Q: iPad air 2 pop noise

Drumtosurprise wrote:

 

TThe Apple support and fan boys will tell you nothing is wrong the sound is rare and just live with it.

The speakers are the culprit. A software fix would be great but I have a sneaky suspicion Apple has

changed the speakers but will say nothing. They don't want the returns.

I also  have a Surface Pro with rich perfect stereo sound. I guess good speakers is too much to ask

from Apple.

Apple's approach has always been elegant design that works. However, in my humble opinion, if there is a clash between the two, i.e. we could make it a more solid device, but that will cost us in the elegant aesthetics department, form always wins out of function. The Air 2 is the perfect example.

Case in point:  Apple always has great looking cables and connectors.  They look nice and sleek because they don't have any realistic strain relief so Apple cables break and nobody else's cables break.

The other day I went to the Apple Store with another iPad Air 2. I promised my self I would not buy another one until after the watch came out but a cellular company made me an offer I could not refuse.

The reason I went to the Apple Store is the iPad Air 2 64GB cellular, that I received from the Cellular Provider, popped just as the other two I purchased in November. The first cellular model was a December build I forget the week. My replacement is an November build.

The Techs did a diagnostic in front of me told me that it is the speaker. They replaced the iPad and told me that they are having a problem with the "new" speaker design in the Air 2's. If it happens again to make an appointment and come in for another exchange.

I was shocked for they never admitted to an issue before other than it was hardware. In addition they always took it to the backroom. This time it was at a table with other iPad owners.

No Apple conspiracy it is as simple as that. The sound was the same coming from the same spot, upper left in portrait, and it happened right out of the box. One last thing the Tech also said some files were corrupt but it was unrelated.

I asked how or what and they simply said that some of they cellular models had the same pattern and a hard boot would have probably corrected it.

Before I took the iPad in I called Customer Support and they sent me a link via email that ran a diagnostic and with in a few minutes they were making an appointment for me.

While we were there my spouse bought a WiFi Air 2 64 GB. The techs ran diagnostics on both iPads and We were off. So far no problems.

I have noticed the only issue I have is on apple's website via Safari browser. Now I know why Apple is pretty insistent we use their app when using iDevices. Again no great mystery there either it is simply a matter of code structure.

Yes !!!!

At last someone who agrees with me  that the pop / "Cracking" noise is coming from the top left in portrait and not the speakers... What's up in that corner ? Wifi antenna? Shorting !!

II decided to contact AppleCare about this as it's happening a number of times per day and the person recommended I do a restore.   I told her about the large thread here and she said I shouldn't believe everything I read online and that she has never heard of this problem before. She said she searched in her system and didn't find any information about problems with popping noises or issues with the speaker on the Air 2.

She said if I think it's a hardware issue, that I should male a Genius appointment at an Apple Store as she can only test software.  That was it.  As usually phone support is basically useless.  

Apple Genius support won't swap devices if they don't see a problem and this problem is tricky to reproduce and the Apple Store is always noisy so they probably wouldn't hear it anyway. Even if they did swap it, I'd get a refurb and there's a chance I'd get one with a defective screen or the like.

I went to the Apple Store with the popping problem they said there senior store tech was having the same problem and I should wait for a software fix coming out soon. This was goin to be my 3rd exchange so I decided to keep it fir now.

Hi Everyone,

I'l still here after three months and I have some news.

First: I decided to don't buy keep the new iPad Air 2 because this "pop noise" issue is one of the most boring, stupid and absurd thing that I ever seen.

Second: I tested a total of five iPads and all of them got the same identical problem so I can assume that at least 70/80 % of the iPad that are on the market has that issue (I bought an iPad (bugged - production month november) -> new one -> 2 iPad (bugged - production month november) -> money back. Bought a new iPad Air on January on the Apple Online Store -> Bugged (production month december) -> money back. [first two was Space gray 64, last one Space gray 128].

I also tested an iPad in nearest electronic store here in Italy called "Comet" and another one in an Apple Store (Rimini) and both of them was bugged).t

Third: Apple knows this issue but for now they are trying to keep the "volume" of this problem at the minimum level and that fact was confirmed to me by and Apple employee.

Fourth: I wrote a post on my blog (here) [it's in Italian, sorry] about this issue and I received five emails and a comment by people that are currently having this issue and (most absurd thing) didn't think that was a issue.

The "pop noise" is a REAL problem and IMHO isn't a software problem but an hardware one and I think that we will see soon a new iPad Air 3 this summer and not this autumn (like Apple did for the iPad 3->4) to try to "hide" the fact that this iPad Air 2 is bugged.

This is my opinion and my suggestion is (if you can) to give back you iPad and ask for a money back or a new iPad.

Have a wonderful day/night.

Marco

CCan someone consolidate a short list of various specific things that cause the pop? My Air 2 has only popped once, when switching to the Late Night EQ preset, and when I tried it just now, it didn't do it (battery is at 50% so that may be the reason). I would like to run some tests using some of the things that seem to be likely to cause a pop to determine if mine is truly a pop~free unit before my 90 Day Return from Costco runs out.

THanks!

I think if you are not experiencing the popping during normal use, you probably have a pop free machine.  Mine was popping 5 or 6 times for each couple of hours of use.  My new unit does not have the popping sound.  I was able to generate a pop noise in my new unit with the late night EQ switch, but this was not the same noise as the problem.  The popping in my defective unit was much more disconcerting, more of an abrupt static discharge kind of sound (Not saying it was static, just the best description of the sound).

