What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.69 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13And all those exclamation points? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head."
-- Terry Pratchett (Maskerade) - e3mw, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12It's a better idea to wait for an official Apple fix. Wouldn't want to brick your MBP, and Apple is definetly aware of these problems.
- mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14Oh... I thought they fixed the problem with everyone whining about MacBook Pros
- fmorariu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I got it to work last night with no problems, it may work for some and it may not for others and my battery life is at 2.5 to 3hours, so it does not hurt to give it a try and see if it works for you, you can always revert back to the original settings. Don't bash it till you try it and see if it helps, it's a solution and a step towards figuring out what the heck is causing this hiss, and we are now closer then ever with this gentleman's hack. So much negativity from you guys.
Felix - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The whine doesn't occur under windows, so it's definatey a software issue.
- _skin_, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I will not try it until apple releases it as official. But I sure do digg it man.
edit... read further down for info on a bunch of guys who have tried this and it did not work. - cmacb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10We join the discussion already in progress...
UserA: Hey!! Delete these files and edit this system file and change some numbers and the whining stops!
UserB: Should we wait for Apple to come out with a fix?
UserC: Apple says that it is SUPPOSED to whine and is "within specs", so why would they fix it?
UserD: Well, the noise my laptop is making isn't within MY specs, if I can't get it to stop I'm selling the darned thing.
UserE: I tried it and it reduced my battery life by a third! This is no good!
UserA: Go away!
UserE: Well, after all the advantage of this new chip is longer battery life isn't it?
UserF: I tried it and it doesn't work.
UserA: You must have done something wrong.
UserC, D, G, H, I.... Well we tried it and it doesn't work for us either!
UserA: Oh.
UserX: Well I hope they can make WiFi work again, this thing is useless without wireless.
and so on.
This reminds me of course of discussions surrounding the flakiness of the iBook I got a few years ago. I finally gave up on it, although I loved the look and feel of the thing, often preferring to use it over faster machines with larger screens. I gave up waiting for Apple to do anything about it, along with a lot of other people. But I guess a few people took it to court or something, becuase last year they replaced the innards of my machine, and it has been fine ever since.
So, take heart you MacBook Pro users, in four or five years that thing will be humming like new. Maybe I could have worded that better. - zarlwilliam, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10this looks like trouble... everyone with new macbooks should stay away from this ;)
- Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I have a whine-free (week 12) MBP, I'm fairly confident its a hardware issue and not fixable by software, at least not without taking a toll on your battery life.
Dont even tell me I just can't hear it or my hearing is bad, I know a few people that do have it on theirs and one other that doesn't.
I guess its a random thing - Amplix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5thats interesting elroy, thanks for sharing that.
I guess its possible it is a software issue then - gabebear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Speedstep allows your CPU to run at multiple voltages to save power. The problem seems to be that the transformer supplying power to the CPU operates at an audible frequency when supplying certain voltages. This just removes those voltages. This shouldn't seriously effect the battery life, Celeron-Ms are missing Speedstep altogether and don't get much different battery life than Pentium-Ms which use speedstep.
- maverick808, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9No digg... I tried it and it doesn't work. You remove the kext and it simply unthrottles your CPU. Yeah the whine is gone but so is 50% of your battery life... NOT a solution.
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Fan whine is actually pretty common on Dell laptops so it's real funny you picked them. Maybe HP or Sony would have been a better choice?
- elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, that keyboard fix was lame. Anyway, I have yet to read any claim that disabling the extension doesn't stop the whine.
- elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3IT WORKED FOR ME, SORTA:
Changing the values in the extension property list didn't work. De-activating the extension by moving it out of the extensions directory worked fine. It probably uses more battery life but I run on AC nearly all the time so I'd rather have the silence. Still waiting on a fix from Apple. - wastern, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8so you bought a copy of OS X so you could feel good about installing a pirated/hacked copy?
- The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"The whine doesn't occur under windows, so it's definatey a software issue."
From what i have read on the issue, the higher your CPU usage, the lower the whine, so if it's not doing it under windows, it's because Windows is using more CPU. - reverb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Flagged lame, because editing anything under /System is like playing Russian roulette. Oh, and also for the excessive exclamation points.
- sulestis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3the whine doesn't bug me most of the time, and the mirror widget fix works just fine if i want it to go away
i'll definitely wait for something official from apple - toaste, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why does everybody blame the whine issue on the processor? Does nobody here know what a DC-DC converter is?
Your battery puts out 12 volts. But you need power at all kinds of voltages for a computer, from 5V for USB and the hard drive to several hundred volts (very low current) for the LCD backlight.
The circuits that do the voltage conversion can operate at audible frequency if they suffer from what electrical engineers call "piss poor design." Most likely, the DC-DC converter is only audible under very light load, which is why the iSight and other hacks work for some. - MikeCampo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Seems a little risky...People should wait a couple days to see if others report any side effects.
- skyhighrockets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"It's probably because OS X will ignore the kext if it does not have the correct permissions. If you simply move the file out of the Extensions folder altogther (e.g. just move it to your desktop) and restart you'll see that the whine and throttling are both gone when you restart.
