Sorry I don't have anything helpful to say about the funny noises, definitely doesn't sound normal, at least, not like mine
it's not the quietest or smoothest sounding mount when slewing at full speed...I even set custom slew rate 9 to 2.5 degrees per second to suppress the noise a bit... But if I were you I'd be contacting the supplier to discuss it with them.
This might be a stupid suggestion, but did you check that the clutches are fully engaged? You might see erratic behaviour if they're not, but probably not nasty knocking
Anyhow, ignoring the nasty noises, set the mount to the home position (white painted index marks aligned), power it on and set it to time zone 10, it should remember the lat and long from before, and enter the time with DST yes. Then follow through with an alignment, say auto 2-star align and select a couple of stars....doesn't matter which. Select center and align for each and it should say align success...it will just believe that it is near-perfectly aligned and should slew to where it believes stuff is. Whether it's pointing in the right direction will depend on the offset from a correct alignment and time values. Btw, you did enter the latitude and change N to S? Sorry if it sounds patronising, it's not intentional
