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Ticking sound from a sleeping and UNPOWERED iMac.

Rustman

Rustman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 7, 2007
101
0
England
Just noticed this morning that when I put my Mac to sleep it still makes a very faint noise. A ticking sound that cycles at about 3 times a second. It is extremely quiet, but it does sound like it could be a fan, hard drive or possibly the power supply ticking away.

I was just wondering if other iMac users could confirm this noise by sleeping their Macs and putting their ear to the top.

If it's widespread, I won't worry.

Remember, you need to be in a quiet room and listen very intently to the top.

I've just turned my Mac back on and realised that it's not just when it's at sleep. It's also when the power at the wall-plug is just switched on. This surely means it's the power supply making a ticking noise.

Starting to get a bit paranoid now. Could anyone test this out for me?
 
The noise presumably occurs constantly, the only reason I could make it out is I was reaching behind the computer when I had just put it to sleep and I could hear this very quick ticking noise.

At first I thought the machine was just going through the shutting down disk swapping machinations, but when I investigated more thoroughly I noticed that the computer only has to be switched on at the wall (but not powered up) and the noise is still there.

The noise on my 24" iMac is most obvious on the very top, to the left hand side of the screen.

I'm still sure it's the power supply. I had a PC that made similar noises until all power drained from it. It's just happening ALL the time which makes me concerned about fire risk when it's left alone.
 
I have the same problem with my new iMac.

The Mac is in my bedroom so when I'm in bed and it's quiet I hear the faint 'tick' every few seconds (when the iMac is in sleep mode). It drives me absolutely crazy, it's like a dripping tap. I only noticed the 'tick' a few weeks after I purchased the Mac, but it's been going on every night for months now.
 
I hear it to, but i have to have my ear touching the iMac to be able to hear it, if i was laying in bed, or sitting at my desk it wouldn't be a problem.
 
Thanks for testing. I did imagine this was a design "feature".

I wonder what the noise is though. It sounds a bit like a fan in the PSU to me. I wonder if it can be fixed with a firmware update.
 
Rustman said:
Just noticed this morning that when I put my Mac to sleep it still makes a very faint noise. A ticking sound that cycles at about 3 times a second. It is extremely quiet, but it does sound like it could be a fan, hard drive or possibly the power supply ticking away.

I was just wondering if other iMac users could confirm this noise by sleeping their Macs and putting their ear to the top.

If it's widespread, I won't worry.

Remember, you need to be in a quiet room and listen very intently to the top.

I've just turned my Mac back on and realised that it's not just when it's at sleep. It's also when the power at the wall-plug is just switched on. This surely means it's the power supply making a ticking noise.

Starting to get a bit paranoid now. Could anyone test this out for me?
Click to expand...



Check this discussion thread about power supply making a ticking sound
http://forums.magma.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=103
 
yeah ive got that stupid noise as well. dont know why. and im at uni so everything is in one room. but crappy but o well. i normally just switch it of anyways, coming from an XP side of things its just normal for me to switch it of. although i do know some people that leave macs on all the time. didnt think it was good for it but i dont know:p
 
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