Macbook Power brick and laptop buzzing sound issues

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Level 1

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Macbook Power brick and laptop buzzing sound issues

I just purchased a macbook in January 08 before the new ones were released. And i think that i may have a problem with the laptop power supply and/ or the macbook itself.

The power supply often creates this high pitch buzzing sound and when get closer to it you can also here a buzzing electric sound inside of the power supply as well. I have also noticed when i put my ear upto the left side of the macbook keyboard i also hear a buzzing sound. Now this could be the hard drive, but i under stand the hard drive to be on the left side of the trackpad and i also was not writing anything onto the hard drive so it should not be writing data to it anyway. Then when i played a HD video i heard the hard drive spin up and then it shut down after i stopped the video. So i do not think it is the hard drive.

I was thinking that this may be the internal macbook power supply making the noise as it happened when on the power adpater and when running on battery power.

Now this sound it not really loud that i am unable to use the laptop. But should the laptop be making a buzzing sound in that one particular place. And should the power supply be making this noise. Overall i have found the macbook to be very quiet except when i start to play video , then the heat rises fast and the fans go onto full speed.

Anybody got any ideas,
Thanks

Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 23, 2008 5:41 AM

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Answer 1

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Mar 23, 2008 3:16 PM in response to rustboy98

Fan speed going up when playing video is normal. Buzzing either from the power supply or your Macbook isn't. I'd recommend taking it in to the Apple Store and having a genius take a look at it.

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Answer 2

rustboy98 Author

Level 1

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Mar 25, 2008 4:10 AM in response to rustboy98

Thanks for the reply but i do not have apple store near me. I am in the UK and are miles away from a apple store. I have searched for the problem i have got in google and it appears that it may be a processor / RAM issues.
see http://www.maccomplainer.com/macbook-complaints/macbook-scratchy-or-buzzing-nois e/

Or it might be a fan issue
see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6635319

And the noise gets louder as more processor intensive activities are done like playing HD video.
I have tried using apples web chat but they only offer chat support for ipods and imacs which is strange, unless it is not being used anymore

Message was edited by: rustboy98

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Answer 3

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Mar 25, 2008 6:24 AM in response to rustboy98

Call Apple. There's no keystroke or button you can push that's going to make your problems go away. The number in the UK is
(44) 0870 876 0753*

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Answer 4

rustboy98 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2008 5:05 AM in response to rustboy98

I have just got off the phone from apple support in the UK. And to tell you the truth they are really bad, he told me to take out the battery and to hold down the power button then reconnect the battery and then reset the pram. I knew this would not work but i did it to please him.

Then he said this is a hardware fault and that it could need to come in to be fixed. At this point i thought he would say something like "we will pick it up" or "we will send you a replacement" or "we will send you a box to return it to us". But now he said i had to phone up this shop miles away and ask them to repair the laptop for me. And i have no way of getting there

So what do i do the power supply buzzing the macbook is buzzing and scratching. This is the worst customer care call that i have ever had. I have had replacements of many producing including playstation 3's, PSP, Dell computers and all what they do is send a new one out and it gets swapped for the broken one. Or they send someone to pick it up.

Any ideas on what to do next.

Message was edited by: rustboy98

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Answer 5

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Mar 26, 2008 5:41 AM in response to rustboy98

*Then he said this is a hardware fault and that it could need to come in to be fixed. At this point i thought he would say something like "we will pick it up" or "we will send you a replacement" or "we will send you a box to return it to us". But now he said i had to phone up this shop miles away and ask them to repair the laptop for me. And i have no way of getting there*
I agree. that is bad. Did you explain to them that you had no way to get it there? I wouldn't expect them to send you a new computer but I would expect that they might send a box so you could ship it. Maybe try calling that shop and explain your situation to them and see if they can help. You could also just box it up yourself and ship it to the shop.
My experience with Apple Support in the US has been nothing but positive but sometimes you have to be persistant...paitent and polite but persistant.

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Answer 6

Joe Co

Level 1

130 points

Mar 31, 2008 12:16 PM in response to rustboy98

Are you sure it's not just the fan spinning up? The fan will increase in speed when the processor is very busy - during playing video, for instance. This keeps the processor cool. There's utilities you can use to watch the fan speed.

Also, my MacBook makes a small whiny noise from the area you describe, but I can't hear it unless I put my ear to the rear of the machine or the room I'm in is absolutely silent. I've been assured that this is a normal noise.

If you can hear it loudly, or over other noise, then you may have a problem. But if it's the same as mine then it may be normal!

Hope that helps.

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Answer 7

k3n

Level 1

50 points

Mar 31, 2008 2:13 PM in response to rustboy98

I get this too when my macbook is charging up, but its more like a high pitched electronic squeal. I don't get it from the power block, but only on the left side of the keyboard where the magsafe connector is located.

Thought this was normal to be honest, and it doesn't particularly get on my nerves. However the fact that my macbook sounds as if its going to take off because of the fan does!

p.s: your hard drive is in fact located on the right side of your track pad, so you should be able to determine the sound from either your HD or magsafe connector.

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Answer 8

Shangqi

Level 1

15 points

Mar 31, 2008 3:02 PM in response to rustboy98

Okay. The fan speed will always go up when your watching a video because the video makes the motherboard heat up. If you try and stop it. You might as well want to get your laptop destroyed, fried or blown up.. so you can find a solution. get a laptop cooler or just go to apple and they can help you.

Shang

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