Am I the only one with a blip/pop noise?!

If it's like "a ping pong ball dropping softly onto a metal plate" (how I'd describe it) then it's the hard drive heads parking when they can, part of the energy saving features ...

Hmm... I can hear the same noise 😟
And I can hear it if I have the energy saving feature "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" off, too.....
So is something wrong with my new MBP?

Thanx

You are not alone, I have just got a macbook and it started to make this noise a couple of days ago. Not only that but I the numlock and caplock buttons also reversed on a couple of occasions but reverted to normal after restarting. I have just made the jump to apple from PC in the hope of a quiet computer like so i can get on with work instead of computer wrestling so it is a bit worrying.

hi - my new mbp is making this noise too... it seems to be mimicking what you described almost perfectly. (actually, i was sort of relieved upon finally finding this thread and reading the ping pong ball description to know i wasn't imagining things, esp. since when i tried to explain it to apple on the phone they asked, "does the noise seem to coincide with your receiving a new email?").

in any event, they (apple) had me run disk utility, which found nothing wrong with the hd, and they reset the pram, but it seems to be doing it as much as ever. i mean, i can live with the noise, but does anyone know if it's problematic? like, is it foreshadowing an hd problem?

fwiw, i have the 2.2 ghz core 2 duo macbook pro with 2 gb ram, and the 120 gb fujitsu hd. running 10.5.1.

my normal macbook,and my IBM Thinkpad T30,running leopard i am posting from does it too,with a new hitachi hard drive, and the macbook has a seagate,so it may not be the hard drive,but the mac operating system,let me check my ibook g4 to see if it does it too.

I just received a new MBP after convincing APPLE to take back my last one becaue they could not rectify the same noise issue you are all experiencing. However, I am now hearing the noise on this new machine! Neither machine came loaded with leopard? Not sure if that could be it. I have had MAC's for years and NEVER had this problem. For the price of the machine NONE of us should just put up with it.

fwiw, my mbp didn't come with leopard pre-installed either; it was a drop-in disc. if i knew for sure that it was definitely leopard and not a hardware issue, with the hd or something, i might try and go back to 10.4 on this new mbp, but it seems like a huge pain to do without knowing whether it'd solve the issue or not.

im so glad i found this post because i thought i was the only one! anybody figured it out at all?

Well my hard disc in a 10 month old MBP has just failed after making this noise.

The only strange thing I had up till then was it would sometimes restart when I shut the lid to go into sleep mode, but a trip to the Genius Bar suggested the hard disc was OK and not the cause.

Yesterday after 2 hours of emailing with it, sitting at a desk, no hard disc use at all I expect, I heard a gentle tick tick at one second intervals and the whole computer froze. I've heard the hard disc click before but this was different. Nothing to do but restart and now there's a loud tick at one second intervals and no hard disc. Data Rescue won't find it, target mode wont find it.

A trip to the Apple shop and they concur after listening that the hard disc is bust and will replace it, but I cant keep the old one, they send it back, so no final chance to try and recover data.

There was absolutely no warning this was going to happen, and I keep hoping it may be something else, but a quick search on Google suggests Energy saving may wear out the disc really fast. All my other Macs have lasted years with the original discs still in place.

Should I expect any more from Apple than a new hard disc and a terse rebuke about failing to back up regularly? Its only 10 months old!

I have been pushing MAC and though they tried to fix the first MBP (two times) without success they have sent me two new MBP within a week. Every machine, (that makes 3), that I have gotten has the same noise. It sounds crazy. This morning I asked for my money back. I am not lashing out at apple. I have a MACPRO desktop and have had several MAC computers. Something has gone wrong with the MBP. What I find puzzling is why doesn't everyone hear this noise - I have had three in the last month and a half and every single one has made the noise!? I have finally recorded it on video for MAC and only a custumer service rep has listened so far. I want an engineer to listen to it. Maybe a tech who tried to fix my first one?? Mac offered me a 17". I want my money back and will continue to see if anything further surfaces regarding this problem. Thought I was going crazy but they (cs rep) has now heard the noise and think it odd as well. Ultimately, I would like a MBP that runs like the rest of my MACs.

I, too, have a 15" MacBook Pro that makes little popping sounds. It's nice to know I'm not the only one. The sounds I hear come from the left speaker area. The popping sound is kind of random. It can happen several times a minute or maybe not at all. The sound is a bit of bubbly static followed by a high pitched pop. I am not sure if the left speaker is messed up but the sound definitely comes from that location.

