MacBook Making Loud Noise

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MacBook Making Loud Noise

I've had a White MacBook (2.0GHz with 2 gig of RAM added) for about a month and a half now (it's a week 25 model), and have been very, very happy with it. About a week or two ago, however, I started noticing a loud buzzing sound coming from the MacBook that almost always occurs during processor-intensive tasks (i.e. photoshop, Roxio Toast encoding, downloading, etc.). Is this normal?

More Info.: The noise is particularly loud; I can hear it outside of a closed room. I have read about both the "mooing" and the power-source buzzing issues and determined that it is neither of these problems. My issue occurs regardless of whether the MacBook is plugged in, and I have never experienced the "mooing" problem.

For all I know, this simply could be normal...but I just wanted to ask all of you to make sure. Thanks.

White MacBook 2.0GHz, 2 gig RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

White MacBook 2.0, 2g RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 13, 2006 7:19 PM

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Answer 1

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Stargazer Alchemist

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Aug 13, 2006 7:25 PM in response to Chris3495323

Two of my friends have had iBooks for a about a year or two now and none of them have ever made any noise like that.

I know my girlfriends Toshiba laptop made a very loud noise after about 30 minutes of operation, which was diagonised as bad berrings in the fan... could that be a possiblity with you?

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Answer 2

Mac-Medic

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17,301 points

Aug 13, 2006 7:37 PM in response to Chris3495323

Put your ear down next to the right of the trackpad. If it sounds loud there, it's your hard drive. If it's coming from near your "F6" key, it could be your fan motor.

- Bmer
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Answer 3

Aug 13, 2006 7:41 PM in response to Mac-Medic

That doesn't sound to normal to me. You should probably consider bringing it to a guiness, and having them take a quick look at it.

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Answer 4

Chris3495323 Author

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Aug 13, 2006 7:52 PM in response to Mac-Medic

Put your ear down next to the right of the trackpad.
If it sounds loud there, it's your hard drive. If
it's coming from near your "F6" key, it could be your
fan motor.

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 

Putting my ear to the keyboard, the sound seems much louder at the F6 key...possibly indicating that it is the fan making the noise. If this is the case, is this normal?

White MacBook 2.0, 2g RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 5

Aug 13, 2006 8:14 PM in response to Chris3495323

It's not normal.

PowerBook G4 15" 1.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Answer 6

Mac-Medic

Level 6

17,301 points

Aug 13, 2006 8:24 PM in response to Chris3495323

Putting my ear to the keyboard, the sound seems much
louder at the F6 key...possibly indicating that it is
the fan making the noise. If this is the case, is
this normal?

You should barely hear the fan running at idle. I would get it looked at. I bet the fan may need replacing.

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 

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Answer 7

Aug 13, 2006 11:42 PM in response to Rick Auricchio

Hehe, Yeah thats obviously not normal. Especially if you can hear it from outside the room. I'm guessing it's a bad fan or fan ball-bearings

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Answer 8

Aug 17, 2006 2:59 PM in response to Bladetech8

My wife has a similar problem on her Macbook. The noise is quite loud now, but, If I hold the computer at a 90 degree angle it disappears completely. If I pick it up or shake it carefully, it also disappears for a second which makes me think it's something to do with the HD (the sms kicking in perhaps).

Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 9

Chris3495323 Author

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Aug 17, 2006 9:51 PM in response to Peter Bergting

Thank you for your post. An earlier posting in this thread suggested listening to keyboard while the noise was ongoing. According to the poster, if the noise was loud near the trackpad...then the hard drive is the problem. However, if the noise is closer to the F6 Key...then the fan is the problem.

My question to you is this: is the noise on your wife's computer closer to the trackpad or the F6 key?

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Answer 10

Aug 17, 2006 10:32 PM in response to Chris3495323

You know, I'd have to say somewhere in between but closer to where the CD/DVD drive is located. When powered up this morning it was completely quiet again with a starting temp of around 40 degrees celsius (104F). So the problem must be heat related. I'm telling her to monitor the temp to see when the noise starts since it sounds nothing like the fan (she can tell the difference). It's almost, and this sounds silly, like the hard drive starts to emit that sound as it gets warmer, like the sound of a slightly skewed CD in a CD player. I think that's the best description I can give. Like a tiny bumble bee stuck in there.

Thanks

Peter

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Answer 11

Chris3495323 Author

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Aug 18, 2006 10:22 AM in response to Peter Bergting

That "buzzing bee" description of yours is spot on--I'm hearing the same thing. And like yours, mine always starts up quiet as well. I'm going to start monitoring the heat when this comes on... if I find a correlation between the heat and the buzzing, I'll share it on this thread. I would be grateful if you could post any of you own findings on this.

I'm also curious as to whether you're going to take it to be serviced. As for myself, I am tempted to replace the hard drive to see if I can get any results.

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Answer 12

Aug 18, 2006 10:29 AM in response to Chris3495323

Chris,

I sure will. She's using it now so I'll probably know in a while. I have a good relationship with my Apple dealer so I'll ask him first. It's still under warranty for at least a year so I'm not going to rush it in case they decide to change other parts. I'm going down there with my own Macbook Pro to have the motherboard changed since it was one of those covered by the exchange program.

Have you done the Firmware Update?

Peter

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Answer 13

Chris3495323 Author

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Aug 18, 2006 11:26 AM in response to Peter Bergting

Yeah, I did the firmware update... but I've still heard the noise after updating.

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Answer 14

Aug 18, 2006 11:31 AM in response to Chris3495323

Well, same here. She plugged in a FW drive to watch a movie and the sound started even though the temperature stayed the same (no the sound isn't coming from the FW drive). =).

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Answer 15

Chris3495323 Author

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Aug 19, 2006 12:19 AM in response to Peter Bergting

So far I'm finding little, if any, correlation between the heat and the noise. Each time the noise started... there was no significant change in temperature. The most recent time the noise came on, the temp. was only 56C (not really that hot)--which has been typical, at least my experiences.

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