My computer makes noises when I type...

Squeaks can be any of a number of things from:

1. Appearance sounds in Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Sound -> Sound Effects -> Play User Interface Sound Effects
2. Hard disk activity.
3. dirt underneath the keys.

Try to isolate what is causing it. Backup your data if you can't tell what it is, and take it in to a service center if you can reproduce it.

Hi there,

Check to see if it only does this when your AC adapter is plugged in and your PowerBook is charging.

I had exactly the same problem and found it only occured when charging.

Stephen

Interesting observation. I would see if an authorized service technician thinks those noises are of any consequence. The computer normally does make some noises on its own as it has a fan, and an adjusting optical drive with multiple heads with such a thin skin that many noises you might not attribute to a computer are perfectly normal.

Are you referring to little beeps, morse-code like sounds? That's what I get when my PB starts working up a sweat and I'm typing away like mad!

Go into system preferences click Universal Access
and there should be an option to turn the keybord sound off
when you type

hope this helps



Chris

I posted this on another thread, but it bears repeating.

On my PB17 with 10.4.5, typing in any program that uses Apple's text editing framework (Text Edit, Mac Journal, etc) will cause the chirping. Using a program like FInal Draft that uses its own text-editing engine does not chirp.

In fact, I can start and stop the chirping by switching back and forth between programs.

PB17 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

On my PB17 with 10.4.5, typing in any program that
uses Apple's text editing framework (Text Edit, Mac
Journal, etc) will cause the chirping. Using a
program like FInal Draft that uses its own
text-editing engine does not chirp.

Heh, heh. That's funny. I noticed that on mine, too. I've really only noticed it on a little text editor I'm working on in Xcode. It's a Cocoa application I'm writing that uses an NSTextView for editing plain text.

It's not a mechanical noise, either, because it's even there when I hold down the "delete" key to delete multiple characters. Each character deletion causes a corresponding faint chirp.

And your other post is right about it being tied to the scroll bars. Once there's enough text for them to show, and some of the text is scrolled beyond the bottom of the text view, I get the chirp.

However, if I scroll to the bottom of the text view, the chirping goes away. Right now, I'm in a pretty noisy room, though, so it's hard to tell where the chirp is coming from exactly.

charlie

And your other post is right about it being tied to
the scroll bars. Once there's enough text for them to
show, and some of the text is scrolled beyond the
bottom of the text view, I get the chirp.

However, if I scroll to the bottom of the text view,
the chirping goes away.

I've confirmed that scrolling to the bottom of the text view stops the chirp.

Hopefully, Apple will fix this soon.

My PowerBook sounds weird too when I type and scroll. I've had quite some problems with this computer (dead usb and logic board replacement in march was the worst yet) and I don't want to call AppleCare again! (4th time with this PB) I will probably buy cheaper macs in the future. (but then again - I love the cool and quiet operation of a big thin computer...)

My PowerBook sounds weird too when I type and scroll.

I don't think some noises are unusual, especially if you're in a very quiet room. The "chirping" we're hearing is probably just a burst of intense processor usage as the PowerBook has to lay out the text. Scrolling, especially if it's "live" scrolling (in other words, the view updates as you scroll), could be very processor intensive, too, since the computer would be doing a lot of work.

Whether it's bad enough to call Apple, I can't really say, that's going to be up to you.

charlie

Well, as a musician I'm quite aware of all sorts of sounds (I really appreciate that the fans of PB17" are quiet and almost never starts). But it isn't a big problem, mostly my PB is completely silent. These sounds are just something I've noticed because none of my earlier PowerBooks have had sounds like this.

I will probably not call Apple, but I think it's time for Apple to upgrade the quality standards a bit... (the last six months has proved it was a right decision to get the last ppc-powerbook, anyway)

PowerBook G4 17 (Rev E, DL) Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD