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M1 iMac buzzing whining noise with low display brightness

Maybe he can't hear it, yeah. I just hope not to hear mine too much, I do work in a very quiet house, especially at night..
 
Anyway, for statistics, can you post the manufacturing country of your whistling iMac? Just to understand if it might be related to the manufacturing facility or not

It would also be nice to know if whistle free iMacs do exist or not
 
Kung gu said:
Like Android Manufactures or windows PC manufactures don't lie to their customers. Intel lies. AMD lies. Nvidia slows down their mining capability of their GPUs. RAM manufactures lie about RAM speed. SSD manufactures lie about the the SSD cells they use. They cheap out and say they use MLC ssd but instead you get TLC.

Don't act like the other side is pure and kind. You can't make your own PC parts. You will have it buy it from manufactures that cut corners as well and keep hidden details to themselves.

Android is even worse. If you think every Android manufacture does not lie to their customers. Oh boy.

Apple lies. I agree that they should disclose having 1 fan. But you DO have 14 days to return it. That's why they have return dates. Also this is why I watch reviews before bilndly buying.

So what happens when you buy a Windows laptop/PC or android phone and the company lied to you?

Yeah indeed but could you have gotten a 4.5K 500nit P3 display as well for half the price?
No

The M1 Mac mini is a way better buy if you don't care about the display.
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WOW! Chill on Intel and AMD.

Watch the overpriced M1 iMac get wasted by a 11th Gen INTEL! i9 chip laptop.

HEAT produces power! No HEAT. No Power.

 
Today I had the chance to test the iMac from my Mom. It also has the noise but a lot quieter and only when the brightness is below 40% -> In everyday use not noticeable.

Edit: Now that it is running for some time the sound is the same as mine :-( (starts below 70%)
 
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cookiemonster89 said:
Today I had the chance to test the iMac from my Mom. It also has the noise but a lot quieter and only when this brightness is below 40% -> I everyday use not noticeable.
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Thanks, very useful, this kind of noise would be ok to me
 
Freeangel1 said:
WOW! Chill on Intel and AMD.

Watch the overpriced M1 iMac get wasted by a 11th Gen INTEL! i9 chip laptop.

HEAT produces power! No HEAT. No Power.

Click to expand...
Yes, but the M1 chip does have much better performance per watt than Intel chips. I want a cool, quiet, computer, and I've been disgusted by the recent Intel chips and their lawnmower-loud fans. The performance is fine, but I'm not willing to make that tradeoff and suffer blasting fans all the time.
 
Mine does not make any sound at any brightness. It's a launch day white 8/8/16/1T USA, made in Thailand.

Edit: OK, if I press my hear against the chin of the iMac I can hear a slight whine at low brightness (maybe below 40% as others said). And this is in a very quiet (30 db) room, so the noise is very quiet. Electronics buzzing noise drives me crazy and this iMac doesn't bother me at all. But, if I could hear it from where I sit then I would definitely return the iMac.
 
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uller6 said:
Mine does not make any sound at any brightness. It's a launch day white 8/8/16/1T USA, made in Thailand.

Edit: OK, if I press my hear against the chin of the iMac I can hear a slight whine at low brightness (maybe below 40% as others said). And this is in a very quiet (30 db) room, so the noise is very quiet. Electronics buzzing noise drives me crazy and this iMac doesn't bother me at all. But, if I could hear it from where I sit then I would definitely return the iMac.
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Thanks, this would be perfect. Of course any electronics can make sounds and whines, we’re not talking about going with the ears near the chin. If at a normal use distance in a quiet room the sound is negligible it’s fine. There is hope then, fantastic.
 
I noticed that the buzzing sound changes based on what is displayed on the screen, not just the brightness level. If there are darker elements on the screen the sound is more noticeable. For example, if I toggle "Dark Mode" in display settings, this site (MacRumors) will cause the sound to be more noticeable in dark mode verses light mode.
 
It's all linked to power usage, a white screen consumes more power than a black screen, and the buzzing increases as the power usage decreases. It's all caused by Pulse Width Modulation
 
coso said:
It's all linked to power usage, a white screen consumes more power than a black screen, and the buzzing increases as the power usage decreases. It's all caused by Pulse Width Modulation
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You’re right, it is linked to power usage. If I connect my iPad to the iMac the buzz goes way because more power is being drawn to charge the iPad.
 
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So I received mine today. As expected, if I want to hear the buzz and I move close to the bottom right of the iMac I can hear it from 80% brightness and down (0 to 12 clicks). I'm sure all have to some degree. At a normal viewing distance during the day it's inaudible, no matter the brightness.

At night, in a quiet room, if you concentrate you can notice it faintly. But at a normal viewing distance (50-70cm from the screen) it's still quite hard to hear it.

So, what I think is that everyone should expect a little of this buzzing coil whine. But it should be quite faint.

On the other hand, if at a normal viewing distance and in a quiet but not dead silent room you can still hear a quite strong whine then you might want to have it exchanged.

For what it's worth mine was built in Ireland
 
Oh, another thing I noticed, on some streaming videos I sometimes get little "chirps" when I fast forward the video with the arrow keys. Usually with higher quality videos. Even at max brightness. Weird XD
 
Ok so this happens every time something a little heavier happens. It also happens when fast scrolling Reddit for example. Little chirps coming from the same spot, near the ports, different than the whine of low brightness but obviously same source. Louder for sure, but brief.
 
Same here, it indeed gets louder when dimming the display. I heard from another user the sound should settle in a few days, I don't know if it's true though. We'll see...
 
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Update, I did a restart and the sound went down considerably even at low display brightness.
 
coso said:
At night, in a quiet room, if you concentrate you can notice it faintly. But at a normal viewing distance (50-70cm from the screen) it's still quite hard to hear it.
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Unlike yours, mine was very audible in a quiet room. Now that I've restarted it it's a little more quiet, but not fixed.
 
coso said:
Oh, another thing I noticed, on some streaming videos I sometimes get little "chirps" when I fast forward the video with the arrow keys. Usually with higher quality videos. Even at max brightness. Weird XD
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As for the chirps, i haven't experienced them yet. It's only been a couple of days so I can't say for sure.
 
coso said:
Can any of you guys go on this page? https://context.reverso.net/traduzione/inglese-italiano/example my whine becomes quite strong on this page, for some reason. Like a goose squeaking. Super weird.
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Just visited this page on my M1 iMac and it also makes strange noises (considerably louder than those weird chirping sounds my mac usually makes). It's pretty annoying and this is on a replacement iMac as my previous one has the same issue.
 
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