G3 iBook (Dual USB) HD failure?

guarthoguartho
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My brother's G3 iBook has developed an interesting problem. By his description it will work fine for awhile and then begin to make an "awful noise" like a bearing has gone out on some rotating part. When this noise occurs, his performance drops off immediately. We're talking serious beachball action.



He's opened it once and determined that it is not the fan. The noise comes from the vicinity of the hard disk. If he holds the iBook by the lower left corner (the hard disk area) the noise stops and performance more or less returns.



So here are my questions:



Are there any moving parts in the vicinity of the HD?



What kind of HD problem could cause these symptoms? What else could?



I see that I can buy either ATA-6 or ATA-7 notebook drives. What is the difference and which should I advise getting for a G3 800 iBook?



If you can answer any or all of these questions I'd greatly appreciate it.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    it could be the rubber mountings that hold the hard disk in place. open it up and have a look since you all sound like you're comfortable with that. the rubber mounts and the screws that hold the hard disk in place may have come loose or something.



    either that or the hard disk is dying/dead. use disk utility app to see if SMART status of the hard disk is okay or not.



    ATA-6 is a suitable replacement. go for a 5400rpm 2.5" drive, just nice. an ATA-7 2.5" drive should be backward compatible if you decided to get that....



    good luck matey
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