My MacBook is.. "whining" (But not the "moo" whine..)

[Kardashian]

Hey all.

Let's start with I'm pissed. Not in the vodka sense. In the "I'm on my 6th MacBook, now this one's falling apart" pissed.

After every single one of my white MacBooks made like Joseph and his Technicolour Raincoat.. I decided to stump up the extra cash, and bought a BlackBook in June.

Until now it has been bloody brilliant. Flawless.

This week, the hinge started to creak. I've going travelling for 8 months, so with other things on my mind, I could live with it.

Now, my MacBook has started to make a, well, I can't even describe it, sort of noise. It's underneath the left side of the keyboard, mostly under the "QWERTY/ASDF" area (if anyone knows what inside a MacBook around this area?)

It sounds like a whurrzling/gurgle/whine. Remember the noise old Windows boxes used to make when they would get really stressed and the fans would be on, and it would just sound, well, noisy?

Well, its like that. Either way, its not right. Its never done it before, and neither did any of the colour changing chameleon MacBooks.

Any idea what it could be so when I rant to Apple on Monday I can really go for it? Once and for all

 

[elcid]

Jesus never had a Technicolor Dreamcoat. That was Joseph.

 

[Kardashian]

Jesus never had a Technicolor Dreamcoat. That was Joseph.

Haha. I love it. I'm so mad but that made me chuckle

 

[bluefiberoptics]

Just tell the truth and what you told us. If something started happening that wasn't there when you bought it, let Apple know.

 

[byakuya]

I have the exact same issue...called apple care and they told me to send it in for service.
In my case it's a sizzling/buzzing weird noise that I can hear from 5 feet away and it's independent of processor usage (and the same exact spot as you described). I'm kinda pissed too about it since I really am not in the situation of being able to give away my MB for service because I have loads of work to do but just couldn't live with the constant noise level anymore...it's going in for service on monday. Hopefully, it won't take forever to be repaired. I have to say though that apple care is excellent service-wise...it remains to be seen if they are as good in repairing macbooks. I hope they are...

byakuya

 

[antdgar]

does it stop when u use isight? mine does..

 

[Kardashian]

I have the exact same issue...called apple care and they told me to send it in for service.
In my case it's a sizzling/buzzing weird noise that I can hear from 5 feet away and it's independent of processor usage (and the same exact spot as you described). I'm kinda pissed too about it since I really am not in the situation of being able to give away my MB for service because I have loads of work to do but just couldn't live with the constant noise level anymore...it's going in for service on monday. Hopefully, it won't take forever to be repaired. I have to say though that apple care is excellent service-wise...it remains to be seen if they are as good in repairing macbooks. I hope they are...

byakuya

Actually, thats probably another way of describing it - a sizzle.

Like you, it is also not linked to computer processes, or how much work the processor is having to do.

I'm going to see if Apple will drop off anoter BlackBook so I can swap over the HD's, like I did with the 6 MacBooks they exchanged.

 

[Kardashian]

does it stop when u use isight? mine does..

I never use iSight.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

I never use iSight.

Bad answer. If it stops when you use iSight it might just be a processor whine, very common for Macbooks.

 

[Kardashian]

Bad answer. If it stops when you use iSight it might just be a processor whine, very common for Macbooks.

None of my other 5 MacBooks did it.

 

[byakuya]

does it stop when u use isight? mine does..

well...it sometimes does...but it also starts occasionally when the isight is turned on.
the buzzing/sizzle wasn't there the first 6 months so I really think it is a hardware issue...I mean the cpu whine isn't so loud that you can hear it from almost 5 to 6 feet away is it?
anyways, I'll post how it went after it was in service.

sincerely hope it can be fixed because it sure is annoying.

byakuya

 

[Kardashian]

well...it sometimes does...but it also starts occasionally when the isight is turned on.
the buzzing/sizzle wasn't there the first 6 months so I really think it is a hardware issue...I mean the cpu whine isn't so loud that you can hear it from almost 5 to 6 feet away is it?
anyways, I'll post how it went after it was in service.

sincerely hope it can be fixed because it sure is annoying.

byakuya

On top of that, the hinge and bottom of the case is creaking, and the trackpad button feels 'loose'.

 

[Kardashian]

Called Apple, spoke to someone in the US. God knows why. The line was really bad, could barely understand him.

He couldn't graps the concent of ''Apple send me a new MacBook, I copy everything via FireWire, then they pick up the old one" - like they've done 5 times previous.

Apparently they don't do it.

After a lot of haggling, he said he would set it up as so, only once as a special exception.

I guess we'll see if a new MacBook turns up in a few days.

*FINGERS CROSSED*

 

[byakuya]

my macbook is still in repair
but good news...apparently it really was a defect (logicboard...something about a current converter).
hopefully the macbook will be back soon.

byakuya

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Not to be an Apple hater or anything but imo the macbooks have piss-poor quality and design.

Every owner of every god damn single macbook I have encountered has either had: processor whine, screen inverter problems (flashing at low light settings), RSS (random shutdown syndrome) and ALL of them have had the plastic crack at the right wrist. Uncool. Very uncool. Especially for such a cool looking laptop

 

[Ron21]

I also have the processor buzzing noise in my recently purchased macbook (oct. 2nd).

However this is not a defect from what I understand. It's linked to the way the core2duo cpu idles. In fact I want to staples recently and almost all of the C2D pc laptops (from hp, sony, etc..) made the buzzing noise when idle.

Funny thing is that my macbook doesn't make the buzzing noise when I boot into windows via bootcamp. Only happens in OSX, so this leads me to believe that it's related to a lower power/idle state in OSX.

 

[byakuya]

I also have the processor buzzing noise in my recently purchased macbook (oct. 2nd).

However this is not a defect from what I understand. It's linked to the way the core2duo cpu idles. In fact I want to staples recently and almost all of the C2D pc laptops (from hp, sony, etc..) made the buzzing noise when idle.

Funny thing is that my macbook doesn't make the buzzing noise when I boot into windows via bootcamp. Only happens in OSX, so this leads me to believe that it's related to a lower power/idle state in OSX.

you are right about the cpu whine...however that buzzing/feeping noise is from what I hear not that loud and goes away when the processor load gets over 10% (I guess the reason why it does not happen in xp is either xp constantly uses more processor performance than os x or it doesn't use the idle option).
However, if you have a buzzing noise that occurs regardless of cpu load then there is a good chance that there is something wrong and you should let someone check it out.

byakuya

 

[Ron21]

you are right about the cpu whine...however that buzzing/feeping noise is from what I hear not that loud and goes away when the processor load gets over 10% (I guess the reason why it does not happen in xp is either xp constantly uses more processor performance than os x or it doesn't use the idle option).
However, if you have a buzzing noise that occurs regardless of cpu load then there is a good chance that there is something wrong and you should let someone check it out.

byakuya

Actually I'm running Vista. When in Vista the MacBook is 100% silent even at 1% cpu usage. (no buzzing noises, except of course for the fan sound).

So OSX must have some type of idle mode that enables something in the CPU that makes the buzzing noise. I'm guessing it is some type of low power state.

 

[chris y.]

When in Vista the MacBook is 100% silent even at 1% cpu usage. (no buzzing noises, except of course for the fan sound).

I noticed that too with my macbook, but running under battery doesnt last nearly as long under Vista. Im installing Leopard now I wonder if it will have any effect on the noise when using OSX.

 

[Ron21]

I noticed that too with my macbook, but running under battery doesnt last nearly as long under Vista. Im installing Leopard now I wonder if it will have any effect on the noise when using OSX.

Keep us updated if leopard does anything.