[rkv]

I have a two month old 60GB 1ghz w/superdrive that has started making a high pitched noise on every disk write in the past two days.

I assuming that this is an indication that the disk will fail. If not, I still would like to replace it do to it being a very distracting noise.

Is there a history of such problems with the particular drive? Any thoughts or comments as to whether Apple support will be willing to replace the drive before total disk failure?

[iBorg]

I'd back up all of your data, and take it into your Apple service center for drive replacement.



iBorg

[Troll]

You sure this isn't the squeaking noise a lot of us are noting when using Safari? See if you get the noise when you aren't using Safari.

[kiskiboy]

I have this problem too. I thought it was the SuperDrive, but have had my doubts lately that that was the culprit. Looks like it could be a wider issue, sadly. Apple did switch Hard Drive makes for this model, right? Ugh, I really don't want to have to get it replaced.

[vbeast]

I believe have the same problem also.

I experienced it when booting the Tibook back from sleep or when turning on the power. Innitially I thought it was from the "power switch" but then realized that it was actually from the superdisk drive. It only made this noise when there is no disk, however, and if I insert a disk into the slot, the noise went away..

Is it the same problem?

[petek]

(Please excuse the cross-post. I originally posted this on the Toshiba disk thread, but it is more relevant here)

My new PB G4 1GHz has/had a 60 GB Toshiba. It was pretty quiet up until the time it went Buzz! Click Click! last week. Then it became very quiet, other than a subdued click every second or so.

However, the clicks were not as noticeable as the beachball that never went away.

I'm looking forward to hearing it make a little more noise when I get it back from the shop.

Funny thing though: although it wouldn't boot, Disk First Aid (booted from CD) could see the volume and attempted to fix it, followed by another one of those infinitely spinning beachballs.

Fortunately I had kept my files backed up and only lost one or two new ones...

[rkv]

Thanks for the comments. Troll and Vbeast pointed me in the direction of it actually being related to Safari and the SuperDrive. Yes, I was only hearing the noise when using Safari. Actually it appears to be on any navigation of windows.

After inserting a CDROM and waiting a bit the noise has gone away. Note, I'm not experiencing the noise even though I no longer have media in the drive. I even have rebooted and power cycled the machine and the noise has not returned.

Again thanks, while it is a mystery, I'm happy that I no longer need to hear the noise and I have a fix should it re-appear.

[rkv]

Here's an update. Just when I thought I was homefree on this one and that the noise was simply a minor nuisance my super drive has stopped working. The failure mode was that it rejects all media DVD, CD, CDROM. It loads the media, makes noise as if it was trying to seek or read the media and then spits the media out. This began yesterday. Apple support had me reset the machine and boot under OS 9 to make sure the behaviour was the same. They are now shipping me the box to return my machine to them.

While I posted this into my earlier thread about the noise, I suspect this failure is completely unrelated to the noise since I am convinced that was some form of software related behaviour. However, while some have indicated that the noise is from the graphics processor, to me it sounded like the superdrive. Additionally, at least for a while inserting a CD made the noise go away.

In any event I will not have the pleasure of using my Ti for a few days. Apple quotes 10 working days for the repair, I'm hoping they are being overly conservative and I'll get it back a bit sooner.

[EvenGrift]

I just had the TiBook Superdrive failure last night myself.. Apple wouldn't quote a turn around time, I guess I get a boc tommorow, and go from there.

The failure behavior was exactly the same, didn't matter what media I put in, it'd chug for a couple seconds, then spit it back out.

If this problem is truely endemic, Apple needs to work out some sort of quick response/replacement program. The send off box should be delivered the same day (provided the call is made reasonably early in the day) the major overnight carriers all offer some variation of this service. Secondly if the wait is more then a day, you should have the option of (provided your machine is in reasonably decent condition) getting a refurb unit the following day. I (as I'm sure many others have) had to low level reformat the drive because of a NDA I'm under. That being the case whether I get this very machine back, or another, is irrelevant.

Sorry, had to vent.

Originally posted by rkv:
Here's an update. Just when I thought I was homefree on this one and that the noise was simply a minor nuisance my super drive has stopped working. The failure mode was that it rejects all media DVD, CD, CDROM. It loads the media, makes noise as if it was trying to seek or read the media and then spits the media out. This began yesterday. Apple support had me reset the machine and boot under OS 9 to make sure the behaviour was the same. They are now shipping me the box to return my machine to them.

While I posted this into my earlier thread about the noise, I suspect this failure is completely unrelated to the noise since I am convinced that was some form of software related behaviour. However, while some have indicated that the noise is from the graphics processor, to me it sounded like the superdrive. Additionally, at least for a while inserting a CD made the noise go away.

In any event I will not have the pleasure of using my Ti for a few days. Apple quotes 10 working days for the repair, I'm hoping they are being overly conservative and I'll get it back a bit sooner.