2016 Macbook Pro Issue - High Pitched Keyboard Clicking Sound

[MrGuder]

Well, replacing and sending back my THIRD MBP. Let's hope the fourth one works correctly. Because good grief.

I hope everyone is at least putting a note inside your returns about why you are returning or calling cust service otherwise they won't know the reason for all these returns and most likely the issue won't be corrected. They will just re package these returns and sell as new.

I put a note inside my return about the keys sounding louder in the middle than the others. We can't expect them to fix something that they don't know about.

 

[AlanHarper]

have to comment, that after one hour of gaming i didnt notice anymore any high clicking sounds. So then i ran some renderings with premiere and encoder and i had a few keys doing very quietly that sound but those where new keys, the old ones that did it the first time worked fine. So i dont know what it means but it shows that there might be that this is just temporary issue...

 

[Sanchez88]

have to comment, that after one hour of gaming i didnt notice anymore any high clicking sounds. So then i ran some renderings with premiere and encoder and i had a few keys doing very quietly that sound but those where new keys, the old ones that did it the first time worked fine. So i dont know what it means but it shows that there might be that this is just temporary issue...

Sounds weird...weird keyboard

 

[bxs]

Within a few hours of using my Late 2016 MacBook Pro 15” with Touch Bar, I noticed some of my keys made a very high pitched click on-key-up (when I lifted my finger from the pressed down key). The affected keys: Caps Lock, left Option, and very occasionally: Delete, ‘H’, and ‘C’.

Caps lock is by far the most reproducible for me (will make the high pitched click on 95% of presses). Whenever the key stops making the high pitched click, I can always get it to start again by making a long key press with a little bit of pressure. I can only reproduce the high pitched click on the left Option key on about 25% of presses, and I’ve only noticed it on the Delete, ‘H’, and ‘C’ keys a couple of times (<1% of presses).

I’ve recorded a video of the issue occurring for my Caps Lock key. I press the shift key 4 times to give a baseline sound for what the key should sound like, and then the Caps Lock key four times to demonstrate the issue. I did the same thing again, but just recorded the audio (the sound quality is a little higher than the video).

It’s important to note that I have only been able to reproduce the issue when the computer is warm.

Note for others: it can be difficult to reproduce the issue on demand due to the possible reliance on heat. To heat up your computer, you can open the application “Terminal”, type "yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null”, and press enter. This will spawn 6 processes which just essentially print “yes” really fast, and should cause your computer to hit 75% CPU utilization if you have 4 cores, and thus heat up after a couple minutes. When you want to stop the processes, open a new Terminal window and type “killall yes”.

So far I've found this Apple discussion of other owners experiencing the same issue but with different keys: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7762123. Anyone on Macrumors hit this issue yet?

Video:

Audio:

[doublepost=1484764124][/doublepost]I'm not hearing this issue on my new 2016 15" MBP. It's been running 'hot' for 2 hours and the "caps lock" press produces no high pitched sound that you described in your OP. Mind you, the two fans (#0 & #1) were running at 5930 & 5500 rpm respectively.

 

[monstermac77]

[doublepost=1484764124][/doublepost]I'm not hearing this issue on my new 2016 15" MBP. It's been running 'hot' for 2 hours and the "caps lock" press produces no high pitched sound that you described in your OP. Mind you, the two fans (#0 & #1) were running at 5930 & 5500 rpm respectively.

View attachment 684314 View attachment 684315

Thanks for testing. If you look through what others who have posted have found on their machines, it appears as though there is no pattern in which keys are affected (sometimes it's a couple number keys, sometimes certain letters, sometimes punctuation). In fact, I haven't seen many people who have said that their modifier keys (e.g. caps lock, shift, option, command, etc.) have been affected, so I might be in the minority.

So, if you want to check if your machine is affected, you should heat up your computer to that level again, and then firmly press and hold each key for about 1 second (with a little bit of pressure) to see if you can activate the click sound. I was able to do that on another (a family member's) 2016 Macbook Pro to activate the sound.

Also, could you download Coconut Battery and let us know what your manufacturing date is? Thanks again.

