new mbp with a popping noise

[johnellisdm]

i searched all the threads, but i couldn't find this exact problem (some related ones).

i'm finding that even with my sound turned all the way off, i can occationally hear a popping noise from the speaker. it is kinda like the sound you hear when your ears clear from altitude.

i get it with lots of things. one thing i've noticed is when a growl notification pops up.

it really is quite faint... it has to be very quiet in the room to hear, but it is definitely there.

any ideas? similar experiences?

[Rokusaburo]

yeah, i've been getting this as well. quite strange.

[ucsdmac]

yeah, i've been getting this as well. quite strange.

me too.

[duncan75]

Has anyone else been experiencing this? I just bought a new mbp (late 2008) and get an occasional popping noise from my speakers. It doesn't really seem to correlate with anything I'm doing within the OS and just happens every now and then for no apparent reason. I'll get one audible "pop" and that's it. No other sound distortions.

[keysersoze]

Does it only happen when the power cord is plugged in? Only on battery? Either/both?

[duncan75]

I'll do some experiments and get back on the results. I've done some preliminary searching on different forums and it seems to be a not uncommon experience among some other mbp users. Specifically, some of the penryn mbp users mention it. It's a sporadic single electric pop that comes from the speakers. It will not happen when music or audio is actively playing through the speakers, only when they are silent. It doesn't happen very often. I had another one happen just now after I installed adium and it alerted me that I needed to install growl for notifications. The pop happened exactly as the notification popped up but I do have it happen when I'm not doing anything. As it stands, my mbp is plugged in, with external speakers connected (klipsch) and also connected to a 24" external lcd.

[stooley]

Confirmed here too. Last time I heard it was with the power plugged in and I moved something to the trash can...sound completely off as well.

[KSpider]

Interesting, ill try to see if i can hear anything tonight

[duncan75]

Stooley, do you happen to have perian or any codec packages installed?

[antmo]

I get this too (late 2008 mbp 2.53ghz)... I'm almost certain it is from the sound chip initializing after it has gone into low power mode after some period of no audio. It never happens when there is active audio playing and I haven't ever noticed it happening when opening a video or starting audio playback... it only seems to happen when there is a sound effect of some sort that plays after some period of audio inactivity... I'll bet it can be fixed in the software driver/software audio subsystem...

mjb

[ant7783]

I get this also on my new MBP 2.4 and it seems only to happen as most of you said when the speakers seem to "turn on" but when the sound is on, it is completely fine

[rdrr]

I have had this with two 17" MBP 2.6 GHz. I brought it down to the Genius Bar, and they said it was the speakers waking from sleep to make a noise. It pops just before it makes a noise.

I have gotten use to it after 6 months of use.

[kockgunner]

this has been a problem with the older macbook pros too. my penryn started making the noises after 10.5.3 or something. it's super annoying. it pops when the computer is about to make a sound even when the speakers are off. it's as if the sound card is going into energy saving mode and has to turn on and off on the fly.

a few links:
http://www.maclife.com/forums/post/1539557
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=462516
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8268288
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7093747

it's too bad apple still hasn't fixed the issue. the noise makes my macbook pro sound all cheap.

[jjahshik32]

Ahh, I guess the new mbp hasnt fixed the audio popping issue.

My 2.4ghz white macbook occassionally does that, when the audio is idle for about 30 seconds to a minutes it makes the slight pop noise.

[consumedsoul]

+1 for popping noise on mine as well. :(

[v66jack]

My MB is only a week old now and this popping noise is starting to really bug me!! Is there not a way of stopping the sound card going to sleep or something! This is my first mac so i'm not really sure if this sort of thing is possible!:D

[n0d3]

I just returned mine, hopefully the replacement is better.

[magamo]

If I remember correctly, it's the noise produced when your laptop's sound system goes to sleep or awakes from sleep mode. No sounds for around 30 seconds or any sound when the sound system is idle will trigger the pop noise. It's more noticeable when you're using headphones.

I think I have read a thread or two about it on this forum, so MRoogle (http://mroogle.edesignuk.com/) may give you more info about it.

[n0d3]

But strange that the speakers pop after the audio system sleep. My older Yonah MBP doesn't suffer from the same problem, perhaps a power related/speaker issue also.

You can clearly hear the pop after the chime at startup and shutdown when the speakers power up/down.

[tarasis]

My MB is only a week old now and this popping noise is starting to really bug me!! Is there not a way of stopping the sound card going to sleep or something! This is my first mac so i'm not really sure if this sort of thing is possible!:D

I get it too on my fresh 17" MBP, particularly noticeable if you have the audio on mute. Its definitely like its turning on the audio system, but surprised that its hasn't been cured after all this time.

[sixmac]

no popping for me, but i just went to get up off the couch and picked it up with one hand over the CD slot with the lid open and it made a huge crack noise while carrying it, noise came from the internals or maybe the case.

[celtikmind]

I have this as well.

Although I don't see it as a problem (which might be due to mine having more severe problems like overheating et al.) it's sadly a depreciation in Apple build quality, yes.

We can just blame Apple, their QC/QA and their overzealous attention to gadgetmaking (iPhone).

As for this to be fixed, never. Some people hear it, some don't. Take it to Apple if you're not happy I guess and let them hear of it.

[procyonx86]

Maybe you guys can try this:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/29024

It's a program that prevents the sound system in osx from sleeping.

[alphaod]

I think the problem is related to the shorting out on the speakers, this would make it a hardware issue.

[Lloyd Christmas]

As a few other posters have stated, the sound card does turn off when not in use for a certain period of time. The same thing was happening with my mbp and the genius at the store told that the sound card turns off to save power or something along those lines. No way of turning it off just have to deal with it. maybe an update will fix this one day.