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Apple Faces Up to the MacBook Whining
Whiney Mac Fanboy writes "The Register is reporting that Apple has finally admitted to the 'high pitched whining' problems with it's MacBook line — but only to tell customers to contact AppleCare. From the article: 'MacBook Pro users have complained about numerous noises emanating from their machines since the Intel-based notebooks began shipping in February this year. Audible irritations reported by machine owners include whining sounds coming from the screen, from the body of the notebook, and from the area below the screen hinge when the laptop's running on batteries and both cores of the Core Duo CPU are enabled.'"
Ewwwwwww!
Have a look at these photos to see the extent of the problem. (Poor old Mac users, probably stress sweat from worrying about their credit card bills).
Anyway - good to see Apple finally 'fessing up to the problems - that's what we pay the extra cash for right?
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
May the screaming is the Mac being in pain from having to run Windows. (I'm a dyed in the wool Windows user, but I had to.)
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
I have owned a Macbook Pro since March and while I did have the weird battery swelling problem thanks to a parts manufacturer screwing up the battery casing, I never once had the whine, nor did anyone I know or any Pro's I saw at Apple Stores in the area.
From reading around it also seemed like the same handful of people where making the most noise. While Im glad Apple is now fixing it, I cant help but think its not as widespread a problem as its being made out to be on the internet.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
...finally admit to the incessant whining noises caused by its software?
I called Apple, they did a few hocus-pocus troubleshooting moves (like unplugging the power cord, taking the battery out then pressing the power button) on the phone, forwarded me to a senior technical specialist who said it's a candidate, and then sent me a box to ship it back today. They claim I'll have it back early next week with a new mobo in it. Easy peasy.
Incidentally, the specialist said that the new mobo is going to be not completely quiet, but a lot better.
Now, I'm wondering if they'll put a 1.83 GHz chip in it like I had before or whether they start at 2.0 GHz like the new models do... here's hoping.
Once I removed the Fran Drescher audio clips from the system sounds, it was smooth sailing from then on.
Where were you when the voynix came?
In light of the CPU thermal grease fiasco, Apple went the other way and failed to apply enough lubricant to the hamster wheel. Slap a little oil on there and she'll be right as rain.
Between problems with the magnetic power connector not working properly, the discoloration of the case, to problems with the trackpad and now this noise issue the Macbook doesn't sound like a very well engineered machine.
Mac laptops always seem to have these fucked up problems. I have a friend who used to do third party Mac warranty fulfilment and said there were there numerous problems with the Firewire connectors and a fire issue with the power adaptors on the Powerbook that Apple refused to acknowledge or solve. He recommended that if you were ever bought a Mac laptop to ensure that your also bought a third party warranty to cover all the things that Apple does not.
"Slap a little oil on there and she'll be right as rain"
I know. The processor speed also can drop below 800 mhz unless you shovel coal fast enough into the thing, too.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Call me when somebody gets some reliable statistics on this stuff. Everyone is out to get Apple, but so far they are untouchable. I'm certain they will fix these problems in the near future.
Sigh... all these people should be waiting for Merom Macbooks anyway.
Haiku for you!
n/t
I bought a new dual-CPU G5 tower a few months ago and it was doing the same thing. It was this absolutely grating, irritating high-pitched whine during certain graphics modes, including the RSS screen saver. Think of the noise a CRT makes, only much much louder and a slightly lower pitch.
Apple told me to take it back to the apple store. The dumbasses at the store told me the noise (pick one or more of the following) a) was the harddrive b) was a fan c) was the video card d) didn't exist e) was normal. All this despite the fact that I could on-demand demonstrate how to cause the noise - using Apple's OWN software. I was royally pissed. "Genius bar" my ass.
How does Apple expect to earn or retain customers with garbage like this? Maybe they're just following the competition's model.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=249 48
Seriously, all they are saying is: if you've got a problem, contact AppleCare. It's not like a recall or something.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
Everyone ought to know to not buy first-gen Apple hardware by now - the large majority of first gen hardware have issues that get resolved in the second revision.
