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2010 Mac Mini Superdrive Noise

b-rad g

b-rad g

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 29, 2010
895
1
Finally started the transition from PC to Mac and kicking myself that I didn't do it much sooner. Went to the Apple Store last Saturday (on a date with the wife no less) and bought a new Mac Mini (in my sig) and absolutely love this thing. Have it hooked up in the living room to the 42" HDTV!:D

Anyways to get on topic I have noticed when installing software from disks the Superdrive has a kind of annoying vibrating sound coming from it. It sound like it is only doing it when it's spinning at max speed. I threw in Ironman to see what it would do playing a movie and it was quiet as a mouse. Same result with audio cd.

I have done some searching on this and some say it is due to unbalanced cheap disks. And I started to believe that until I threw in iLife '11 last night and it acted the same way my install disk for my Kodak Wifi printer did, noisy.

Can anybody give me any insight on this? If it is just with install disks I can live with that, I would just be embarassed if I went to play a multimedia disk with friends and the superdrive started roaring. Does anybody know if it happens while ripping dvd's?
 
Not just a "noise" it is loud. Even my wife came into the living room as I was installing iLife and said "is it supposed to be making that noise?"
 
Nobody else with a 2010 Mini has the roaring superdrive noise when installing software from discs?
 
Have the 2009 Mini, and the "super"drive is quite noisy, especially the noise it makes when the machine boots is annoying - wouldn't be surprised if Apple has not addressed this. My older MBP also makes a similar noise when booting :-(
 
this is a common problem. I modded and upgraded over 100 MM's from 2006 to 2010. At least 10 percent of the mini's do this. You have the 2010 the dvd player inside is known to be troublesome even more so then the 2009 or 2008 models. It is under warranty bring it in to an apple store and put the iLife inside it tell the clerk you want a different dvd player. Tell him you read that many of the new machines don't have the problem.

Note the below is your last story to use.

Tell him you are going to copy about 1500 of your father's mother's school's cd's onto itunes for a holiday gift and that you can tell that the dvd player /super drive will blow up.
 
Thanks for the replies, will take it down to the Apple Store when I get a chance. But with the Christmas Club check about to hit the bank acount that could be dangerous!!!:D
 
Same problem

I've had my 2010 mac mini since August and I've had the same problem but I've been too lazy to get it fixed. I use handbrake A LOT to back up my DVD's and for about half of my DVDs it's especially loud. Interestingly, for the other half of the DVDs, it's as quiet as a mouse. Not sure why some DVDs affect it this way and others don't. Also, it takes about 5 minutes to scan through all the titles in handbrake as opposed to my macbook pro and macbook which both are able to do it in about 10 seconds. I think it has a problem utilizing libdvdnav for some reason. The more I explain my problem the more I realize I probably should get off my a** and do something about it :p
 
I knew I wasn't imagining things! Sounds like you have exactly what I'm experiencing. Next time I can get down to the Apple Store I will carry my mini with me.
 
b-rad g said:
Nobody else with a 2010 Mini has the roaring superdrive noise when installing software from discs?
Click to expand...

I have the same problem, but it seems to be isolated to certain disks or the positioning of the Mini on my desk. I am unsure of the issue, but since the problem appears to be isolated I can prepare for the "roar" when I rip DVDs (in my case).
 
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