just got new imac...teething issues?

[student_trap]

Hi guys, just got my new iMac 20" with 2.33 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, 256mb graphics and 500 GB HD. almost everything is lovely, but i have a couple of issues that i'd like settled...

1. iTunes beachballs immediately after the imac has been sleeping and sometimes randomly like after a disk is burned, otherwise it is very snappy, is it normal for itunes to beachball? I have about 35 gigs of music.

2. the CD drive seems a little on the loud side, as does the HD...is this normal, i cant tell as i am used to my g4 12" powerbook which had a quiet CD drive

I am using 10.4.7

any ideas? thanks in advance

 

[student_trap]

anyone?

 

[Fearless Leader]

1. given you have 35gb it understandable that it takes a little bit to get up and running.

2. its not a problem, if it bugs you too much then put some ear plugs in.

 

[Chundles]

Hi guys, just got my new iMac 20" with 2.33 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, 256mb graphics and 500 GB HD. almost everything is lovely, but i have a couple of issues that i'd like settled...

1. iTunes beachballs immediately after the imac has been sleeping and sometimes randomly like after a disk is burned, otherwise it is very snappy, is it normal for itunes to beachball? I have about 35 gigs of music.

2. the CD drive seems a little on the loud side, as does the HD...is this normal, i cant tell as i am used to my g4 12" powerbook which had a quiet CD drive

I am using 10.4.7

any ideas? thanks in advance

Don't know about the iTunes issue but as for the other one, remember the HDD in you laptop is at most 5400rpm and 2.5" in diameter. In the iMac is a full-blown 3.5" 7200rpm desktop HDD - it's much faster and would be a fair bit louder. If you mean it's making clunky noises then you should have it looked at but if it's just regular HDD noise then it's fine.

 

[igucl]

I have no experience with the Intel iMacs, but I can say that my iMac G5 has a very loud CD drive. It startled me at first, too. I don't know what Apple's using, but they sure can make some strange sounds.

 

[72930]

Any reason that you're not using 10.4.8?

 

[student_trap]

Thankyou very much for letting me know that these things are to be expected, I was getting a little worried. I must say that considering the price, I expected a machine that was almost instant with everything, too much to ask for I guess.

Chundles: yeah the HD being larger did cross my mind, but its been so long since I used a desktop that the really loud HD noises seemed a little too harsh

Rokem: it doesn't bug me, but in the UK, you have 10 days to return apple products for free, and so I was just checking that these things were normal, before the 10 days is up.

Any reason that you're not using 10.4.8?

Not really, its just that I have only been able to play with it for a few hours, and wanted to see what 4.7 was like before upgrading to 4.8, thus being able to identify any abnormalities.

On intel OSX in general, is there a general idea amongst people that have used PPC and then moved to intel, that OSX is a little less reliable in subtle ways?

I ask because my brand new imac beachballs sometimes even though it is brand new, whereas when I unwrapped my powerbook for the first time, it took a while before I began seeing beachballs. Please note that unlike my powerbook, I pretty much maxed out the iMac.

 

[Chundles]

The first thing you should do with a new Mac is run the software updates.

10.4.8 introduced a substantial improvement to Rosetta (up to 30% faster performance) and even made opening MS Office on my PPC Mac much faster. iTunes runs like a breeze on my old iBook but I don't have a 35GB library, still, make sure you're running the most recent version of iTunes and OSX - they release software updates for a reason so you should be running the most recent version.

 

[cecildk9999]

not that this will help appreciably, but I had some beachballing when I got my new MBP in Sept; I was expecting instantaneous performance and no teething, but I feel like it takes the system a bit of time to sort out all the stuff you dump onto a brand new HD. Everything's really peppy now, but I remember feeling a little worried when I kept getting the beachball initially. Give it a few weeks, and you'll be breezing along.

 

[student_trap]

OK so another issue that i'm wondering about...

1. In the four corners the screen is brighter, almost as if there is a spotlight in each corner of the screen shining into the center, it is only visable on a black screen, is this normal?

2. upon start up and waking from sleep, my iMac makes a large whoosh sound, as if the fans are starting up and then turning of instantly, is this normal?

Also, my BT mighty mouse often 'forgets' about its right click function, and i have to turn it off and on to make it 'remember'. Should i send it back?

thanks in advance

student_trap

 

[wordmunger]

I have a 17-inch intel iMac with 21GB of music and iTunes doesn't beach ball like that for me after waking up. I can't speak for burning CDs, though--I don't really do that much. Yes, the fans do sometimes whoosh when waking from sleep. No big deal there.

While my CD is somewhat loud, I find my 250 GB HD to be quite quiet. Are you sure it's your HD and not your fans making the noise?

My screen is uniform brightness; no difference between center and corners.

 

[student_trap]

My screen is uniform brightness; no difference between center and corners.

its bright all over, just when the screen is black, you can see lights shining from all corners. my guess is that the fans are what are making the noise, as opposed to the hard drive, but the beachballing is driving me nuts, you would think that a brand new maxed out imac could wake from sleep and then just work.

 

[student_trap]

anyone?

can people with an imac let me know if their screen does this too?

also is the mighty mouse problem usual?