MacBook :: Left Fan Giving High-pitched Whine / Noise Coming When Computer Is Running Off Battery
Dec 26, 2010
This is my first post, and I apologize as it's a little long. I just wanted to get the whole story on the table and clarified.I've had one of the new Aluminum 13" MacBooks (2.0GHz C2D) since Christmas Eve. A few weeks ago, it accidentally fell off my desk at work (not a far drop , but far enough for my heart to stop for a few minutes) when I got tripped up in the power cord under the desk.
For all intents and purposes, the MacBok seemed to work fine. I had one of our IT staff, who happened to be a trained Apple repair tech, take a look at it; the only real damage was that the display hinge had been knocked a little out of alignment. Just ot be on the safe side, I took the machine to the Apple Store, where they told me not to worry about attempting to get the hinge fixed (because I'd be paying a lot of money for such minor work), and the Genius sold me a hardcover plastic Speck case for the MacBook.
While the Speck case certainly looked nice and madethe already sturdy laptop feel sturdier and "protected", I was a little concerned about the amount of heat the machine was giving off within the case. On Sunday, I unplugged the machine from the MagSafe charger for a few hours and left it closed in sleep mode. When I woke it back up, the fan on the left continually gave off some sort of high-pitched whine whenever the computer was in idle mode.
I Googled, searching this site and others, and read about the "CPU whine" in the previous generation MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I also saw where a few people with new Aluminum MacBooks were having this same issue or something similar:
URL
It seems to only make the noise when the computer is running off of the battery - plugging in the MagSafe charger makes the noise quiet 85% of the time (I've found that plugging, unplugging, and replugging will not stop the whine from occurring).
I tried installing QuietMBP as was recommended in some posts, but the only setting that will stop the computer from whining is the "highest" setting (that is, allowing the processor 0 seconds of idle time), which causes QuietMBP to eat up 30% of my processor usage in Activity Monitor and to start the fans going (and, presumably, to significantly lower my battery life).
I don't know whether all of this was the result of the MacBook falling, from it overheating in the case, or something that "just happened". I set up an appointment with the Genius bar for today at 4 PM, but Idiscovered another odd occurance when I set up a new account for the Apple Store (rather than give them my password)
The noise never happened under the new account. Never. I left the machine idle until any and all initial processes were done. No noise. I checked Activity Monitor for stray processes. None. And no noise.
Now I'm bewildered. Could something have gone wrong somewhere in my account, leading to a corruption of a power management utility or process? I'm not canceling my appointment, but I am going to try a few things before I leave. I've already repaired disk permissions, and I'm about ot reinstall the 10.5.6 OS X combo update. Should I try to reset the PRAM too? What other options should I be looking at?
Or should I just wait, and let the Genius Bar folks look into it? As a note, I'm aware I may have to pay for any repairs because they may or may not blame them on the MacBook having dropped (despite two to three weeks passing between the fall and this issue arising), and I'm okay with paying for reapirs (though I will try my best to argue my case, of course).
I have a Macbrook Pro, one generation old. In the past week, it started making a high pitched noise from the upper left hand corner, near the keyboard. When I pick the computer up and change the angle, I can eliminate the noise.
Just in the past day I noticed that in addition to this high pitched noise, periodically a much louder, different noise comes from the same area, which again, if I move the computer around, I can minimize the noise.
My guess is that there is something loose in the computer, maybe a fan? Should I bring it to apple? My computer has been running pretty slow lately, could this have anything to do with it?
It's the 2008 model MacBook Pro with the 9600m gt 512 card.
So, I just noticed that when I have my MacBook Pro in High Performance mode it emits an high pitched noise when the fans are running around 6.2k RPM and the CPU and GPU is around 63c. The noise follows the speed of fans, and at idle the noise is gone.
I have uploaded a video of it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HioRgTNpNRA
I've heard of people having issues with high pitched whining coming from the left-side of the keyboard due to the backlight inverter. There isnt much that can be done about it from what i've seen. My issue is slightly different, as I get the high pitched whine nearly at all times, and it changes dependent on the angle of the screen and level of backlight brightness.The biggest problem is that at certain points where the whining is happening, everything on-screen will freeze until Ive messed with the screen angle and played with the backlight buttons, then as soon as i've done that, it almost 'snaps out of it' and things on screen start happening again.
I know this happened before in the old Macbook Pros by the look of things when I searched around.Basically there is a noticeable high pitched whine when the screen brightness is either not completely off or max.
I have a 1.8ghz G5 iMac with ambient light sensor. When it is on there is a noticeable high pitched whine that is quite loud. It gets even louder if the fan runs more.
If I replaced the fan would this solve the problem or could it be the power supply?
I have been presented with an iMac G3 400Mhz. It has an annoying loud whine. The whine is constant and high pitched. I am thinking exhaust fan. Is my thinking correct? Is it hard to get to and replace?
