14" M4 Pro noisy SSD

[neuralengine]

Noticed today that when my M4 Pro MacBook Pro is writing or reading from the SSD, there’s a very faint electrical buzzing sound coming from underneath the keyboard. It sounds just like old hard drives but at 0.1% the volume. It’s quiet enough that it took me over a week to notice it but it’s loud enough that I can hear it in a quiet room without getting too close to the computer.

My M1 MacBook Air doesn’t make this sound at all, no matter how close to the keyboard I put my ear.

The MBP has a 2TB SSD.

Can get it to happen 100% of the time when running Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. It’s definitely not fan noise or display coil whine. It only happens when there’s a lot of read/write operations happening.

Anyone else hearing this? I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to return it, but if it’s a common thing I won’t bother.

 

[Gnattu]

I only hear similar thing when doing LLM model inferencing not SSD benchmarking and I think it is coil whine from the power delivery circuit when the workload is in specific wattage range. If you have patience you can keep returning until you find one that does not have such sound at that specific load but I don’t want to bother because the fan usually spins up and that sound becomes inaudible for LLM inferencing tasks.

 

[Ascn]

I had three M3 Pros because of the reason of coil whine; they all were basically the same.
But the SSD was not the problem; it was more the power delivery circuit, as Gnattu said.

The SSD was audible during Blackmagic Speed Test, but only faintly, not audible at a normal working distance.
The power delivery circuit was audible also when scrolling through the Photos library. But it was the same for all machines, so I guess I have to accept it.
Do you also hear something like that with the M4 Pro? You have to listen with your ear close to the keyboard.

 

[tockie]

Glad to know I'm not alone. I got the new M4 Max 128GB 16" and almost returned it.
When I start doing LLM inference while the fan is min/off, I can hear a very clear and sharp electrical whining noise coming from inside the MacBook; it's louder than low-speed fan noise. However, then, as the fan speed (noise) catches on, the whining is less of a problem and I cannot identify the whining noise from the fan noise.
I suspect it's something with the power delivery system, since I guess Apple expected fan to be high when drawing 140+ watts of power.

 

[neuralengine]

Actually, yes, I can hear it when scrolling through Photos (and Lightroom), but it’s much quieter. If it was only this noise I would be fine with it.

Can also hear it a bit when opening apps, for example, opening Safari does it all the time.

Installing npm packages is the loudest it gets. For example, if I install something chunky like the sanity CLI package with "yarn global add sanity", I don’t even have to get close to the keyboard, I can hear it from my normal position.

It really seems to be intensive SSD use that makes the sound happen. Also, from what I’ve heard of coil whine / power delivery noise, those sound more constant and also change pitch. This is more of a faint rapid clicking, buzzing sound. It does sound electrical but mostly it reminds me of hard drive sounds, and also happens when you’d expect a hard drive to make noise.

Coming to the end of my return period and will make a decision today. This computer is otherwise perfect so am a bit torn on whether I want to play the lottery.

But both an M1 Air and an M1 Pro Pro that I tested do not make this noise at all so I wonder if it’s possible to get a new one that doesn’t. This computer is much faster though, so maybe the faster chip and faster SSD just makes for SSD use that is intense enough to be heard.

 

[Ascn]

Actually, yes, I can hear it when scrolling through Photos (and Lightroom), but it’s much quieter. If it was only this noise I would be fine with it.

Can also hear it a bit when opening apps, for example, opening Safari does it all the time.

Is this coming from the SSD or the power delivery system?

Really interesting, in my case the SSD is audible only when putting the ear to the keyboard.
I think the SSD chips are left and right of the keyboard, while the power delivery is nearly in the center. Can you determine which is louder?

 

[neuralengine]

I think the SSD chips are left and right of the keyboard, while the power delivery is nearly in the center. Can you determine which is louder?

Ah, good point.

