Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Pro "shrieks" like smoke alarm / eSATA

kirkbross

kirkbross

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 6, 2007
666
22
Los Angeles
I have two SATA drives in a JBOD enclosure connected to an eSATA PCI card in my e2008 Mac Pro running Lion.

I can eject either or both of these external drives fine, but if I power off the JBOD enclosure while the Mac Pro is still on, the Mac Pro squeals super loud like a smoke alarm. It's a sound I didn't even know a Mac could make -- a loud, piercing shriek.

Any clues as to what the sound is? I suppose it could be the eSATA PCI card making the sound... but it seems odd that a tiny PCI card would have the ability to generate a sound.
 
kirkbross said:
I have two SATA drives in a JBOD enclosure connected to an eSATA PCI card in my e2008 Mac Pro running Lion.

I can eject either or both of these external drives fine, but if I power off the JBOD enclosure while the Mac Pro is still on, the Mac Pro squeals super loud like a smoke alarm. It's a sound I didn't even know a Mac could make -- a loud, piercing shriek.

Any clues as to what the sound is? I suppose it could be the eSATA PCI card making the sound... but it seems odd that a tiny PCI card would have the ability to generate a sound.
Click to expand...

I don't think you're supposed to hot swap eSATA on Mac OS X. Pretty sure you're supposed to shut down and then make any drive changes. But I don't own any eSATA gear.

Not sure why that would make your machine shriek though. It should just be a driver thing.
 
What sort of eSATA PCI card do you have?

If you look on your eSATA PCI card, does it have a small black cylinder on it with a round hole in the top?

The Mac Pro lacks the piezoelectric speaker required to make this sort of squealing. A lot of PCI-e eSATA RAID cards come with one of those built into the PCB (it looks like that black cylinder described above) for an alarm function when something goes direly wrong.

It is likely that your eSATA card is making this noise. There might be software that you can use to disable the alarm, but I don't think it's the Mac Pro... The MP has no reason to make such a noise, and if it did it would sound more like a hearty beep then a smoke alarm because the Mac Pro only has a speaker built-in, and it can't make that sort of noise.

-SC
 
ScottishCaptain said:
What sort of eSATA PCI card do you have?

If you look on your eSATA PCI card, does it have a small black cylinder on it with a round hole in the top?

The Mac Pro lacks the piezoelectric speaker required to make this sort of squealing. A lot of PCI-e eSATA RAID cards come with one of those built into the PCB (it looks like that black cylinder described above) for an alarm function when something goes direly wrong.

It is likely that your eSATA card is making this noise. There might be software that you can use to disable the alarm, but I don't think it's the Mac Pro... The MP has no reason to make such a noise, and if it did it would sound more like a hearty beep then a smoke alarm because the Mac Pro only has a speaker built-in, and it can't make that sort of noise.

-SC
Click to expand...

That.

If it's a HighPoint card, they have a browser-based configuration utility.
 
Exactly, it's the card making the noise to alert you that the drive is not functioning. It's not the mac pro itself.
\
 
Cool... the card is a NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe. I'll do some googling. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Actually, you've got the RAID version of that card. The normal version doesn't have the alarm on it- the RAID version does. You can see the piezo speaker on the top right-hand corner of the PCB in the manual below...

http://www.newertech.com/downloads/maxpoweresataraid6gmanual0610.pdf

From the same document:

Unplugging an Array

To properly disconnect a RAID array from the controller card, you must access the Array Information window and click “Unplug”. If an array is physically disconnected without clicking “Unplug” an alarm will sound.
Click to expand...

You'll need to download the drivers from here:

http://www.newertech.com/support

Specifically, the "MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe 2.0 RAID Card Drivers (OS X)" package. Once you install those, follow the instructions in the manual to get into the configuration interface and from there you can disable the alarm (or use their utility to properly "unplug" the array and prevent the alarm from sounding).

-SC
 
akadmon said:
My thanks to ScottishCaptain also!

I lived with this problem for the past year and a half, and now I'm finally able to enjoy some peace and quiet :) My solution before was to put the MP in sleep mode and wake it.
Click to expand...
I just used the browser interface and disabled the alarm altogether.

I do wonder what it's there for though... perhaps it would be handy in a server room if you needed to quickly locate a problem drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back