Whining MacBook Pro? You're not alone
posted March 14th 2006 7:00AM
We’ve been hearing the er, noise about whining MacBook Pros for awhile. Now however, the problem seems to
be widespread enough to warrant our, and possibly Apple’s, attention. As sister site TUAW points out, the
high-pitched hissing/whining/squealing seems to be associated with an idle processor and does not affect all new
MacBook Pros. However it affects enough to have sparked feverish discussion in your choice of Apple-related forums. And
as these things go, several “fixes” have been suggested including keeping the Photobooth app running in the
background to keep the processors busy, installing/uninstalling certain widgets, and disabling the second core
processor altogether. Of course, many are simply holding out hope that a future firmware drops to
sort it out all lickety-split quick. But that would require Apple to first own-up to an issue, which they have
yet to do (publicly) thus far.
I had so many problems with the macbook pro.
First, my power adapter didn't work right. It wouldn't send power to my laptop, because of the defect in the connector. I took it back to the store and got a replacement on the spot. Which was good.
Second, after 1-2 weeks of use, I started noticing that my LCD lid was warping. I called appleCare and they sold me the extended applecare package. I decided to buy the package, after seeing several manufacturing issues. The lady on the phone was polite and told me that the lid warping was a manufacturing problem. She then told me that I should return it as soon as possible, because if it get worse, the store might think that it was dropped.
Once I got to the store, it was another story. The "genius" tried to come up with all kind of excuses not to take it back. First he told me that it must be because I was right handed (what the?) He tried to come up with several excuses, and eventually blamed it on my targus laptop sleave.
However, after arguing for several hour, he gave in and exchanged a new macbook for me. It turned out to be an older rev, (which I knew has even more problems). I requested that he give me a newer rev unit, but he refused. I decided to take the chance and take the exchange unit home.
Then guess what happenned? This unit got the buzzing noise issue. I decided to call Applecare again, to try to see if I can at least get my old defective unit back. The tech support person was quite polite, but she was honest that she can't do anything abou it. She suggested that I keep this unit and call customer relations tomorrow. She also mentioned that there's no directline and that I will have to go through a computer voice maze.
I'm very sad to have switched to apple.. I've never had any problem when I was using sony laptops (and I had like 3 sony laptops before switching to this macbook.)
I wish I can get my $3000 back :(....
ps. I installed the firmware and it does not fix the problem.
I have also downloaded the firmware and still have a whine. I use the photobooth work arround. Im hoping that Apple will release a real fix soon.
I have the whining noise as well - and indeed if I run the Photo Booth app it goes away! An OK solution for now I suppose ... but if anyone learns of Apple "fixing" this problem in some tangible way (in other words, not solving the problem by giving me a new MacBook Pro), please post the info. The noise isn't a huge deal ,except when I'm using the laptop in a meeting where you can actually hear it over a person speaking!
What I find irritating are solutions which alleviate the symptoms but do not cure the malfunction proposed.
I have a whining mac book pro, this sucks especially since I was hoping this purchase to speed up my work but Photoshop, Dreamweaver and for some reason my Cross platform Final Cut Studio has problems to. I feel like I got a defective unit. This sucks I hope they are able to fix this problem.
Since I have a new battery, my macbook no longer whines .....
hi. i just got my MacBook 2.0Ghz 2 days ago.
can anyone help? the photo booth is showing a blank green screen.
have tried quiting the application and
have tried restarting the mac but both to no avail.
i'm really new to mac.
have been surfing for forums on this problem and so far haven't found any.
help!!!
thanks
I am having the same problem with photo booth, any help would be much appreciated.
I found a fix for the green screen problem. Google 'osx reset PRAM', you should find a tutorial on it from apple.com. Otherwise, what you do is shut down your computer, then right after you press the power button, hold down control-option-P-R buttons until you hear the booting sound twice, then release. It should be fine after that.
Running Photobooth stops the whine on my MBP. It seams strange that if running a program made by Apple, they can't figure out an easy way to stop the whine without running the program.
The MacBook Pro noise is a problem which annoys many people, judging by the number of posts. There is, however, no known solution to the problem (other than getting a replacement macbook) only workarounds. One work around is occupying the CPU, as the noise appears when the CPU is idle. Some suggested turning on the Mirror widget, then turning it off, putting the MacBook to sleep and waking it again (the noise will be gone until the next sleep). How about doing something useful with the CPU instead? Today I downloaded a client to the Folding@home distributed computing service, which does molecular research into cancer and other diseases. It works great, occupies enough CPU for the noise to disappear, but at the same time does not interfere with other tasks (it only occupies the idle time, and in case you want to do some rendering, you can always switch it off).
Apple must know by now about the problem, so let us wait for a solution to the MacBook whining, and instead of whining ourselves, let us turn the situation into something useful, by supporting, for example, molecular caner research.
I have this problem too, but not on a Mac. I'm using a brand new Dell E1505 Core 2 Duo @ 2ghz. Nothing that actually fixes it yet has been found.
yup, I have a MacBook (not Pro) and it definitely slightly whines every now and then. IT's only annoying when it gets really high pitched, but my refridgerator definitely drowns it out at night. Awkward when your in class and its silent and all you hear are the buzzings of MacBooks and MacBook Pro's alike... Hope theres a fix for this soon. If not, I guess we'll all just live with it, or send it back...
I just bought a NEC Versa E3100 and I seem to have the same problem. Not so much a whine but a very very fast beeping (sounding almost like a whine) when the processor is down. It comes and goes and even goes when I move the scroll button on the mouse to scroll the screen. Anyone have any more suggestions?