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dgulotta
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 88
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 Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:07 am Post subject: [SOLVED]macbook humming noise |
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I have a late 2007 MacBook that has been making an annoying humming noise. I have found two ways of getting rid of the noise: 1) unloading uhci_hcd and 2) playing music (this works even if the volume is muted, so I'm not just drowning out the noise).
Is this a common problem? Is it a sign that there's something wrong with the hardware? Might there be a better workaround?
Last edited by dgulotta on Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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DigitalCorpus
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Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 283
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:20 am Post subject: |
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Sound likes it can be one a few things.
1) CPU Frequency scaling. In my old 15" PowerBook, I can hear the processor make a static like noise when it is under low or medium utilization.
2) If could be the noise of your hard drive. Some disks emit a "hum" when they are just spinning. Applying a slight load would cause it to draw a little more power and the movement of the drive head could offset any natural harmonics
3) My other theory is that this is related to the AC or DC power converters. Very frequently, under low or high draw, they can emit a hum based on 60Hz and other harmonics.
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dgulotta
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:06 am Post subject: |
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| I noticed that scrolling up and down in Firefox makes the noise pulse instead of being constant. I guess that makes CPU frequency scaling the most likely possibility. When I get a chance I'll see if there are any kernel config options that might make the humming go away. |
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DigitalCorpus
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Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 283
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:51 am Post subject: |
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If you are on the performance governor, see how you like the conservative governor. That should help out a bit on how quickly and often your CPU's clock is adjusted.
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dgulotta
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| It turns out that I wasn't using any CPU frequency scaling. When I enabled the conservative governor, the humming became much more quiet, to the point where I only hear it if I put my ear right next to the left side of my laptop. Thanks! |
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ZeuZ_NG
Guru
Joined: 10 Sep 2008
Posts: 453
Location: Near /dev/urandom | /dev/null
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| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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I must take this in count to my new MacBook Pro comming along next...
Also, would you mind to add a [SOLVED] tag in the tittle?
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