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iPhone 7 Plus Makes Hissing Sound Under Load, Some Users Complain (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the phone-on-steroid dept.

Several commendable users are complaining that their iPhone 7 Plus handsets are making a "hissing" noise especially when they do some heavy weight work. Some users note that this issue extends to the iPhone 7 as well. BusinessInsider reports:Stephen Hackett, cofounder of podcast network Relay FM, tweeted that his iPhone 7 Plus "makes terrible noises when under load," and shared an audio clip of the noise. TechCrunch writer (and former Apple employee) Darrell Etherington responded that his "brand new, just-unboxed [device is] doing the same thing right now." It sounds like the problem isn't affecting all devices, and it's not immediately clear what's behind it. Hackett said on Twitter that Apple will be replacing his device with a new one, which suggests it's a defect rather than just an unexpected quirk of the new smartphone's design. There's some speculation out there as to what's causing it - but nothing concrete yet. Engadget's Jon Fingas suggests it could be "coil whine," a process where electronics make an unintended noise while working, for example.

33 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. The Holy Ghost of Steve Jobs Says by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "You're listening to it wrong."

    1. Re:The Holy Ghost of Steve Jobs Says by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Funny

      What do you expect when the phone doesn't have a headphone jack?

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:The Holy Ghost of Steve Jobs Says by Thud457 · · Score: 2

      The Cronenbergphone is supposed to hiss. Just tickle the belly a little before inserting the ovipositor in your ear.

      Haha, just kidding...
      That's just the C4 in the battery cooking off as it warms up, nothing to worry about!

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  2. Don't buy the first batches... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I always wait a couple of months before purchasing a new device, especially in the smartphones department.

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    1. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Customers were told that they wanted thinner, stronger, and water resistant.

      FTFY.

      "I would buy a new iPhone if it were just a little bit thinner," said no Apple customer ever.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who (i.e. what customers) asked for this un-feature to be thrust upon us consumers?

      "Please remove the headphone jack so I'm forced to buy new hardware" said no one, ever.

      I can pretty much guarantee that no customer ever asked for this "feature". As for their remark that it was "courage", that's utter bullshit.

      Storming the beach at Normandy took courage.
      Running into a burning building to save someone is courage.
      Martin Luther King Jr. standing up for equal rights was courage.
      Jacklyn H. Lucas, who jumped on two grenades to save his buddies showed courage.

      Removing a fucking headphone jack from a phone doesn't quite cut it in my book, sorry.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    3. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      "If I asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse". - Henry Ford

      Either the experiment works and everyone ditches the headphone jack or it fails and everyone gets a laugh.

      Given the number of other things Apple's done like this I'll side on this becoming a trend.

    4. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by swb · · Score: 2

      Given the number of other things Apple's done like this I'll side on this becoming a trend.

      The problem is that the other switches Apple made were to alternatives that were actually better -- USB is more useful than other keyboard/mouse ports, other portable storage devices were better than floppies, and lightning is better than the 30 pin port.

      It's not clear to me that bluetooth is superior to a 3.5mm headphone jack, or even nearly equal. The only thing it does better is not have a cord.

      My experience with a dozen or so miscellaneous BT devices has been that while they mostly work, they can be prone to problems -- pairing can be anything from totally reliable to totally unreliable, depending on device, plus the problems associated with moving a BT device to another device often involves clearing and re-pairing. I've had occasional problems with RF noise in certain environments, resulting in dropouts or distortion. BT devices need charging and don't generally last more than a 6 hours without recharging. I've had numerous laptops that lose the BT paired mouse for no apparent reason, requiring anything from power cycling the mouse to rebooting the computer to resolve.

      For bluetooth to really fit the previous examples of Apple "improvements", IMHO bluetooth needs major and significant improvement, all of which probably works against it from a physics perspective. 24 hour continuous use without recharging. Far more intelligent pairing setup, including active pairing and audio mixing of multiple devices simultaneously. Battery life cycles equivalent to the physical life of the device. In other words, it needs to have so many advantages corded headphones can't offer that its actually more useful. It's not like that now.

      It sounds like Apple have baked in some of this in their proprietary new earbud setup, but it's proprietary -- and it doesn't actually solve much of the problems with bluetooth, really.

    5. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by irrational_design · · Score: 2

      Wait, who is asking for thinner? The thing is already so thin that I could snap it in half with my bare hands. How about going thicker and doubling the batter life?

    6. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by swb · · Score: 2

      I think the optical drive is an example of Apple following, not leading. I think the broad base of consumers moved off optical media before Apple removed the drive -- software as ISO downloads (loopback mounted, not written), downloaded music, streaming or downloaded video and so on.

      Apple removing it was just a response to lack of consumer interest in it.

      I work as an IT contractor and I haven't used an optical drive in literally years -- I'm on my second disc-less laptop now. Ironically, most operating systems and major applications are still distributed as ISO images but either installed via loopback mounts or written as bootable USB sticks.

    7. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wait, who is asking for thinner?

