DVD drive VERY LOUD while watching movies

Question

DVD drive VERY LOUD while watching movies

I have the same problem as mentioned by others in this archived thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=693421&tstart=105

When playing some Movie-DVDs, the Player does not spin down to a reasonable speed. Instead it produces an unacceptable loud (hairblower like) noise.
It only happens on some DVDs, others play normal (i.e. silent). So far, I cannot see a pattern. This behaviour only happens with my MacPro. On previous Macs and other computers, these DVDs play normally...

The installed drive is a Pioneer DVR-112D.

Does anybody know a tool which limits the drive speed while watching DVDs? Or is there another solution to stop this behaviour?

MacPro 2.6, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Pioneer DVR-112D

Posted on Dec 20, 2007 2:49 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 20, 2007 4:58 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

If the noise is a "hairdryer" sound it is more likely the fans than the drive. Optical drives typically make make much lower "whiring" or "rattling" sounds than what you seem to describe. If you haven't done so apply the SMC firmware update, as it may reduce fan rev up's.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 21, 2007 12:34 AM in response to Forrest McElfresh1

I don't think it's the fan (maybe my wording was misleading). I get this sound whenever I load a DVDs. It sounds like the drive is trying to read the DVD with maximum speed. For "normal behaving" DVDs it's only loud for a few seconds, then the drive seems to recognize the disk as a non-data DVD with no need for high-speed read-out. But with some DVDs, the drive seems to have problems and behaves as this disk is a data disk.

In the referenced thread, someone mentioned some windows programs which throttle the DVD speed. Does anybody now a mac program or script to do something similar?

It's really annoying, this is now my 5th Mac with a DVD drive since 2000 and this is the first time I have these problems. And according to the original thread, I'm not alone. I already thought about buying a 2nd drive, but from the other postings, I'm not sure the drive is the (sole) culprit: Some say their Sony drive was loud and they got silence after installing the Pioneer drive, but I already do have a Pioneer...

Reply

Answer 3

ixley

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2008 3:12 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

I just set up my new Mac Pro and am having the same problem with the optical drive. Same Pioneer DVR-112D, same hairblower like noise. While it's only certain DVD's that make it really noisy, these discs play fine in other macs. I can't say I'm so thrilled about things like this after spending so much money...

Reply

Answer 4

Yeroen

Level 1

25 points

Jan 25, 2008 3:58 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

Did the drive come installed with your Apple, or is it an aftermarket non-Apple OEM drive?

I have a non-Apple OEM 112D that I installed for ripping purposes. Apple-OEM drives are riplock enabled which as a side effect quiets the drive during playback.

Reply

Answer 5

baroy

Level 1

9 points

Jan 25, 2008 5:54 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

I have a Sony DVD in my Mac Pro. It makes a this same sound when playing DVDs that I've burned, but not on store bought movies. It's been this way since I got my Mac Pro a little less than a year ago. Can be annoying, but I've more or less accepted it.

Reply

Answer 6

gumsie

Level 4

2,185 points

Feb 3, 2008 10:14 AM in response to Volker Wurst1

Try this at your own risk of course but I read this somewhere, tried it with my old G5 and it worked;
(First off though-I'm surprised that a Pioneer drive is noisy like that, the Sonys are notoriously noisy but the Pioneers-very surprised. The TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S202N is what I have in my second drive bay and it makes a lot less noise than the stock one).
Anyways. Apparently if the laser cannot see the disc properly it will slow it down and, what I was told to do was put a piece of tape on the LABEL side of he disc about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way from the disc centre. Apparently it unweights the disc and the drive will slow itself down reducing the noise. NOT too much as you don't want, a) it coming off and getting stuck in the drive or, b) the disc becoming weighted so much that it touched internal parts and scratches a ring in the disc.
I used put a one and a half inch strip on my discs and it was fine.

Message was edited by: gumsie

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 2, 2008 11:30 AM in response to Volker Wurst1

My drive has the same problem, I have sent it into the Apple Store for repair. No matter what type of disk I had in there (audio, DVD), it would spin up so loudly and sound very much like a far away chainsaw. It came to a point where I could no longer watch my movies because the noise was so annoying. I've sent it in to repair, hoping that a new drive will fix it. The drive causing problems is the drive I bought the computer with.

Help?

Reply

Answer 8

Mar 5, 2008 12:07 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

I got my new mac pro last week and have this problem too...pioneer dvd inside. When watching movies and playing CD's it sounds like a hairdryer and with some dvd's (install DVD to Logic Studio among others) seems to cause a vibration that makes it sound like something is loose inside the computer...

When carefully leaning the computer on the side during this @machinegun@ noise it goes away, putting it back upright again the sounds gradually comes back.

Were annoying for a computer in this price-class. My girlfriend owns a mac mini and it doesn't make any noise near as load as this.

I have a samsung dvd-rw inside a old G4 tower that I'm going to install to see if it helps and install the pioneer in the lower optical slot.

Message was edited by: Martin Svensson

Reply

Answer 9

dmgerman

Level 1

0 points

Mar 12, 2008 5:27 PM in response to Martin Svensson

I finally fixed it.

Apple drives me crazy. Why to change the firmware in the drive? It is just to annoy its customers. Sometimes I wonder why I buy APple.

HEre are the instructions:

. Remove dvd drive from MacPro
. Find a windows computer, you can use an external HD enclosure to mount it via USB,or put it inside the computer (it is a SATA drive).
. Find the firmware from Pioneer
. Reflash drive
. put back in mac pro.

The Pioneer firmware would not recognize the Apple firmware as valid. Annoying. I had to do some hacking of the firmware tool to update the firmware. CHeck the
DVD firmware forums for information on how to upgrade the firmware via such
third party tools.

I can now watch my movies without any "dryer" noise.

--dmg

Reply

Answer 10

Sandylp

Level 3

665 points

May 20, 2008 7:09 PM in response to dmgerman

I don't have access to another machine, so this remedy won't work for me. I wonder, though, why it doesn't make the noise all the time. Somebody said it might be just the DVD-R disks that cause the noise. It is very annoying, but it doesn't happen to all of my dvds.

Reply

Answer 11

Sandylp

Level 3

665 points

May 21, 2008 9:53 AM in response to gumsie

I tried the tape remedy that Gumsie suggested (below), and it worked the very first time. I wasn't expecting a piece of tape to make a difference, but I'm playing the dvd now and there is no fan noise. I just applied a little bit of clear tape on the label. Thanks so much!!

Gumsie Wrote: Anyways. Apparently if the laser cannot see the disc properly it will slow it down and, what I was told to do was put a piece of tape on the LABEL side of he disc about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way from the disc centre. Apparently it unweights the disc and the drive will slow itself down reducing the noise. NOT too much as you don't want, a) it coming off and getting stuck in the drive or, b) the disc becoming weighted so much that it touched internal parts and scratches a ring in the disc.
I used put a one and a half inch strip on my discs and it was fine.

Reply

Answer 12

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Mar 2, 2008 10:09 PM in response to Volker Wurst1

Hi all,

if all else fails, have a look at this little helper: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unixopensource/discrotate.html

Stefan

Reply

Answer 13

jb5023

Level 1

30 points

Jan 26, 2008 5:55 AM in response to baroy

I have a brand new mac pro octo 2.8. It also does this. I have only played 1 dvd in it. and after hearing how loud the drive is, it will be the last, unless someone comes up with a fix for this.

Reply

Answer 14

Mar 4, 2008 8:42 AM in response to Volker Wurst1

I am having the same exact problem with my new mac pro. I guess ill have to make an appointment at the apple store to see if they will replace it.

Reply