Static sound coming from the Thunderbolt Display speakers

I had the following problem:

Mid 2012 MBA attached to TB display in CLAMSHELL (closed) MODE and using Apple BT keyboard and Apple Magic Trackpad. Buzzing was not present for the first few months of owning my TB display. Then developed constant buzzing coming from the TB display. Loudness of buzzing was directly related to the brightness setting. Turn the brightness up, the buzzing would get louder.

I took it into my local Apple store and had the Genius look at it. With the MBA OPEN and connected to the TB display (mirror desktop or extra desktop space mode) I could not reproduce the buzzing problem in the TB display. I showed the genius videos on my iPhone that I took of the TB display buzzing with me turning up and down the contrast.

Although we couldn't reproduce the problem in the Apple store with the MBA open, the Genius took my word for it and took the monitor in for service. A few days later I got a call and a different Genius that was working on it couldn't reproduce the buzzing until I specified that it only happened when my MBA was attached to TB display in CLAMSHELL (closed) mode. He then tried connecting a MB in CLAMSHELL closed mode and called back to let me know he finally could reproduce the buzzing.

He said that they would replace the power supply and screen of the TB display. 3 days later I have picked it up repaired from the Apple Store and it now seems to work without any problem.

Hope this helps.

Any solution as yet? I have my MBP retina connected to my ATD and about 30 seconds into playing any sound, wether music or web sound clips, anything, the static starts to get so loud that it eventually mutes the sound completely. I have looked everywhere for a solution but can't find anything?

Any help appreciated!

I had this issue with the cinema display, and took it in and had it checked. Nothing was wrong. Turns out it was only happening when my dishwasher was running. Because they were on the same circuit, something to do with the power caused my display to make noise when it shouldn't have been.

Same here. My thunderbolt display buzzes when brightness is anything higher than mid brightness. Its extremly anoying.

Ive tried plugging it in to differnt outlets, differnt power bars, turning off everything in the house. I dont know what else to do.

Same here as well, I have had two thunderbolt displays connected to MBP 2012 for a long time and all of a sudden one of the Thunderbolt Cinemea Screens started white noise (buzzing). When I disconnect the screen affected all fine with the second screen - move the second screen to the same port as the affected screen and no issue.

I have swapped thunderbolt ports, same issue.

Having the power supply to the MBP connected from this display is enough for the static to start - do not even need the thunderbolt connected. Have swapped power supplies to other screen - no fix, have tried MBP own power supply no fix.

Noise is both present in clamshell and open poistions.

I have sound going through external speakers and microphone on internal - still no luck.

Yes my noise quietens down with contrast but does not go away - I can hear it at 5+m from the screen and is really annoying.

Has Apple still no rectifications for this issue ??

Darren. I have the same issue. The problem is with the internal power supply. Its about $200 to repair if your Thunderbot Display is out of waranty.

You may have another issue besides that one , but the descripton to wrote is the same as mine.

The hiss finally got really loud. I started messing with settings in preparation for taking my TD to the apple store. I made the online appointment at the Genius desk. Naturally, the hiss stopped as soon as I made the appointment. I tried cancelling my appointment, expecting that would immediately bring back the hiss, but perhaps convenient appointments were still available. I will see if the hiss comes back on Sunday when I will not be able to take the TD to the Store until the following Saturday - that should surely bring it back. It seems even less likely that the setting changes had anything to do with it, but I changed the sleep settings on my airbook. Changes were to the Energy Saver under System Preferences: Power Adapter: Computer sleep 3hrs; Display sleep 1hr. Put disk to sleep - OFF, Wake for network - OFF, Enable Power Nap - OFF. I did this because I assumed the problem was in the power supply and was just performing an experiment to make it worse then better. (Why these setting would help to stop the hiss, I have no idea - so I'm back to the explanation that the little bugger is toying with me because I threatened to take it back to the store.) You might try some or all of these steps; since nothing else seems to help.