      Those people who put their phones in a fat extended battery case? </sarcasm>

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    8. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Three things all aided by removal of that jack.

      Actually there's a fourth thing: Apple relying on users to gobble up the garbage that you just spewed as a reason when in the grand scheme of things people called them out on their shit previously.

      Seriously their market share is below 20% now which shows a great deal of users don't give a shit.

    9. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      No optical drive is "more useful" than having one? Because that's one of the examples Apple gave of things they dropped first, that most followed.

      An external optical drive that is used three or four times a year is better than an internal one that you have to carry with you, yes. They add a fairly significant amount of weight.

      That said, even though I rarely used the internal drive, and even though they were kind of flaky, I still wish Apple made a single Retina model with a spinning hard drive and an optical drive. The last pre-Retina model is, IMO, the ultimate Mac laptop when configured with a 2 TB SSD in the hard drive bay and a 2 TB (or if they made it just a few mm thicker, 3 TB) spinning hard drive in the optical drive bay. Compared with that, the Retina MBP with its 1 TB SSD looks like an absolute toy.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    10. Re:Don't buy the first batches... by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 2

      I have been buying iPhones since the 3GS (recording videos was when I jumped in). The 3GS is still going strong as one of the kids iPod touches. However, I won't be buying any more iPhones after my 6 plus unless and until they listen to actual customers (or customers who aren't also total morons). The iPhone 7 is clearly designed by a committee who really had two driving motives: make Apple more money and make it waterproof.

      I want things like:
      Waterproof without removing basic, essential features in lieu of $150 proprietary earbuds (or open source your standard so anyone can produce products for the device/use it however they want.)
      Wireless charging
      a battery that gives me a week of phone in standby.
      solid, reliable phone call quality and connection
      Solid, reliable wifi connection that plays nice with other devices
      500GB storage and a micro SD slot for hot swappable storage
      A screen that can be dropped 3 feet and not shatter like a damn Fabrige Egg (think sapphire screens)
      Cool sensors and features that let my phone replace other things I carry or use regularly. (a pair of cameras on opposite ends of one face for 3D imaging, a laser pointer, a projected full size keyboard, IR thermal camera, etc.)

      Things I don't want:
      Regular glass lenses on the cameras and screen (iPhone 7)
      Super thin, super light, weak phone that dies at noon or breaks at the drop of a hat.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  3. bad inductor selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would guess they chose an inductor too small and it is vibrating.

    1. Re:bad inductor selection by sexconker · · Score: 2

      And I would guess the newfangled "barometric vent" is acting like a megaphone for all noisy components inside.

    2. Re: bad inductor selection by jenningsthecat · · Score: 2

      Clearly there's a tiny snake coiled up in there. And it's angry.

      Clearly there's a tiny coil snaked up in there. FTFY

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    3. Re:bad inductor selection by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      No, inductors do not make sound in modern DCDC supply.

      What a silly statement to make. Modern? DCDC supplies have not changed in the last 20 years. The ability for a coil to make a whine has always come down to a combination of design choice and manufacturing. Caps designed for powersupplies have nothing to do with hiss and everything to do with low Effective Serial Resistance, a stat that makes them more effective at handling high transient current flows that are common in powersupplies.

      Also the stand-off's are a standard package components allowing those canned style of capacitors to be physically supported against the board despite their leads being bent out of the bottom. If this did anything noise wise, it would amplify the noise (which doesn't exist) by coupling it to the PCB. What these are really for is to prevent stress on the leads and they are a completely standard part of any capacitor of those dimension used in any scenario with a wide variety of specifications.

      What will the most likely case be? Harmonics on the coil caused by a minor manufacturing defect in a couple of components.

    4. Re:bad inductor selection by willy_me · · Score: 4, Informative

      The big change in DCDC design is in the different modes of operation that a DCDC controller can support. It used to be simple pulse width modulation but now we have pulse width modulation and, to use a term adopted by Linear, "Burst" mode DCDC converters. The purpose of the "burst" mode is to achieve low power level efficiency by on/off modulating the DCDC converter. The resulting on/off modulation can be within the acoustic range even if the actual DCDC converter is switching in the MHz range. So Linear, TI, Analog - they all now support their own version of a "burst" mode.

      In the past 5 years, far more parts from various manufacturers are available for designing systems that goes to sleep but require always-on power rails. You used to have to pair a DCDC and LDO together to achieve the best of both worlds. And companies like Murata have capacitors specifically designed to assist in alleviating the whine. Check out their product line for a more detained description. I have designed and built power supplies that have had a noticeable whine - typically under low load. So I can confirm - it is the caps.

  4. #hissgate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    #hissgate

    1. Re:#hissgate by Alypius · · Score: 2

      It's Apple's new spyware, codenamed AlgerHiss.

