Please explain the MBP buzz/whine issue...

Can anyone explain this to me? My 4th replacement Macbook Pro in 2 weeks has the high pitched whine/buzz that a lot of people have been mentioning (in fact, they all did to some degree). Is this noise bad? as in, is it the result of damage happening to the machine? or is it just a harmless noise that is just there to be annoying?

 

All of them do some people can hear it (myself being one of them) some can't.

I've had 19 santa rosa MBPs and they all had it.


It's a harmless but very annoying noise.

 

Mines a new Penryn one. What's the cause of it? I notice that Apple have a page on their site saying that if anyone has this noise to contact support http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303365 Has anyone done this? and if so, what was the outcome? I've heard a lot of talk about this but no real explanation as to what it is.

 

I've contacted support hence I've gone through 19 of them...

After receiving my last one...they wouldn't just give me a refund and they said it's "under spec"

So yeah theres nothing you can do except to have it replaced and transfer your stuff to a new MBP that may have other problems, but trust me will still have the noise.

 

I disagree that all MBPs have this. I'm not saying the 19 (btw, Wow!) you went through didn't, but they may have all been from the same batch which had this issue.

I have zero loss in my hearing and I get tested for work every 12 months and mine is literally silent. My wife's MBP has the buzz but it gets drowned out by ambient noise. Besides, my wife can't hear it so it doesn't matter.

Having said that, if the OP's MBP is otherwise flawless I suggest keeping it. There are many other more annoying issues you may end up with by exchanging the unit. And remember, there is no such thing as a perfect notebook.

 

I had one with some kind of noise, I guess more of a whine then a buzz. I returned it the next day and received a refund. The MBP I received for work does not have this issue. If you do receive one with a noise that you find unacceptable, take it to an Apple store and demand a replacement. In my experience, they have been very willing to help out the customer.

 

Does anyone know what the actual cause of the noise is though?

 

My MBP just came in on Friday and I can't hear any noise at all when I'm on my computer.

Maybe I just got lucky

 

This had been discussed loads of times before. Many sources had suggested that it's caused by different components within the laptop. LCD inverters? PWM's? I have no idea because I'm not technically trained in that field, but it apparantly exist in almost (if not all) machines and is termed the "piezoelectricity" effect.

So far my SR MBP with a C2D (Merom) only emits slight whining noises when i scroll webpages (no idea why) in a very very silent room. I'd suggest that if you're not being bothered by it, live with it; if you can't live with it, go for a refund and find a machine that you're happy with.

 

mine does it sometimes, more so in vista. @ this point the big issue with mine is the AC adapter light KEEPS going off. apple will get a call on that tomorrow. its still charging when it goes off, but i didnt pay 1700$ to watch a stupid light flicker.