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MrCheeto

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
3,494
341
I don't hardly know how to describe this sound, but it never occurred until minutes after upgrading to Lion.

My model is a 2009 MacBook Pro 13".

I can tell it's clearly the CPU making the sound. If you listen to the attached recording, you can hear the CPU whining as it normally does, but the whining ducks as the chirping is heard!!!

This occurs about every thirty seconds to a minute, even while I'm doing nothing at all on the Mac.

The following sounds are of the vent-area of the Mac. You can hear the fans, the hard drive accessing for a moment, and then finally the chirp.

What in the hell?
 

Attachments

  • CPU noise.m4a.zip
    189.9 KB · Views: 226

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,413
43,304
Could it be feedback into the speaker? My old G4 Powerbook had noise issues where there was interference causing noises to come from the speaker.

btw, you're probably going to get a lot of posts stating that the the CPU cannot make noise given the design, (just a piece of silicone) buried in thermal grease, encased in a heat sync. I'm one of those people ;)

That sound has to be generating from some other component
 

MrCheeto

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
3,494
341
Not at all. All CPU's make sound...really! Do you recall the "moo'ing" MacBook Pro's?

My Mac, along with anybody's processor, makes a constant low-volume whine, as is heard constantly through the recording.

By the way, when you turn the speaker volume completely down, there are times when you can hear the speakers "click" on as they receive initial voltage. With my speakers off, I don't hear them click on.

Finally, the last bit of evidence is that the normal CPU whine actually ducks around the chirp, confirming that it is coming from the CPU.
 

MrCheeto

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
3,494
341
the the CPU cannot make noise given the design

CPU's have no moving parts, so cannot make a noise.

Oh is that a fact?

"every computer we tested showed significant correlation between acoustic spectrum and CPU activities, and in about half the cases the effect could be heard by naked ear when using appropriate CPU activity patterns."

You were saying...?

trollface.jpg
 
Last edited:

RJCP

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2011
434
40
So you're telling me that the trasnformers hanging off the power lines outside your home have moving parts? Because I don't know if you're aware, but under load, they make a lot of noise. Oh, and have you ever walked under a high-voltage power line? Wow, they must be moving all over the place to hum the way they do. Amirite?

I dare either of you to place your ear to an iPod Nano 2nd gen, hear the constant whine, and tell me it's the hard drive. As. Freaking. If. Wanna google that one for me? Huh? Because this site says that the iPods were making so much noise that they annoyed people. Oh lawd, there must be some serious movement going on inside... that or you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

I'm not going to sit here and take these kinds of replies from ill-educated nooberts. If you don't know what you're talking about, move along.

Oh my freaking gawrd, what did I find here?

Image

I'm sorry, but what does that say??? What are we measuring here???

Image

Not trying to be rude, but I'm going to be as long as there are under-educated, naive, under-experienced over-privelaged kids marching around declaring what they believe to be law with no real experience to back it up. I'm sorry, but I've been inside nearly a thousand computers. Once you've gotten so much under your belt, then you can try to dispute me. But until then, sit back and let the adults talk it out.

I have a late 2008 13'' Alum MB and I get exactly the same problem when my system is too idle. It usually stops if I scroll up or down or if I put the CPU to work. There's this app that basically makes the CPU process irrelevant things in order to prevent the whine, but after a while it starts to make the processor work too much and the fans kick off. There's tons of people with this problem.
 

AJ-X

macrumors newbie
May 8, 2011
26
0
Ok, i'll admit I was wrong and I should not have posted without knowing answer for definite. I'm sorry but you are very rude and there is no need for it. You could have just as easily posted the link to the article without the rude remarks.

Calling people 'ill-educated nooberts', 'under-educated', 'naive', 'under-experienced' and 'over-privileged' without knowing them is totally unacceptable and shows others that your not a mature adult.

As I said I am sorry that I posted without knowing about the issue you were describing and thank you for posting the link to the article about CPU noise, I will never make that mistake again. :)
 

MrCheeto

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
3,494
341
shows others that your not a mature adult.

I'm not, though.So where's the discrepancy? :D

You learn something new every day. Today, in fact, I learned that armadillos can't dodge traffic for ****. Sounded like running over a plastic bottle with the cap still secured...
 
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