I used the quarter inch stickers and stuck them directly on the drive just under the electronics. If your drive is thin, then use the smallest one or cut them down. Make sure that you don't buy thick felt pads or they may get in the way and your drive won't seat all the way in. If you're creative, you don't need to use the felt stickers. Just put something in there that will create a slight insulated gap where the drive meets the side of the computer. I'm not sure if it's even necessary to pad it if you do the screw insulators because I didn't bother testing if the pads made a difference of not. It just made sense to me that the drive might be transmitting the vibrations to the metal casing where the drive connects. I wanted to cover all my bases and it worked. Anyway, you could try just putting in a small piece of foam rubber or sponge as long as it's not too thick and is secured so it doesn't fall when shoving the drive back in.