Assuming the layout is the same as on M3 Pro, the NAND chips are on the right side of the keyboard:

MacBook Pro 14" Late 2023 M3 Pro Chip ID

Here you'll find the chip identification summary for the 14" M2 Pro MacBook Pro. Check out our MacBook Pro M3 Pro teardown for more details....

www.ifixit.com

This noise is coming from center-right, around the IJK keys, so not as far right as the NAND chips would seem to be according to that photo.

 

[Ascn]

You have the 2TB version, it should be left and right. So i can hear the noise from left and right, if it is only in the center, or a little bit off axis, it will probably be the power delivery system.
If you can hear it scrolling on a website, it is more because of the power delivery system.

 

[neuralengine]

You have the 2TB version, it should be left and right. So i can hear the noise from left and right, if it is only in the center, or a little bit off axis, it will probably be the power delivery system.
If you can hear it scrolling on a website, it is more because of the power delivery system.

Yes, it’s closer to the center, nothing on the sides. Can hear it scrolling on a website, faintly.

I don’t do any LLM work but just ran Geekbench AI (on the GPU) and could hear all kinds of noises coming from the same spot. Not so much buzzing but different pitches of whining. Louder than scrolling on a website, but still quieter that installing a large npm package.

So I guess this might be the power delivery system then. And you say you’ve gone through three M3 Pros and they all did this?

Probably not worth returning then.

Kind of a bummer, sounds more like a cheap smart bulb than a pro laptop.

 

[neuralengine]

Actually, just ran Geekbench AI on the CPU, and it made exactly the same sounds as installing a large npm package. Looking at Activity Monitor, it only wrote 4 KB and read 692 KB – so what I’m hearing must be power delivery (or the CPU somehow?).

 

[ignatius345]

I have a feeling my hearing is a little too roasted to pick up on this, unfortunately. (Wear ear protection at concerts, guys!!)

 

[Ascn]

I just tried Geekbench AI, there is only during some tests a sound, in between it is silent.
It is very faint in the benchmark to be honest with my M3 Pro, probably not audible if at a normal working distance!

I have a feeling my hearing is a little too roasted to pick up on this, unfortunately. (Wear ear protection at concerts, guys!!)

Been to many concerts in my life, only used ear protection occasionally

 

[neuralengine]

I have a feeling my hearing is a little too roasted to pick up on this, unfortunately. (Wear ear protection at concerts, guys!!)

Yes! Just started with the ear protection, a little too late probably.

I just tried Geekbench AI, there is only during some tests a sound, in between it is silent.
It is very faint in the benchmark to be honest with my M3 Pro, probably not audible if at a normal working distance!

Yes, it’s not constant, just during some tests, and not terribly loud.

The only real scenario where it’s loud enough to be bothersome is installations. I previously noticed it when installing large npm packages but it also happens when installing apps, like Xcode or Final Cut Pro.

I’ve done a bit of internet digging and have not found a single report of anyone who noticed coil whine or SSD noises or similar electrical component noises on M2 or M3 generation computers, exchanged it, and got a replacement that was an improvement.

With other issues like screen uniformity, etc., usually eventually people get one that is at least different if not better, but with these issues it seems like if a generation has them, then a replacement is unlikely to solve it.

 

[ignatius345]

I just tried Geekbench AI, there is only during some tests a sound, in between it is silent.
It is very faint in the benchmark to be honest with my M3 Pro, probably not audible if at a normal working distance!

Been to many concerts in my life, only used ear protection occasionally

I don't know how old you are, but pray you don't get tinnitus. I don't have it too bad, but it's there and it ****ing sucks!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I don't know how old you are, but pray you don't get tinnitus. I don't have it too bad, but it's there are it ****ing sucks!

Tinnitus solo! HhhhhhEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[skottichan]

Honestly, the coil whine is one of the reasons why I went back to desktop + iPad setup. It's like most laptops have it, or I'm too tuned to it or something. Heck, even my previous Cintiq had it.

 

[neuralengine]

Honestly, the coil whine is one of the reasons why I went back to desktop + iPad setup. It's like most laptops have it, or I'm too tuned to it or something. Heck, even my previous Cintiq had it.

Yeah, I guess I was spoiled by the M1 generation which was very quiet.

