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Strange Ticking Sound In Speakers

Benguitar

Benguitar

Guest
Original poster
Jan 30, 2009
1,253
1
So, Recently I decided to setup my M-Audio/KRK speaker rig with my late 2011 MacBook Pro, and while everything seems to be working, I have been getting this very faint (but very noticeable) tick/clicking sound in my monitors when I use my trackpad or it happens on its own every few minutes or so.

It sounds like a very small electrical "zap" like static shock, But I do not feel any static electricity and computer sits on a glass desk and the monitors are on speaker stands on tile flooring, So there isn't much carpet anywhere.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I might be able to get this resolved?

Thank you very much!


--Benjamin
 
Do you keep your mobile phone nearby? I've heard a bit of clicky-sounding interference when mine is using data and is within a couple of feet of the speaker.
 
IgnatiusTheKing said:
Do you keep your mobile phone nearby? I've heard a bit of clicky-sounding interference when mine is using data and is within a couple of feet of the speaker.
Click to expand...

While I did have my phone nearby, I just moved it and I still hear the noise. I am quite familiar with the sounds you are talking about though when a mobile phone is near speakers.. I could hear a incoming phone call a few seconds before my phone rang because of speaker distortion.
 
Intell said:
I believe a restart is required before it starts working.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I still hear the clicking noise. Is there anything specific that I need to do other than restarting to ensure that anti pop is enabled, or are there any alternatives?
 
What antipop does is envoke the "say" command to say nothing. This keeps the audio hardware active. The popping you're hearing is likely caused by the audio hardware sleeping/waking. Open the Activity Monitor and have it show all of the processes, not just yours. Then sort them and look for one called "say". This process will appear for a few seconds once a minute for keep the audio hardware from sleeping.
 
Intell said:
What antipop does is envoke the "say" command to say nothing. This keeps the audio hardware active. The popping you're hearing is likely caused by the audio hardware sleeping/waking. Open the Activity Monitor and have it show all of the processes, not just yours. Then sort them and look for one called "say". This process will appear for a few seconds once a minute for keep the audio hardware from sleeping.
Click to expand...

I will give antipop another try, but I contacted AppleCare about this issue (along with some Apple ID issues I've been having) and their conclusion was that this was a hardware soundcard issue which I will have to setup a genius bar appointment and have them most likely replace my soundcard.

I would really like to avoid doing that because this is a work and personal laptop, of which I am responsible for all repairs done to it. But it is more or less my need for it on a 24/7 basis. So I will have to see how long the genius bar team will need to keep my machine.

Update

Unfortunately after trying antipop again I can still hear the noise. It seems to me that anti pop hasn't been updated for quite sometime. I wish there was some alternative to it, Because other than that I will have to get my soundcard replaced.
 
Last edited:
Antipop doesn't need to be updated. It's a very simple program. Nothing but a LaunchDaemon that runs the built in say command. There isn't much to update within a LaunchDaemon.
 
Intell said:
Antipop doesn't need to be updated. It's a very simple program. Nothing but a LaunchDaemon that runs the built in say command. There isn't much to update within a LaunchDaemon.
Click to expand...

Ah, Well unfortunately it still didn't work.

I have also tried recording a "silent" audio track and then set it to loop in Quicktime in hopes that it wouldn't allow my soundcard to go to sleep, But it didn't work.

I also tried a test tone in Logic Express and dialed it up to a very high pitch to see if that would in fact eliminate the clicking noise, It did not.

The last test I did was plug my monitors directly into my 1/8 inch headphone jack with an adapter cable to see if I could get the clicking sound to happen when the headphone port is the output, and sure enough, I could still hear it.

I don't have any other ideas on how to potentially solve this, Unless I just have faulty monitors, or something else in the signal chain, however I have seen a lot of examples of this issue happening to a lot of different people with MacBooks and MacBook Pros over time even dating back to the PowerBook, and the best conclusion I came up with was that, that is just the way OSX handles audio. I even saw an example of someone going to the genius bar about this issue and they tested it on one of their floor models, and indeed, were able to replicate it on one of Apple's machines.
 
Grounded?

My guess here would be a problem with the Power Supply Unit. What country/voltage are you on? do you have any grounding pin available? Are you using it? I've noticed that with my 17'' MBP, while connected to the outlet, has about 62 volts potential difference (half of the 120 volts available in Canada) to the ground, so anytime my body would get grounded, I'd feel a shock (a tiny one... they're microamps, so no real threat there, and you'd have to know what to look for and work in this field to actually feel it). So anytime you touch the trackpad, the whole casing might just get grounded, and frequencies can get messed up and "play" in the speakers/headphones.

This is a little technical here, but yeah, if it's not grounded, just try grounding it, it might fix the problem.
 
max025 said:
My guess here would be a problem with the Power Supply Unit. What country/voltage are you on? do you have any grounding pin available? Are you using it? I've noticed that with my 17'' MBP, while connected to the outlet, has about 62 volts potential difference (half of the 120 volts available in Canada) to the ground, so anytime my body would get grounded, I'd feel a shock (a tiny one... they're microamps, so no real threat there, and you'd have to know what to look for and work in this field to actually feel it). So anytime you touch the trackpad, the whole casing might just get grounded, and frequencies can get messed up and "play" in the speakers/headphones.

This is a little technical here, but yeah, if it's not grounded, just try grounding it, it might fix the problem.
Click to expand...

I'm in the USA, and I always use the extension cable with grounding pin on my Mac power supply, it goes into a propperly ground monster power strip.

However I wonder if doing the opposite would solve this? I will try lifting the ground when I have some time home from work.
 
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