I hear it whenever I stop writing. I am in a quite room. Obviously I m typing this right now on the keyboard, so I do not hear the scratchy vinyl sound, the sound the we are all familiar with in movies depicting life decades ago, life before the iPod, before digital music, when vinyl was synonymous to good music, hell was music itself. I can locate this noise: it’s on the left side of the keyboard. I put my ear down to the area. It is below the letter Q and W, I think. or higher, perhaps below the number 2 and the function key F2. With my ear on it like that, it isn’t scratchy noise anymore but a sort of insect buzz. What is this noise? The fan? Not unless it needs oiling. The processor? You hear the same sounds in your MacBook?
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Dan Warne
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
It’s processor buzz. You need to get a free kernel extension called ShhhMBP to quieten it down.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=346299
BrianB
February 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
This looks like a processor problem, but the only solution mentioned messes with the power saving function. Any more ideas? I do not own an MBP. I won a White MacBook. The sound begins almost immediately after I boot up.
Daniel
April 24th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Hi!
I bought my white macbook 22 april 2008. I have the exact same “insect buzz”. It totaly FREEEAAKS me out.
Can’t stand it. I hope that ShhMBP really fixes this! This is probably on every new macbook? Maybe people don’t have good hearing and don’t mind it. But i can’t stand it!
Good to hear though that it’s others out there with the same “problem”. If the app doesn’t fix it, I will return the computer, and ask for my money back. (They will probably don’t do that because “It’s perfectly normal, i can’t hear it”. YEAH, because your in a noisy store!!)
Shit.
jerry
May 9th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Wow, I thought I was the only crazy one that this sound drove crazy. I have had my Macbook back for repair three times. Everyth ing has been replaced (three times) and still the buzz continues. As a platform that brags about its audio and video capabilities this seems more than just a “little irritant”. Amazing how many Mac repair centers can’t hear the sound.
Jason
April 29th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Hi Guy. I got the same problem. it’s sharp and continues buzzing nosing come from W E S D on the key board. This noise give me so much headache at night. This noise is also driving my crazy. I’m really disappointed on this noise issue. This is a brand new Macbook white. I don’t know what I can do.
anwyn
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 am
so, it’s normal ? like, my macbook is good, hardware is ok and there’s no distortion ?
Dino
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I just bought my white MacBook 3 weeks ago and I also noticed the buzzing with a slight vibration. It bothers me too and I want to go back to the computer store and ask them if this is normal. I’m happy to see I’m not the only one but is this normal? I’m going to call Apple too.
Ben
January 24th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Guys I have the same roblem, bought the macbook at the beginning of January!
Margus Sütt
April 28th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
We’re all in the same boat, i think. I bought my macbook at the beginning of this year and have never noticed the noise before, but suddenly i marked that my mac’s battery isn’t holding on so good anymore. When i used to get 5-6 hours of medium brightness just using Safari, then now i get 3-4 hours the same thing. I think that this buzzing sound eats the battery. I have no idea, am i over-reacting or what but if i won’t find any answers from the internet, i’mma take my mac to technician.
Frederic
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:23 am
Thanks Guys! at least I know I am not the only one who wonder about that noise. bought the computer in Nov 2009. Noise started about in January this year, and either I am getting more sensitiv to it ( read pis**d off… by it) or it is getting worst as time pass. Today I am taking it back to Apple store, which by the way, I am agree on this, is usually displaying a level of sound around that is not only unfriendly to consumer service but plain rude.
StevieTT
September 30th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Hi
I have the low-lovel scratching noise, too. I have a white macbook and just recently it’s been making this horrible, quite loud clunking noise as though the cd drive is trying to load a CD and failing. It doesn’t seem to be the CD drive. Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Michael
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm
wow thanks guys for this thread. I thought my mac was going to explode. Now I know it’s normal.
Paul
December 9th, 2010 at 10:29 am
I have a 15″ MBP purchased Spring 2008 and it was fine for a long time but recently developed the same sort of “trapped bug” sound in the left side of the keyboard.
1. Turning the volume off, up, down has no effect.
2. Changing screen brightness has no effect (i heard that a bad inverter was the culprit, but no)
3. It does not seem to be related to processor overload/use
4. It is very frustrating and annoying.
Not much help, but figured that venting would make me feel better. If anybody comes across a solution, PLEASE post.
Clare
February 5th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Just like Paul, I have a 15″ MBP bought Spring 2008 which about a week ago, January 2011, developed this “trapped bug” sound that seems to emanate from under the upper left area of the keyboard.
The first time it happened, it was a constant, scary noise and so I restarted. Since then, the sound seems to just randomly start, then might disappear, but returns – and has occasional pauses, always regardless of what I’m doing. In other words, it’s inconsistent and I can’t figure out what it relates to as it seems independent of anything I do. Any ideas welcome!!
Samuel
July 17th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Had my MacBook since early ’09, never had this noise for almost two years. Now I finally finished putting in a new hard drive with a clean install of Windows 7. Noise started a day later, as described above. Mine sounds close to E R 4 5. Can’t be the hard drive, as that’s elsewhere. Seems to be the processor. Noise happens both on the Windows and Mac side. It’s like the screws are loose and something is bumping around in that area. Hope someone figures this out sometime. Gah.