iBook grinding noise on startup = bad ram?
Several months ago I dropped my iBook, and alas, the CD drive appeared to
no longer work, and I discovered that on reboot, the machine made a
horrible grinding noise. I presumed that that was the CD drive complaining,
but in fact, after replacing the CD drive, it *still* made the horrible
grinding noise. I was then told that this meant the RAM on the motherboard
was bad, and it was the startup memory test that was protesting so
audibly. Is that really possible? Is there anything to either quiet down this
horrible racket, or reseat the memory, or something, to address the problem?
Thanks,
-Tucker Taft
no longer work, and I discovered that on reboot, the machine made a
horrible grinding noise. I presumed that that was the CD drive complaining,
but in fact, after replacing the CD drive, it *still* made the horrible
grinding noise. I was then told that this meant the RAM on the motherboard
was bad, and it was the startup memory test that was protesting so
audibly. Is that really possible? Is there anything to either quiet down this
horrible racket, or reseat the memory, or something, to address the problem?
Thanks,
-Tucker Taft
Comments
Several months ago I dropped my iBook, and alas, the CD drive appeared to
no longer work, and I discovered that on reboot, the machine made a
horrible grinding noise. I presumed that that was the CD drive complaining,
but in fact, after replacing the CD drive, it *still* made the horrible
grinding noise. I was then told that this meant the RAM on the motherboard
was bad, and it was the startup memory test that was protesting so
audibly. Is that really possible? Is there anything to either quiet down this
horrible racket, or reseat the memory, or something, to address the problem?
Thanks,
-Tucker Taft
I've never heard of RAM grinding. What I would think it would be is a fan. check on those.
--Edit--
Oh, the sound was coming from the speakers from the memory test? That could very well be a RAM problem. If you have multiple RAM sticks in there, try removing all but one, and check each individually. You may be able to single one stick out in particular (or two), and not have to replace all.
I've never heard of RAM grinding. What I would think it would be is a fan. check on those.
--Edit--
Oh, the sound was coming from the speakers from the memory test? That could very well be a RAM problem. If you have multiple RAM sticks in there, try removing all but one, and check each individually. You may be able to single one stick out in particular (or two), and not have to replace all.
Thanks for replying.
Yes, it comes from the speaker during startup. The fans seem to be working fine.
The challenge is that the bad memory is "DIMM0/Built-in". The System Profiler
actually claims the built-in slot is "empty," which certainly implies that it is pretty
bad. I suppose I was hoping that someone had seen these symptoms before, and
had a magic incantation that would fix the problem, or it least make it less
painful on the ears when it starts up.
Thanks again,
-sttaft
Thanks for replying.
Yes, it comes from the speaker during startup. The fans seem to be working fine.
The challenge is that the bad memory is "DIMM0/Built-in". The System Profiler
actually claims the built-in slot is "empty," which certainly implies that it is pretty
bad. I suppose I was hoping that someone had seen these symptoms before, and
had a magic incantation that would fix the problem, or it least make it less
painful on the ears when it starts up.
Thanks again,
-sttaft
Gotcha, so you only have one stick of RAM? Sounds like what you need, then, is a new stick.
If its grinding might be your hard drive or disc drive, but if its comming from the speakers it could be your mother board (i think the ibook has the soundcard built onto the motherboard)
I agree that it's probably the hard drive. The RAM isn't too likely considering there are no moving parts on RAM.