Here is Mad Sci again to help y'all. I posted a solution earlier, but it seems to have been lost in the thread so i will revisit / repost...

That is highlarious, I must say !! cancelling the appointment as to make thing happen or not. I am a firm believer of the magic of life, the quantum effects of possibilty and such. However, this issue is not one of magic. Its simple. Thunderbolt is a technology that fuses audio vido data into one port. THAT MEANs that all these devices are now connected. Problem being is that the audio is not protected from ground noise. I repeat the audio on any macs with thunderbolt are not protected from ground noise. the Ground is the third wire on the electric cord. ANYTHING plugged in , on your circuit , your house, your building is going to bring in interference.

I have a secluded recording studio, in which I have the luxury of controlling most things.

Your SOLUTION is to find out which devices produce ground noise and decide whether you can isolate them from ground or isolate ground from them.

Cheaper products are more likely to make ground noise. I have a LCDTV from a black friday sale that is horrendous regarding this. A couple hard drive enclosures .. OH and I cant forget , fluorescent lighting will introduce ground noise sometimes. It just depends on the inner circuitry. Yes, from your light socket in another room into your computer audio output. Isn't she lovely ;p

SO here are your steps .. [for IMAC, read this first, but your solution is discussed below]

1. Unplug everything .. Everything you can .. absolutely turn off all appliances . ESPECIALLY unplug everything from your mac !!

2. plugin/turn on your mac with headphones only first ... NOW WE LISTEN !! The noise should b gone. (if its not then you havent unplugged yet, keep searching)

3. then plugin power to your speakers and monitor .. listen .. Do you hear it yet? NO=go to 3. YES= unplug that for now, and note that it is introducing noise. keep reading but this will b similar to imac problem.

3. Here is the tricky part. pay attention. You are probably not going to hear any of that funky noise until we have a connection from ground to ur motherboard .. Signal flow = Noisy device-> into your motherboard -> into your audio output . the noise starts from the bad device and is all throughout the ground in your house/curcuit. How it gets inside the audio is from the thunderbolt. Oh and the killer part is that Thunderbolt grounds everything together !!

Now that we have thunderbolt all you have to do is plug in something to your computer that connects ground and viola = noise. If you have an Imac. hahaha . (I don't know what to tell you about this step, caz your case is probably grounded to everything so there might b ground noise from your computer already as well. Lets talk about that in a sec look for [IMAC] below)

Since the thunderbolt connects the ground on all devices, you merely have to plug in anything that connects your computer ground to the outside world ground. This may be the thunderbolt cable(mine is connected to the TV, which, since I ground isolated the TV, the noise stops there! It doesn't go back into the ground of the house =) ) or it could b a usb or firewire or whatevs .

4. Lets look at a usb hard drive ... the tranformer part of the usb has a '3 prong' u plug into the wall. then the transformer wires goes out into the HD .. how many wires ? only 2.. oo so thats not connecting to the outside world ground. the only source of noise being intoduced into the system will b from THAT HD if there is any..

DO you get me now ?!?!?!

Don't get all excited yet. There are 2 things to deal with there.

** FIRST ** thing is that we need to find the place where the computer perhipheral ground is being connected to the outside ground and Lift it .. Cut the 3rd prong ! buy a ground lifting device, or whatever you need to do... This is the source of the problem !!

** SECOND ** You need to find out which perhipherals make noise and throw the signal straight into the motherboard. With these devices it doesn't matter if you ground lift, caz the noise is going through the data cable = usb, firewire, thunderbolt etc..

Back to the first problem..

The question is Can you isolate your mac motherboard from the outside ground? or do you need to clean the house of noisy circuitry?

Remember ground is not neccesary for all devices. It is only connected because of law. FCC regulations, or whatever you call it. it is very not neccesary at all actually. It is only protection against lightening really. So if you wonder why apple has done this and not fixed it yet. its more political than you think.

