Ok my second replacement iMac has just arrived. I am fairly sure the display is faulty (again) because it just doesn't look white. And secondly yet again I have the issue where something inside (fan?) seems to whir up and won't shut up. Now I am fairly sure I am going to send it back just because of the screen but what I want to know is if the whirring sound is normal. If I put the iMac to sleep and turn it back on then it whirs up again and hums, you can hear it whirring up it is quite noisy. Can anyone else with an i7 iMac hear this when they take it out of sleep? I have always thought that it would be dead silent.
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iMac i7 2.93GHz - Is this normal?
- Thread starter Robert Grant
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Also on the box it says "Assembled in China" yet when I go to the AppleSerialInfo site it says "Your Mac was built in Cork, Ireland." And the warranty on it only says 1 year when it should be 3 cos I purchased it on the educational store. So do you guys think they are sending me a refurb?
Last time I checked, you only get 3 years if you buy AppleCare. Purchasing through the education store just gives you a slight discount.
100% sure the 3 years warranty is complimentary. And.......
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Update: the humming noise went after 10 minutes. Then I stuck it to sleep, turned back on then it whirred up as usual and hummed full blast and has been for hours now.
And now it's dead silent again... How can I have had two faulty iMacs with the same problem and not one person has reported my problem. :s
The 3 years warranty is NOT complimentary, just heavily discounted through the education store.
The OP is in the UK, so it's possible that the Edu AppleCare situation there is different. In the US, though, you get 1 year unless you pay for it, no matter where you buy the Mac.
As for the other question, it's normal for the fans to make an extra burst of "whoosh" upon boot or wake from sleep (I've heard this is to knock dust off of them, but no idea if that's actually true), but that should quiet down quite quickly. The hard drive makes noise (usually very high pitched) when spinning up, as well, but that doesn't really sound like what you're describing. My previous-gen i7 is almost shockingly quiet (although it's very cool here, which no doubt helps with fan noise).
Out of curiosity on the screen, have you run the Color calibration under the Displays preference pane? No monitor, no matter how new, is spot on in color out of the box, but most will look very good after running through that calibration. If you've done that and it's still yellow, then maybe there's actually something wrong.
Hi Mako. Yeah, in the Uk when I ordered my iMac there was no option to add AppleCare because it already had 3 years being an educational purchase. And with the noise it spins up a second later then you can hear a fairly loud humming noise but then after it randomly stops making the humming noise, not immediately but maybe an hour later or 30 mins later and when it does it goes dead quiet, how I'm sure it should be. It is really noticeable. For instance the past hour it's been dead silent, then I changed my background picture and it started off again. And with the screen I saw in the "Yellow Tinge Testing" thread a picture of an iMac with no tinging on the right and one with a consistent yellow on the left and the difference is astounding. This iMac (my 3rd) really looks more like the one on the left and my 2nd one I had before looked like the one on the right.
When I turned it on this morning I was fairly sure there was slight yellow tinging on the right hand side anyway in a vertical line and I wasn't sure if I was imagining things so I asked my Mum to take a look and I said nothing to affect her judgement and she also thought that a) it was not as good as the 2nd and b) slight yellow tinging on where I said.
So I was fairly sure that the screen on this one was not as good as the 2nd one. And because this one made the same humming sound I thought that maybe I had been stupid and that the 2nd one was fine. That is why I have come here for advice and literally as I am typing this the humming has stopped and it's now dead silent again....
One other thing I have noticed too is that when I put the iMac to sleep after it goes to sleep it makes a sound almost like a circular saw blade coming to a stop (tic...toc...tic...toc [stop]) if you know what I mean.
It just bothers me that it seems no one else has had a problem like this yet I've had it twice. :s And I was also fairly sure that the 1st iMac I received made no noise cos I would have noticed. But that hasn't convinced me that I may have sent back a perfectly ok iMac (the 2nd) a few days ago and I've been feeling crappy all day cos of it but I shouldn't have to worry like this cos every iMac should be fine - totally disappointed with a company that I've used computers with since I was 4 and they've all been great up until now.
When I turned it on this morning I was fairly sure there was slight yellow tinging on the right hand side anyway in a vertical line and I wasn't sure if I was imagining things so I asked my Mum to take a look and I said nothing to affect her judgement and she also thought that a) it was not as good as the 2nd and b) slight yellow tinging on where I said.
So I was fairly sure that the screen on this one was not as good as the 2nd one. And because this one made the same humming sound I thought that maybe I had been stupid and that the 2nd one was fine. That is why I have come here for advice and literally as I am typing this the humming has stopped and it's now dead silent again....
One other thing I have noticed too is that when I put the iMac to sleep after it goes to sleep it makes a sound almost like a circular saw blade coming to a stop (tic...toc...tic...toc [stop]) if you know what I mean.
It just bothers me that it seems no one else has had a problem like this yet I've had it twice. :s And I was also fairly sure that the 1st iMac I received made no noise cos I would have noticed. But that hasn't convinced me that I may have sent back a perfectly ok iMac (the 2nd) a few days ago and I've been feeling crappy all day cos of it but I shouldn't have to worry like this cos every iMac should be fine - totally disappointed with a company that I've used computers with since I was 4 and they've all been great up until now.
Robert, I returned a core i7 because of yellow tinted screen. Granted it was nothing like the 2009 panel problems but it was uniformly off. White was off-white. It bothered the hell out of me and I took it in and hooked it up next to two other 27" panels and you could tell the difference. I noticed it the very first time I fired it up out of the box. I exchanged it for another but I am still not truly satisfied. This one is about the same as the last, maybe slightly better but white is certainly not as white as it should be.
As far as humming or noise I didn't have that problem with either machine. Both macines had a WD hard drive and pioneer superdrives. Just wish I could get the WD and pioneer in a system that can do white properly.
As far as humming or noise I didn't have that problem with either machine. Both macines had a WD hard drive and pioneer superdrives. Just wish I could get the WD and pioneer in a system that can do white properly.
Yeah I am going to ask to keep this one until the next arrives to compare screens.
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Update: The iMac runs stupidly hot. Touching the top of the machine can literally BURN your hand......this can't be normal I'm not even doing anything on the machine...
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Update: The iMac runs stupidly hot. Touching the top of the machine can literally BURN your hand......this can't be normal I'm not even doing anything on the machine...
i have the 27" intel7 2.93 and it does feel extra warm to the touch when you touch the top of the unit. mine runs quiet other than the hard drive chatter which is very quiet but noticeable.
Yes they will tell you it's normal. They would also point out that you are not listening to your iPod loud enough. So it's most likely your fault because your hearing is too acute and you can hear the drive
If your iMacs makes noise in more than 2 minutes a time, then you should definately call Apple to fix it! My iMac late 2009 only makes noise when opening and editing photos in 18 megapixels. In the start, my iMac made noise, but then it was fixed in an update.
Maybe the 2010-model isn't "updated" to not make noise, maybe it's all wrong with your hardware.
Maybe the 2010-model isn't "updated" to not make noise, maybe it's all wrong with your hardware.
There could be slight differences with the newer models, but with my older i7 running a video encode that maxes out all four cores for several hours at a time the top can get quite hot, but certainly not hot enough to hurt you. I'd put the level at about "uncomfortable" at the hottest point along the air outlet.
The CPUs are designed and expected to run into the 70C range, which is pretty darned hot, but you may well have a bad fan that's failing to cool properly, which would explain the noise.