 

[Sanchez88]

So guys, i replaced my MLW72 for the new one. I tested it with 'yes', connected charger, several programs, and website with a lot of graphics. Also opened 5 tabs with theVerge. It made my fans to work hard and case became hot, so button '8' sounded problematic. But later problem disappeared or maybe it seemed so. All in all now keyboard is acceptable. And anyway buttons sound different (in the center, side, delete, shifts). I think by time buttons will seat up and sound better, imho

 

[bxs]

Thanks for testing. If you look through what others who have posted have found on their machines, it appears as though there is no pattern in which keys are affected (sometimes it's a couple number keys, sometimes certain letters, sometimes punctuation). In fact, I haven't seen many people who have said that their modifier keys (e.g. caps lock, shift, option, command, etc.) have been affected, so I might be in the minority.

So, if you want to check if your machine is affected, you should heat up your computer to that level again, and then firmly press and hold each key for about 1 second (with a little bit of pressure) to see if you can activate the click sound. I was able to do that on another (a family member's) 2016 Macbook Pro to activate the sound.

Also, could you download Coconut Battery and let us know what your manufacturing date is? Thanks again.

[doublepost=1484776132][/doublepost]Manufacture date for my MBP13,3 is 2016-11-07

Manufacture date for my MBP13,3's battery is 2016-10-25

If you press any number key or letter key or punctuation key it's normal to hear a fast clicking sound.

I tested again and heard no such sound as you described in your OP.

 

[monstermac77]

[doublepost=1484776132][/doublepost]I tested again and heard no such sound as you described in your OP.

Gotcha, it sounds like you don't have the issue, which isn't unprecedented. Another user, @pshifrin, got a 13" soon after they were released (purchased 11-16, so probably manufactured around the same time as yours) and he/she could not produce the sound no matter how hard they tried (quote below). @pshifrin was alerted to the high pitched click issue because he/she was considering switching to a 15", but ultimately couldn't because all four 15" models he/she purchased had this or another issue with the keyboard.

I have a 13 3.3/16/512 purchased 11/16 in an Apple Store (basically the very first day the stores had stock) which is PERFECT, no flaws with the keyboard not matter how hot it gets, etc. Since this laptop was eligible for the holiday return period, I flirted with moving up to the 15 inch and subsequently purchased and returned FOUR units, one as recently as 12/27. All 4 had major keyboard issues ranging from keys not working at all or double lettering, to the issue in this thread. The 13 inch, which I'm keeping as it meets my needs, is obviously from an early batch since I purchased it mid-November. So the theory that early units have this problem and later may not, doesn't necessarily jive with what i've experienced.

I really feel sorry for everyone on this thread, especially BTO people or people in locations without Apple Stores. I can easily keep going to and play the lottery with getting a perfect unit. I live less than 1 mile from an Apple Store and within easy driving distance of 5 others.

 

[kalel5]

Well, replacing and sending back my THIRD MBP. Let's hope the fourth one works correctly. Because good grief.

Right there with you, man
[doublepost=1484782289][/doublepost]

Yes, that is disappointing. I was starting to feel hopeful and was thinking of reordering .

Would you mind feeding back what e Apple Business Manager says?

So, I talked with the Business Manager on Monday, and he said that he just can't understand what's going on. My only option was to return MacBook #3 via online, and wait for a new one. If it has any of the issues, he really wants me to bring it in so the genius team can investigate what's going on.

I really hope that it is ok. If not, I might be forced to buy a 2015 model and sell it when/if Apple gets their sh*t together on this production/engineering.

 

[brosenz]

Within a few hours of using my Late 2016 MacBook Pro 15” with Touch Bar, I noticed some of my keys made a very high pitched click on-key-up (when I lifted my finger from the pressed down key). The affected keys: Caps Lock, left Option, and very occasionally: Delete, ‘H’, and ‘C’.

Caps lock is by far the most reproducible for me (will make the high pitched click on 95% of presses). Whenever the key stops making the high pitched click, I can always get it to start again by making a long key press with a little bit of pressure. I can only reproduce the high pitched click on the left Option key on about 25% of presses, and I’ve only noticed it on the Delete, ‘H’, and ‘C’ keys a couple of times (<1% of presses).

I’ve recorded a video of the issue occurring for my Caps Lock key. I press the shift key 4 times to give a baseline sound for what the key should sound like, and then the Caps Lock key four times to demonstrate the issue. I did the same thing again, but just recorded the audio (the sound quality is a little higher than the video).

It’s important to note that I have only been able to reproduce the issue when the computer is warm.

