Filed under: Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro noises, LCD, touchpad, other problems
Fabienne posted
something a little earlier updating you on the widely-reported hissing noise affecting the MacBook Pro. I've been
trying to hold off updating you on my status, because it just keeps changing.
But since it looks like this is a bigger problem than even I anticipated, I'm going to post my experiences with the Pro, and things I've found that may benefit current or future MBP owners.
Click on, my friends.
Processor whine
First, yes, as I outlined in my previous post on the matter, I am experiencing an odd hissing/whiny noise coming from the machine. The noise is loud when the machine is idle, but when you run a processor-intensive app (ie, Photobooth), it goes away. I installed Apple's CHUD tools (found in the Xcode installer package on the Mac OS X install disk), loaded up the new Processor preference pane, and disabled the processor's second core. That eliminated the noise entirely.
Others who notice this have come up with various solutions of their own
-Run Photobooth and just leave it in the background. The noise goes away because the processor is in use.
-Install this Mirror widget. Run it, then remove it from the Dashboard. Blammo: The noise should be gone. Not sure why or how this works, but I suspect that when you remove it, it doesn't completely go away: there's probably some component in the background making use of the processor, eliminating the noise from the second core.
Other noises
Oddly enough, the processor isn't the only thing waking me up at night. The first MacBook Pro I received (I got a replacement, which I'll explain later) had several other hissing noises, too:
-The hard drive squealed. And when I say "squealed," I mean "disillusioned teen girl seeing Brad Pitt walk into the restaurant" squeal: At one point, I was asked to turn the machine off at night so it would stop bothering those who were sleeping in the room. That's bad.
-The LCD did indeed hiss. Turning the screen to maximum (or minimum) brightness eliminated the noise, but it was an eerie annoyance. MacInTouch claims that perhaps massaging the LCD in the bottom-left corner or bending back-and-forth the display would "break it in," possibly eradicating it, but I haven't tried that.
-The fan of my original machine would engage in random vacuum-like bursts. It was odd, and for a minute I thought the A/C in my house was going crazy.
All of those noises are no longer an issue on my new MacBook Pro.
Touchpad troubles
On both my old and new MBP machines, the touchpad will randomly stop working for periods of 4-7 minutes. When that happens, I'm unable to move the cursor, click the button, anything -- and all I can do is sit there waiting patiently for it to magically come back.
One hint says that turning off the "Ignore accidental trackpad input" will eliminate the problem -- but as I've learned the past few days, it doesn't.
Some good does come from this, though: I'm now a pro at controlling the computer with nothing but the keyboard. (If you're ever stuck in a situation where you cursor just stops and you're stranded, hit Fn Ctrl F7. That will enable Full-Keyboard Access, allowing you navigate OS X without needing the mouse.)
Screen annoyances
My first (and now my second) MacBook Pro had an incredibly noticeable white strip along the bottom of the LCD, making the bottom significantly brighter than the rest of the display.
Every -- and I mean every -- MacBook Pro I've seen or dealt with has this issue. Everyone I know who has a MacBook has this issue. My new one has it, and I bet when I go to the store and demand Yet Another Replacement, that will have it, too.
I'm a little frustrated because the issue on my newer machine is a bit more pronounced -- plus, it seems the backlight on the right side of my display is shot: the right is noticeably darker than the rest of the display. So the bottom is annoyingly bright and the right is annoyingly dark.
Combine that with the soul-killing whiny noises, and you've got yourself the type of problem historically responsible for insanity and mass murder/suicides.
As I've mentioned above, I managed to get my MacBook Pro replaced by a gracious Apple Store Genius (after frustratingly marching off from another Apple Store that refused to). Unfortunately, the problems still exist, and so I've scheduled another Genius Bar reservation for tonight, to see what other options I have (repair? a second replacement? We'll see).
Unfortunately, this machine is my new Secretary, Boss, and Client -- so going without for An Undefined Amount of Time will have repercussions that could very well threaten the carefully-knit fabric of the Universe itself. I can only pray that such a disaster -- ie, me being without my MacBook Pro for more than two days while it's off to Texas for repairs -- will result in minimum loss of life, and FEMA will have learned enough from the Katrina catastrophe to properly respond with first aid, food, heavily-armed rescue choppers, and a boatload of duct tape.
