Popping Sound, MBP 2016

Did they replace yours? I reckon they won’t exchange your device for free at all if you’re over a 2 weeks past the 14 day return/exchange period. I tried relentlessly with my first defective machine a few months ago. I was only a handful of days outside the 14 day period and it took me weeks to get them to budge on replacing the machine, and that was only after 3 failed repair attempts.

I plan on visiting Apple this weekend. As I’ve stated here before; this is my FOURTH dud in the span of 3 months. I’m hoping to garner some sympathy with the manager and hopefully get another replacement. I’m usually patient with this kind of stuff but I’m pretty PO’d at this point. I wish Apple would at least acknowledge this.

My 2016 MBP 15" Touch Bar is doing this exact same thing - and it seems to be getting both more frequent but also much louder as time passes - to the point that other people are noticing it in meetings etc. I worry that there is something more sinister going on that will impact the overall useful life and reliability of the machine over time.

I will not be original saying, that I have the same issue. I gave my laptop back to the store "M-video" the official partner Apple in Russia, explained the problem, 10 days later received a response that the problem was not identified.

A quick update from my case: 15" late 2016 model, loud popping sound after cold start. I brought the MacBook into the Apple Store in Berlin, where the genius wasn't immediately aware of the problem when I described it. He then left me for 5 minutes and talked to his supervisor about it. Luckily when he returned he told me that the supervisor is aware of the problem and that they will immediately replace the display and the top case. They were pretty sure it has to do with the display. I received my machine back for about more than 4 weeks now and everything seems to be good now: No more popping.

For those of you who still have the problem. Refer to this thread or refer to the Apple Store in Berlin. Maybe they are able to share their knowledge a bit better with each other. It seems to be that Apple Retail is not in sync.

Another update, since the repair I don't experience any more popping, I do however have another problem. After some extensive usage I noticed that the new topcase seems to be flawed, 8 keys have suddenly become "sticky" with a very high pitched sound when the computer gets warm, between 60-90 celsius. When the computer gets cooler this "stickiness" and annoying sound gradualy disappear.

Sigh... So basically I need to return my MBP as they probably need to yet again, change the entire top case to fix this.

Make sure they test all of the keys during a longer time of heavy tasks (60-90 degrees) after they exchange your topcase+display to ensure that everything is working correctly.

I have the 2016 MacBook Pro 2.7 I7 16 gb 15 inch touchbar with popping sound and screen flickering only if I tilt it back! if it stays to 90 degrees it stops flickering.. the popping sounds like small fire cracker sometimes. It does get hot sometimes I had to install Mac fans control. the fans run @ 3700 rpm.. it make it 4000 if it gets too hot .. this is strange indeed it looks it has to do with the hinges one way or the other ,..I can not have a dent because it was in a speck protector since day one... I hope apple has the answer to this !!!

I've had the same exact problem. I get a popping noise, a loud one in intervals of ten to thirty seconds to once every thirty minutes.

I have the late 2016 15" fully spec'd out, but with a 512 SSD.

After surveying this thread and seeing that some people had successful responses from the Genius Bar I decided to take mine in. He said he was not aware of the issue and that it was a "cosmetic" issue. He offered to reseat the components in the bottom portion of the laptop, I said sure, couldn't really hurt.

My biggest problem though, is that my actual screen will not sit flush to the bottom half of the laptop. It seems to be warped because the hinge is such sub par quality to begin with. The popping has not stopped. And there is an increasing gap between the rubber edges of the display and the surface of the inside of the bottom half.

It legitimately looks like the monitor top half is floating above the bottom half. Pretty unacceptable. I haven't done any damage at all to this thing. No drops, no dings, nothing. you'd be hard pressed to find a scratch.

The fact I was told "nothing doing" is a joke. This isn't acceptable build quality and of the five MacBook pro's/macbooks I've owned this has never been an issue. Maybe I'll go in at some point before my one year warranty is up, since I had planned to purchase it retroactively, however they repealed that policy, and now I can't.

I have the same issue. [MacOS 10.12.6 (16G29)/15-inch, 2016/2.9 GHz Intel Core i7/16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3/Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB] Mine started when I visited my nest. It started with a loud single pop and then started in rapid fire for about 15 seconds and then stopped. My computer was asleep and only on for about 5 minutes before it started. No major demand on the system other than using the internet.

Thanks this is helpful. I took my 2016 macbook pro touchbar in months ago and they claimed they had never heard of issue. I've been traveling and thus didn't want to let them take it for repairs. Since then the popping is worse and now actually pops even when simply opening the screen - not to mention the sounds and tactile shock it randomly makes when running. I'm going to schedule a visit to apple store and pull up your parts list.

2017_1005_091257_398.MP4 - Google Drive

You can hear the voice at 1:51 (cam time 09:14:46). Apple service told me, that they couldn't reproduce the voice. They sent me back twice "there is nothing to repair". I've showed three video about... Once I could reproduce in the service, but unfortunately they "just missed". I'm very disappointed...

I have the same problem with my 2017 MacBook Pro (13 inch, two thunderbolt 3 ports, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD). I only just received the computer a few days ago, and now notice the clicking/popping noise when the computer warms up. I've a hard cover case and the computer is in perfect condition.

There are so many people with this same complaint on this forum. Annoyingly, apple are yet to comment and resolve this issue.

It is important to note the computer is custom made, and only just recently received. Hopefully the cause of the noise are expansion of components by heat as adhesive seals continuing to cure, as you mentioned.

Did you order it online? Call Apple, tell them about the problem, and exchange your machine for a new one as you're well within the return period. The more people do this, the more pressure it puts on Apple to look into and hopefully resolve the issue.

⚠ TO EVERYONE WHO HAS THIS ISSUE: KEEP BADGERING APPLE RELENTLESSLY ⚠ If they sent your machine in for repair and the repair wasn't successful, tell them and demand a solution. If the Store isn't cooperating, call Apple directly. Ask to be transferred to managers, senior reps, etc if necessary. Let's get Apple to officially acknowledge this.

I have a late 2016 MBP with Touchbar. I have owned apple laptops for about 16 years now but never experienced so many problems as with this machine.
The pops are a constant and next to that, the machine crashes several times a day (kernel panic) any time it has to wake from sleep (sleepwake failure). Recently it even started to have GUI problems displaying a red rectangle behind the startup thin white progress bar (the one that appears unnder the white apple on the black startup screen).
I use my laptop daily on my job and haven't been able to afford bringing it in for repair so far (I have no replacement machine). Has anybody else experienced similar issues?

Thank you

The WindowServer can leaking when you doesn't use the default resolution (check it via Monitor and restart it sometimes...). Wake up problems come often, when I connect or disconnect external monitor meanwhile it sleeps.

I too use it for work almost daily. Finally decided to leave it at the shop 2 days ago. Unfortunately for me, the nearest Apple Store is an hour away, so I have to deal with an authorized repair center. Did give Apple a call, but they redirected me there since they can’t verify the issue over the phone.

I also had issues with loose usb-c ports on the right-hand side of the machine. Hope they come back with some good news. It’s a $3000+ machine after all.

Canada here.