Of course, this whine sounds more like a power supply issue than anything else - modern electronics use switching supplies to generate the various voltages needed, and they tend to operate anywhere from 10kHz and up, but are well known to drop lower in frequency, or induce noise in other bits of the system. The fact that the noise can appear and disappear as the system is loaded is key to the problem as switching supplies rely on feedback loops to ensure regulation. Increase the load and the power supply works harder and likely generating more switching noise which induces itself in analog lines to speakers and such. And if the switching transistors have to remain on longer, it could reduce the switching frequency to something people start to notice. Most recommendations for eliminating noise comes from reducing system load, turning down the backlight (double effect, since the backlight inverter is yes, another switching supply).
And all along I thought that whine was from the users of the computers :]
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
It's the sound of a high-voltage capacitor bleeding current. As prior post said, very high pitched -- toward the upper end of human hearing. If you're over 40 years old or attend rock concerts/listen to loud music you probably won't be able to hear it, but children can pick it out quite easily since their hearing is typically more sensitive. Must be annoying as hell for dogs.
Electrolytic caps tend to reform incomplete insulators with use, and occasionally correct themselves. I suspect this is a polyester or metal film polarized cap so the odds of self-correcting are, well, very low to nil. That being said, the charger on my Macbook (low-end 1.83 core duo, not a MBP) makes this sound. I plan to give it a month to see if it sorts out or gets worse. Not too concerned so long as it continues to charge.
It's "fesses up", which means to acknowledge, admit, avow, concede, confess, grant or own (up).
To face up means something completely different and nothing that makes sense in this context.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Personal ego's aside, I do not believe there is a single, current revision (excluding the new logic boards) of the MBP that doesn't exhibit this processor whine.
Rather, I do believe that it is a "hearing" issue. Much of the populace cannot hear the whine. Given the high distribution of a consumer product, though, the 1% falls through the cracks (like me).
Being able to, or not being able to hear the whine doesn't make you a better listener or something; so don't take it as an insult. I can't hear musical lyrics properly, I have problems listening to peoples voices in crowded places (bars/clubs, etc . . . I can't hold a conversation). Hell, road noise in my car drowns out my cell phone, while everyone around me never seems to have a problem.
But I can hear the MBP whine, and I can hear the the "tics" from my PowerMac G5 2.7 Dual. I do not hear similar things from my PB 12", nor from my Athlon 64+, nor from my Acer Core Duo laptop that the MBP replaced.
This is not a sporatic problem, and IMHO is not even a "technical" issue. It's a design flaw, namely, the engineering team responsible for the capacitors feeding the CPU did not notice the sound, or noticed the sound in a test an assumed it was outside the range of human hearing. The only thing that makes it sporatic is that it is, indeed, for the most part, outside the range of human hearing.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Without hearing your particular system, I can't really say for sure - but I've owned 2 G5 dual 2.0Ghz towers and both have exhibited what I'd call a "slight electrical whine", which varies by CPU load.
This has been discussed all over the Mac forums in the past, and for many people, doing such things as changing the speed settings from "Automatic" to the full performance mode elimiated much of it.
I don't find the noise "annoying" at all, really. I considered it a perfectly acceptable noise that my system was just going to make from time to time. If the machine had louder cooling fans in it (like most PCs I've used), I suspect it would drown the whining noise out completely.
I believe Apple also did several revisions of the G5's power supply, because early revisions were more prone to causing the system to make the whining or "chirping" noise.
The "Genius bar" at Apple stores tends to be staffed by a lot of people who *like* Macs and Apple products, but don't necessarily have loads of technical knowledge about them. It's "hit or miss", in my experience. I think it's largely because they don't pay enough for what they really want/need in terms of quality of employees. But hey - that's retail for you. (I remember here in St. Louis, MO when the quad G5 tower first came out, my friend went to the local Apple store to see one and nobody there was even aware it existed!)
Even if they do it under the table, I don't care.
Just provide an API for the power/thermal control module and let someone else write the control panel with the "Cook breakfast [--------^--] Drown out nearby jackhammers" heat/fan-noise slider.
My dad (back when I was a teenager... 7 years ago?) had a thinkpad, and the paint (or enamel more likely) and started peeling on the handwrest. Turned out about 5% of the guys at work had the certain level of acidity or whatever in their hand sweat required to react with it. Thinkpad recalled and started using a diffrent formulation.