This might suggest that the edit to the file actually achieves nothing other than making OS X ignore it after the save. " - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2on my 1.83ghz, a hidden photobooth uses much less cpu. run "top -o cpu" with either one running. killing the speed-step fixed this problem for good, though, and i have immediate access to my isight when i need it.
btw, the "keyboard update" on software update kills the camera trick. the noise will come back when you force quit photo booth. - computerbynar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Does anyone have a reason why this works?
- elroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Editing something doesn't change its permissions. Whoever wrote that doesn't know what they're talking about. :-)
- Nyana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's really weird.. opening Photo Booth stops it for me too, although once I close it, it continues.
- kenadak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I have an Intel based OSX box and I've noticed that my machine whines when in power save mode... I thought it was the monitor but on a KVM switch with the monitor connected to another machine the whine persists... it is very annoying and I fixed it by disabling power save. also, using boot camp XP in sleep mode does not make this sound.
weird. as far as a MBP... I would say this is a bad idea if you use it off battery at all. - craigtheguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This "fix" is pretty ghetto. I wouldn't recommend hacking these OS-level files unless you really know what you're doing. Using other tools, including the "Processor" System Preference is another story. Definitely this is related to power management and restricting your laptop's nap mode, either via OS hack or by keeping it "hot" by running background apps, will solve the problem.
- rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You've returned 5 MBP's? Does your state have a lemon law? If not they should look in to it. I don't think there is much that you can do about the whine. I don't think it can be fixed on the current hardware without some penalty to performance or reliability. I think the only real fix is to wait till a new model with a different hardware configuration is released and sell your problem child on eBay.
- gkoehler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The whine goes away for me after you start the camera. I just open up Photobooth and it stops - even after closing it. The only bad thing is that this has to be done after every reboot.
- skoles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder if this would work on my G5.
Occasionally when I move the mouse or do certain things the CPU will *whine* randomly. But mostly when I move the mouse around. If I stop it goes away.
I won't be the first to try since I don't know if this is the same whine MPB users are getting, except consistantly. - fzzzy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It worked for me, although it didn't remove it completely. I had the same whine with my first-generation 17" which I used from the day it came out until I recently got my MacBook, so I'm kind of accustomed to it now. The fact that it disables speed-stepping is my main benefit, because I like my machine to run as fast as possible at all times. I don't care about battery life.
- master_of_fm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2funny because i just happen to be working on a VPs MacBook Pro today and I noticed the sound. while it was slightly annoying it did remind me of squeal you can hear coming from the north/southbridge on a recent intel motherboards when ever the processor is working. the noise really tripped me out the first time because it sounded like a capacitor going out.
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2add photobooth to your startup items....you could hide it on startup too so it out of your way
- barthosch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4@maasneotek: Well, maybe the apple store? http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?nplm=MA453Z%2FA
- NSXG5, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I have the electric cpu whine on my Macbook Pro like many others, and it is very annoying. I wish Apple would do something officially about it. Especially now since the Apple keyboard update breaks the photobooth trick to stop the whine. This does not seem like a good fix. I wouldn't recommend it. A lot of people with whine issues on their Macbook Pro say it doesn't work, it's a hit or miss really. I'm on my 2nd Macbook Pro (week 12) every Macbook Pro I have used at the Apple Store has had the CPU whine problem.
- fmorariu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Great at least one open minded person out there.
- jmazzi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The battery life decreases cause the kernel will no longer know how to throttle back the CPU.
- etymxris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Unless your machine is set to throttle when on battery, disabling speedstep and other frequency lowering technologies does nothing for performance. If your computer needs the juice, the cpu frequency increases, otherwise it stays low. Benchmarks for games and stuff shows no difference between enabling and disabling speedstep and the like. There is a difference in battery and heat though because you're unlikely to be pushing 100% CPU at all times.
- cwcheang, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@ trejkaz
don't think it's legal. Unless he's installing in on a mac it's not legal. yet. - mikastefania, on 01/03/2009, -0/+0It says that content is inaccurate?
http://www.kaboodle.com/ontario_seed_bank - nailerr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2This is NOT A Macbook Pro issue only. I have had it since the 1.25GHz Powerbook. Inaccurate because people never investigate these bloody things.
- Maasneotek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3@G2 I'd be interested to learn where you purchased OSX?
maasneotek - The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"The licence states that you can only install one copy of the software."
Yes, but only on a mac. - fmorariu, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3If any apple engineers are reading this please help us with the whine, I returned 5 Mac Book Pros so far, Please fix it, there are tons of people who are suffering from this problem.
Felix - madIvan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Or may be Apple just needs to hire some engineers who know how to, like, OMG! design stuff that does not whine or spontaneously combust.
May be Dell hyas some spare ones... - drunkenoaf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Another Pratchett quote: "Three exclamation marks. A sure sign of a diseased mind".
- npulido, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2worked for me
- Magnitude, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Has anyone tried this?
- zigziggityzoo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2I'm fairly sure the cheer is
"Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" -
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