I am actually thankful there is minimal computer noise into the headphone output. Compared to an earlier macbook of mine it seems like this computer has less thinking noise going into my audio. I can barely hear it on my headphones. The computer thinking noise is relative to our second problem.

[IMAC]

You guys may be in a bigger pickle .. I do not know how it is all connected up inside so lets just be in touch and try a few things. report back to me on what happens..

1. unplug EVERYTHING, turn off all lights. so its just your computer and headphones

2. Let me know if there is noise here.. [Go to 3 if NO noise] [go to 4 if YES noise]

3. [if there is no noise] plug in a thunderbolt device, lets say a HD if you start to get noise , ground isolate that hard drive .. if that takes care of the noise .. then its the bad problem. where you are connected via your computer ground. Go to 4. if there is noise whenever u have the hard drive in then it is a Second* problem.

4. ground lift the computer itself . If that takes care of the noise .. we need to find out what happens if your computer power supply is not grounded ... [ ok i just did research ,, it is not necessary, just as i thought. It is only because of law, and people talk about a faraday cage, which in theory will keep the hum of the transformer inside, but really this effect is minimal.

So if you need to disconnect your computer from ground,, and all the perhipherals to get rid of the noise ,, Yes that might b a pain in the butt, but thats about it.

Here is an easy solution, just fix up a power strip to ground isolate. . you may want 2 . one for the computer and one for the perhipherals.

If its something you peoples need. Then let me know and I will make some and post them on ebay ...

OKAY so for the SECOND problem I must be honest and say there is much less you can do ... Just be straight up and make the decision if you can afford better gear. There is SOOO much(info and theory bla bla) about perhipherals. I think most people can be good with fixing the FIRST problem. I will tell you though, that If it is a usb device, then there are usb ground isolators available online. However, you must be humble and realize that there are 2 grounds in a usb. 'Cable shield' and the actual common inside the wire. Where is the noise comming from? i dunno .. it could even be going through the data wires! fk if I know !! If you really have an issue and must have your device.. just mssg me.

Anyways ,, here is your solution peoples !! Let your space have the noise you wish !!!!

Ya, if anyone wants me to make some power strips lemme know. Im sure many can do it themselves, but for those not so savvy. Just lemme kno ..

Good luck

Over and out,

-Mad Sci

Here is Mad Sci again to help y'all. I posted a solution earlier, but it seems to have been lost in the thread so i will revisit / repost...

That is highlarious, I must say !! cancelling the appointment as to make thing happen or not. I am a firm believer of the magic of life, the quantum effects of possibilty and such. However, this issue is not one of magic. Its simple. Thunderbolt is a technology that fuses audio vido data into one port. THAT MEANs that all these devices are now connected. Problem being is that the audio is not protected from ground noise. I repeat the audio on any macs with thunderbolt are not protected from ground noise. the Ground is the third wire on the electric cord. ANYTHING plugged in , on your circuit , your house, your building is going to bring in interference.

I have a secluded recording studio, in which I have the luxury of controlling most things.

Your SOLUTION is to find out which devices produce ground noise and decide whether you can isolate them from ground or isolate ground from them.

Cheaper products are more likely to make ground noise. I have a LCDTV from a black friday sale that is horrendous regarding this. A couple hard drive enclosures .. OH and I cant forget , fluorescent lighting will introduce ground noise sometimes. It just depends on the inner circuitry. Yes, from your light socket in another room into your computer audio output. Isn't she lovely ;p

SO here are your steps .. [for IMAC, read this first, but your solution is discussed below]

1. Unplug everything .. Everything you can .. absolutely turn off all appliances . ESPECIALLY unplug everything from your mac !!

2. plugin/turn on your mac with headphones only first ... NOW WE LISTEN !! The noise should b gone. (if its not then you havent unplugged yet, keep searching)

3. then plugin power to your speakers and monitor .. listen .. Do you hear it yet? NO=go to 3. YES= unplug that for now, and note that it is introducing noise. keep reading but this will b similar to imac problem.