I know, I should have "anticipated" "problems" with my "new" MacBook Pro. That this should be "expected" and "usual" and "jeezus man, what were you thinking?" But I want to make one thing clear: Apple cannot use "well, it's a first Rev." as an excuse for sloppy manufacturing and hiring a Quality Control team so high on hallucinogens it can't distinguish an inconsistent backlight display from a colorful dragon strumming a guitar.
I love the machine. But I will love it even more when I get one that does what it's supposed to do without making me think I have a bad case of tinnitus and a serious eye problem.
And I hate to say this, because I'm a fan of Apple and I think the faster the Mac Base moves to Intel the better off we'll all be: But if you can wait on a purchase of a MacBook Pro, then wait. The issues are noticeable and consistent -- and until Apple acknowledges them and fixes the manufacturing problems, I can't recommend anybody put themselves in this position, especially if they're easily annoyed (like me) by the Minor Things that define the experience.Post your thoughts in the comments, and I'll keep you up-to-date with my situation as it develops.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Joe Buchheit said 10:03PM on 3-13-2006
That's 1st gen Apple for ya
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Bridget Samuels said 10:11PM on 3-13-2006
My MBP does *not* have the screen brightness problem. I didn't experience any of the whine until this weekend (I've had the computer for about 3 weeks). It went away temporarily when I moved or even touched the screen, but then it would come back again, and this occurred for a few days. When I put the machine to sleep yesterday, the whine disappeared and hasn't come back today. I'm hoping it never does, but I'm not holding my breath. Still, I do love the new machine.
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electronicat said 10:31PM on 3-13-2006
Wow, that sucks. I'm glad I bought a G4 PowerBook last year...I won't be in the market for a new Mac for at least a year or two. Hopefully Apple gets their shit together and starts enforcing better QC (that goes for iPods too...)
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Jeff said 10:32PM on 3-13-2006
No matter how "tempting" the Macbook Pro is, I am going to hold out until the 2nd gen shipped with Leopard :D totally worth it!
They will fix most of the hardware problems by then.
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Gary said 10:33PM on 3-13-2006
People are reporting today's security update eliminates the processor whine.
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Chase Putnam said 10:38PM on 3-13-2006
I have a 1.83 Ghz MBP with 1.5 GB RAM. I don't have the screen whiteness problem or the trackpad problem at all. The whines that issue from the machine are minimal and dont bother me much at all. I believe that desite the reports and complaints people have about the machine, it is still a great computer. 1st generation computers always have problems, and the fact that these aren't fatal (yet) and no one has died from an exploding battery or something is in my opinion a success on Apple's part. Although the MBP does get hot enough while playing WoW to burn my lap quite a bit. =P
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Derek said 10:40PM on 3-13-2006
Either i'm just totally lucky and my MBP doesn't have any of these problems, or i'm so used to my piece of crap Sony Vaio that they haven't registered with me.
My touchpad blanks out for a second or two periodically, but that may be the "ignore accidental input" thing.
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sterling said 10:45PM on 3-13-2006
I have no problems with my MBP. I can hear the fan near the power cord kick in, but it's definately not loud by any means. My old PowerBook's fan were very loud in comparison. Sounds like you have some bad luck.
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John Benson said 10:47PM on 3-13-2006
I also am a person who does *not* have a white stripe at the bottom of my screen. I haven't seen it on the demo models at the Apple Store either.
As far as this "whining" issue goes, this isn't the first laptop to have this issue. Mine exhibits it, though it is not pronounced and seems to come and go. However, my roomates HP laptop does this constantly and at a much higher volume. I don't know if the processor is truly to blame, as he runs an AMD instead of Intel.
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James M Woods said 10:52PM on 3-13-2006
I have to say that I am totally disappointed with Apple's QC in the Laptop department in the last two years. It seems that all the bright lights of Apple QC have gone to ipod land and we are left with interns running QC.
In the past 20 Months I have had 4 new Powerbooks. I won't bore you with the details but its been bad and I've had to escalate every single time to get a new one.
Yet I keep coming back for more..Although this post will make me think twice about the new MBP's. (But I wanted one sooo bad :-)
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Joshua Ochs said 11:00PM on 3-13-2006
I have the whiny noises, but I have no backlight or speaker problems. Since I usually use it plugged in with brightness up, or otherwise in areas with ambient noise, it's been fine.
