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just picked up a Cube and i need help...

P

proverbs

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 15, 2005
287
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i saw the cube just lyin at my work last month and asked if i could take it but the manager said no and said he'd sell it to me for $200 w/o the power supply. i said no. after a 4 weeks past by the cube was still lyin there on the floor. well, my manager was in a good mood one day and i told him i would give hime $50 for it and he told me just to take it. wahoo!

well i set everything up, but there is a very high pitch noise that seems to be coming from the fan. is there supposed to be an annoying fan noise on the cubes or is it something i have to fix?
 
are you serious?! good lord the hard drive noise is extremely annoying. is there anything i can do to reduce the noise?
 
cool. well, i have OS 9 running on it now, but i'm going to install OS X on it. if i run the program on the cube and do a clean install, it wouldn't work, right?
 
proverbs said:
cool. well, i have OS 9 running on it now, but i'm going to install OS X on it. if i run the program on the cube and do a clean install, it wouldn't work, right?
Click to expand...

Well, a clean install would wipe the program off, so you'd have to reinstall it. :)
 
some cubes shipped with a radeon which came with a very very annoying whiney ass fan, i'd remove the HSF and go out and buy a quieter one check out www.cubeowner.com.
 
If your Cube is stock, it probably has the original 20 Gb Maxtor, which is a fairly noisy critter, and is also 5400 RPM, so it's slow. Mine never whined, but it did make a quite a bit of clickity-clackity noise, which is very apparent over the otherwise silent operation of the Cube. I replaced mine with a Seagate Barracuda. Much better.

It's possible you got a Cube with an OEM GeForce 2MX card, some (but not all) of which had a fan.

I notice that quite a few people are picking up Cubes these days as curiosity items, or at least without a plan for how to use them. Please don't treat the Cube like some sort of red-headed stepchild. It really is a great computer, arguably Apple's finest engineering achievement. It is still more upgradable than the mini will ever be, and can be made at least as fast as a mini for less than the cost of a mini. You got a great deal. Use it, don't abuse it!
 
can i just buy any seagate 'cuda on eBay or are there specific ones i would have to buy for the cube?
 
i think it's the maxtor hard drive making the noise because in sys. pref. it says i have a ATI Rage 128 pro 16mb video card.
 
proverbs said:
can i just buy any seagate 'cuda on eBay or are there specific ones i would have to buy for the cube?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, they all work, but I think some people have had difficulties with the higher capacity (120 Gb +) drives over the long haul because they draw more current and generate more heat, which can be a problem in the Cube. I've been using an 80 Gb Barracuda for a couple of years without a problem though. The drive is so quiet I can't tell if it's running.
 
sweet! i will have to buy one on eBay. thanks IJ.

i was also wondering - you said you just taped a piece of paper over the power button inside the cube to stop the random shut down problem?
 
You need to install certain drivers to let the Cube see hard drives over 137GB. I think you can find a program with them on OWC. I just put a 120GB Seagate in mine - runs virtually silent.
 
proverbs said:
sweet! i will have to buy one on eBay. thanks IJ.

i was also wondering - you said you just taped a piece of paper over the power button inside the cube to stop the random shut down problem?
Click to expand...

Yes, this worked for me. It reduced the sensitivity of the touch switch just enough. I bought my Cube used on eBay or I'd have sent it back to Apple for the power button change-out they were offering to fix this problem.

Just slide out the core and you'll see where the power button comes in contact with the top of the case. Cut out a scrap of paper (I think I used ordinary xerographic paper) and stick it up there with a bit of Scotch tape on either end. Let me know if it works!
 
proverbs said:
can i just buy any seagate 'cuda on eBay or are there specific ones i would have to buy for the cube?
Click to expand...
That's the beauty of the Cube. It's not (like the Mini) an iBook in a desktop's clothing, it actually is a desktop, just smaller. Sure, the DVD drive might be a TiBook one, but as you can see, there were plans to make a fullsize one, but it never happened
 
IJ Reilly said:
Yes, this worked for me. It reduced the sensitivity of the touch switch just enough. I bought my Cube used on eBay or I'd have sent it back to Apple for the power button change-out they were offering to fix this problem.

Just slide out the core and you'll see where the power button comes in contact with the top of the case. Cut out a scrap of paper (I think I used ordinary xerographic paper) and stick it up there with a bit of Scotch tape on either end. Let me know if it works!
Click to expand...


I followed your advise and...it seems to be working! i am going to leave it on for the whole day tomorrow to see if it is a permanent fix.

i was planning to get a 80 gig seagate 'cuda, 512mb ram, a 128 mb video card, and a 1.2ghz+ cpu upgrade. are there any good and CHEAP places to buy these parts? i'm planning to buy everything on eBay unless there are some cheap alternatives.
 
be warey of 7455/7 products the 55's have wake from sleep issues and the 57's are hella unreliable i'd go for a 7447 and sacrifice the cache for the reliability and the clock speed.
 
proverbs said:
are you serious?! good lord the hard drive noise is extremely annoying. is there anything i can do to reduce the noise?
Click to expand...
Try this...
 

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