New Mac - Beeping

[ashleyg84]

Hello,

I just picked up a new MBP and loving it so far.

Not sure if anyone else experiances this so I thought I would ask.

When I have walked away from my Mac for a few minutes the screen dims down and has a faint beeping noise. When I touch a key or trackpad it is restored to full colour and the noise stops.

Any ideas what or why this is?

 

[BlueRevolution]

The beeping noise is a little strange. Could you describe it a little more closely? Long beeps or short? Frequent or intermittent? Digital-sounding, like a phone or microwave?

You can prevent your screen from dimming by going to  -> System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Options -> Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep.

 

[Makosuke]

This may or may not be what you're hearing, but I know of one MBP that would emit a very high-pitched whine that varied along with the brightness of the backlight.

In this case, the owner was older and apparently couldn't hear the pitch it emitted when at full brightness; if this is related to your issue, it's quite possible that it's always there and you just can't hear it until the brightness goes below a certain level (or, in your case, that it's inversely proportional to the backlight brightness).

If this is the same as your noise, it's a defective product--it's not supposed to make that sound. In that case Apple would repair it under warranty (though amusingly the person in my example never bothered because he can't hear it--excruciating for me when I was installing some software on it for him, though).

Of course, your beeping could be something entirely unrelated.

 

[ashleyg84]

yes, I have just discovered it is related to the screen brightness. When I lower the brightness the sound is louder - like a high pitched frequency. Even with the brightness all the way up I can still hear a faint sound.
It will be going back next week. I bought it at Best buy and they dont have any in stock right now. The shipment coming in next week are all new 09 Models...go figure this one they gave me was 2008. I called Apple and they said it has probably been on the shelf for awhile and I should have gotten a 2009 model. They said the one I got is defective. Just sucks now because I have to wait a week to install everything I was ready to do today. Other than the annoying sound I love it!

Thanks for the info!