iPod owners report whining sound emanating from 2G nanos
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted Dec 31st 2006 5:12PM
posted Dec 31st 2006 5:12PM
In a thread over at the Apple Discussions forums, dozens of iPod owners are reporting high-pitching whining and / or buzzing sounds emanating from their 2nd Generation iPod nanos. Many of the owners cite that their units are fully functional despite the whining, although the volume of the unwanted sound varies between each report; for example, russgra states that the whining sound was the first thing he noticed after picking up his 8GB nano, although Energie claims that he wouldn't have noticed had he not seen the problem popping up in forums. There doesn't seem to be any correlation to any particular model within the range either, with 2, 4, and 8GB owners all reporting the annoyance -- notably, none of the reports notice any sound on their previous generation nanos, leading some to suggest that it's caused by a new or upgraded component such as the backlight or battery. In the interests of investigating the problem ourselves, we commandeered a nearby 2GB nano -- although we could hear a faint whining sound once pressed to our ear (which oddly changed tone after we shook it), we found the whine to be inaudible unless we practically lodged it in our ear. Could it be that this encounter is simply a reverberation of the post-Consumermas hangovers, or is this scenario a repeat of the whining problems with the MacBook? If the latter case is true, then it's worth noting that Apple was relatively quick to fix the problem and silence the buzz, along with the vocal minority of people who had brought the issue to the attention of everyone else.[Thanks, David B.]
Well, this happens to my 8GB iPod nano, but it really doesn't bother me at all. I noticed this the day I got it, but it is practically inaudible unless you have it right up against your ear, as you said.
Not to mention that you can't hear it with earbuds/headphones are in your ears....
Well, this happens to my 8GB iPod nano, but it really doesn't bother me at all. I noticed this the day I got it, but it is practically inaudible unless you have it right up against your ear, as you said.
Not to mention that you can't hear it with earbuds/headphones are in your ears....
Looks like Apple deleted the discussion thread!
I hear whines coming from virtually all my backlit gadgets. My 5G iPod and phone both do this, but it's almost impossible to hear unless I'm listening for it. I think its caused by the backlight, because the whine stops when the backlight goes off.
It doesn't bother me at all... but maybe the nano's whine is louder?
saw your comments and put it to the test. Had the backlight on and heard the whine. Turned the backlight off, and STILL heard the noise.
Link is broken, shoudl be
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3339932
I have noticed that my 2ng gen nano is also doing this. I cant hear it when im listening with ear phones but when its playing over the speakers in the car it can be quite annoying. I assumed it was the car before, but now i believe its the ipod.
wow... this week is just not going well for Apple
I say, so what! People only whine about it because It's Apple. God forbid an Apple product have a slight flaw. My ATI 9600 XT whines loudly when you page scroll or do anything 3D, I know of others with this problem, but you never see people get mad about it. Nothing against apple, It's just my opinion.
Well obviously you have nothing against Apple, you just spent a paragraph telling their customers to suck it up and deal.
Yes, mine does the same thing.
I find it funny (as a .net web site developer) that:
- the apple forum link that I clicked on was a jspa page (never heard of it but i'm thinking I know what it is)
- the link got stuck in an endless reloading loop when I loaded the page. the post never showed.
It's like Apple's a club with their own computers, web page types and browsers. If you aren't with them then they don't want any part of ya.
@ JCollum
JSPA is an initialism for Java Specification Participation Agreement, a Java community process. The code is not Apple-centric. Your problem mostly likely occured when you loaded the broken page that Engadget originally posted. As to why a .NET developer has never heard of Java is the really mystery hear.
BTW, Apple does have it's own web development tools called WebObjects.
http://www.apple.com/webobjects/
How a web developer never heard of java is beyond me....
It's funny how dumb people that think they know things talk shit when they don't know what they are talkign about
You are the n00b.
I find it funny that a self-proclaimed ".net developer" is too clueless to know how to examine the source code for a page.
Loads fine with Opera on Win32, an obviously non-Apple browser. Kudos to Apple if they don't expend effort to work around well known and still unfixed IE bugs.
