Comments on: MacBook Still A Whiner?

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:10:34 +0000

Michael - people have varying success by demanding that Apple fix the problem. The thing is, the problem varies considerably from machine to machine. So I would demand an exchange or fix. If your machine is still quite new they might agree to exchange it since it’s “defective.”

By: Michael Worsley

Michael Worsley — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:29:20 +0000

Hi,

I’ve just installed QuietMBP on my shiny new Core 2 Duo Macbook, and just wanted to say thank-you. That whine would have quickly driven me insane.

I take it from your comments that there is no resolution to this problem from Apple?

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:20:15 +0000

Michael, good advice, but the noise I’m alluding to is not fan noise. It’s CPU-related noise.

By: Michael McMillan

Michael McMillan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:25:47 +0000

Macintosh laptops get hot, and they need a way to get rid of the heat. There are two ways to do that. First is to get rid of the heat by blowing fans across the internal components, but that makes noise.

The second way to get rid of heat is to radiate heat passively through the case. I have augmented this method slightly on my iBook. I have went to ace hardware, to their hobby section and bought two pieces of copper plate, the $5 size for portable use, and the $10 size for at my desk. I put a small piece of cardboard under the plate so that it firmly presses again the bottom of the computer, and let the remainder stick out the back or side. Using this method, the fan rarely activates.

At home if the plate actually gets warm, I can place a heat sink on it, 2 inch by 2 inch by 1/2 inch is plenty.

It isn’t a high tech solution, but it works, is compact, and costs about the same as a pint of beer.

-Michael

By: Sergey Tsalkov

Sergey Tsalkov — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:30:04 +0000

bc - I saw plenty of threads on Apple’s support forums with hundreds of posts apiece, detailing this problem. Even if we accept your argument that the problem is actually experienced by a tiny fraction of Apple users, that doesn’t excuse Apple’s inability to solve it all this time later, nor does it excuse AppleCare’s utter disregard for the satisfaction of those customers.

After all, horror stories like mine are disturbing not because we ran into a problem, but because AppleCare refused to make things right and essentially told us to shut up and deal with it. No matter how you look at it, that’s simply not acceptable.

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:36:05 +0000

Thanks bc - good reminder. I think you’re right that the problems are usually a lot less systematic than the net portrays. But in this particular case I think the problems are a lot more systematic than the user base portrays.

That is to say, lots of users are not bothered by the whining noise. I guess you could argue this makes it a non-problem. But really, it just means it’s a problem that’s infuriating to many, but which lacks impetus to get properly fixed.

But you’re right that there is probably a lot of swift action I could make happen if I got bitten again and actually reacted to the problem within the first few days of having bought it.

By: ~bc

~bc — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:57:54 +0000

Dan, Let me just add, as someone who is a long time user and used to do Apple tech support (at your closest store, in fact) that the reports you hear of Apple tech problems on the internet are always, always overblown in comparison with the actual number of malfunctioning machines. People don’t go online to bitch about functioning machines. Period.

I run a MBP, I didn’t hesitate to buy one (or four for me and the rest of my company) right after the Core2 bump, and we’ve all been very pleased. No troubles in 8 months.

When you buy any computer, from any vendor, there’s going to be risk. It may not work out of the box, or it may fail early. I wouldn’t suggest buying a machine for your biz machine only when your old one dies. If the new one is defective, then you’ll be in trouble. You need redundant machines to run a business, because computers fail. Fact of life. In my experience, both as a user and Mac Genius tells me that Apples fail, but less so than any other make I’ve encountered.

So, what I’m trying to say in short is that I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a MBP. You have my email from the form, feel free to use it if you have any questions.

~brian
[ happy MarsEdit user, too ]

By: Michael Sykes

Michael Sykes — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:02:59 +0000

I’m yet another of the people who first found your blog because of the whining issues. Bought a MBP the very first week, and have always had the whine. Got the screen inverter replaced which fixed part of it, but not the processor part for which I use still use QuietMBP. I’ve come to peace with just always running a processor at 8%, and the associated (hopefully minimal) decrease in battery life.

I was surprised however by your comments about the Audio Out noise. I use my Audio Out all the time for watching TV shows downloaded from iTunes while connected to an external stereo, and I’ve never had a problem with noise. Perhaps I’m just lucky in that respect.

By: Joe Goh

Joe Goh — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 04:18:52 +0000

I too experienced the same whining problem with my MacBook Pro when connecting the audio output to an amplifier.

I’m currently working around this by connecting the audio output using an optical connection instead, as you can definitely not introduce any sort of noise using that.

However, Apple really should still improve this situation. Not everyone has an amplifier with an optical input.

By: Mike Abdullah

Mike Abdullah — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:27:43 +0000

I’m currently borrowing a Core 2 Duo MacBook from a friend (it’s about 6 months old). No sign of a whine here. The fans are ever so slightly louder than my PowerBook but not an issue. To my surprise, the battery life also seems to be slightly improved.