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illibball087

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 27, 2009
213
0
my macbook keeps making this electrical whine noise around the upper left hand corner does anyone know what this is or how to fix it?
 
my macbook keeps making this electrical whine noise around the upper left hand corner does anyone know what this is or how to fix it?

Does it do it all the time (when nothing is plugged in...no power, devices anything)? If its always no matter what I have no idea but I have had bad cables or connectors make weird things happen.

If it doesn't do it when on battery only with nothing connected I would plug things in one at a time and try to track down the culprit.
 
I believe its the built-in motion sensor that these MacBooks have. My laptop was doing the same thing until I read up about it.
 
I believe its the built-in motion sensor that these MacBooks have. My laptop was doing the same thing until I read up about it.

So it stopped then? What did you do to make it quit or did it end on it's own? You kind of left the OP hanging.
 
It's the voltage regulation circuitry. On some units it's louder than others, but put your ear next to the magsafe connector when it's plugged in and you should be able to notice a hiss on any Macbook.
But if this is loud enough to bother you it's probably a flaw.
 
The magsafe, CPU power circuitry, and LCD circuitry can all make noise. For CPU noise you can try a program like QuietMBP that keeps the CPU at at least 1% use to try to suiet it. I also wrote a python script you can try that should do the same thing (search for python in posts by me). For the Magsafe there is not much you can do, some noise is normal, and mine has started making more noise with age. For the LCD, try changing the brightness. There used t be a problem with the bootcamp drivers that made the LCD noisy under Windows.

Try isolating any devices you might have connected (unplug everything, does it still make noise?), and minimize the length of any cables you might have since they can act as antennas and pick up noise (or radio signals, in the case of my rear speakers one time). You could try adding ferrite beads to everything, but I doubt they will do anything since they are mostly for high frequency noise (in the MHz range, which you can't hear).
 
Dudes...every time I hear this chatter it erks me because this is actually a case with every notebook I've ever touched...ever!

What does every computer have in common? In the heart of it is what's called a Central Processing Unit that processes away all your Youtube comment wars and bouncy anime chicks. And when you're doing evil sinful things like this, that Central Processing Unit simply weeps like Clay Aiken when he heard the news about Gianni Versace...so cut it out!












Seriously folks, open an application or scroll down a big intense sight like eBay and listen to it kick-up from idle for moments, it explains it all.
 
If you mean a high pitched buzzing sound that changes as you modulate brightness it's most likely a bad inverter board. I've had a couple of those in past PB/MPSs. Very annoying. Make an appt. w/ a genius to look at it & they'll send it in for repair.
 
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