iMac G3 Whine

pixmaniowa

pixmaniowa

Registered
Hi there!
I have been presented with an iMac G3 400Mhz. It has an annoying loud whine. The whine is constant and high pitched. I am thinking exhaust fan. Is my thinking correct? Is it hard to get to and replace? Thanks for any experienced advice in advance.
R
 
Well, it ain't the exhaust fan, since the iMac G3s are fanless computers (they're convection cooled -- hence the air vents all around the handle on top).

Could it be the hard drive that's whining?
 
Welll, I don't know. The sound is constant from start up. The computer is running system 9.X and won't complete start unless extensions are off. I thought that hard drives changed pitch as they worked, changing speeds when under work loads. If I am wrong about that let me know. You may be right. That sounds like a pretty simple fix.
Thanks,
R
 
No, typically a 7200 rpm drive spins at 7200 rpms the entire time it's on -- whether it's under heavy load or doing nothing at all. You may hear faint clicking and stuff as the read/write head reads and writes bits from and to the drive, but the spinning is pretty constant.
 
I have had power supplies whine if say theres a few bad capacitors inside, usually a very high pitched ringing sound (a few of my older colleagues couldn't even hear it).. Also the bad power could have something to do with why the machine is unstable..
 
Thank you for the responses!
I just swapped out the hard drive and the whine is much reduced. I did not know that the hard drives spun full time. That seems to have been the problem.
Thank you very much,
R
 
pixmaniowa said:
Thank you for the responses!
I just swapped out the hard drive and the whine is much reduced. I did not know that the hard drives spun full time. That seems to have been the problem.
Thank you very much,
R
Click to expand...

If it's the original hard drive that it shipped with, it wouldn't be much of a surprise considering how old that hard drive must be and the wear and tear it must have endured. Also, newer drives tend to be much more silent then the drives that were introduced at the time that iMac was new.
 
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