I can hear my G5 processors!
OK, I can't hear the 2x2 G5 processors themselves, but something in the power supply that is very directly connected to them is making some disturbing noises. When Processor Performance is set to Highest, and the computer is idle, the power supply makes a noise similar to that of a heart monitor. When set to Reduced or Automatic, this noise is quieter. Also, when I click and hold the iTunes window and move it around, I can hear a buzzing noise that corresponds directly to what I do on the screen. As soon as I release the iTunes window, it goes away.
Anyone got any ideas what the heck in my power supply is making noises depending on how my processors are used? And before you say I am dumb and its the hard drive let me assure you that 1. I repaied Macs at an AASP for a year, and 2. My ears work well enough to hear that the noise is coming from the bottom of the computer, not the top. And it fluctuates so close to what the processor does that I am pretty confident it aint the fans.
So there it is. Don't know if anyone else has the same problem. It's pretty quiet, but I have my G5 in a quiet room, so I can hear it easily.
Anyone got any ideas what the heck in my power supply is making noises depending on how my processors are used? And before you say I am dumb and its the hard drive let me assure you that 1. I repaied Macs at an AASP for a year, and 2. My ears work well enough to hear that the noise is coming from the bottom of the computer, not the top. And it fluctuates so close to what the processor does that I am pretty confident it aint the fans.
So there it is. Don't know if anyone else has the same problem. It's pretty quiet, but I have my G5 in a quiet room, so I can hear it easily.
Comments
I think the answer is here.
Originally posted by craig12co
Also, when I click and hold the iTunes window and move it around, I can hear a buzzing noise that corresponds directly to what I do on the screen. As soon as I release the iTunes window, it goes away.
It's probably got nothing whatsoever to do with this, but anyway...
Sounds similar to what PowerBook owners have been experiencing for years, with varying degrees of intensity (a Pismo I had was intolerable).
There's a magic cure: second post.
Warning: using these tool may or may not put a strain on your gorgeous new G5.
badly isolated/shielded speakers often pick up noise from electro-magnetically active devices (such as mice, screens, probably CPUs, I don't know)
G-News
Originally posted by The Pie Man
Macintouch has a story about this exact problem. You don't happen to be the same guy who wrote in to them are you?
If you mean MacFixIt, yes, that would be me as well. It's annoying as hell, and the Genius at my local Apple Store didn't know anything about it. Supposedly however, the post on MacFixIt got referred to Apple engineers. Here's to hoping it's a quick and easy solution.
Originally posted by Placebo
My HD makes very apparent clicking noises, like older iMacs.
My G5 does that too. Whenever I am accessing the hard drive, it sounds just like a SCSI drive..
Joe
Originally posted by Placebo
My HD makes very apparent clicking noises, like older iMacs.
I have that too on my dual . . . it sounds exactly like VM thrashing. I have 1.5 GB of memory and I think I'll put in another 2 GB, one at a time, and see if that stops the thrashing.
The first is high-pitched disk writes. If you run XBench you can hear this fairly steadily. It is faint and not as noticable.
The second sound is a faint white noise sound. It isn't persistent and to me sounds like data being moved across the bus. I can drag large windows around the screen and hear the noise corresponding with my movements. If I let the box sit, the sounds is almost non-present. I have to play more to see where it originates. I don't think it has anything to do with my speakers, although that's the obvious first thing to look at.
More later.
Now, back to playing with the Performance settings!
Originally posted by rplat
I have that too on my dual . . . it sounds exactly like VM thrashing. I have 1.5 GB of memory and I think I'll put in another 2 GB, one at a time, and see if that stops the thrashing.
I'll be begging my parents for some Christmas RAM, because the bechmarks seem to really tout the virtues of adding RAM to your G5. They showed performance increases in the ballpark of 4X.
didn't happen any other time other than this.
very odd.
Originally posted by tokenfirstyear
i had the exact problem with my 12" powerbook - but it would make this very high pitched sound (similiar to when an old TV is on and you can faintly hear it from the next room even if it's on mute) - get this - when i was loading secure web pages (https)! in the 0.5 - 1 seconds before it loaded the page, the computer would emit this very high pitched squeal, as if it was trying to 'squeeze' the page out. it would stop as soon as it appeared.
didn't happen any other time other than this.
very odd.
I can hear something similar when on the Internet. It happened with some sites, and not with others. Very strange.
Doesn't bother me, though! m.
Originally posted by tokenfirstyear
(similiar to when an old TV is on and you can faintly hear it from the next room even if it's on mute)
Hell, I get that with a two year old TV.
Originally posted by tokenfirstyear
i had the exact problem with my 12" powerbook - but it would make this very high pitched sound (similiar to when an old TV is on and you can faintly hear it from the next room even if it's on mute) - get this - when i was loading secure web pages (https)! in the 0.5 - 1 seconds before it loaded the page, the computer would emit this very high pitched squeal, as if it was trying to 'squeeze' the page out. it would stop as soon as it appeared.
didn't happen any other time other than this.
very odd.
I have exactly the same problem on my 12" - but only in Safari, so if you really hate the noise, use another browser for those sites.
David
Originally posted by iMacfan
I have exactly the same problem on my 12" - but only in Safari, so if you really hate the noise, use another browser for those sites.
David
Running over SSL (https), all data is encrypted during transfer -- HTML, images, form data, and all. This adds CPU overhead and is likely why you'd hear the surge in CPU noise at this time.
After disabling NAPping on my G5, I'm fairly certain this noise comes from switching the CPUs voltage levels. Wether its the CPUs or the Power Supply, only more testing will tell.
If they're *SLIGHTLY* out of sync with regards to speed, you'll get a beat effect, which given the internal electronic whines may be creating a 'pocket of whine' coming out at repeatable intervals. (Creating a compression envelope around the higher frequencies.)
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