Note for others: it can be difficult to reproduce the issue on demand due to the possible reliance on heat. To heat up your computer, you can open the application “Terminal”, type "yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null”, and press enter. This will spawn 6 processes which just essentially print “yes” really fast, and should cause your computer to hit 75% CPU utilization if you have 4 cores, and thus heat up after a couple minutes. When you want to stop the processes, open a new Terminal window and type “killall yes”.

So far I've found this Apple discussion of other owners experiencing the same issue but with different keys: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7762123. Anyone on Macrumors hit this issue yet?

Video:

Audio:

I think this is a Break-In issue, I had the problem during the first 24 hours and then it was gone

 

[kalel5]

I think this is a Break-In issue, I had the problem during the first 24 hours and then it was gone

I'm not sure about that. I've had each of my 3 MacBook Pros for over 2 weeks, and the problem never went away.

 

[monstermac77]

I'm not sure about that. I've had each of my 3 MacBook Pros for over 2 weeks, and the problem never went away.

Yeah, I have to agree. It's possible that you had a different issue with your keyboard or (less likely) that your machine hasn't reached the same level of heat as it did during those first 24 hours. For pretty much everybody here, the problem is consistent and does not go away with use (despite how much we all wish it did).

 

[monstermac77]

Good news!! I received my replacement today. I re-ran the exact keyboard test that I had conducted earlier on a machine which was manufactured on 12/26/2016, which had the high pitched clicking sound on one key. I've attached the quote from that test below. On this new machine, I could not reproduce the high pitched key clicking sound on any keys.

If I notice a keyboard issue after more extended use, I'll absolutely post it. Otherwise, you can assume that this new machine has no issues with the keyboard.

Testing details on the new machine:
CPU: steady at ~54°C during heated (ha!) tests
Manufacturing date (reported by CoconutBattery): 1/9/2017
Specs (evidence suggests this was affecting all models, but if you're curious): 15", 2.6GHz, Radeon Pro 460, 512GB

My family member used the keyboard lightly to setup the machine, and then let me run my tests. I first went around pressing every key ~5 times to see if any had the high pitched click issue. None did. Then, I started heating up the machine using the terminal command I posted earlier. After very warm (10 minutes later), I repeated the click of each key (~10 times each) to see if the high pitched click was activated on any key. None were activated. Immediately afterward (computer still warm), I went through and very firmly pressed each key, holding my finger down for ~1 second. This actually activated the high pitched click on the '9' key. After being activated, even a normal key press caused the high-pitched click noise (most reliably when pressed in the center of the key, lesser so the corners of the key). As expected, once the machine cooled down, the clicking went away.

Some additional notes: I compared the sound of the new machine's keyboard (1/9/17) with my family member's (12/26/16), and the keys seem to sound less 'clicky' and quieter in general (I had two other people try them and they noticed these differences too; to keep them unbiassed, I asked them to "try these two keyboards and tell me any differences you notice"). Of course, these differences could be due to use, but they're worth noting.

 

[MrGuder]

^^That's awesome, keep us updated, sounds like you got a good one. Do your keys in the middle sounds any louder than the outer ones? Mine also had no high pitched keys but the middle ones were much louder than the outer ones.

I thought about returning mine for a 2nd one but I just opted for the refund and ordered a 2015.

 

[tlday]

Good news!! I received my replacement today. I re-ran the exact keyboard test that I had conducted earlier on a machine which was manufactured on 12/26/2016, which had the high pitched clicking sound on one key. I've attached the quote from that test below. On this new machine, I could not reproduce the high pitched key clicking sound on any keys.

If I notice a keyboard issue after more extended use, I'll absolutely post it. Otherwise, you can assume that this new machine has no issues with the keyboard.

Testing details on the new machine:
CPU: steady at ~54°C during heated (ha!) tests
Manufacturing date (reported by CoconutBattery): 1/9/2017
Specs (evidence suggests this was affecting all models, but if you're curious): 15", 2.6GHz, Radeon Pro 460, 512GB



Some additional notes: I compared the sound of the new machine's keyboard (1/9/17) with my family member's (12/26/16), and the keys seem to sound less 'clicky' and quieter in general (I had two other people try them and they noticed these differences too; to keep them unbiassed, I asked them to "try these two keyboards and tell me any differences you notice"). Of course, these differences could be due to use, but they're worth noting.

