Constant faint ping pong noise coming from HD

Question

Level 1

5 points

Constant faint ping pong noise coming from HD

I think someone described the sound best as a "faint ping pong hitting a metal surface sound." The HD itself is fine, but this constant noise is irritating. It occurs about every 15 seconds, and is very noticeable in a quiet room.

I bought a new MBP a couple weeks ago and reported this problem to Applecare. Applecare told me to go all the way to the Apple Store after waiting for about an hour even with the Genius Bar reservation online. Opened up the another MBP out of the box, still has the same problem.

Is this sound affecting ALL new MBP's? I understand that this faint ping pong noise has been around on MBP's since 2007, and that Apple was made aware of it, but nothing seems to have been done. Why?

Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 10, 2009 1:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

andy718 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 10, 2009 2:05 AM in response to andy718

I just realized something. I believe this is most likely a SOFTWARE problem. The noise does NOT occur under Windows when I run it under Boot Camp.

Reply

Answer 2

ZooN

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2009 8:26 AM in response to andy718

Would it be possible that the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" function in the energy server from Preference? The sound may be come from the OS X try to put the hard disk to sleep.

I am just guessing.

Reply

Answer 3

May 10, 2009 12:17 PM in response to andy718

You know what, I'm getting the exact same "ping pong" noise. It sounds like a ball dropping from a ping pong table. I think I can feel a tiny shake too. Mine doesn't happen as often as 15 seconds tho. Mine is more like every half hour? Weird. I don't have a new MBP either mine in 15" Intel Core Duo (I think 2007). I just hope its not a mother board problem. One last thing, My MBP seems to be quirky these days, after using it for long hours, the keyboard will type numbers instead of letters and miss a few characters here or there (after a few hours of usage). I'm trying to isolate these problems but no luck yet. Any one have any luck with a remedy. **** things just scare me! MBP is my bread n butter (I'm a designer).

Reply

Answer 4

RoosMac

Level 1

0 points

Jul 13, 2009 5:27 AM in response to PhilRubio

Just bought this MacBook pro and have noticed the faint noise similar to a submarine ping. Trouble shooting by turning off the speakers doesn't get rid of the noise. It sounds like hardware, but have not determined the origin. Any luck with this issue?

Reply

Answer 5

joe_chow

Level 1

0 points

Jul 13, 2009 7:50 AM in response to andy718

There's another thread that's been going on for weeks about sound coming out of new MBPs:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659&tstart=0
Maybe it's related?

Reply

Answer 6

Sep 16, 2009 12:22 PM in response to andy718

I have had my new 13" mbp for about 2 days and I have noticed this sound too. I thought it was email checking, or people on the network signing on and off but I see no correlation. It's seems to happen even with the sound entirely muted, and it's every 30-60 seconds. It's sort of getting on my nerves. Please please please let me know if there's fix.

Reply