Having chunk update problems with all the advances machines, after turning them on my chunk updates will jump to 40 or 80 and stays there indefinitely. I have tried downgrading to 4.0 and updated to 1.97 IC2 but same result(fresh install in between). As soon as I cut redstone power from the machines my chunk updates drop to the normal 0 - 5 and the game runs better.
Having the same issue, and bandwidth use goes through the roof with an advanced machine turned on in SMP.
I noticed long lines of redpower alloy wire doing the same thing when toggled on and off (lever, timer, button etc.), maybe it's part of a larger problem, Forge perhaps?