Static sound coming from the Thunderbolt Display speakers

Here' a wrinkle... I have my MBP and TB display on a UPS with a myriad of things plugged into it. It has a voltage regulator as well. Under normal use I don't hear much of anything from the display. However today I was hit 2 power outages that lasted a few minutes and each time it happened the display was making a very noticable buzzing sound, not unsimilar to what was coming from the UPS. As soon as power returned, all was good.

I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not with this. Thoughts?

Hi fastwater,

thank you for your excellent blog entry. I've got exactly the same problem with my MacBook Pro 2013 and MacBook Air 2013. My Thunderbolt Display is built in 2014.a The noise problem is still present in Yosemite. Have you find a solution in the meantime?

Many thanks in advance...

Is the UPS a pure sine wave design? If not that may be causing the noise when the display is being powered by the UPS

Beats the heck out of me. Can't seem to find that info. This is what I have http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1500G

I did some digging and looks like it is not. However others have said that that should not matter so not sure why you have this noise.

I solved my noise by using a separate power supply for the laptop. If I plug the laptop into the power supply from the TBD the noise is really bad. When I plugged it into another power supply (on the same circuit) there was NO noise.

Hi people !

I have the same problem with my MBP Retina. I have the issue through my headphones and also through the laptop's speakers (but as a very low level).

Does anyone discovered how to fix it ? Is it really a software problem ?

1) I start a music

2) I stop It

3) Static noise for about 30/32 seconds

4) Static noise stops

And then I start and stop the music again, and I have the same issue, again and again...

Has anyone seen any solution to this problem?

Is Apple acknowledging this? Reports I've researche go back 4 years!

anyone taken the display into a store with any success/result?

Hi,

I just wanted to say that I have the exact same problem as described by JiPé earlier in this thread.

I don't have the Thunderbolt Display however, but the 27" LED Cinema Display, it's predecessor basically. As far as I know it's the exact same display, except it has Mini DisplayPort instead of Thunderbolt.

I bought my display used last summer and was worried something was wrong with it. Mine is from 2010 after all, so you never know…

At least I'm happy to read that this is normal and everyone has it. Of course it would be awesome if there was a fix.

And who knows, maybe there is a fix. Because I remember rare occasions (when I was troubleshooting the display for this reason already) where I didn't have this white noise. I don't know what made it not appear, however. I'll investigate further over time.

Cheers

Hello Folks,

My brand new TBD is facing the same issue. It has been running fine with any problems for 2 month now, and all of a sudden this disturbing static sound is appearing all the time whenever OS X is active. Trying out several things leads me to the conclusion that I'm facing a driver issue. Starting my MBP 13" Retina Mid 2014 in safe mode, Audio is disabled the static noise is gone. Further more running OS X 10.10.3 in "standard mode" and unload some Audio kernel the static noise is disappearing as well, after rebooting this sound is back again. So the question is, what can I do? is there any possibility to reset the audio drivers or renew them? I don't want to install Yosemite once again, so what can I do?

Thank you so much in advance!

Config:

Macbook Pro 13" Retina Mid 2014, Yosemite 10.10.3, Thunderbolt Display 2015

I'd like to refer to following blow which is in my opinion very helpful, thank you! https://techblog.willshouse.com/2014/01/21/fix-thunderbolt-display-static-noise- on-os-x-mavericks/

This is now working for me, but it is just a workaround, no fix. I think I will try to set up my OS X totally new.

A workaround is to only use the internal speakers on your Macbook. After a little testing I found that I can move this kext to another location:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext

And then run:

sudo touch /Library/Extensions/

And then reboot and when I log back in there is a hissing sound but I can open Terminal and run:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext

And wait 30 seconds until the hissing stops, and then run:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext

And the hissing will be gone and the internal speakers and mic on the Mac will be working.

This is not normal and not everyone has it. I have had my TBD now for about 2 years and the sound is perfect, no static or any other non desired noises so not sure why some have this issue.

So I have exchanged my 2014 MBP with a all new 2015 MBP and the problem remain unchanged. The white noise is still there 😟

I would say it is definitely the TBD itself having a problem and it does not depend on the source.

OK, I will try to contact Apple directly...

I lived with that horrible buzzing noise problem since i bought my thunderbird display 3 years ago. Ive had already tried all kind of solutions i found but never worked. It comes and go. Sometimes stays forever like this month.

And this month this make me really mad. So mad that I decided to call apple to make then fix it on warranty. I don't care because there so many complains about that same problem.

Before taking me TD to apple service i decide to do just one more attempt....

I ve got a spare monster cable power center that was sitting unused and put it throw a different wall power outlet. Than i got TD display power cable connected to Monster. Voila....Buzzing noise disappeared.

I then try to put the TD power cable back to my original power outlet and is still no buzzing noise for a while. After 5 minutes everything restarted again with that fu@%ˆ&8 buzzing noise.

So What i learn about that.... Apple should recall for free all units because they have really real power input problems with their thunderbolt displays. Thats a design/power problem for sure...