3. Here is the tricky part. pay attention. You are probably not going to hear any of that funky noise until we have a connection from ground to ur motherboard .. Signal flow = Noisy device-> into your motherboard -> into your audio output . the noise starts from the bad device and is all throughout the ground in your house/curcuit. How it gets inside the audio is from the thunderbolt. Oh and the killer part is that Thunderbolt grounds everything together !!

Now that we have thunderbolt all you have to do is plug in something to your computer that connects ground and viola = noise. If you have an Imac. hahaha . (I don't know what to tell you about this step, caz your case is probably grounded to everything so there might b ground noise from your computer already as well. Lets talk about that in a sec look for [IMAC] below)

Since the thunderbolt connects the ground on all devices, you merely have to plug in anything that connects your computer ground to the outside world ground. This may be the thunderbolt cable(mine is connected to the TV, which, since I ground isolated the TV, the noise stops there! It doesn't go back into the ground of the house =) ) or it could b a usb or firewire or whatevs .

4. Lets look at a usb hard drive ... the tranformer part of the usb has a '3 prong' u plug into the wall. then the transformer wires goes out into the HD .. how many wires ? only 2.. oo so thats not connecting to the outside world ground. the only source of noise being intoduced into the system will b from THAT HD if there is any..

DO you get me now ?!?!?!

Don't get all excited yet. There are 2 things to deal with there.

** FIRST ** thing is that we need to find the place where the computer perhipheral ground is being connected to the outside ground and Lift it .. Cut the 3rd prong ! buy a ground lifting device, or whatever you need to do... This is the source of the problem !!

** SECOND ** You need to find out which perhipherals make noise and throw the signal straight into the motherboard. With these devices it doesn't matter if you ground lift, caz the noise is going through the data cable = usb, firewire, thunderbolt etc..

Back to the first problem..

The question is Can you isolate your mac motherboard from the outside ground? or do you need to clean the house of noisy circuitry?

Remember ground is not neccesary for all devices. It is only connected because of law. FCC regulations, or whatever you call it. it is very not neccesary at all actually. It is only protection against lightening really. So if you wonder why apple has done this and not fixed it yet. its more political than you think.

I am actually thankful there is minimal computer noise into the headphone output. Compared to an earlier macbook of mine it seems like this computer has less thinking noise going into my audio. I can barely hear it on my headphones. The computer thinking noise is relative to our second problem.

[IMAC]

You guys may be in a bigger pickle .. I do not know how it is all connected up inside so lets just be in touch and try a few things. report back to me on what happens..

1. unplug EVERYTHING, turn off all lights. so its just your computer and headphones

2. Let me know if there is noise here.. [Go to 3 if NO noise] [go to 4 if YES noise]

3. [if there is no noise] plug in a thunderbolt device, lets say a HD if you start to get noise , ground isolate that hard drive .. if that takes care of the noise .. then its the bad problem. where you are connected via your computer ground. Go to 4. if there is noise whenever u have the hard drive in then it is a Second* problem.

4. ground lift the computer itself . If that takes care of the noise .. we need to find out what happens if your computer power supply is not grounded ... [ ok i just did research ,, it is not necessary, just as i thought. It is only because of law, and people talk about a faraday cage, which in theory will keep the hum of the transformer inside, but really this effect is minimal.

So if you need to disconnect your computer from ground,, and all the perhipherals to get rid of the noise ,, Yes that might b a pain in the butt, but thats about it.

Here is an easy solution, just fix up a power strip to ground isolate. . you may want 2 . one for the computer and one for the perhipherals.

If its something you peoples need. Then let me know and I will make some and post them on ebay ...