@SpamBadger
Yes, but the primary purpose of your 9600 XT isn't to produce sound. That makes its whining a side-effect. The primary purpose of an iPod is to produce sound. That makes its whining a problem. The equivalent would be if your 9600 XT had a noisy picture.
i sure hear a whining sound, it sounds like it's coming from the general direction of ipod owners.
I don't know about the rest of y'all, but every iPod/ color handheld device i've ever owned "wines." (I have ears that are very sensitive to high-pitched frequencies.) It's something to do with the backlighting device. If it really bothers you, put a case over it (that should be enough to block the high pitched sound) or don't use the back light.
I hear most TV's when they are on mute whining also. Same with you?
i don't see why this is news now. the nano has been out for what, 3+ months now? i got my 2g nano the week they came out, and it was the first thing i noticed, especially when it's charging. i normally would leave it and my big ipod sitting on the nightstand, charging overnight. however, the buzz was keeping me awake at night, so i had to unplug it. i can also hear it coming from the person who sits next to me at work, and their nano is probably 12" away from me (we sit very close to each other based on the layout of our office). she can't even hear it...but i can. it's not a big enough problem imho to dissuade people from getting a nano. ymmv.
I bought a new blue nano the day they were released and it has a loud whining sound, especially when it's connected to the iPod Hi-Fi... I hope Apple does something about this.
The whine noise is the first step in a dangerously overheating battery, next they explode. Or the whine noise just might be some other kid wanting it.
i also get a whining sound from my 30 gig ipod. what is wrong with apple????
The loundness of the whining is probably more a function of hearing (very dependant on age) then the device. I can hear my Nano whine when it's within three feet of my ear even listening to music. But the 35+ people in my office can't hear it at all.
Glad I have a 1G iPod Nano:-D
hmmm... I report a whining sound emanating from 2G iPod nano owners
Sorry
I couldn't resist
LOL :D Nice.
This is news? Those threads have been around since around the time of the release of the 2G nano.
I bought an 8GB model within a week after they were released and noticed the whining sound, checked the forums and saw that it was pretty common. I never really thought too much of it because I hardly notice it, but this is definitely not a new problem.
Been an issue since the release of the Nanos as well as a similar problem with blank white screens showing up on power-on, which seemed to be fixed after I upgraded my firmware.
@ John Doe: Nice one, I lawled.
When I read the title of this article I thought "Well duh, it's the hard drive spinning." and then I smacked myself when I remembered Nano's are flash based.
It's just the units transmitting coordinates to the coming invasion of our robot overlords.
I have an 8GB 2G Nano, never heard any noise at all from it, ever. Except the giggling noise I make every time i realize i have the most awesome nano so far. :)
Not even music?!
I've noticed this myself, I had to put it to my ear to be sure though.
After reading this I initially just wanted to reply with some snarky comment about how they'd stop hearing that whining noise if they'd just shut up and stop MAKING that whining noise.
However, after closely examining my own 2GB Nano that I got as an Xmas Bonus (Thanks, Canon!) there *is* a very faint whine from the unit, even with the backlight off. I think it's something in the power supply portion of the device myself. It's likely only to be noticible by folks who are extra-sensitive to high frequency sounds.
In reality though, this is a non-issue. The real source of the problem is the volume-limiter in the device. Disable it, crank the tunes a bit louder for a while, and you'll either A) stop complaining about the whining because you'll hear it constantly for the rest of your life, or B) Never hear the whining or any other high-pitched noise ever again.
I got a 2g Nano, 4 gb. Doesnt whine, but my hearing is defective. It skips like a cd player does when hold is active tho.
First Generation Nanos do have the same whining noise. Go into a quiet room (no running appliances or computers or fluorescent lights) and make sure the backlight is on. Hold the Nano up to your ear. See... whining noise. I am fairly sure that it is just the backlight or one of the other screen elements and is nothing to be worried about. I wouldn't worry about it :)
I had this problem when I bought a second-ge 4 GB Nano. If the room was fairly quiet, I could hear the high pitched whine from across the room. Some Nanos have a much louder whine than others. And some people don't have good enough hearing to hear it.
