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Popping sound from headphone jack?

M

MacUserPro1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 19, 2014
9
0
So, this is my first post on this forum. I've gotten quite a lot of great answers from this site, but I couldn't find an answer to this one, so I guess its time I ask a question myself.

So I bought a Macbook Pro only 3 days ago, and so far I love it, I've just had one problem that started yesterday. Ranging from about 30 minutes to an hour or two apart, I'll get a random 'pop' sound through my headphones, sort of like the noise headphones make when you plug them in to the jack. Let me just clarify that it isn't my headphones, I use Sony headphones and I tried my Apple ear buds and heard the same noise several times. I've tried to pinpoint what triggers the sound, but I cant seem to get anything. Every time its happened I have just been sitting still with the macbook pro on my lap. Do you think something is wrong with the headphone port? As I said earlier in this post, I've only had it for 3 days and I've kept good care of it, so I don't think there is any way I could have damaged it.

Do you think there is some way I can fix it on my own, or do you think there is something wrong with the mac I got and I should just return it and get a new one?
 
Does this pop come when your are listening to something or just a bit after when it's quiet?

Cause in the last few years several of the Apple notebooks I have come across do this when they shuts off the internal soundcard (for saving energy). Depending on what headphones you use, a little pop can be heard.

Another source of audible pops are caused by your home's electrical system. Were I lived last year a pop could be heard when my fridge with an automatic defrosting kicked in. It was on the same circuit and caused a little spike in the current that resulted in a faint but audible pop in speakers and headphones.
 
entropi said:
Does this pop come when your are listening to something or just a bit after when it's quiet?

Cause in the last few years several of the Apple notebooks I have come across do this when they shuts off the internal soundcard (for saving energy). Depending on what headphones you use, a little pop can be heard.

Another source of audible pops are caused by your home's electrical system. Were I lived last year a pop could be heard when my fridge with an automatic defrosting kicked in. It was on the same circuit and caused a little spike in the current that resulted in a faint but audible pop in speakers and headphones.
Click to expand...

It seems like it usually happens when its quiet, but I have had it happen while sound was playing. I remember the last time it happened I was watching a YouTube video and it popped while the video was playing. Is there some way to stop the sound card from shutting off? Or is it worth letting it shut off but have the annoying pop sound? Keep in mind that I also tested it with the apple ear buds and heard it several times as well.
 
entropi said:
Does this pop come when your are listening to something or just a bit after when it's quiet?
Click to expand...

After testing it a bit, I can hear a much more quite pop noise after about 30 or so seconds of no audio, but its much more quiet then the ones I heard earlier. Is this normal for all macbooks to do this?
 
MacUserPro1 said:
After testing it a bit, I can hear a much more quite pop noise after about 30 or so seconds of no audio, but its much more quiet then the ones I heard earlier. Is this normal for all macbooks to do this?
Click to expand...

As far as I know this is normal - all my intel macbooks does this (1 MBP and 2 MBA). My new MBA 11" does it rather quiet, my old MBP 17 comparably loud. My older PowerBooks (Pismo G3, Alu G4 12", 15" & 17") never did this.

There might be some hack to prevent the soundcard to shut off, but none that I know of.

But if you get loud pops DURING sound playback that can't be explained by any other electrical glitches happening in your home - there's something not right with your MBP.
 
entropi said:
As far as I know this is normal - all my intel macbooks does this (1 MBP and 2 MBA). My new MBA 11" does it rather quiet, my old MBP 17 comparably loud. My older PowerBooks (Pismo G3, Alu G4 12", 15" & 17") never did this.

There might be some hack to prevent the soundcard to shut off, but none that I know of.

But if you get loud pops DURING sound playback that can't be explained by any other electrical glitches happening in your home - there's something not right with your MBP.
Click to expand...

Yep, after some more tests (playing audio, stopping and counting how many seconds it took) its definitely the audio card shutting off, it seems like it always takes 34 seconds. For some reason its sometimes louder than other times, I've had it be loud enough that I could clearly hear it, but the majority of times it doesn't do this. Do you think there is a reason it popped louder certain times than others, or is this probably just normal?
 
entropi said:
There might be some hack to prevent the soundcard to shut off, but none that I know of.
Click to expand...

Well, after doing some research I found quite a few other (but older) threads discussing this issue. I found this hack called antipop, I'm not sure if it works since I can't find much about it, and I'm not sure whether to trust it or not, it looks kind of suspicious and it apparently was posted in 2008... here is a link to the website that I found it on:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29024/antipop

This might sound like a dumb question, but do you think upgrading to Yosemite would solve this issue?
 
Last edited:
as others have stated - it's probably the sound card shutting off. not sure what it's for, but i'm guessing it's to save energy. i had the same thing on my windows computer 5+ years ago.
 
definitive said:
as others have stated - it's probably the sound card shutting off. not sure what it's for, but i'm guessing it's to save energy. i had the same thing on my windows computer 5+ years ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll probably just deal with it at this point, unless it ends up being solved in Yosemite.
 
MacUserPro1 said:
do you think upgrading to Yosemite would solve this issue?
Click to expand...

No, I don't think so. I'm not running Yosemite myself, but it would surprise me if it did.

(Software could "auto-dampen" the popping by hastily minimize the volume output after audio playback is finished, but a little pop would still be there when the power is switched off to the soundcard. My MBP17 also greatly varies in "pop-volume", sometimes when the soundcard is turned on when I have inserted my headphones the pop can be quite loud, other times it can almost not be heard. I guess it varies depending on what volume the MBP remembers I had the last time my headphones were plugged in or something. I haven't done any deeper research.)
 
entropi said:
No, I don't think so. I'm not running Yosemite myself, but it would surprise me if it did.

(Software could "auto-dampen" the popping by hastily minimize the volume output after audio playback is finished, but a little pop would still be there when the power is switched off to the soundcard. My MBP17 also greatly varies in "pop-volume", sometimes when the soundcard is turned on when I have inserted my headphones the pop can be quite loud, other times it can almost not be heard. I guess it varies depending on what volume the MBP remembers I had the last time my headphones were plugged in or something. I haven't done any deeper research.)
Click to expand...

Hm, ok. I doubt antipop would still work if it were made in 2008 anyway lol.
 
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