Popping Sound, MBP 2016

What does your paperwork say. If they replaced the top case that is the top of the bottom half of the laptop, including the battery. That would explain the 'new' hardware. You can even check your battery to see if it was replaced by downloading a battery app and checking the # of cycles or getting the power information in system information.

Either way, you are happy and your speaker and popping issue are resolved. Great service and a happy customer. That is what's important.

Bought my fully loaded 2016 MBP on 1-03-17, its been making the popping sound since day one, almost. Typically when its charging and especially under load of the LG 5k monitor. I had a small section of bad pixels at the lower left of the screen. Finally I made an appointment at the Pittsburgh/Shadyside store. Took it in on a Friday afternoon and they called the next Tuesday, four days. They replaced the screen which also is the lid of the unit. So far the sound is gone, usually its starts up pretty quick when I hook up the monitor, and also to a smaller degree when I open and close the laptop at times. Good luck, those bad pixels helped getting it through Apple repair with no questions, but it sure seems like the screen and associated hardware is the "popping" problem. My paperwork said Labor and replacement of Item # 605-01813 "Display Assembly Space Gray". Good luck out there, I know its frustrating, but I will say I don't think the pop was really hurting anything.

SoCalDawg.

Under: About This Mac/System Report/Power/, I found 'Cycle Count: 2

However, looking at the paperwork more closely I found this:

Items replaced;

Item 605-01813 Display Assembly Space Gray (symptom: built in audio device problem).

Item 605-02939 Top Case w/Battery (symptom: internal speaker - distorted audio/sound

Obviously, in my excitement of finding a pristine top case and eager to test for resolved issues, I skimmed over my paperwork.

I'm still concerned the popping my return (as it's done with other 'repaired' 2016 15" MBPs) but so far so good...

UPDATE: hello, as promised today i brought my 2016 15" macbook pro to the local apple store. The genius was very competent and polite. He immediately heard the noise produced by the lid during the opening, then i showed him a video i had recorded with pop sound during heavy load works.

After 2 minutes of conversation he said that the upper case and the display (they are glued together) would have been replaced up in 2/3 hours (659€ of bill, 0 with warranty of course). Back to home i stressed my notebook, booting it and then launch a heavy conversion of 2 4K video h265. For now no pop sound. The plastic and the lid look pretty solid and stable now. We will see in the future.

#1 customer care, in my case.

UPDATE:

Got my MacBook Pro 15 inch 2016 repaired from the Apple Store. They took quite a bit of time to get it fixed. But I can safely say that my popping noise has gone, its been 2 weeks after the repair. They replaced my top case & display. As I have noticed in these posts too, the issue is in the display. Replacing that will mostly sort out the issue. Hope this helps anyone who is getting it repaired.

Brought my popping 2016 MBP, 15", 2.7GHz, 16GB, Radeon 460 in to the local Apple store after having made an appt. Apple guy, Alex, said his laptop was exhibiting the same problem. He mentioned something about a display replacement, but that they'd do a diagnosis off-site and I should have it fixed and returned with 5 business days.

Hope it works! Will post results.

Glad I am not the only one experiencing this with my Late 2016 15" MacBook Pro with 512 SSD, and Radeon Pro 450. Will be back in town in January and will be able to visit a physical apple location to bring it in for a repair. Thank goodness I have AppleCare, otherwise that would have been too long to use my warranty.

BondFancy,

For those who don't have Apple Care, and who are beyond their warranty period, I would encourage them to talk to a manager (as many as needed) at the Genius Bar to have this problem resolved on Apple's dime. This is a known issue and should be covered under a 'recall' type of warranty.

I'm now on day four post repair and happy to report that the popping noise hasn't returned. However, if it does and it's beyond my 12-month warranty period, you can bet I will become very insistent that Apple cover the cost of repair...

Hope everything works out for you.

The popping sound on my laptop started around 3 months after it was bought, back in Nov-16. It was initially very sporadic but towards the end of June it was happening almost every time I used the laptop.

They sent it back after the first repair which of course didn't solve the issue. I took it back in and they said the motherboard / logic board needed replacement. A week later I got the machine back with the annoying popping sound still as loud and frequent as before. The system was sent back in for the third time and after around a week of diagnosis, I've been told today that the top case + screen needs to be replaced.

