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popstand · Oct 2, 2003, 07:23 PM

I posted a notice about this before, but it was not widely read. I too had the goofy hard drive tick. The drive would spin up and down at a five second interval. Before you freak out, and think you have a hardware error, read on. Through trial and error I noticed that the ticking ceased when any application from my thirty day trial of Office v.X was running. This trial was included on every new powerbook. This was definitely the problem, so I removed Office v.X from the computer. It worked. No more random ticking. I would urge everyone with this problem to first launch word and then listen to see if the ticking stops. If so get that sh@t off of there. By the way, the actual non-trial version of Office v.X works fine, no ticking. If your drive continues to tick without the office trial, you've got other problems. I hope this helps some of you folks out there...

pptiger · Oct 2, 2003, 07:31 PM

How could that happen? Doesn't make sense to me at all.

popstand · 10:30 PM

My best guess is that the trial version uses some boneheaded software component that actively counts down to the end of the trial period, even when the actual program is not running. The fact that the non-trial version of Office doesn't casue the hard drive issue seems to support this...I'm not a techie, but this seems like the most intuitive possibility...

nagromme · Oct 2, 2003, 10:55 PM

I'm going to wipe that trial off the HD without launching it. First thing I do, ticking or no! The bigger the MS app, the less I trust it. I've seen too much private data from my clients embedded in their Word docs and they don't even know it.

kentuckyfried · Oct 3, 2003, 02:38 PM

Has anybody noticed any other sounds coming from the 15" Al? I have to run over to the nearest apple store and see if their demo model does the same thing. Everytime I move the mouse or do anything, I can hear a faint high-pitched sound.

Super Glitcher · Oct 4, 2003, 05:01 AM

My 17" pb makes a weird noise every once in a while.. seems like it's when it gets hot.

kind of a *nearrrrrrr* that drops in pitch while there's a slow *vvrrrr-t-clik* that loops over it.. usually on for about 5 - 10min.

I think it's the secret popcorn popper apple included, no one knows about it yet.

__

Also-
I just realized my PB doesn't have Airport installed.. I thought that all the 17" configs included airport extreme?? What's up with that? I purchased it over the counter at an Apple store too... *rrrrr*

all2ofme · Oct 5, 2003, 05:34 AM

It should do (all of the 17" PBs are supposed to come with Airport Extreme cards). Are you sure? I'd take that back to the shop if that's the case.

Originally posted by Super Glitcher:
Also-
I just realized my PB doesn't have Airport installed.. I thought that all the 17" configs included airport extreme?? What's up with that? I purchased it over the counter at an Apple store too... *rrrrr*

Ph.D. · Oct 5, 2003, 01:51 PM

Yes, the "innovators" at M$ have done it again. When you launch the M$ office trial version, it installs an innovative little program that writes to your hard drive EVERY SINGLE SECOND FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH! This is a new, innovative, way for them to find out when the trial version expires. Immediately delete this trial version, and all will be well. Cheers.

dennis88 · Oct 5, 2003, 02:19 PM

My powerbook made a light, high tone when I started up appleworks, and when quit it again, it was gone.
I deleted appleworks, because I didn't like it anyway, and installed the full version of ms office x, and the sound wasn't there.
I have only heard the sound everytime I opened appleworks, and if I clicket down the mouse button and held it down, the sound would go off until i let it go again.