Noisy optical drive in powerbook! Think you're a Mac guru? Find out here.

[motulist]

When I play certain audio cds in my powerbook it spins so loudly that I'll sometimes go through the trouble of ripping the disk to mp3 first. The drive only needs to spin the cd at around 1 times speed anyway. There MUST be a way I can limit the cd's read speed temporarily. If you can answer this one then you are a true Mac guru.

 

[mad jew]

Well, I can't take any credit.

The drive is noisy, vibrates, or scratches media


If the drive is noisy when you insert or eject discs, inserting and ejecting a disc several times may correct the issue.
Try other discs to see if the issue can be isolated to a single disc and not to the drive itself. If a disc is weighted unevenly, it can cause noise and vibration when it spins up in the drive.
Reset the PRAM and/or PMU.
If the drive is noisy when you place your hands on top of the palm rest, contact Apple to arrange for service.
Be aware that the drive should only operate horizontally, and it may be noisier if you try to use it at an angle. Any damage sustained to the drive or the media as a result of operating it at an angle is not covered by warranty.
If the drive is noisy or vibrates on multiple discs and the troubleshooting suggested here is ineffective, contact Apple to arrange for service.

 

[Jigglelicious]

The reason the drive spins at its maximum speed is because all new OS's (including both OS X and Windows XP) transfer the audio data through the system bus, and don't use the old fasioned CD track calls which would send the music through that tiny analoge cable in the back of the CD drive and which would plug into the soundcard. Because the drive believes it is reading data instead of CD audio, it runs at full speed.

Some newer drives are actually smart enough to recognize audio CD's as well as movie DVD's and run at a slower speed to keep quiet. However, I don't know of any way to slow the drive down outside of hacking the firmware of the drive. I know of hacked firmwares to speed up drives to rip DVD's faster than normal, but i've never seen one to slow it down.