I should have my machine back in around 4 days. Here's hoping I have the same luck as the other users who've had their laptop top cases replaced.

Will report if the problem is corrected.

I am facing the same issue. The same popping noise also occurs when I open the lid after 20-30 minutes of idle time. Took it to an Apple authorized service center twice as they were not convinced of the problem at my first visit. Now they have acknowledged the popping/tapping noise the laptop is making but refuse to make any repairs.

This is the response I have recieved "Found unusual Noise from display if opened after some time and Unusual tapping sound issue,Did SMC and PRAM reset,ran diagnostics test-Tests passed.Kept device under observation and tested with Multiple high end application-No tapping noise issues observed,Found Display noise if opened after some time.Which is normal in All devices.No issues found in device.ready for delivery"

They have mentioned that the noise coming from the display when opened after a prolonged time is "normal in All devices". I really do not know what to say to that, it is driving me insane and it gets more frustrating to collect my laptop back again without any repairs, all my efforts down the drain!!!

Not sure what to do next... My laptop is a MacBook Pro 2016 with Touchbar, 15 inch 2.6 GhZ i7, 256GB SSD. The logic board was replaced a few weeks back, but that was due to the laptop not turning on. Not because of the popping noise issue.Replacing the logic board had no effect on the popping noise, the noise still remains the same.

Tired & frustrated!

Thank you Apple

Is the sound generated only when the lid is opened?

In my case, the sound was heard when the laptop was under load using programs that needed medium to heavy processing power, with the lid open. I did hear the ‘pop’ while opening the lid every now and then.

I could, with some success, recreate this sound by letting the laptop cool down, wake it from sleep and immediately load it with multiple RAM intensive programs.

My first experience with the Authorised Service center was quite similar to yours. At first they claimed that the issue did not exist. I had to go back there and recreate the sound (which is pretty random, to begin with). It did ‘pop’ eventually, and they agreed to take it in for repair. I had my logic board replaced and as stated earlier, the issue persisted. They even suggested changing the logic board for the second time, proving that they didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.

I escalated the issue with Apple Phone Support and got a single point contact / Senior Advisor associated to my issue. On the other hand, I insisted that the Authorized Service Center escalate the issue with the back-end hardware team as well. I have sent several videos of the problem to the senior advisors and the service center as well. This way they at least acknowledged that the issue exists !

I would suggest that you reopen the same case with Apple and speak to someone senior.

I’ve been without a laptop for over 2 weeks now, but it’s going to be worth the trouble if the issue is finally resolved.

Thanks for the response, the sound is generated in two scenarios, first whenever the lid is opened after the laptop has been shut down or idle for 30 - 40 minutes. Second when I run CPU intensive tasks. I am able to recreate the popping sound almost every time by starting the laptop, then immediately running the Cinebench bench-marking application two to three times in a loop. The Cinebench application causes the laptop to heat up and the fans to kick in.

Will try and escalate this issue to senior advisers and see if that can help, even if it means a few more trips to their service center.

Do let me know if you were able to resolve the issue.

Im having this same issue with my Macbook Pro 15” with touchbar from 2016 it is the entry model so the one with the lowest specs.

I bought mine around april this year.

Im going to the apple store tomorrow to get this fix.

Possible the display and lid will be replaced, because that seens to be THE solution. I hope this will be it for me too.

Does anyone know if they can fix this in a day or do i have to leave my Macbook behind for a couple of days?

So i went to the Apple Store today in Amsterdam.

I explained everything to them about the popping sound and also some minor problem with the heat and keyboard.

The “Genius” first reply about the popping was ‘We are familiar with the problem, but there is no offical note on how to fix it, so we are not gonna preceed with a repairprocedure’

So i mention this thread with the apple community forum.

He did not care about it, could not get him to fix the display and lid..

He ran some hardware test and a diagnostic test.

He wanted me to leave the macbook behind, for a more deep investigation.. its gonna take 3 tot 5 days and it will cost me another trip to Amsterdam..

So long story short, service sucked..

Not that i want to force them to repair my display and lid, but if this seems to be the fix for many.

Keep you guys posted...

Hi,

I had a popping noise on my 15" MacBook Pro.

Really disappointed that such a noise could emanate from such an beautiful machine.

Took it to Genius. Played a video of the sound made. They took it away for 24 hours and replaced the screen. Now the noise has gone.