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High pitch noise from inside MBP i7

2contagious

2contagious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 29, 2008
755
0
UK
Hi,

I noticed that my CTO MacBook Pro 17 inch i7 CPU with 7200rpm drive (Seagate) and 8GB RAM makes a high pitch sound. The in-store model I had before (with 5400rpm drive and 4GB RAM) did not make this sound, so I am wondering: Is this coming from the hard drive? I opened it up to check where the sound was coming from, but am still not sure.. it seems to either come from the hard drive or around the area to the right of the hard drive. Is the Seagate 7200rpm drive that Apple ships known to be a hissing/high pitch sounding drive?

-2c
 
Hard to tell unless someone has experienced the exact same issue. Could be a lot of things though. I would go to the apple store or call support. No reason to have a new mac that has abnormal sounds.
 
Pretty good chance it is the hard drive. I tried a Seagate 7200 rpm in my new MBP, and it was unacceptably noisy and vibrated the palmrests. I ended up putting and SSD drive in, and the machine is now totally silent. Can't hear the cooling fans at all. Seems that certain 7200 rpm drives do vibrate in the unibody MBPs.
 
okay.. I have taken the hard drive out and replaced it with a hard drive that I know is silent.. the high pitch sound does NOT come from hard drive. It comes from two places:

- the area in between the battery and the hard drive (around where the battery cable connects to the logic board.

- the area (inside) around where the battery level indicator is on the enclosure outside.

The high pitch noise gets louder when the power adapter is connected and goes away when you press the battery level indicator button on the enclosure.. it then comes back, once it has shown the level of battery life left.


Is this "normal" or is something wrong with the circuitry or something? I noticed that my flatmate's 13" MacBook Pro (2009 version though) also makes a slight high pitch hissing noise, but by far not as annoying/loud as on my i7 MBP.
 
This might be the dreaded CPU "napping" noise that has plagued the Mac audio recording community for several years. My 6-year-old PB G4 does it, and several MPB, iMacs, and even Mac Pros have been known to make this noise as well, which is often made worse with Firewire devices plugged in. Sounds kinda like this:

http://soundcloud.com/cloudveins/mbp-firewire-noise-problem-mic-placed-near-power-supply-of-macbook

Thankfully, the solution is relatively easy. Download and install CHUD Tools from Apple (you might have to register as a Developer to access this but it's free.) This will install a new "Processor Preferences" pane in your System Preferences. If it doesn't show up in your Sys Prefs automatically, you can manually install it by running:

MacHD>Developer>Extras>PreferencePanes>Processor.prefPane

Under Processor Preferences, uncheck the "Allow Nap" box. This should kill the noise.

CPU Napping is meant to save power and reduce heat by forcing your CPU to take tiny micro-second "naps" between calculations. For some reason, certain CPUs tend to "snore" during these naps--which is the unfortunate high-pitch squeal I suspect you're hearing. Bearing this in mind, your CPU might run a little hotter with Napping disabled, but it's never been a problem on my PB.
 
Mine has the same configurations except that the drive is a 5400rpm one. The machine is very very quiet!
 
banalelectric said:
This might be the dreaded CPU "napping" noise that has plagued the Mac audio recording community for several years. My 6-year-old PB G4 does it, and several MPB, iMacs, and even Mac Pros have been known to make this noise as well, which is often made worse with Firewire devices plugged in. Sounds kinda like this:

http://soundcloud.com/cloudveins/mbp-firewire-noise-problem-mic-placed-near-power-supply-of-macbook

Thankfully, the solution is relatively easy. Download and install CHUD Tools from Apple (you might have to register as a Developer to access this but it's free.) This will install a new "Processor Preferences" pane in your System Preferences. If it doesn't show up in your Sys Prefs automatically, you can manually install it by running:

MacHD>Developer>Extras>PreferencePanes>Processor.prefPane

Under Processor Preferences, uncheck the "Allow Nap" box. This should kill the noise.

CPU Napping is meant to save power and reduce heat by forcing your CPU to take tiny micro-second "naps" between calculations. For some reason, certain CPUs tend to "snore" during these naps--which is the unfortunate high-pitch squeal I suspect you're hearing. Bearing this in mind, your CPU might run a little hotter with Napping disabled, but it's never been a problem on my PB.
Click to expand...

Hi,

thanks for the info :) I downloaded the CHUD tools and installed the preference pane, but there is no option for disabling CPU napping.. I also tried disabling it with a terminal command, but it told me that "nap is not supported by this CPU". I guess it is either some other issue then.. or there is no fix for this model at the moment :( I have scheduled a pick up for my macbook pro and will be getting a refund. After 4 years of working with a MacBook Pro (from 2006.. first generation) that had this very same problem, I just do not want another whining laptop.. and after going through 7 different MacBook Pros now just to get one that doesn't have a crapped up screen, dead pixels, stuck pixels or scratches on the enclosure, I think I have made my decision to say goodbye to MacBook Pros for now (I might buy one again in the future) and go with a Mac Pro tower once they get updated (hopefully during WWDC). I just hope that they won't have any issues...
 
2contagious said:
Hi,

thanks for the info :) I downloaded the CHUD tools and installed the preference pane, but there is no option for disabling CPU napping.. I also tried disabling it with a terminal command, but it told me that "nap is not supported by this CPU". I guess it is either some other issue then.. or there is no fix for this model at the moment :( ...
Click to expand...


m85476585 said:
Unfortunately the kind of noise you are hearing is common, and not much can be done about it.
http://guides.macrumors.com/MacBook...e_coming_from_the_computer._Is_that_normal.3F

You can try the program ShhMBP and see if that helps. It is basically the same idea as disabling napping, but it works with all processors.
Click to expand...

I thought this processor "whine" has been fixed since the unibodies were introduced!

I have an old Core Duo Macbook Pro (one of the first Intel models) and boy does it have the electrical noise or CPU whine which ShhMBP fortunately fixes. I've also come across 3 other Windows laptops that exhibit the whine.

BUT when I got one of the first 15" unibody MacBook Pros, it definitely didn't have the noise anymore. Same thing when I sold it and replaced it with a 17" MacBook Pro which is CPU whine free.

So I find it hard to believe that the new i5s and i7s would have the noise. I had a brief play with a friend's 15" i5 in a quiet room and I couldn't hear any electrical noise.
 
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