We'll see after a few months.
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heat said 11:01PM on 3-13-2006
hope you get everything worked out...
im experiencing the hissing sound and am waiting for some kind of succinct reasoning behind it. the mirror widget trick holds me over whenever im alone in my room, but otherwise: ill just adjust.
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Gene said 11:03PM on 3-13-2006
I have to chime in and say that I have all of these problems as well -- but I believe that the display brightness issue is not the backlight, it seems like it is an issue with some kind of reflective surface behind the screen. When I move my screen, the bright area moves up or down depending on the angle. It just seems like a cheapo LCD panel, that's all. Still, it's incredibly annoying considering how good the LCD panel was on my Powerbook. The new one is giving me a headache.
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heat said 11:05PM on 3-13-2006
id also like to add, that if it were not for the incessant blogging done about the sound beforehand i would probably NOT have checked for the sound immediately after booting up and be blissfully oblivious to the problem while typing this...
but now that ive acknowledged the problem, please do continue posting about it. id like to know WHY this high pitched revelry is assaulting my ear drums and if it will ever (permanently) stop
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Lance said 11:13PM on 3-13-2006
No hiss on MBP, but seems like a very quiet fan (?) runs continually, or is it the hard drive. I am a switcher so am not use to hearinga continual, albeit very quiet, noise on a laptop. A fan starting up and shuting down from time to time - definitely yes? But not ongoing fan/hard drive (?) noise. Is it normal?
Also, optical drive seems to be accessed in starting up and shuting down and/or sleeping. Is that normal?
Thanks for any help.
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derek said 11:13PM on 3-13-2006
I had foresworn buying new runs of anything from Apple after my repeated problems with my 15" PBG4 Al. I got one of the first bunch of those and it was really rough, mostly the screen blotches etc. but also other lingering ickies that I hated.
So I wasn't even considering buying a MBP until my 'Book died on me.
I bought a stock 2.0 GHz and upgraded the ram to 2.0 GB.
So I was pleasantly surprised that of all of the various gripes listed above, I only have the "second processor buzz" and even that is very mild. I have ZERO problems with the display.
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Sean D. said 11:13PM on 3-13-2006
Sounds discouraging. I didn't notice any of the screen problems on any of the six MBPs they had on display at my local Apple Store, but I do believe that there are probably many problem units out there. Probably just one specific factory with an apathetic crew- probably wrong torque setting on the screen assembly screwdriver.
I would love to get a MBP eventually, but I think I'll wait for at least a few revisions before I take the plunge. My iBook G4 has served me faithfully for the past two years (and renewed my faith in Apple's computer line), and it looks like it'll continue to be my primary portable for the next year or so...
Thanks for the post.
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Wevah said 11:22PM on 3-13-2006
My 'Book seems to only have one of the common problems: the second-core whine. The other thing I've noticed is that to my eye the screen has a very slight "film grain"-ish appearance, like the from the screen is being slightly diffused. It's completely uniform across the screen, however, so I'm going to assume that it's normal (anti-glare coating, maybe?). The only other things I've noticed is that when the backlight comes on, the right side comes on a split-second before the left side, and some of the keys on the right side of the keyboard seem a bit crooked (though I can completely ignore that, as it doesn't impact my use).
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BobbyW said 11:29PM on 3-13-2006
"5. People are reporting today's security update eliminates the processor whine."
Do you think Apple would just add a little chore to occupy the processor to alleviate this problem? People say running something like Photobooth is a workaround. Maybe Apple released a patch that gives the processor some busywork....
I would be MAD if I bought a premium priced laptop and it had all these issues. First release is not a valid excuse. There was no hard deadline to get these things out the door. People who shell out over two grand for a laptop should not be quality guinea pigs. Apple has been around long enough to know how to test for such obvious defects.
I don't understand how so many of the people reporting the problems can be so apathetic. I'd be so agitated, I'd probably return the machine.
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Kristy said 11:30PM on 3-13-2006
About the LCD hiss - I have had this problem on my two-month-old PB as well. It seems to be most common when the display and computer are cold. If you adjust to a high or low brightness, you can "move in" to whatever you'd normally like it to be at over the next five or ten minutes as the screen warms up - at least that's been my experience. Sort of odd, but it's only because the rest of the machine is so insanely quiet that I noticed it.
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