Strange 'beeping' keyboard typing on PB15

Did any of you pay attention to whether the sound occured outside of safari? Mine does the same thing religiously in dreamweaver, but no where else.

I'm getting chirping or beeping like that described in this thread. It happens sometimes when I hit certain keys -- delete is particularly susceptible. I also get a louder version of it -- sometimes but not all the time -- in Omniweb when I control-click to open a new tab. But not in Firefox. The version when hitting certain keys is much fainter. I don't know if this is related to the keystroke version.

It does seem to be getting worse over time, as described earlier in this thread.

I have the beeping too. all that I can add is that my PB is about a year and a half old and it just started about a month ago. it is very intermitent, seems to get get worse the longer i have been working and completing different tasks.

It's weird. I've had my PB15 for about 18 months. I just noticed it too happening to me. I'm usually never in such a quiet environment w/ my PB15 to have noticed it in the past; but sitting here in my kitchen, all quiet, and I do here it!

Now that I know "it's there" it's going to bother me. Arrrgh!

It seems to go away when you make it "automatic" instead of "Highest", as well as the small tone comming from the center of the computer (i assume the processor).

But what if I want to run the computer on highest? Logic doesn't work on "Automatic"

Everyone is saying that this is something that happens as your computer gets older...I've had mine for three days and it's begun chirping. Is there any way around this? My CPU isn't on "Highest Performance", I just have it set to not go to sleep automatically because I need my computer to be on for long periods of time. Any thoughts on what can be done?

Also, for those of you who've solved the problem - my computer doesn't have an "Automatic" setting. Any other thoughts?

I have the same issue - on a 15 inch 1.67 machine with the video upgrade, bought in march 05 - its been doing it for a few months, but i only notice it late at night when its quiet mostly.

I too have been having the same problem, and have also been unsuccessful in recording the sound. However, I did notice that at times no matter what program I'm in, if it's happening, it's happening. I've also noticed that if I put my ear directly to the keyboard at times, when I'm scrolling or using the mouse, the regular computer buzz seems to change slightly. I've been unsuccessful in recording this, but it seems the frequency of the sound changes about 20Hz. The only explanation that I can think of for this would be the changes in the current that is going through the circuitry. Even when no sound is playing through the speakers, there is still a very minute amount of electricity going through them. It could just be that at times when a key is pressed, or the trackpad is used to scroll, the electricity is diverted and sent to / taken away from the speakers. It's a far stretch, but it's more than plausible. This could just be the way that the main board is designed, or just more power being sent to specific areas than what is actually needed. This could explain why changing the power setting stops it. It could be better regulating the power that goes to the computer parts.

"Yeah, not sure. My laptop is not even a year old, and it's been doing it since the first month or two"

Im having the same problem as all of you guys, never had it before, must be software/update related..

I have this same problem on my new PowerBook G4 15". I can recreate it every time if I perform the following steps:

1. Have any text file that is longer than the height of the screen and would require scrolling.
2. Open the file in an Apple text-editing program, i.e. XCode or TextEdit.
3. Scroll down the file until five or six of the lines that were below the screen are now visible.
4. Start typing

This issue only occurs in Apple-shipped software, XCode, TextEdit, Safari, etc.

So weird!!!!

~Jeff Corbets

"Yeah, not sure. My laptop is not even a year old,
and it's been doing it since the first month or two"

Im having the same problem as all of you guys, never
had it before, must be software/update related.

First off, like others have mentioned, this does NOT seem to be restricted to "older" laptops. I've had my new 15" Powerbook AL for ONE WEEK and noticed the beeping (in TextEdit...as well as at least one other app that I can't remember)

VERY interesting comment above from RateMyPinky regarding a possible Software Update issue. My Powerbook came with 10.4.2. While I was reinstalling data from my old computer for the first couple days, I did NOT upgrade to 10.4.3 for a couple days.

That being said, however, I do NOT know if the beeping I heard with TextEdit coincided with my upgrade from 10.4.2 to 10.4.3.

So, my question to the board...is there anyone other there still on 10.4.2 or earlier who has this beeping issue?? Or perhaps there is someone WITHOUT the beeping issue with 10.4.2 who wants to upgrade to 10.4.3, HOPE to get the beeping, report here and join our Lil' Club?? :->

Scott

I too am having this problem.

Very strange since I have the latest powerbook, and it has been doing this nearly since I got it. Very annoying at times.

I am having the same problem. I am also getting similar noises when creating a new iMovie project and going to "Titles". The chirping occurs when viewing the "3D Spin" effect either in the small preview or when clicking the "Preview" button. Can anyone confirm this?

Also I wouldn't classify this as a real solution, you can resolve the issue by installing Apple's CHUD (Computer Hardware Understanding Development) tools from here:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/
This will give you a new "Processor" pane in System Preferences where you can disable "Allow Nap" for your processor, which will possibly reduce your battery running time marginally. However, you have to disable it again after each reboot. See also:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051106072241470&lsrc=osxh


PB G4 15" DL-SD, 1.5 GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.4)