How many new macbook pro owners are hearing the macbook pro whine sound coming from the left near the speaker? is this normal? its getting very annoying. it stops for a min when i open an app or click or scroll.
I have a 1.86ghz 128GB SSD Rev B Macbook Air. The first one I had made a high pitch whining noise when the processor was idling or under light load. It was a very very high frequency noise, and you could only really hear it when the room was totally quiet - or unless you put your head near the top left side of the keyboard (where the CPU is located). A bit of googling and it seemed that older Macbook Pros also seemed to have had this exact problem.
I took it to the Apple Store and a Genius there took it back and said he could hear it as well. He offered to go through the repair process but since that would have taken awhile, I got an exchange instead from where I bought it from. Unfortunately, this new MBA also makes the same noise but to a slightly lesser degree (though it's possible that the frequency range isn't as high so it's not as piercing... hard to tell though).
Since this is my second RevB Macbook Air with the problem. I realize most people have lower noise sensitivity than me, so you might not notice it unless you place your ear to the top left of the keyboard. (And just to be clear, this is not a fan noise or a noise from the SSD - which don't make noises anyways. I am 100% sure this high pitched noise is coming from the CPU or somewhere on the logic board.)
My 13" Macbook Pro has started making an odd, high-pitched noise, kinda like one of those 'mosquito' ringtones. It's pretty quiet so I can only hear it at night when the computer is beside my bed on the nightstand. However it's odd in that, it's always present UNLESS I scroll in Firefox. As long as I'm scrolling in Firefox, the sound stops. It seems to be coming from the left side of the computer.
Hey guys, got a little issue here. I have had a MBA since about march of this year. Just recently I on two occasions the computer has all of a sudden had this loud high pitch whine. It has only happened twice and at both times (if I remember the 1st time correctly) I wasn't really doing anything on the computer. Today specifically it was just sitting idle on my desk. Not sure where its coming from maybe speakers? Any idea to what this is? Should I be setting up an appointment to see a Mac Genius?
If you're having this problem, try adjusting your brightness. I was experiencing this issue today, and depending on where my brightness slider was... it got worse, better, to non-existant.
iMac CD 1.8 here. W/e using my iMacs internal Mic I get a really high pitched noise on the recording. I'm assuming its from the computer. Is it normal or should I get it fixed?
just got happy about the fix for the audio / performance problem of the 09 mac pro's. Why should it be different, the next problem knocks at my door, hallelujah...
When I connect my external audio interface (apogee ensemble) to my mac pro, the mac begins to whistle...
As soon as I turn off my interface again, the whistle is away immediately . The sound is definitively coming from my mac pro and I couldn't locate the problem to a fan. I think it's maybe the firewire controller chip? When I connect my external lacie HD I have no problems at all. I have tried it on both ports on the back side with no success.
The whistle is not constantly on the same noise level. Sometimes it's away for a few seconds, it's high pitched and really annoying though. It does not matter if I playback audio or not. Nothing worked though. I experienced the whistle in the past few months sometimes but it was mostly just for a few minutes or so. But in the past few days it was constantly and it never really stopped. This drives me crazy when I have no audio playing and my room is silent !!
I have no other firewire cable (400 to 800) around to test it. Could this be the culprit also?
I just bought and received a new 21.5'' iMac and love it but the screen is making a high pitched noise, similar to a dog whistle. It's that sound that isn't loud but pierces through your brain. And the brighter the backlight is, the louder is gets. I love this machine but I don't think it should be doing this and it bothers the heck out of me. I called Apple and all they said was to bring it to the Genius Bar.
Just got my new i7 in the mail today after waiting for the refresh for 5 months and it has that stupid high pitched noise that you get when you adjust the brightness. I returned four of these things at the beginning of the year (2 HD failures, 1 power source failure, 1 DOA), one that had the hd failure also had this same high pitched noise.
I love these computers (minus the complete lack of quality control), so I don't want to switch back to PC, but I am at my wits end here. Apple already gave me $150 off this computer for me trouble, but I just don't know if its worth the hassle anymore. I am returning it for sure, but would you ask for more compensation, maybe a ram upgrade or something? I don't like to be the guy who asks for free crap, but the way I see it, they can give me another hundred $, or I can go back to pc and they lose a customer for life.
I have had my new pro since christmas, and it has been incredible. however i noticed from day one that periodically i get this buzzing noise coming from the left speaker - closest to the screen. is it the hard drive? what is it... and is it normal? sometimes if i tap the speaker area (next to the magsafe) it goes away.. and other times its pretty loud. i do NOT have applecare. should I purchase that as well.
