New Mac Pro vibrates from time to time--source?

[ejosepha]

I have had my new Mac Pro for one month. It sits on an old parquet floor. I placed it in an area where it doesn't shift or move easily and seems quite steady and stable. Tonight I heard what was like a rather loud vibration noise, almost as if a piece was loose. When I lifted the machine off the floor a bit from the front, the noise disappeared eventually. A friend suggested that it might be dust or a loose fan, but it's only been used a few weeks, and when I added an additional HD a week ago, the innards didn't look very dusty. I saw some dust but very little.
It's happened twice, and both times after lifting it and setting it down and slightly moving it on the floor, the noise disappeared.
Any ideas on what is causing it?
It almost felt as if when I lifted it that the metal on the frame itself was making the noise, but who knows.
thanks for any input on this.

 

[zorinlynx]

It's probably one of the hard drives. Mine was doing this for a while and the problem went away when I moved them to different bays.

Swap your hard drives around in the case (or if you have one, just move it to a different bay) and see if this solves the problem. It does not matter what bay your hard drive is in, by the way; the system will find and boot from it just the same.

 

[ejosepha]

It's probably one of the hard drives. Mine was doing this for a while and the problem went away when I moved them to different bays.

Swap your hard drives around in the case (or if you have one, just move it to a different bay) and see if this solves the problem. It does not matter what bay your hard drive is in, by the way; the system will find and boot from it just the same.

I have switched a few HDs in the bays. Hopefully this will be the answer.
Thanks.

 

[DanielCoffey]

You could also look on QuietPC.com at the AccoustiFeet - they are a set of 4 silicone feet that come in a variety of firmness and you choose the set that matches the weight of your device. They are designed to isolate vibrations.

The very soft ones are great for putting under a DVD player or similar, the medium ones are intended for desktop computers and some towers (I think the 2010 MP is in their weight range but check) and the firm ones are for heavy devices.

 

[DeeEss]

Open it up and monitor it for a little while. When I first got my machine I found the graphics card was the source of my vibration woes.

 

[maclaptop]

I have had my new Mac Pro for one month. It sits on an old parquet floor. I placed it in an area where it doesn't shift or move easily and seems quite steady and stable. Tonight I heard what was like a rather loud vibration noise, almost as if a piece was loose. When I lifted the machine off the floor a bit from the front, the noise disappeared eventually. A friend suggested that it might be dust or a loose fan, but it's only been used a few weeks, and when I added an additional HD a week ago, the innards didn't link very dusty. I saw some dust but very little.
It's happened twice, and both times after lifting it and setting it down and slightly moving it on the floor, the noise disappeared.
Any ideas on what is causing it?
It almost felt as if when I lifted it that the metal on the frame itself was making the noise, but who knows.
thanks for any input on this.

I have had great luck with three New Mac Pros over the last few years.

I would highly encourage you to call Apple. Even though you've had it that long, they are terrific and willing to work with you.

Based on you're description I would expect a hard drive is about to fail since it was that loud. Let Apple do what they do best, take care of the customer

 

[jonnymo5]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

I have had some small vibration noise from the side panel. Had to fiddle with it a little to get lined up so it didn't make the noise any more.

 

[malch]

I get the vibration from time to time. If I hold the grill-like part at the front of the Mac Pro, the noise stops. So for me, anyway, it's nothing inside... it's outside.
worth checking anyway,
malch

 

[ejosepha]

I get the vibration from time to time. If I hold the grill-like part at the front of the Mac Pro, the noise stops. So for me, anyway, it's nothing inside... it's outside.
worth checking anyway,
malch

I switched the HDs in two of the bays a advised above, but will wait and see if this had any effect. I got the sense also that this vibrating noise was perhaps coming from the frame. I will be away for a week, but on my return will continue to monitor and report back.
Thanks

 

[AppleNewton]

aside from just swapping the drives to different bays, try adjusting the screws on the HDD trays. the original 2006 MP i had I dont recall it having the grommets the 2008 and later models had and always found it to be buzzing or vibrate from the metal contact but after adjusting the screws loosening or tightening as need be the noise/hum/buzz stopped

 

[ejosepha]

aside from just swapping the drives to different bays, try adjusting the screws on the HDD trays. the original 2006 MP i had I dont recall it having the grommets the 2008 and later models had and always found it to be buzzing or vibrate from the metal contact but after adjusting the screws loosening or tightening as need be the noise/hum/buzz stopped

I did adjust and tighten the screws on each of the drives before switching two of the three HD bays.
Will monitor.
Thanks