So far I am on my second 15" MacBook Pro. The first one made the same sound and I was able to exchange it for a new 15" MacBook Pro at an Apple retail store. But the second one made the same sounds so I brought it to an Apple store and they sent it in for repair. I got it back now and it still makes the popping noise.

It's really frustrating this noise. Since the popping sound is somewhat random it's hard to reproduce for an apple care person on the phone or a person working at the Apple Genius Bar. And in the Apple retail store it's hard to hear the popping sound because of the store noise. If the tech people can't hear the sound either because of randomness or ambient noise I think it is hard for them to relate to the problem and to solve it. I've been to the Apple retail store 3 times because of the popping sound and the people at the Genius Bar haven't heard it yet.

Has anyone successfully resolved this issue?

Sounds like we are in the same boat. I am requesting my money back as it seems this noise is an issue for the MBP but is not, however, a big enough issue that a case is being made by Apple techs. I am bummed about not getting the laptop I want but I refuse to pay money for a machine that makes this annoying noise. I find it hard to believe that I have had three in a row? What are the chances? The more I talk about this noise coming from the machine(S) the more I feel like a certified nut case. Like a bad scifi movie. I keep waiting for a news break that explains the problem and all will be solved. fat chance is the feeling i am getting from Apple.

digwitch wrote:
Sounds like we are in the same boat. I am requesting my money back as it seems this noise is an issue for the MBP but is not, however, a big enough issue that a case is being made by Apple techs.

It does sound like we're in the same boat. Who are you talking to about a refund: Applecare, Genius Bar, or Apple customer care? At one point I asked about a refund and the person at the Genius Bar said I would be charged a restocking fee, I decided against doing that. I am going to call Apple care today and see what my options are at this point.

digwitch wrote:
I am bummed about not getting the laptop I want but I refuse to pay money for a machine that makes this annoying noise.

At times I've wondered if my calls to Applecare and visits to the Genius Bar are worth it. It's kind of embarasing when you can't reliably reproduce the problem you're complaining about. You wonder if the techs believe you. But once I get back home and hear the popping sound, I'm like, this is not acceptable. I paid almost 2 grand for a computer, I expect it to be almost perfect, not to randomly fizz and pop. It's kind of like, how much of a defect should I put up with?

digwitch wrote:
I find it hard to believe that I have had three in a row? What are the chances?

That stinks. How did you get a second and third MacBook Pro? Who did you talk to? I am just wondering with who I should talk.

digwitch wrote:
The more I talk about this noise coming from the machine(S) the more I feel like a certified nut case. Like a bad scifi movie.

You are not a nut case. The sound is there. More than likely there are many others with this problem but they may have a higher tolerance for defects. The popping sound may not bother them. Or maybe they just don't post about it. By the way, how would you describe the sound you are hearing? Can you hear the sound when you have other noise in the room?

digwitch wrote:
I keep waiting for a news break that explains the problem and all will be solved. fat chance is the feeling i am getting from Apple.

A fix to the problem would be great. A person at the Genius Bar that I talked to did say that a driver update may fix the problem, but he couldn't promise anything, and he wouldn't guess as to when the next driver update would be. Did someone you talked to at Apple say the sound probably won't get fixed? I am curious. Ah well, good luck on finding a solution. Please post back here when your problem is resolved.

If anyone else is experiencing this popping sound please post about it. If enough people do, Apple will be more eager to deal with it.

I live in NH and the nearest APPLE store is an hour away. My case has been escalated two times. Last night I got a call from a supervisor in customer service and he is suppose to contact me today. He did not say anything about restocking fee and considering I have spent a great deal of time on the phone and mailing units back I will be upset if I get anything less than what i put out money wise. So, you do not hear the noise when you are at the store? Have you heard it anywhere else other than at home (or wherever you regularly use it)? I wonder if it is an environmental issue. Perhaps phone or computer interferrence? Sounds wacky but so does this whole situation. The computer I have is currently back in its box but I am tempted to take it somewhere else to listen for the noise. I am not sure about a driver update? And how much pressure does this issue put on APPLE for creating a new driver update? visit this link where I posted a 7 min. video of my machine making this noise. I have not made it public because I did not want APPLE to think I was lashing out - and I am not but this is real and it is an issue. Would I like a machine that works or my money back? A machine that works. There must be others with this issue. This video may take a while to load as it is 7 min. long. Be patient. You may have to copy and past the URL. Let me know if this is the same noise you are hearing. Thanks. web.mac.com/ethwrite/iWeb/Digital%20Witch/MBP%20PONG%20%20NOISE.html