OKAY so for the SECOND problem I must be honest and say there is much less you can do ... Just be straight up and make the decision if you can afford better gear. There is SOOO much(info and theory bla bla) about perhipherals. I think most people can be good with fixing the FIRST problem. I will tell you though, that If it is a usb device, then there are usb ground isolators available online. However, you must be humble and realize that there are 2 grounds in a usb. 'Cable shield' and the actual common inside the wire. Where is the noise comming from? i dunno .. it could even be going through the data wires! fk if I know !! If you really have an issue and must have your device.. just mssg me.

Anyways ,, here is your solution peoples !! Let your space have the noise you wish !!!!

Ya, if anyone wants me to make some power strips lemme know. Im sure many can do it themselves, but for those not so savvy. Just lemme kno ..

Good luck

Over and out,

-Mad Sci

I have a similiar problem in that my TB display makes a hissing whenever there is some type of connection between the MBP and the display. It can be so noisy that I have to disconnect the $900 display. I'v posted a couple of times in the discussions but Apple doesn't seem to care that it's customers have this problem as they've yet to provide a fix.

Possible Solution for under $2.00: Plug the display into one of those ground eliminating plugs that allow you to plug grounded cords into old style two prong receptacles.

I took my display to the Apple Store. They could not reproduce the sound, so they were unable to do anything to fix it. While the Thunderbolt display was on vacation at the Apple Store, I thought more about what MAD SCI described as the possible source of the problem ["THAT MEANs that all these devices are now connected. Problem being is that the audio is not protected from ground noise…"]. The fact that the display worked fine at the Apple Store, lead me to think the problem was with the electricity in my office, since it is in a historic building in an old downtown area. I suspect my electricity may have ground noise since I have to plug everything (Wi-Fi modems, phone modem, external network drives, copier, printer, lamps, etc.) into the same circuit.

When I got my display back I decided to try plugging the display's power cord into one of those little plugs that converts a three prong into a 2 prong, by eliminating the ground prong. I plugged the display into the ground-eliminating plug, then into the surge protector. While I confess it has only been a few days that the display has been functioning under these conditions, there is no hiss sound. Last time I thought I found a solution, I performed experiments to recreate the hiss and it never went away; so this time I have decided to be superstitious rather than scientific. So you should take this report as an anecdote only.

Additionally, I do not recommend this solution, because eliminating the ground may cause problems. [As described by MAD SCI: "It is only protection against lightening really. So if you wonder why apple has done this and not fixed it yet, it’s more political than you think…."] With this in mind, I believe there is a risk the described fix could turn your display into a useless piece of junk, if there was a power surge from a lightening strike that was not eliminated by the expensive surge protector it is probably plugged into. Of course, since my noise was so loud, the display was already a useless piece of junk (until I eliminated the hiss with this "kludgy" fix), I figure I have nothing to loose.

I have the same problem.

Same here! We have a dimmer in our dining room. Turned off the light and the hum/buzz stops completely.

Setup:

2011 17" Macbook Pro driving a 27" iMac as target display.

Also using an Apogee One as sound card - the hum buzz was better with built in output, but still there.

Things that didn't work: plugging both computers in to the same UPS;

short:

usb soundcard on MBP was buzzing, when connected to iMac via thunderbolt (disconnecting removed the buzz) - solution - turn off dimmer'd light in dining room.

Hello all,

I dont think the sound is related to the speakers (or audio signal), I think is related to the internal power supply.

Can anyone confirm that the "ground-eliminating-plug" fix actually works?

Thank you.

I agree that we should post our experiences(without duplication) to verify which conditions this will work with.

Sure I see many times in threads on the web, once there is a working solution people stop replying caz things are fix'd and it helps people find solutions faster.

with this particular thread it will help people to know if the MAD SCI solution is working for the next man as it is quite a commitment to read and comprehend all that.

I was reading it today and i conclude that It is possible to make a more condensed version, but I would like some peoples experiences to verify that the solutions i proposed work for all systems. I would love to make a one size fits all solution, but I don't know if things are going to be the same for IMAC/desktop/laptop..

.... feedback?