I sent it in as a repair and Apple replaced. Now I have a Nano with no whining problem.
After reading this, i put my eat up to the backlit screen of my camera, and heard the noise. When the camera shut its screen off because it was on for 3 mins, the noise stopped. I also did this with ds lite and my phone, same thing. You have to press your ear right against the screen though and move it around until you find the noise. With the ds lite, when you change the brightness while its pressed against your ear, the sound flickers away and back again very quickly. All of these sounds are VERY quiet though.
Maybe there are advantages to being 48 and listening to too much Rock in my misspent youth. Can't hear anything above 18K cycles so no backlight/lcd whines to ever worry about.......
Like, say... how to spell?
or should I say
hwo ot splel?
Apparently teenagers can hear low frequency sounds which people in their 30's or above can't. Some guy even invented a device based on this to stop kids from hanging around outside the local convenience stores! assuming most of them are teenagers of course..
Theres also a 'secret ringtone' you can get for phones for use in school, because the teachers cant hear it.
I love how any time there is any sort of problem with Apple hardware, it is immediately followed by some sort of comment about how it is a vocal minority of people having the problem, because Apple users are perfectionists. On the other hand, if a single reviewer has a single tiny problem of any sort with a Creative device, or especially a Zune, then they are forever branded as buggy pieces of junk!
So i got my old 4g mini stolen which really sucked. Now im in Thailand and i was about to go pick up my 8g nano from the little apple center in the mall. Reading this, im not too sure if i should buy one now? i mean the one guy sent his in and now its replaced but is it really worth spending? Is there a 50/50 chance that it wont buzz? I see that ppl hear it when the music is playing, and that really, really sux...
My first generation nano makes a buzzing noise in the headphones when I have it charging while I listen to music through it. That's pretty clearly a power supply issue though, whereas this could be anything.
Don't all LCDs "whine" to some extent? I remember that my LCD hdtv used to whine loudly until I turned the back light setting higher.
What causes these whining sounds? I remember that a mac laptop also had this problem. I am still baffled on what the cause is.
-Sachleen
http://kubixproject.net
Hmm... I can hear it on my 8GB Black Nano... but it's nothing I would notice if I didn't press my ear up to the unit.
I can only hear something when I press my 8gig Nano's back side up against my ear. Otherwise it's pretty silent. If I'm holding it in my hand or in a case, I don't hear a thing.
Though I hope it stays that way.
funny.....the 2G Shuffles came out with a hissing, static noise, and now the 2G Nano has a whining noise?? So much foe iPod's being audiophile devices...
although I too wonder if this problem has been present with the initial release of the 2G Nano back on Sept. 12th, then why are we hearing about it now?
It's probably the LCD screen. This is common among PDAs. Not everyone can hear it.
I bought a Nano 2G the week they came out and mine did this as well as suffering from the "white screen of death" issue. The high pitched whine was VERY noticeable and seemed to trigger when the player was paused. Apple claimed nothing was wrong with it and other than updating the firmware did nothing else but both issues were resolved. I'm curious if the new round of folks having this problem bought stock which was from the initial release or if a recent update might have caused the whining to return. This issue was discussed heavily on the apple support forums back when the new units came out - kinda surprised to see it being reported as recent news.
I should think you have to be quite young, with better hearing for those high frequencies to advantage of this 2g nano easter egg.
Myself, I have to stick it right up to my ear, the edge with the connectors is best, and i still can only sense a noise. It's so quiet that even my breathing stops me from being able to make it out.
my problem with this is, why are you listening to the whine in the first place? My nano has a slight high-pitched whine, but oddly enough i can't hear it when i have the headphones on and i'm actually listening to music.
Did you people buy the nano just to look at it?
My speakers hiss when i'm not playing music, my cd player whirs, my tv makes a high pitched whine, it's much worse. my fridge makes a hellishly loud noise... you should hear my dishwasher, and god forbid the noise my car makes.
lame.
I don't know how this is news when I first posted thispn my blog here.It was called
Could There Be 2nd Gen iPod nano flaw !!!!!
