HDD-like sound coming from Retina.

[Breedlove]

I just got a replacement 15" Haswell rMBP that is perfect in every respect... except that it sounds like it has an HDD in it (read-write clicks/buzzing). Obviously it doesn't have one but that's what it sounds like.

Is this normal?

There isn't much documentation on this (if it even is an problem) and I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid but I thought I'd see what everyone thinks.

It happens whenever I load anything (apps, navigate in safari, scroll down a webpage, etc).

I've tried isolating the problem but I can't figure out what is causing this (it's not the fans, not the backlit keyboard, not either of the GPUs). All that I can think of is the SSD, CPU, or RAM. But aren't all these supposed to be silent?


Of course, if this is normal then I'm probably just sounding like an idiot, but I swear my other machines with SSDs are completely silent until the fans kick in.

Help appreciated!

 

[AirThis]

Same here on the gen 1, but it's really very faint. The only time I can hear it distinctly is when running Black Magic. It amuses me more than anything else. Hey, I got a hard disk. 😀

 

[Breedlove]

I wish I could say mine was faint.
If I watch a YouTube video with the volume set to 1 bar, I can hear the buzzing/clicking over the sound of the video 🙁

 

[tlink91]

This could be completely irrelevant but this used to happen on my old 2008 Alu Unibody macbook, apparently its the CPU making the noise. If you do a few google searches online the CPU can actually makes those sounds for some reasons, though I don't understand why.

 

[Breedlove]

Well this could be annoying... 😡
Paying another visit to the Apple Store tomorrow then to get it checked out...

 

[tlink91]

Good luck with that, hopefully you get it all sorted!

 

[Breedlove]

Ok, it's definitely the CPU.
Turned off Automatic Graphics Switching and it's much quieter with the 750M running; until the CPU starts running that is.
Doh.
At least I'll know what to say to the sales associate tomorrow.

 

[tlink91]

To add to that, from my experience and what I've read about this problem and had myself it doesn't cause any issues apart from the noise annoyance. Apparently even desktop CPUs occasionally do that. Do let us know what the Apple store sales people tell you about it.

 

[Macman45]

I'm guessing that the fan is either noisy or on it's way out...Best to get it checked out.

 

[AirThis]

I'm not sure it's the fan in my case. No clicking noise here. Just a hard disk noise. It does it when the fans are pretty much idle. Not sure it's the same issue as OP. It makes no difference what graphics card I use. It's very faint. Like a distant noise of cornflakes popping in a milk bowl.