  5. Fanboies are often the biggest critics. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have noticed this in most equiptment over the past 30+ years of computing. I remember hearing the processing noise from my old Amstrad PC-1512C 8086. Which didn't have any cooling fans so when I did heavy processing it would make a whining sound.
    I also hear a whining sound from my wireless router, I can often hear noise on LCD Displays, especially on a full screen refresh. I expect the the iPhone 7 it is doing so much stuff (whether it being useful or not is open for a another internet flame post) and the new CPU allows it to do more enough to cause a noise.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  6. Dr Archangel says ... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Funny

    Take two antiHISStamine and call Apple in the morning.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  7. The headphone ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...They're haunting Apple. "Bring us baaaaaack.....*hiss*......Bring us baaaaaaack....."

  8. My guess by Megahard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's the sound of your soul being sucked into the device. That's why it's noticeable on a "brand new, just-unboxed device". Should go away after a few days, once you are completely soul-less.

    --
    I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
  9. Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? by number6x · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone at Apple has been coding in Python instead of Swift.

  10. Apple Iphone Proud Sponsor by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple iPhone, proud sponsor of house Slitherin.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  11. Probably a combination of factors by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Informative

    Given that Apple is apparently quite obscessed with making their device the same thickness as a sheet of onion skin paper, the issue is likely a combination of things.

    Namely, thermal noise needs to be overcome with higher voltages, which then get switched at pretty high speeds. That switching of higher than normal voltages (because it is under load, and having to overcome passive cooling only) coupled with a most likely saturating floating ground, means RF signal leakage. Given that one of the proposed reasons for Apple's removal of the headphone jack was that they were having problems with RF noise being produced and picked up on the headphones (and nothing to do with "Courage") I find this likely, and suspect the issue to be more systemic than apple wants to admit, especially in light of the Samsung battery disaster.

    (EG, the reality that you can't reasonably push a design that thin without having very real problems with the electronics does not fly well with the ivory tower designers with sticks up their asses at Apple, but their marketing droids pay better attention, and realize this is a potential problem they need to be mum about. I would expect higher rates of failure from out of expected tolerance voltages on devices driven hard, and apple blaming the users, rather than the hardware like they should be.)

    1. Re:Probably a combination of factors by viperidaenz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's actually an explanation for their use of the word courage. It takes courage to release a product full of design flaws, masked by removing features you can't get working.

    2. Re:Probably a combination of factors by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The CPU gets hot when in use. To overcome thermal noise, the voltage on the CPU goes up a little.

      There is an expected tolerance band for operation, and the control of the voltage on the CPU and ram has upper bounds for very good reasons.

      I am suggesting that the normal operation of this voltage regulation under computational load results in increased bus noise due to a saturated ground, and that apple considered this acceptable because most users will just be listening to mp3s, or playing casual crap on Facebook, and not taxing the system this way, making the issue statistically ignorable.

      The way you deal with signal bleed on a device that cannot be earth grounded is to have a very large conductor inside that serves as a floating ground. Usually this is sandwiched inside the PCB as a good thick copper layer. Apple wants a device that is practically lighter than air, and thin as a straight razor. Copper is pretty heavy, and extra layers inside the PCB add thickness. Both are things the idiots, I mean, "geniuses" in Cupertino think are trendy to do away with. As a consequence, I expect the grounding layer to be thinner than what is actually needed for the proper operation of the device at heavy load, resulting in ground saturation. When the ground saturates, coupled with a hot CPU from heavy load, the regulator pumps up the voltage to try to assure reliable signals are being generated. This adds to the problem, because now more heat is being added and the ground is already saturated, so rf noise leaks everywhere. Throw in a densely packed PCB, where lots of devices will pick up the noise, and you have a recipie for early component failure.

      All the devices are working within design, but the design is poorly considered.

      Rather than admit that the design is poorly considered, due to the absurdity of trying to make a high performance device that thin, I expect apple to blame users for overloading the phone instead. The noise only happens when the system is taxed, because it was designed to play on facebook, not number crunch.

      I expect the engineers decided that transient loads of 100% were acceptable because it takes time to saturate the ground, and most things a user will do won't saturate the CPU like that.

      For reference, most CPUs run between 1.2 and 1.5 vdc, with subtle changes up and down based on activity and temperature. This is normal, expected operation. In this case, the ground saturates when the CPU sits at 100% for a long time, and the voltage sits at 1.5v, with transient voltages from rf buildup pushing components outside that from the saturated ground.

      Hypothetically.

  12. Re:Subharmonic Oscillation of a DC-DC by wierd_w · · Score: 2

    A proper circuit with proper drainage would be a whole 1mm thicker!

    The GODS at apple's aesthetics department spoke, and the lowly peons were told to MAKE IT HAPPEN.

    They did. You are listening to it wrong!

    BTW, the new iPhone8 will be EVEN THINNER!

  13. Terrible noise? by nuckfuts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I take it this is a first-world definition of "terrible"?

    I had to turn up my speakers to even hear the video.

  14. Basilisk by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    I think that it just means the people who hear it are Parselmouthed and can hear the inner basilisk spell that runs the A10.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.