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Should my rMBP run quiet?

I

icebergx

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 27, 2012
202
3
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hi all,

Got my rMBP in October 2012 and it's hasn't given me any trouble so far... Until now. It's not a bid deal, but it's started making a whirling sound, towards the top left of the keyboard, under the power button. I'm 99% sure that this wasn't making a sound previously, unless it was running hot, and the fans kicked in. Right now, the noise starts as soon as it's powered up.

1) Can anyone confirm that the rMBP is supposed to run quiet, and that I'm not going crazy?
2) Is there anything I can do to remedy this, or does it just need to go to back to Apple?

Thanks for your help.
 
Its probably the fan ramping up because of the temperature. Depending on your tasks, the laptop will hotter until the fans ramp up.

For the rMBP the only mechanical component is the fan, so that's the only thing that can produce the whirring noise imo
 
maflynn said:
Its probably the fan ramping up because of the temperature. Depending on your tasks, the laptop will hotter until the fans ramp up.

For the rMBP the only mechanical component is the fan, so that's the only thing that can produce the whirring noise imo
Click to expand...

Thats what I thought, but the buzzing starts as soon as the machine is powered on (i.e.. without it carrying out any tasks at all.)
 
Is it a buzzing or whirring?


I had an old apple G4 laptop that produced a buzzing because of electrical feedback being picked up by the speakers. Could it be something like that?

If it isn't the fans, maybe make an appointment with an apple genius to see what they think
 
maflynn said:
Is it a buzzing or whirring?


I had an old apple G4 laptop that produced a buzzing because of electrical feedback being picked up by the speakers. Could it be something like that?

If it isn't the fans, maybe make an appointment with an apple genius to see what they think
Click to expand...

Sorry, a whirling is probably more accurate. I'm 75% sure it's the fan, i just want to make sure that 't shouldn't be audible all the time.
 
The fan is audible when its getting close to full speed. iStat menus is a handy utility, it reports temperature of your laptop and the fan speeds. You'll get a feel of how fast those fans are running in relation to the temps.
 
maflynn said:
The fan is audible when its getting close to full speed. iStat menus is a handy utility, it reports temperature of your laptop and the fan speeds. You'll get a feel of how fast those fans are running in relation to the temps.
Click to expand...

This is a good idea!
Rmbp get very hot and the fans can get very loud under heavy use!
 
icebergx said:
Thats what I thought, but the buzzing starts as soon as the machine is powered on (i.e.. without it carrying out any tasks at all.)
Click to expand...

Use Activity Monitor (or the "top" command in a Terminal) to see if there is some process that got stuck that is using up CPU. If there is, kill it. If the machine is sitting idle, your CPU idle time should be pretty much 98-100%.

I haven't seen it happen nearly as often as in previous years, but Finder sometimes gets itself stuck doing something (maybe to do with trying to connect to network resources?) and would quietly start sucking up CPU resources. CPU idle time would be 0%. It would sometimes be hours before I noticed that my fans were running more than they needed to be and everything else was starting to feel slower. I'd Force Quit and restart Finder, and the fans immediately started winding down.
 
If it never used to make this noise and now it does (i.e. its a recent thing) then get it checked by Apple - could just be a dusty fan.
 
I've used mine every day since I got it and it hasn't really made any loud noises. It's by far the quietest laptop I've owned. I think the only times I actually heard the fans going was when I had a video playing I think on Netflix, but it wasn't really crazy loud.
 
notjustjay said:
Use Activity Monitor (or the "top" command in a Terminal) to see if there is some process that got stuck that is using up CPU. If there is, kill it. If the machine is sitting idle, your CPU idle time should be pretty much 98-100%.
Click to expand...

This - for the win.

In normal use it should be very quiet, but when under load it can sound like a ****ing jet plane.
 
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