iBook G3 500MHz- Beep/clunk noise every 30s

freudianfreudian
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have an iBook G3 500MHz. I recently purchased it used for a decent price. It seems to be working quite well, aside from a worn-out battery which you have to expect from a used 6yr old laptop.



I am concerned with one issue, though. I'm just sitting here typing away and not doing anything too CPU intensive (I can also run a movie in divx and this problem will arise with no diference). Then all of a sudden, the laptop will make a muffled beep tone and the hard drive will make a noise and often clunk.



I am aware that hard drives, esp. laptop drives do wear out and will start clunking before they start to become unusable or severly damaged.



The drive seems to work fine aside from this weird computer generated beep tone and then the clunk. It doesn't always clunk, but it at least will beep. It seems to happen more often when the machine isn't being used much.





Could someone help me figure out what the root cause is of this? I would love to know so that I could make it stop.



Please feel free to inquire further if need be.



Andrew



iBook G3 500Mhz 320MB SO-DIMM SDRAM (64+256)

10gb 2.5" HDD / 12" LCD

OS 10.4.8 Tiger (also tested on 10.3.9 Panther)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Freudian


    Then all of a sudden, the laptop will make a muffled beep tone and the hard drive will make a noise and often clunk.



    I am aware that hard drives, esp. laptop drives do wear out and will start clunking before they start to become unusable or severly damaged.



    The drive seems to work fine aside from this weird computer generated beep tone and then the clunk. It doesn't always clunk, but it at least will beep. It seems to happen more often when the machine isn't being used much.



    Could someone help me figure out what the root cause is of this? I would love to know so that I could make it stop.



    Your drive goes to sleep if it's inactive for a certain length of time to save power. If you go to system preferences > energy saver and uncheck put the hard disk to sleep when possible, it won't happen.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    freudianfreudian Posts: 73member
    Yes and that was my first thought as well. I have that unchecked. I've tried a few other things like pressing the reset button in the proper way. I am going to see if that helped at all. Apparently the reset button will reset the power management system. Maybe this will help.



    I'll report back with results asap.



    Meanwhile, if anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    adog2runadog2run Posts: 4member
    I have same clunk sound about every 30 sec.

    I tried Your drive goes to sleep if it's inactive for a certain length of time to save power. If you go to system preferences > energy saver and uncheck put the hard disk to sleep when possible, it won't happen.

    But it did not help...still clunking. Any ideas? This is driving me crazy when watching a movie or taking a class.

    Thanks,
  • Reply 4 of 6
    izackizack Posts: 4member
    I had a 'clunking' problem too, maybe this will help.



    My ibook wouldn't go to sleep at all. It would go through the motion, screen blank, hd winding down, then 'clunk' and everything would pop back up. The F1 key didn't work anymore and hitting the delete key would also trigger the eject icon to appear on the screen. I replaced the keyboard and all is well. No more 'clunking' and my ibook can get some sleep.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    sunset boulevardsunset boulevard Posts: 2member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Freudian View Post


    Yes and that was my first thought as well. I have that unchecked. I've tried a few other things like pressing the reset button in the proper way. I am going to see if that helped at all. Apparently the reset button will reset the power management system. Maybe this will help.



    I'll report back with results asap.



    Meanwhile, if anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.



    I get the same clunking noise on my PowerBook G4. It happens every 60 seconds. I unchecked "put the hard drive to sleep" but it made no difference. It's really infuriating!
  • Reply 6 of 6
    rob05aurob05au Posts: 348member
    Normally a clucking drive means it is failing and needs replacement.



    The parts inside the drive a worn or are no longer working correctly.



    There is nothing that can be really done except replace the HD before it dies completely.



    8)
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