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

Fingers crossed, but i think my pop sound is gone. Just tried the method listed above, and i think, its gone! Thanks!

I just got off the phone with my second Apple product specialist. He consulted with engineers about the fizzy pop sound my MacBook Pro is making. Besides what I told them about the sounds it makes, they listened to the sounds in the video that digwitch posted. The engineers said if the sounds my MacBook Pro is making are similar to those in digwitch's video, then the sounds are completely normal hard drive noises. This isn't what I wanted to hear, but this is the second time I've heard it. Again, according to Apple, if your MacBook Pro is making a pop sound like in the digwitch video Apple considers it normal.

The product specialist did say if enough people complain about the sound by calling in to Apple, that Apple may come up with a way to get rid of it.

Man o Man. That is bad news. I find it so hard to believe. I can not imagine people are standing for this noise OR that engineers for APPLE believe it to be normal? It is completely out of line with other Mac products. How many people does it take for APPLE to do away with this popping noise? I hate to think it would be a great deal. So we are to just put up with it? loss for words.

Yes that isnt good at all, these noises are IMO not normal at all! Its a beep rather than clicking etc. Cant believe they think its normal.

Still no beep or popping since yesterday so the fix worked.

If this is normal hardware/HDD noise, why did it start a week after I bought my MBP? After a week of intensive use? This doesn't make sense, and i have never experienced it with my old Macbook.

The procedure from above is still working for me, but I hope my HDD will live as long as untouched ones....

Baruch

hey everyone

i think it probably is "normal" in terms of proper operation of the hard drive (as a function of the software that parks the heads every minute).

However, normal operation of the hard drive a quiet room is maddeningly annoying, and unacceptable noise.

that's what im going to tell applecare when i call them today.

until then, ill probably use hdapm

cheers,
josh

I just spoke with a product specalist at Applecare. I got his word that he'd send an email to engineering about the issue, instead of following the basic procedure of logging the problem into the database. I provided him with several URLs pointing to web pages (including this discussion) about the issue. The product specalist said he would send me an email with feedback. Engineering are evidently the people who will decide what (if anything) to do about this.

Below are the URL's I provided him with.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6522043

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6498085

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1001366

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=197899

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=587279

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=113747&sid=dd4b91c77c4d597d0b37 72cd4ae68523

http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php/t-199088.html

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1001366

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/featuresHead-c.html

Any recent news on this issue??! My macbook starting having these symptoms only 3 days after I bought it! I had previously solved the problem by using McKinlay's brilliant hdapm utility...Unfortunately ever since I did an 'Software Update' on the OS (10.5.1), hdapm will not work! Says 'FAILED: APM not supported', which I know is a lie because it was working like a charm right up until the update. Any thoughts on the issue? Do you, McKinlay, know of any reason this might have happened?? Someone said it elsewhere and I agree with them that this...this 'blip' sound is like water torture, it is driving me insane!!! Please help.

I think that my OS is 10.5.1 since I bought my Macbook Pro about a week ago and did all update.

I tried McKinlay's method and my HD does not make clink noise anymore. So repeat the method again.

is there anybody have negative opinions on this method (eg. damaging HD etc). The noise has gone, but I am bit worried if it has side effects.

Hmm, thinking about it maybe the blip started when i updated to 10.5.1.

The blip still hasn't come back yet, 🙂

Something tells me this is not a software issue but who the heck knows? Keep calling Apple. Be assertive and ask to escalate your call beyond the first string of Apple Techs that you are always forwarded to. Demand (ask nicely) to talk to someone in customer relations. I have a feeling this issue will not get resolved unless there are a lot of voices and those voices are only coming from people like us that find the noise annoying. apparently there are people who could care less about the noise. Bottom line, this noise is unacceptable for an Apple Product and that is what needs to be driven home. There are other people talking about it. Refer the reps to Josh's post with all the links. Be concise, calm and assertive on the phone with the CSR - it is hard enough not to sound like a lunatic when describing this problem but acting like a nut on the phone will get us no where. Just making some suggestions. Make our voices heard. As for the hdpam thing - there may not be enough people out there who know if this has long term side effects. it is a power management thing. of course APPLE would tell you not to do it but what alternative do we have? If you bought the APP keep talking to reps. If you didn't buy it you might want to think about it...

anyone looking to educate themselved on hard disk drives, and what installing HDAPM might do, check out this page.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/act.htm

(can't get a direct link to the article.. click on the above link and then click on the "Head Parking and the Landing Zone" link on the left side of the page)

if you search through other pages of the website, you can learn more about HDD's then you ever (ever) wanted to know.

i also found this interesting:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/features_Leveling.htm

and wonder if the procedure mentioned isn't what's going on in our computers.

the only take home message I got from reading was that if you do run HDAPM, be careful not to move your computer too much or too suddenly.

any luck with the new leopard update?

Same. Mine just failed after making this noise as well. Had to get a new hard drive.

I installed the new leopard update, and my MacBook Pro still makes the fizzy pop noise.