Sigh... all these people should be waiting for Merom Macbooks anyway.
I wish I didn't have a problem waiting 'til the Merom MacBooks came out but the PC I'm using now is several years old and on it's last legs. Because of MS's Activation for XP I won't get another PC with Windows. Though I've been only using Windows the last few year I prefer Macs anyway, and because I want something to take with me the next computer I get will be a MacBook Pro, hopefully within two weeks.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I have a 3 year old, 17" 1Ghz G4 PowerBook (still love it though it's ancient), and occasionally it would make strange whining sounds while I was doing something that affected the graphics, like flipping tabs or moving windows. I assume it was some kind of graphics card issue, but I never had it checked out because it wasn't loud enough to annoy me, and it seems to have gone away (or I've become used to it).
I can't speak for the models you mentioned as I've never owned one, but between me, my wife, and a friend we have 3 Compaq Presario 2108CL laptops (couple years old, Athlon XP-M 2800+, Radeon IGP 320M graphics, 1 gig RAM, etc), and they've all been very reliable.
My first PC was a laptop from Gateway. After a few months the harddrive died, then a week or two before I had it for a year the motherboard died. When the hd died Gateway sent a replacement a couple of days later, which was alright. Then when the motherboard died they sent a box which I got the following day to return the laptop back to the factory. Two weeks later I called them back asking where my laptop was and they said it had been delivered just hours earlier. So I went to the apartment complex's office as they suggested and they didn't have it so I call back. They said they'd send a replacement, however because they no longer made that model it took them another two weeks before I got it.
The PC I'm using now is an HP and both it's hd and motherboard died before a year was over as well in two different instances. Now I know my experiences may not be typical but between the problems I've had with PCs and MS's policy of Activation for Windows the next computer I get will be a Mac.
FalconShould there be a Law?
...had the same problem. Occasionally, when I was using Blender, GIMP, or some other graphics program, I could hear the high pitched whining. When it was acting up, it would whine whenever I tried to move an object in Blender. Hit escape and it goes away, try to rotate/scale/move it and I hear it again. I always hated it, but it wasn't bad enough to make me get it fixed and it never seemed to happen in World of Warcraft so I just dealt with it. Interesting how it still hasn't been fixed though...
Got a problem? Call a monkey!
When I saw the headline, I seriously thought it meant that Apple was going to face up to all of the whining people have been doing about the numerous bugs in the MacBook, not just the noise issue.
Call me when Jobs faces down a horde of angry, whining customers disgruntled by sluggish Apple response times.
I have two. One whines; one doesn't. Soon, neither will.
Simon, he of few words.
Physicists get Hadrons!
sporatic is not a word. Sorry for whining.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
What do people expect Apple to do? This article makes it sound like "Contact AppleCare" isn't a solution. Frankly, as much as I like to fix things myself, it's actually less of my time to just send it back to them.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I've sent mine back for another power supply. And disabling the CPU nap worked to kill the noise, also.
Check out this little program to confirm:
http://www.bresink.com/osx/SystemLoad.html
The computer or its user???
I think D'ell stopped shipping (and taking orders for) for a month or so in the spring a particular configuration of a core duo notebook for a similar reason. Then some of the ones they did ship still had a noise issue. I haven't heard it myself, but I'm probably too deaf anyway.
D'ell can pull a product and still have plenty of SKUs to offer. Apple cannot. Especially not now.
Good for Apple to face up to it.
but in this case the whining comes from the user trying to get things compiled and running...
The truly correct way to solve the problem is let other people buy the first generation hardware so that Apple can work out the bugs before the next release.
You use the word "correct" in a place where the word "wrong" would fit well.
Whenever the CPU is idle, an audible tone is emitted from beneath the left side of the of the keyboard. This tone has a frequency of approximately 6 KHz. Any use of the trackpad or keyboard (i.e. sending interrupts) causes this tone to become intermittent, but still present. As soon as user input ceases, the tone returns to a stable state. Other thing which affect the tone are my Energy Savings setting and whether I'm using any Firewire devices.
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...