Congratulations, this keyboard's sound is actually different to each other. My third one is more same(but not actually) to my first one, but second one is more "soft" and quite.I decided not replace it again, this one has issue on 7 and 9. I think I can live with it(I have bought the apple care). Another replacement waste too long time.And I think I won't buy Apple's new product in first release season again.
Whatever, Congratulations to everyone who stuck in this issue but got a good replacement, and hope all other guys have a good luck to get a good replacement.

 

[monstermac77]

^^That's awesome, keep us updated, sounds like you got a good one. Do your keys in the middle sounds any louder than the outer ones?

Will do! Yes, the ones in the middle do sound a bit louder than the outer ones but the difference is not nearly as stark as my family member's machine which was manufactured on 12/26/16. "Louder" might not even be the word; striking them seems to make a more hollow sound. It's hard to describe.

Congratulations, this keyboard's sound is actually different to each other....And I think I won't buy Apple's new product in first release season again.

Thanks! I'm rather relieved. Yeah, I think in the future I'm going to wait 3-4 months before purchasing a redesigned Mac.

 

[AlanHarper]

Hi, after few days of use, i still have some keys doing that sound but its not that loud but its still there, i have a custom model. I would have to wait another month or more to get it replaced right? cause apple shops dont have that model in stock normally? i got 2.9/460/1TB model. Has anyone had this sound and it went away itself after few weeks? I dont want to replace it i already installed my dbrand skins on it... .

 

[TripleMoxy]

Good news!! I received my replacement today. I re-ran the exact keyboard test that I had conducted earlier on a machine which was manufactured on 12/26/2016, which had the high pitched clicking sound on one key. I've attached the quote from that test below. On this new machine, I could not reproduce the high pitched key clicking sound on any keys.

If I notice a keyboard issue after more extended use, I'll absolutely post it. Otherwise, you can assume that this new machine has no issues with the keyboard.

Testing details on the new machine:
CPU: steady at ~54°C during heated (ha!) tests
Manufacturing date (reported by CoconutBattery): 1/9/2017
Specs (evidence suggests this was affecting all models, but if you're curious): 15", 2.6GHz, Radeon Pro 460, 512GB



Some additional notes: I compared the sound of the new machine's keyboard (1/9/17) with my family member's (12/26/16), and the keys seem to sound less 'clicky' and quieter in general (I had two other people try them and they noticed these differences too; to keep them unbiassed, I asked them to "try these two keyboards and tell me any differences you notice"). Of course, these differences could be due to use, but they're worth noting.

Congratulations! I'm still waiting for a little while before ordering a replacement, just to make sure that they have a chance to solve those problems.

 

[Atreyu25]

I have to say, Apple at the very least has been courteous. They offered me a case, keyboard and mouse as an apology. Can't fault their customer service, I've always found it to be generous.

 

[monstermac77]

I have to say, Apple at the very least has been courteous. They offered me a case, keyboard and mouse as an apology. Can't fault their customer service, I've always found it to be generous.

That's really nice of them. Best of luck with your next machine!

 

[MrGuder]

I have to say, Apple at the very least has been courteous. They offered me a case, keyboard and mouse as an apology. Can't fault their customer service, I've always found it to be generous.

An apology for what? Just curious, because of the keyboard.

 

[Atreyu25]

An apology for what? Just curious, because of the keyboard.

For FOUR faulty machines.

 

[riptidewahoo]

Ended up returning both my non-TB MBP due to this issue and iPad Pro ($1899+tax combined) and picked up a Surface Pro 4 for $749 with a keyboard - honestly couldn't be happier. Super slick device and over $1000 cheaper than the previous pairing.

 

[bwhli]

Received my 2.9/16GB/1TB today, and I have this issue on my S key. Unfortunately, my current workload prevents me from doing an exchange. Hopefully there will be a fix for this in a few weeks, and I can get the keyboard replaced at the Apple Store.

 

[Atreyu25]

Received my 2.9/16GB/1TB today, and I have this issue on my S key. Unfortunately, my current workload prevents me from doing an exchange. Hopefully there will be a fix for this in a few weeks, and I can get the keyboard replaced at the Apple Store.

Call sales, explain what is going on and ask for a sales manager. They can send you a new BTO and you can keep your existing machine while it is made.