Noisy Intel Mac

[MarkS63]

Hi

I’ve recently brought a second hand iMac, as my original iMacs (the original ones), have more or less dies

This didn’t cost me much money off eBay, but it is so noisy on start up, and it’s froze a few times.

Have I wasted my money, or is this a common fault easily fixed or but up with?

 

[eyoungren]

You may want to try some basic internal cleaning. I would bet that once you open the Mac up you're going to find a lot of dust, dust bunnies and debris. The fans may be working hard to cool the Mac despite all that.

If it's clean when you open it then you know you have a different problem. But starting with the easy stuff first is good.

 

[TheShortTimer]

You may want to try some basic internal cleaning. I would bet that once you open the Mac up you're going to find a lot of dust, dust bunnies and debris. The fans may be working hard to cool the Mac despite all that.

If it's clean when you open it then you know you have a different problem. But starting with the easy stuff first is good.

This is good advice. A thorough clean is mandatory where used electronics gear are concerned because there's no telling how well they'd been maintained in the past. I had to wear a mask whilst working on my Mac Pro to protect myself against a potential asthma flare up because it contained mountains of dust from its previous ownership.

 

[exploradorgt]

This didn’t cost me much money off eBay, but it is so noisy on start up, and it’s froze a few times.

The only moving parts on an iMac:

• Fans
• Spinning hard drive
• Motors from the optical disk

Open the machine and clean it, you might find some surprises. A failing hard drive might cause your computer to freeze, and the fans not being able to cool the computer would cause this too.

Just be careful when cleaning, applying air to the fans generates movement and will make them produce electricity back to the board with risk of frying something. The best advice is to apply air while holding the fans to avoid any movement, or just disconnect them first.