MY replacement Ipad so far has no pops BUT I have noticed a new phenomenon after I turn it on in the morning. My first email has that "swish" sound to send BUT it is not normal with highs and lows in the swish. From that sent email forward during the day it sounds fine. BOTTOM LINE. Apple has a speaker problem that manifests itself in different ways on the IPad Air 2.

I Just reproduced the pop noise using the tap location bar and off method in Safari about 8 times in the course of a few minutes.  That's in addition to the few times it happened randomly doing other things: popped on top of mail notification sound, popped when switching apps, etc).  Basically any action (tapping, sound, pressing home button, etc) seems to have a chance of triggering it.

A few things I've noticed:

1. I could not get the pop sound when mute was toggled on and I tried for a few minutes.   I don't just mean lowering the volume until it shows mute, I mean swiping up and tapping the mute button. This would make sense since I assume muting would remove power from the speakers.

2. The volume of the pop isn't controlled by the volume. I lowered the volume down to 1 bar and it sounded the same. That makes sense since the pop isn't a system generated sound, but a misfire of the speaker.

3. The pop is definitely coming from the speaker, despite sometimes sounding like it's coming from somewhere else.  I put my hand over the speaker and when it popped it sounded muffled.  The speakers in the Air 2 actually have openings on two sides, one at the bottom of the iPad and one on the inside.  That's why sounds sometimes sound like they are coming from inside the ipad.  This is easy to demo, by covering the speakers while playing sounds.  It then sounds like sounds are coming from the middle of the iPad.

At this point, I'm inclined to believe it's a hardware issue since some people get it and others do not.  I believe it could be partially mitigated by software, but not totally fixed.

Edit: Well after muting it and being unable to reproduce the pop after several minutes of trying, I'm now also unable to reproduce it after unmuting and trying for a few minutes.  Prior to muting, it happened about 10 times in 5 minutes.  That's what makes this issue so frustrating.  It's not easy to reproduce and seems to occur in spurts.

Morac wrote:

 

I Just reproduced the pop noise using the tap location bar and off method in Safari about 8 times in the course of a few minutes.  That's in addition to the few times it happened randomly doing other things: popped on top of mail notification sound, popped when switching apps, etc).  Basically any action (tapping, sound, pressing home button, etc) seems to have a chance of triggering it.

 

A few things I've noticed:

 

1. I could not get the pop sound when mute was toggled on and I tried for a few minutes.   I don't just mean lowering the volume until it shows mute, I mean swiping up and tapping the mute button. This would make sense since I assume muting would remove power from the speakers.

 

2. The volume of the pop isn't controlled by the volume. I lowered the volume down to 1 bar and it sounded the same. That makes sense since the pop isn't a system generated sound, but a misfire of the speaker.

 

3. The pop is definitely coming from the speaker, despite sometimes sounding like it's coming from somewhere else.  I put my hand over the speaker and when it popped it sounded muffled.  The speakers in the Air 2 actually have openings on two sides, one at the bottom of the iPad and one on the inside.  That's why sounds sometimes sound like they are coming from inside the ipad.  This is easy to demo, by covering the speakers while playing sounds.  It then sounds like sounds are coming from the middle of the iPad.

 

At this point, I'm inclined to believe it's a hardware issue since some people get it and others do not.  I believe it could be partially mitigated by software, but not totally fixed.

 

 

Edit: Well after muting it and being unable to reproduce the pop after several minutes of trying, I'm now also unable to reproduce it after unmuting and trying for a few minutes.  Prior to muting, it happened about 10 times in 5 minutes.  That's what makes this issue so frustrating.  It's not easy to reproduce and seems to occur in spurts.

I'm no electronics expert, but it sounds like a capacitor dump, maybe from the audio circuit. Probably an underpowered audio section that was cut down to fit the smaller case.

RobS10 wrote:

 

I'm no electronics expert, but it sounds like a capacitor dump, maybe from the audio circuit. Probably an underpowered audio section that was cut down to fit the smaller case.

Could be be as the pops never seem to occur when the battery gets below a certain point.  At this point I think I'll wait for the next iOS update and if that doesn't fix it, I'll go to the Apple Store.  It's just not as convenient to get to for me as it used to be. It also tends to be noisy which makes demonstrating sound issues problematic.

Mine didn't pop the last week, maybe it did but had the flu and my ears were a little swollen, however i didn't notice a single pop, but since last saturday i used the ipad until reach 0% battery and yesterday i recharged up to 100% and today 2 beautiful pops.

Apple staff in Mexico keeps denying the issue...guess what? for many of them i am an isolated case!

marcofromsolarolo wrote:

people that are currently having this issue and (most absurd thing) didn't think that was a issue.

 

The "pop noise" is a REAL problem and IMHO isn't a software problem but an hardware one and I think that we will see soon a new iPad Air 3 this summer and not this autumn (like Apple did for the iPad 3->4) to try to "hide" the fact

Yes many of Apple employees like to treat customers like morons.  According to an Apple latin supervisor, Apple's engineers told him this is NOT an issue and i should learn to live with it.

I don't see that happenning but in case it does i'd definitely exchange mine for an air 3 but nahh that won't happen.