.Plus i have the video on my site to prove they make the noise …
http://macbloghaus.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/could-there-be-2nd-gen-ipod-nano-flaw/
No whining from my Sansa e280!
I noticed this with my 2G Nano 8GB. I believe it is only noticable when the backlight is on.
Wait, are we talking about a whining noise coming from the device itself, or coming through the headphones?
SpamBadger,
The noise or whining as some call it,Is suppose to be coming from the ipod itself.Some have stated that it can only be heard in a quiet place.
Chris Embry
http://macbloghaus.wordpress.com
Its most likely a capacitor powering the back light about a third of all cellphones have the same whine when the back light is on emergency exit signs make the same sound cause of the caps in them.
It's probably the backlighting. Take almost any backlit device and press it to your ear while the backlight is on, and you'll hear a whining. That's an inverter. Unless your device is backlit by LEDs, you'll almost always hear it.
-Nicholas
http://journal.pdsys.org/
I don't know how serious this is, but it seems to me that Apple has been having some quality control problems?
Anybody else noticing the same thing?
My iPod nano green had a whine, but I returned it. I am waiting for the next iPod video :)
Hint: The 2G iPod Nano's and the 5.5G iPod's are the first models to use the non-Portal Player proccessors. The 5.5G iPod's could have had their proccessor whining dismissed as the hard drive's whine.
For the MacBook recall, did Apple swap them out? My black Nano has had some nice scratches in it since October... wouldn't mind getting a new one.
Don't you people understand that the iPod whines even with the backlight off?!
Almost all electronic devices make noises, most at high frequencies or at resonates of mains frequency, devices that have to change DC into AC are particually prone to making noise (for example magnetic ballasted flourecent tubes or for a true DC to AC noise checkout a Networker train in the UK (or a Jubilee line tube train)). The noisest component in a modern device as has been pointed out earlier is the inverter which converts the DC from a battery to AC for the backlight to a LCD screen (I maybe wayoff but stay with me). I imagine this or a similar component in the Nano may become slightly loose and vibrate at high frequency against the now fully aluminium body of the iPod nano. In this case the new aluminium body is acting as an amplifier whereas the far more plastic based 1st gen Nano would have reduced the vibrations.
Pete, as it has already been claimed many many times, the sound can still be heard with the backlight OFF. Moreover, I expect from an AUDIO device to be perfectly silent, and not emitting some kind of ultra sound. And some iPod seem to be unaffected. I understand it might be a physical phenomenon, but as a customer who paid $120 for a quality mp3 player, I-don't-care.
Someone might have said this already, but it's just the specific type of backlight that is in the new Nano. I've noticed the same "problem" in a lot of devices that I own that have backlighted LCD screens (digital camera, palm pilot, etc). If you dim/shut off the backlight, the noise gets quieter. The reason why it's not in the older Nanos is probably a different type of backlight, because Apple needed the different type in order to make the screen brighter.
in the apple forum it says install firmware 1.1.1 and my ipod has this. I own an 8gb black nano and it makes a whining noise even though i have the most recent firmware. I can even hear it over my laptop fan.
"lukaz @ Jan 3rd 2007 9:51AM
in the apple forum it says install firmware 1.1.1 and my ipod has this. I own an 8gb black nano and it makes a whining noise even though i have the most recent firmware. I can even hear it over my laptop fan." In addition to this I would like to ask for help in solving this problem. Does my nano need replaced???
"lukaz@ Jan 3rd 2007 9:51AM
in the apple forum it says install firmware 1.1.1 and my ipod has this. I own an 8gb black nano and it makes a whining noise even though i have the most recent firmware. I can even hear it over my laptop fan." In addition to this can anyone offer help? Do I need a replacement iPod?
"Rick @ Dec 31st 2006 6:03PM
The whine noise is the first step in a dangerously overheating battery, next they explode. Or the whine noise just might be some other kid wanting it."
i dont think that would be an issue if a 2G nano blew up. It would create a very neat sphereical (circular/round?) iPod, and apple would probably decide to market them as a very limited edition and exclusive iPod. The next craze after that will be macbook pros with authentic scorch marks on the battery packs/keyboard & palm rests