Odd Macintosh problem... Can you help?
I’ve owned and used Macs since the Quadra. Here is something I’ve never encountered.
OSX 10.5.8
Intel Dore 2 Duo 2.4ghz IMac
When sitting idle, it makes the sound of removing something from the Doc… You know, the “Poof” sound with the icon Poofs into a cloud of smoke after removing it from the Doc.
I haven’t noticed any files deleting, but it has me concerned that something is going on in the background.
It is Teleport sharing a keyboard/mouse with a G5 tower and is networked to a Windows NT machine along with another IMac, Powerbook, and EMac. LogMeIn is used to connect two other Mac Laptops. Happens with LogMeIn turned on or off.
Should I be concerned with this mysterious sound? Restarting has not helped. Have you heard of this before?
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4 Answers
Check out your Console log. If nothing is in there that worries you, I wouldn’t worry about it. You could also check out System Preferences > Sounds and make sure that the ‘poof’ isn’t being used for some other system sound. You can also turn all system sounds off there if it annoys you, and it wont happen anymore.
You could try using a free utility called Onyx to run various system maintenance procedures. Search for it on http://www.macupdate.com/ and make sure you get the right one for OS 10.5, not 10.6. Run the app and do all the cleaning/maintenance stuff, such as: repair permissions, rebuild Launch Services database, rebuild ‘whatis’ and ‘locate’ databases, clean caches, clean temporary files, etc. It will take a while to complete everything, but one of those might fix it.
If that doesn’t work, you’d probably need to reinstall Mac OS X from scratch to fix it. Use the discs that came with the computer, or ones you bought later.
Don’t forget to back up first, though.
Also, check to see if any currently running applications or Dashboard widgets might be using that sound effect. It is not uncommon for programs to reuse/repurpose system sound effects. It might be something as simple as a widget notifying that you have new email.
Check which applications are set to run when the computer starts up too. I think it’s in System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. If there’s anything other than Apple-made stuff (iTunesHelper, iCal Alarms, etc.) in there, it could possibly be causing the sounds.
Check the Sounds panel in System Preferences too, in case your standard alert sound got changed to the poof sound instead.
If there are no applications running in the Dock, in the Dashboard, or from the Login Items, and you still get those sounds, then something is messed up in the operating system itself.
If all else fails, make an appointment to take it to the Genius Bar at your nearest Apple Store.
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