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DuganRun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2012
21
0
Nottingham, England.
Today my 2014 Macbook Air has started making a strange noise around the vent area near my 'esc' key.
It sounds like the noise you'd get from a CD player, an electrical pulsing sound almost, maybe slightly mechanical also but it doesn't sound like dirt or something is causing the noise as I've experienced this before with an earlier Macbook Air.
Any ideas?
 

DuganRun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2012
21
0
Nottingham, England.
It might be you fan. I have not heard mine from the time I did the original set up. Does it do it all the time of only after you have used it for awhile?

It happens most of the time and not because the macbook's hot, actually I've never heard the fan before and it seems to run very cool when operating.

Earlier I put my macbook to sleep for a few seconds and on waking it up the noise was gone but since returned, I'm not sure where the fan's located though I do suspect it may be the fan.
 

jjhoekstra

macrumors regular
Apr 23, 2009
206
29
I had something similar with a 2011 MA. After half a year or so the noise disappeared. I have always assumed that it was some piece of dirt or similar which was stuck in the fan. The same MA is still in use, very intensively by our student son, and still functions fine. I would check the temp of the CPU if the sound is audible. If the temp is fine than no real worries, otherwise bring it in for repairs.
Just my experience...
 
Last edited:

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,634
312
Today my 2014 Macbook Air has started making a strange noise around the vent area near my 'esc' key.
It sounds like the noise you'd get from a CD player, an electrical pulsing sound almost, maybe slightly mechanical also but it doesn't sound like dirt or something is causing the noise as I've experienced this before with an earlier Macbook Air.
Any ideas?

Yup, that's where the fan is. Sounds like something has caused it to become unbalanced. If you have the right screwdriver you should be able to pop off the bottom of the case very easily and the problem might be obvious. Maybe blow on the fan with some compressed air to clean it?
 

DuganRun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2012
21
0
Nottingham, England.
Thanks people, I have the relevant tools so I'll take a look, it's only been used a few times so I was doubtful it's had enough use to take on any foreign objects but I suppose anything's possible.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
Anything packed this tightly all it needs is a loose screw for the blades to start rubbing, or cause a heat shield to start vibrating
 

tmarks11

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2010
509
32
The back comes off very easily if you have the right screwdriver.

Just make sure to push it in firmly, as the screw holes are really small, and if the screwdriver slides out even a little you will strip the screw driver head.

Once you get it open, blow out the fan with compressed air.
 

Y So Jelly

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2013
126
6
Just had this problem last week. Made a ticking noise whenever I moved the laptop. Took it to apple, "Genius" opened it up, gave it back to me and said it was a bad fan bearing. Intermittent noise became permanent once he touched it. I'm under AppleCare, so they ordered a new fan and replaced it 24 hrs after receiving the part. No more noise.

IIRC the part was $17 and labor was ~$50. There's a walk-through on ifixit.com. I read that greasing the bearing may also cure the problem.
 
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