Power Mac G5 Quad Core (2.5) Has Gotten Noisy

rickself

rickself

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I've noticed in the last year that my G5 has gotten so noisy, when it's under a load, like capturing audio from voice recorders or using LogMeIn to work on my office computer from home, it sounds like a 747 coming in for a landing! All I've done in the past year is add RAM. Is there something I should be looking for that would cause the G5 to create such a ruckus? I'm on OS 10.5.8.
Here are the specs:
Model Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Model Identifier: PowerMac11,2
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 4
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1
Serial Number (system): (removed)
Hardware UUID: (removed)

Thanks for any direction.
 
Can you tell where the noise is coming from? The fan or the hard drive?
 
Hi Cheryl - it does not sound like hard drive noise. I dust the fans with canned air so there isn't much 'visible dust'.
 
Usually, noise like you describe comes from moving parts. Shut down the Mac and let it rest for about 5 - 10 minutes, then give it a try. Does the noise come back?
 
Cheryl said:
Usually, noise like you describe comes from moving parts. Shut down the Mac and let it rest for about 5 - 10 minutes, then give it a try. Does the noise come back?
Click to expand...
I shut the Mac down every night and back on in the morning. It starts to "take off" when I start doing almost anything but especially anything that takes a lot of processing. When it goes back to doing nothing, the noise returns back to normal running sound.
 
Cheryl said:
Usually, noise like you describe comes from moving parts. Shut down the Mac and let it rest for about 5 - 10 minutes, then give it a try. Does the noise come back?
Click to expand...
Interesting discovery - when I take the side off and remove the plastic air deflector, the noise goes way down. I routinely blow the fans out but there must be an airflow problem that i need to address. I pull the slide out fans from the front end to blow them out. I've heard there are a dozen or so fans in this box. Getting to them is my next quandary.
 
Or it is a loose screw holding one of those deflectors. Also make sure nothing is hitting those fans as it spins.
 
At the bottom of the reply box, next to Post Reply is Upload a File. If you have trouble, you can email it to me.
 
I will make an audio recording and create a download link. Look for an email in the morning Wednesday. Thanks, Cheryl.
 
I found an Apple article on resetting the SMU, which among other things controls the fans. It seemed to help…some. I've still got the wind up and wind down noise. But not like it was before.
 
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