I'm getting this softly high pitched sound at idle. I did not have this sound before until this month. I bought this thing in January 2010, yes this year. Does anyone know what could be going on? It does not make that sound when I'm using it, it's only at idle. I can even hear it when I'm lying in bed since this is in my room. Check out my signature to see what I have.
It sounds like a idle fan issue? The computer works fine, but it's just that high pitched noise that bothers me. I should take it to the apple store huh?
I decided to keep my current set up and use my mac mini as a desktop that mostly works as a media server like set up that holds my media for my apple TV if I run out of space on the ATV and later use it as a home theater computer when i get another HDTV. this is just fyi on why I have my mbp and mac mini still yet instead of having only one computer...
Earlier I noticed a faint noise coming from the top left of the iMac, a little 'hiss' like, but otherwise hard to describe. I presume it's the HD, but I'm not quite sure as diagrams show the HD being more-a-less in the middle. Perhaps the room has got quieter, but then again the concern is that the iMac has got louder.
after i get to the windows loading screen my mac just throws out a consistent high pitched sound and shows a black screen, i can only get into bootcamp windows when i unplug the computer and start it up with the running windows normally option. is this a virus?
I just bought a pair of the Rokit 5 external speakers. When I plug them into a Mac Pro (Tower) I get a high-pitched hum from the speakers each time I try to play a sound. So if I go into System Preferences/Audio, and I try to play a sound, the high-pitch is heard as the sound plays, and for a second or two after, then it goes away, and is heard again each time I try to play a sound. Same with when I play something thru iTunes or any of my audio apps.
If do the exact same thing playing from a Macbook, I do not have that problem at all, the sound is nice and clear with no high-pitch sound.
I have the speakers plugged in using 1/4 inch jacks to an external sound card (MBox), and this audio card is plugged USB into the Mac.
I just got my 2.0ghz Alu Macbook a few days ago and everything works perfectly well, the thing is that after day one the magsafe started to emit a low pitched electrical whistling noise. It tends to be there a few minutes after booting into the OS and then it turns down to almost unhearable, but I experienced it returning after a few hours of use and then disappearing again. If I move close to the escape key I can hear a crackling noise emitting from the magsafe.I'm not trying to be overly nitpicky or anything but I read somewhere that if it's doing that it would be a faulty Mag-Safe board or something.
Does any one you guys know anything about this? I have the 14 days to return it as I bought it online from the Apple Store so if it's a faulty part that might die/break/ cause problems later I might have to.
I have an aluminum macbook that is abou a year and a half old. It is making a weird scratching noise every few minutes. It sounds like I have DVD spinning in my disk drive and I am moving the laptop around. There is no disk in it so I am worried it's coming from my HD. Any ideas on what I should do?
My girlfriend recently bought a 17" Unibody MacBook Pro (the one with the built-in battery). Yesterday, we noticed that the computer was making a noise from the left-hand side. It sounds like the hard-disk accessing information. Pretty much the sound all PC's make, however, we had never heard the machine make the noise before. She has had the computer for about 2 months. Our concern is primarily because my older 15" MBP Unibody is virtually silent and never makes a similar noise.
I recently did a Lion clean install and since then im having this wierd issue..I already saw some cases that the kernel_task was eating too much cpu but that was random and caused by flash player.. mine is different.. it only happens when i have less than 5% battery and it stops when i connect the magsafe. I already tried PRAM reset.. already tried uninstall flash player but with no luck. What can i do ?
I'll be using the Air and all of a sudden there will be static or electrical buzzing coming out of the right speaker on my 13" MacBook Air. It's about 16 months old.
Info: MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
When I connect to an HD TV using the Mini DisplayPort (via a Monoprice Mini DP-DVI dongle and a Monoprice DVI-HDMI cable) and to a Hi-Fi system using the headphone out, the Hi-Fi speakers emit a loud and persistent high-pitched whine.The whine disappears when I disconnect the Mini DP dongle, and also when I disconnect the audio cable so that the sound is playing through the internal speakers. There's no whine when I connect earphones to the MBA instead of the Hi-Fi. I don't have another external display with which to test the issue, so I'm not sure if this sound exists when the computer's connected to, say, an ACD.I'm surprised that this problem doesn't seem to have been mentioned on this board, but it's well documented on the Apple boards (1, 2, 3, 4). The consensus over there is that it's a fundamental design flaw in the MBA and that the only solution is to get a ground loop isolator. Has anyone here had the problem and been successful in getting it fixed by Apple?
Recently my computer has started to run slowly in things like games and the only time that it runs normaly is when I restart my computer and then it gets slow again after about 5 min. My computer's cpu has been running at about 77-87 deggres celcius. Is that the normal running temps of a 2010 13-inch macbook pro? I have asked on some other places and they have said that it is dust in my comp that is heating the cpu up and therefore making it run slower.
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 13-inch 2010