It still doesn’t really make sense to me why this is such an ongoing issue as we’re getting to the point where iPads have a lot of the same components yet they don’t make these sounds.

 

[gregmac19]

Noticed today that when my M4 Pro MacBook Pro is writing or reading from the SSD, there’s a very faint electrical buzzing sound coming from underneath the keyboard. It sounds just like old hard drives but at 0.1% the volume. It’s quiet enough that it took me over a week to notice it but it’s loud enough that I can hear it in a quiet room without getting too close to the computer.

My M1 MacBook Air doesn’t make this sound at all, no matter how close to the keyboard I put my ear.

The MBP has a 2TB SSD.

Can get it to happen 100% of the time when running Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. It’s definitely not fan noise or display coil whine. It only happens when there’s a lot of read/write operations happening.

Anyone else hearing this? I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to return it, but if it’s a common thing I won’t bother.

Is the noise high, mid-range, or low frequency?

 

[neuralengine]

Is the noise high, mid-range, or low frequency?

High mid-range, around the same frequency as a fire alarm beep. Probably somewhere around 1-2k.

Since the original post I’ve really narrowed it down to just happening during installs of big pro apps.

Originally I said it happened during Blackmagic Disk Test, but it’s actually so quiet as to be almost inaudible during that test. I must have had my ear right next to the keyboard when doing that.

I’m now thinking that what I’m hearing is the coil whine of the power delivery circuit and that when moving a lot of files around during intense installs the OS does something that requires a spike in power delivery.

My return period ended yesterday and based on everything I’ve read about coil whine I decided to keep the computer as, from what I understand, a replacement would likely sound the same.

Also I still remember working with spinning hard drives and loud fans, and this is nothing in comparison. Just louder than the M1 Air which remains my favourite laptop they’ve ever made.

 

[Ascn]

I also think it is normal. I tested with Blackmagic Speedtest. When using an external monitor with power delivery during the start of every round, there is an audible high-frequency sound, but without power supply, it is nearly silent, only a barely noticeable hissing sound when close to the keyboard.
When finishing downloading all files from Lightroom, I could hear an audible noise, and my CPU was utilized at 400%.
My M3 Pro was less noticeable during CPU loads, probably because it has less power draw and fewer cores.
I think we have to live with these problems when using these high-performance machines ...

What I know from my history with M3 Pros I exchanged due to this problem, all were nearly the same, so I think there is no tolerance to be honest.

 

[DeepSix]

I'm picking my M4 Pro up shortly, fingers crossed I don't have any coil whine but will let you know.

Coil wine is annoying but I get used to it. My previous laptop had really bad coil wine out of the box but over time it had no issues.

 

[DeepSix]

I just checked mine OP and my hard drive is completely silent.

 

[nostradumbass]

I only hear similar thing when doing LLM model inferencing not SSD benchmarking and I think it is coil whine from the power delivery circuit when the workload is in specific wattage range. If you have patience you can keep returning until you find one that does not have such sound at that specific load but I don’t want to bother because the fan usually spins up and that sound becomes inaudible for LLM inferencing tasks.

Coil whine when doing AI stuff is awesome. It's like hearing some awesome vehicle in a sci fi movie. It's like...wheeeee look at all this powerrrr.

 

[neuralengine]

I just checked mine OP and my hard drive is completely silent.

That’s great! If you got one with less coil whine (or without) that’s pretty cool.

Btw as I wrote above I no longer think it’s the SSD on mine, just general coil whine under some conditions that happen with big multi-file installs.

Coil whine when doing AI stuff is awesome. It's like hearing some awesome vehicle in a sci fi movie. It's like...wheeeee look at all this powerrrr.

Haha yes!!

 

[DeepSix]

That’s great! If you got one with less coil whine (or without) that’s pretty cool.

Btw as I wrote above I no longer think it’s the SSD on mine, just general coil whine under some conditions that happen with big multi-file installs.



Haha yes!!

If mine has coil whine I can't hear it. This is nothing compared to the coil whine that I had on my previous PC gaming laptop, could hear it from 20ft away.