6 questions: Weird noises, low USB transfer speeds etc.

[inket]

Hi,

I have some questions to ask about my MacBook Pro (15" 2.66ghz mid09):

1) My optical drive sometimes keeps making this noise every 10sec even without a disc in it, is it normal ?

2) My hard drive sometimes makes this noise even when there is no disk activity (I checked with Activity Monitor.app), again is this normal ? I remember hearing the same noise on my old PC when there was some heavy disk activity; but on my Mac it does it for no reason.

3) Can you recommend me a fan control software for Windows 7 ? Having to boot on OS X, set the fans at 5000rpm and reboot every time I want to do some gaming is pretty tiring

4) I was making a little video with iMovie today, I only added a photo and a mp3 file but suddenly my computer started getting slow, that's when I noticed it was actually taking 2.20Gb of memory. see here It's just a bug I guess, any thoughts ?

5) Can you recommend me something that would give me the same mouse acceleration curve as in Windows ? I tried SteerMouse, USB Overdrive, MouseFix and ControllerMate but none of them gave me a satisfying result ... It makes me feel that my new Kone mouse is totally useless

6) I have low transfer speeds to/from USB drives, around 5Mbytes/sec while my friend with his 2006 HP laptop could achieve around 20Mbytes/sec with the same USB drive. No, it's not funny :< This screenshot could be helpful I think...

Edit: Forget to mention, It's running under 10.6.2 fully updated.
Some help would be appreciated and sorry if my english is bad (3rd language),

Thanks.

 

[Patrick J]

The first one sounds like your hard disk heads parking. Sudden motion sensor activated?

Can't help you on the others, sorry.

 

[BlueRevolution]

1) My optical drive sometimes keeps making this noise every 10sec even without a disc in it, is it normal ?

2) My hard drive sometimes makes this noise even when there is no disk activity (I checked with Activity Monitor.app), again is this normal ? I remember hearing the same noise on my old PC when there was some heavy disk activity; but on my Mac it does it for no reason.

Keep an eye on these problems, maintain an up-to-date backup, and visit Apple before your warranty runs out if they get any worse. They could be signs of impending drive failure. If you haven't, it might be a good idea to buy AppleCare now in case matters get worse in your 13th month of ownership.

3) Can you recommend me a fan control software for Windows 7 ? Having to boot on OS X, set the fans at 5000rpm and reboot every time I want to do some gaming is pretty tiring

I don't understand why people run fan control software. Trust your Mac to keep itself cool enough to prevent damage no matter how you use it. That's what it's designed to do.

5) Can you recommend me something that would give me the same mouse acceleration curve as in Windows ? I tried SteerMouse, USB Overdrive, MouseFix and ControllerMate but none of them gave me a satisfying result ... It makes me feel that my new Kone mouse is totally useless

How long have you owned your Mac? The different accelerations is just something that takes getting used to. After using Macs almost exclusively for 5 years, Windows' curve feels clunky and awkward. The only time I prefer the Windows setup is when gaming, which is nice because that's all I use Windows for anyway.

6) I have low transfer speeds to/from USB drives, around 5Mbytes/sec while my friend with his 2006 HP laptop could achieve around 20Mbytes/sec with the same USB drive. No, it's not funny :< This screenshot could be helpful I think...

Is the drive connected to the hub or directly to your computer? What filesystem is the drive using?

 

[inket]

The first one sounds like your hard disk heads parking. Sudden motion sensor activated?

Can't help you on the others, sorry.

Yes, SMS is activated, should I disable it ?

Keep an eye on these problems, maintain an up-to-date backup, and visit Apple before your warranty runs out if they get any worse. They could be signs of impending drive failure. If you haven't, it might be a good idea to buy AppleCare now in case matters get worse in your 13th month of ownership.

Thanks,
Is there an app to see my drives' health or something like that ?

I don't understand why people run fan control software. Trust your Mac to keep itself cool enough to prevent damage no matter how you use it. That's what it's designed to do.

Well, I have to say I can't trust it since I saw my CPU running at 92°C and the fans were turning at barely 2500rpm. ;<

How long have you owned your Mac? The different accelerations is just something that takes getting used to. After using Macs almost exclusively for 5 years, Windows' curve feels clunky and awkward. The only time I prefer the Windows setup is when gaming, which is nice because that's all I use Windows for anyway.

This is my first Mac and I bought it one month ago...
When using SteerMouse, the acceleration curve doesn't bother me when surfing/coding etc. but when it comes to gaming on Mac it can't be worse.

I guess I'd have to play the Mac-compatible games on their Windows version too :<

Is the drive connected to the hub or directly to your computer? What filesystem is the drive using?

It's connected directly and it uses FAT32 filesystem. Is that the problem ?


Thank you for your answers.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Is there an app to see my drives' health or something like that ?

Disk Utility reports the drive's SMART status, but for anything more detailed you'd have to shell out $100 for TechTool Pro or Drive Genius.

Well, I have to say I can't trust it since I saw my CPU running at 92°C and the fans were turning at barely 2500rpm. ;<

That's troubling. Might want to have Apple look at that, too.

It's connected directly and it uses FAT32 filesystem. Is that the problem ?

It could be. If you're not using the drive with any other system, try formatting it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead.