whine
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Bionic owners peeved by high-pitched whine, source of the sound still a mystery
Reports have been trickling in for a few days now that Droid Bionic owners were hearing a high-pitched whine when playing media back through headphones. Well, it looks like it's safe to say it's a serious issue. The Motorola support forums are rife with tales of a piercing background tone and loud clicks as the audio hardware fires up and shuts down. In fact, you can find recorded examples of the sounds at the source link. So far it's unclear if the issue is hardware or software related, and Motorola hasn't had much to say about it just yet. We're sure they'll move relatively quickly to address the problem though, before Verizon stores are flooded with returned handsets. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nethaera's smack down
Nehthaera today wanted to let a lot of the naysayers out there know a thing or two about their April Fool's jokes and the issues with the servers. She tells us the obvious, more or less: the people who do the April Fool's work are completely separate from the people that do the server and development work.So these elaborate and well done jokes have exactly zero impact on the servers. They don't have anything to do with maintenance, with patch 2.4, or with Wrath of the Lich King (well, unless you actually believe there'll be a bard class). This means they could have done nothing for April Fool's, and things still would have been as difficult as they were yesterday.I want to give Nethaera two thumbs up for her post. I really enjoy it lately when GMs and CMs lay the smack down about issues like this, especially to whiney forum posters.
Fishing Extrava-lose-a
Booty Bay's Fishing Contest started just an hour ago. I don't participate every week, far from it. Once a month, tops. I've been doing this since the contest started, and I just can't seem to pull off a win.I'm not nearly aggressive enough for the contest, the winners always seem to be the people that muscle others away from 'their' Tastyfish Schools on my server, and I just feel bad doing that to people. That's probably why I don't play on a PvP server. I've gotten close to winning a few times, usually only 4-5 Tastyfish short, and I would've pulled off a win if I didn't run by so many schools that had other people fishing them. I'm sure there's other factors at work, I don't exactly have a proper circuit down because I do it so infrequently. I can't really 'practice' when I do it once a month or less. Looking at forums and the like, I don't seem to be alone in my failings. There's not a whole lot of winners when only one person per week can take the crown. So I'm curious, how many of you participate or have participated in the contest? How many of you have actually won? As a bonus question, how many of the rare fish have you caught? I've only gotten the Blue Striped Racer. QQ.
iPod owners report whining sound emanating from 2G nanos
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.]
Apple sneaks new logic board into whining MacBook Pros
They sort of skipped the first step: admitting they have a problem, but Apple is at least starting to patch stuff up with their customers who have been complaining about whining MacBook Pros since the release of the product. MacBook Pro user Rickard Almqvist sent in his MBP for some repairs and got it back with a new logic board and a friendly letter from Apple letting him know what was up. The new version of the logic board requires OS X 10.4.6, as opposed to the machine's original 10.4.5, so they included some new install DVDs in case he needs to reinstall. After the upgrade he hasn't had any whining problems, and he, along with other users with similar reports, is attributing it to the new board. No word yet if Apple will offer this upgrade to users who merely complain of the whine, or if you'll need a more serious problem to crop up before they'll do the swap-a-roo, but it does look like there's hope on the horizon beyond just buying a new revision of the troublesome laptop.[Via TUAW]
Apple quietly responds to whining (of MacBook Pros)
Rickard Almqvist at MacInTouch is reporting that Apple has apparently (and finally) produced a tweaked version of the MacBook Pro logic board in response to everyone's whining - MacBook Pro whining, that is. Rickard received a letter from Apple detailing the new board and stating that it was brand new, "only a few days old". Also of note is the need for new installation DVDs that contain 10.4.6, not the 10.4.5 discs the machine originally came with. And just for all you skeptics out there, Rickard has also posted a picture of Apple's letter on his blog, so you can let your "that was Microsoft Worded" and "Photoshopped!" naysaying fly.Here's hoping MacBook Pros everywhere can finally stop whining. The one question I have is: are you going to be sending your MBP in for the new board? Or is iTunes usually blaring loud enough for you to still wonder what all this 'whine' talk is about?[via MacDailyNews]Thanks Miguel
What does a whining MacBook Pro sound like?
I don't have a MacBook Pro, so I'm not able to listen to its infamous "whine." Luckily for me, some enterprising soul had the idea to record his whining laptop and post the audio to the web. He notes that the sound his computer makes in person is a bit different that what the recording presents, but it's still pretty annoying. He also notes that he has since returned the MacBook Pro. Check it out for yourself.[Via Cult of Mac]
Litany of MacBook Pro woes
Daniel Jalkut has been writing about the noise issues with his MacBook Pro for awhile now, and he has had enough. The small problems he is having with his MacBook Pro (ordered very soon after they were announced) have become too much for him, and he hopes to convince Apple to send him a replacement unit.He lists 10 things that are wrong with his MacBook Pro, anyone else seeing similar things with MacBook Pros purchased more recently?
Does the MacBook Pro fan constantly run? And a note about the whiney noise [Update]
I have a minor dilemma, folks. If you remember, I reported on numerous problems with my MacBook Pro, some of which Apple acknowledged, some it didn't.I'm having a new difficulty: the left-side fan of the machine is constantly running, non-stop, from the moment I turn on the machine. The Apple Store Geniuses continually tell me this is "normal" and "within Apple parameters," but I can't seem to remember my pre-replacement MBP sounding like a small aircraft auditioning for a spot on O'Hare's runway. So I ask you, dear MBP-owning readers: Is the left-side fan on your machine always on, making a sturdy and constant whooshy hum?Oh, and one other thing: While the Genius was "testing" my machine in the back room, I glanced at his PowerBook's screen, which was open to a page diagnosing MacBook Pro problems. It mentioned the infamous processor whine, and described it as a problem with an internal component (obviously) and listed various serial numbers affected. It also -- brace yourselves -- seemed to indicate that the problem was fixed, and could be fixed on affected machines. The Geniuses seemed to be trained to tell you the problem is "normal" and a fact of life, but this page said that it certainly could be fixed by a replacement part if, and I'm paraphrasing here, the customer deemed the noise to be 'unacceptable' and threatened to return the machine. So, if the processor whine bugs you, just go to a Genius bar and demand a fix -- they'll probably oblige.Update: In response to the 1,435,987 questions all asking the same thing: Yes, I am 100% positive the page I read involved the processor noise and not the LCD, because right above that paragraph about the whine was another paragraph describing the LCD inverter problem. They are two very separate issues, and I do -- despite allegations to the contrary -- understand the differences between them.
High pitched squeal defect on some MacBook Pros
While I certainly can't vouch for this problem myself as I don't own a MacBook Pro, there seem to be quite a few owners of the new laptop with complaints over a high pitched noise emanating from their machines. Our own Dan Pourhadi had a whine on his new MacBook Pro, even though it may not be the whine being heavily discussed on Digg today. Dan seems to have solved his whine by disabling the second core of his processor (described in Update 3 on his post). I no longer see this thread Digg links to on the Apple Forums, however I did find another active thread about the high pitched squeal/noise/whining. Some Apple users on the Digg thread and the Apple Discussions thread seem to think this may be repairable in firmware by Apple at a later date. I am by no means dissing Apple (or the Digg crowd) with this post, but simply would like to remind everyone about early adopter syndrome. The first revision of a new hardware platform or change in manufacturing is bound to engender certain flaws or bugs. Please, let us reflect for a moment on the Mirrored Door G4 and the PowerBook 667MHz (aka The "666") computer lines. This current flare in comments on Digg and the Apple Forums doesn't mean that all MacBook Pros will be affected by this noise, and certainly does not mean that people shouldn't be entitled to a worry-free machine when purchasing a Mac. I hope this all gets cleared up quickly and with some sort of patch or replacement from Apple. We at TUAW are bound to keep you posted. Update: Please see Dan Pourhadi's new follow-up post about his MacBook Pro woes.
