Random popping?

[adamjaskie]

My sister just got a brand new 12" iBook G4, BTO with a 60GB hard drive. One of the new ones that just came out. Anyway, on to her problem:

At completely random times, it makes a relatively loud popping/clicking/static noise from the speakers. Sometimes it is one loud pop, sometimes half a second of static, or a series of pops, clicks and static that lasts for a second or two. There can be anywhere from ten seconds between incidents, to ten minutes between incidents. The volume level on the laptop does not make any difference, and she once heard the noise before the OS itself came up, so I don't think it is a software issue.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there anything we can do other than just take it into the service center?

 

[Doctor Q]

I'd call it a clear-cut case for getting hardware service.

 

[adamjaskie]

Hrm

Does my family just have really bad luck with Apple computers? When I got my iBook a year ago, I used it for ten minutes and the screen blacked out. I took it in, they replaced the logic board, and it has been great ever since. Now this happens?

BTW, it has just gone for about 45 minutes without a pop, we'll see.

 

[homerjward]

do you have a cell phone (gsm) near the ibook when this happens? i noticed that with my old crappy speakers...

 

[adamjaskie]

It has been near a cell phone sometimes when it makes the noises, but it doesn't seem to affect it one way or another, as it has also made the noises far away from any cell phone. Besides, we use Verizon, which IIRC is not GSM, but rather CDMA or something like that (I could be wrong though).

Could it have anything to do with 802.11g? I'm using that, with a Linksys router, but I haven't had any problems on MY iBook.

 

[Doctor Q]

As a test, take it to another location and see if the symptom changes.

 

[adamjaskie]

It has happened at the dining table, in the living room, and in the basement rec room.

Also, 2.4 GHz cordless phone is currently ringing, and no clicking from the iBook, so I don't think it is that, if that could be an issue...

/me runs to get the phone.

 

[Doctor Q]

That's still not proof that other equipment in the house isn't your problem. You need to get out of range of all of your equipment. Take it for a ride to work/school or elsewhere to make sure there is no interference from anything at home. That way you won't waste a repair trip on the off chance that something at home is causing it.