Buzz or hiss related to the screen

same sound here. Gets very loud and annoying at times. Here are some observations:

• Sound completely disappears with backlight off
• Sound completely disappears with backlight at full
• Sound intensity varies at intervals between these two settings, some times adding CUP noises
• If I 'prod' the top of the display case to make it shake the noise goes away until the display settles
• if I hold the sides of the display case gently with my fingers it stops for a few seconds and then returns
• If I then apply slightly more pressure and gently 'arc' the display by pussing my thumbs into the front edges of the case, and my fingers into the back more centrally - the sound disappears altogether until I ease off the pressure
• 
  
• If I move the MBP so the top of the display is pushed up against a wall fairly firmly the noise goes away and stays away until I remove the support

So to echo some of your experiences it definitely seems to be a resonance issue, caused by the displaay inverter.

so, has anyone had this fixed? I can't put up with the noise but I really don't want to send it back only to be given a new one with the same issue (and maybe dead pixels and other problems) and have to re-load all my apps etc again. Is this something that can just be repaired?

and if so, do I have to send it back to apple or can I take it into an authorised dealer/repair centre?? (I live in the UK and Apple stores are few and far between).

cheers,

arum

You may have some noise from the tubes (illumination tubes)and this may go away after a time. Did you notice it and report it as soon as you fired it up? Or, did the noise come into play a while later? If the later, you may have an issue with the tubes and need to have that checked. The MBP is using some technology that is "abnormal" in the notebook world and is therefore producing the high brightness we are getting. I think that there may be some noise associated with this, especially if your volume is turned up way high, and you aren't grounded. Are you using the two prong adapter on the brick or the cord with the three prong? You might try the later if you are using the former.

Some of this occured about five years ago from a differenct vendor (I think it was Fujitsu) when they introduced a "much brighter" screen. I am in no way saying it's related, however, I remember some of our tech support guys in my company getting some calls on it...

Bob

i get similar buzzing from my 17 inch PB, its actually either the video card or the airport card. they both buzz a little when being used.

It's normal. I noticed a slight buzz on my MBP also when moving windows around, its just the video card doin its thing.

my buzz doesn't come from the screen, it's processor related as far as I can tell... no matter what the screen brightness is or how hard the video card is working... if the processors are at idle, I get a very bad buzzing noise.

Yes, I'm getting the buzzing too... It continues even if I turn down the screen brightness. I am using the 3 prong AC cord (grounded)... I notice that when I disconnect AC power, the buzzing changes to a slighly lower pitch and lower volume. Is this normal?

This DOES NOT SOUND GOOD - no pun intended. Would somebody plug in some external speakers / headphones and report back. What is at fault: mechanical vibration - HD / or mechanical vibration - capacitor buzzing / or mechanical vibration - power supply hum associated with the LCD backlight / or some type of grounding problem - feedback loop through the speakers or????

Keep the faith 🙂

I have posted on this as well. Mine is very loud and annoying and when you shut off the screen brightness it goes away. it gets quieter the brighter it gets but never goes away when the screen is on. Very annoying. easily audible in a room.

I just got my macbook pro and I do notice a buzz that appears to be modulated by the screen brightness. There is also a fan sound but that does not seem to be the main source. I suppose I will reassess when the laptop cools and the fan's off.

2.0 Gh Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I noticed this on my MBP. Initially I thought it was related to the keyboard illumination or the automatic screen brightness features, so I turned them all off and the hissing continued. The hissing stops if I shine my LED torch into the ambient sensor.

It's kinda annoying if you ask me. I'll probably take the MBP to the apple store and ask them to have a listen in a quiet room.

MacBookPro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I have a terrible sound coming from my screen. It disappears if I turn the backlight off. If the backlight is turned full on the sound changes considerably. Usually it's much better than at partial brightness, but sometimes it's much worse: a real headache inducing high pitch squeal.

Applying pressure to the back of my screen makes the sound go away. The high pitch squeal responds best to a press down on the top (ie, just above the camera), and the buzz responds best to a press on the back (at the apple logo).

Perhaps there's a sympathetic resonance between the inverter circuitry and the screen or screen back.



MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

"I installed Apple's CHUD tools (located on the included OS X disk with the Xcode installer) and found in the new Processor preference pane that when I disabled the Core Duo's second core, the high-pitched hissing noise went away." Can this problem ONLY be fixed by replacing a piece of hardware or could this buzz/hiss problem be fixed by some future software update?

(Sorry if this question was already answered somewhere in this thread/forum... I just don't have the time to read through everything)

If it's a resonance thing, one thing that might help is applying a flexible adhesive-backed weight to the back of the display, such as are used to balance ceiling fans. The weight might alter the resonance frequency so that it is no longer in the audible range.

Just a thought. We should have our MBP in a couple of days. Hopefully without a whine. 😟

at first the screen made no noise
i only had the one cpu buzz fixed that with camera on now
2 days later i have this display squeal

wow, squeezing the top of the screen works for me

but it comes back in a few seconds

so wierd.. can they change this freq in software?

There are 3 noise issues with the Mac Book Pro.

Screen buzzing:
Whenever the screen backlight is in between completely off and fully on, there is a loud buzzing sound. Can be compared to the buzzing of cheap dimmer switches in some lamps, just louder. Annoying, since you will have to always use maximum brightness in order to avoid it.

Very annoying high-pitch hissing sound:
Unrelated to the screen buzzing. Dont know what the source is, but it is extremely annoying. No way to avoid it.

Fan Noise:
Some friends complained about rattling noises of the fan whenever the mac book pro is used for longer time period. Mine doesn't or does not yet have this problem.
My fan is not as loud as the one in my Powerbook G4.

The current response by apple support to these issues seems to be to claim this is normal.

I feel really bad about it, but I am going to return my Mac
Book Pro. I cannot work like this.

I will make a video w/ sound to demonstrate the issue to the
other users. decide for yourself whether these issues are acceptable.

Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)