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Are there really Macbooks that do not whine or moo at all?

My new Macbook does seem to have the 'whine'. It's like the annoying kind of high pitch sound that a CRT TV makes, but not nearly as loud. I'm not sure if it's there all the time or not, and I only notice it within a couple of meters of the laptop. It is very annoying however in a quiet room.

That 'Quiet MBP' program didn't help at all, nor does changing the brightness of the display.
 
phatz said:
My new Macbook does seem to have the 'whine'. It's like the annoying kind of high pitch sound that a CRT TV makes, but not nearly as loud. I'm not sure if it's there all the time or not, and I only notice it within a couple of meters of the laptop. It is very annoying however in a quiet room.

That 'Quiet MBP' program didn't help at all, nor does changing the brightness of the display.
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The CRT TV description is dead on to what it sounds like. I agree it is only bothersome in a quiet room but when you hear it you can't stop focusing on it.
 
Jschultz said:
Wait! My TiBook wasn't the only one who made that noise? I always thought that was kind of weird.

Anyways, I had a listen to that soundclip of the moo, and I definitely don't have it, although in a toungue in cheek kind of way, it is amusing. That sounds pretty close to a real moo, if you ask me.

I've even ripped CD's for an hour straight..definitely don't get that.

I think I have an early machine too. Mine got to CompUSA on the 18th, I think.
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haha well one of us better record the woodchipper noise from the Tibook. Everyone in this Macbook thread would feel soooo sorry for us. "How could you live with such an abomination!" they'd all say. I even sent my Ti in once for a fan repair - came back a "little" better but it was still there. I've even found places online that advertise new quieter fans for the Titanium Powerbook. Though they have always been out of stock for me.
 
y0zza said:
Well, mine makes a very slight hissing/whining noise when idle. Not audible unless the room is near silent, though I must admit.

It also produces the 'moo' sounds at idle, which are audible and very annoying. Particularly distracting in a quiet library.

In addition, anywhere near load, the fans rev up as if the thing is about to take off. Something as mundane as an video conferencing with iChat causes the fans to gradually rev up to full blast.

Far louder than my previous PowerBook G4 1.67GHz ever was at full load, or even my Dell D600. Yes, I realise with iChat the CPU is encoding video/audio in realtime, but this thing is loud.

It also trips into thermal panic and throttles when hitting full load. Even with the fans on full blast, it isn't enough to cool the thing down it seems.

Suffice to say, a replacement is already on its way.
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Quoted my own post now that my new MacBook has arrived.

What a difference between the two. Side by side, they look identical but the new one does not moo at all.

In fact, whereas the fan motor on the old one becomes very audible as it ramps up, with the new one you can barely hear it except for the sound of air gushing through.

The old one would make a sharp and constant tone of noise when the fan came on, which is why the moo was so annoying when it constantly came on/off, since the fan noise was very sharp and a bit like something grinding or buzzing.

The new one runs a few degrees cooler and the only audible noise when the fan comes on is the sound of air going through; no or very little motor noise.

Temperatures take longer to reach their maximum, although both top out at around 72-75 C. The old one is much noisier at this temperature though. The new one also cools down much faster.

Still a bit warm for my liking, but otherwise it's a huge improvement on the first unit.
 
Chrispy said:
Do you have the whine on the new one?
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There is a very faint 'hissing' sound coming from the left side of both machines.

However, the noise is very faint – it is inaudible to me unless the room is very quiet and then only when I'm up close with the MacBook (hmm, sounds dodgy...).

My Dell D600 made similar noises when its CPU was modulating clock speed through SpeedStep, but that was almost certainly louder than the two MacBooks I have here.

The 'moo' noise was by far much louder than any whine I'm hearing and far more distracting.
 
So here's a question about the "moo". I currently have an iMac G5 with a relatively loud fan--is the moo louder than that? If not, then I'm willing to bet I won't mind it.
 
y0zza said:
The new one runs a few degrees cooler and the only audible noise when the fan comes on is the sound of air going through; no or very little motor noise.
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Interesting. Less motor noise definately stops the moo. I'd be interested if the fan still has that erratic on/off behaviour on your new machine (even though there is no moo as the motor is silent), or if this has been fixed as well. The bearing of the fans wears down with time, so it might happen that the moo appears on yours after a few months.
 
nermal0 said:
Interesting. Less motor noise definately stops the moo. I'd be interested if the fan still has that erratic on/off behaviour on your new machine (even though there is no moo as the motor is silent), or if this has been fixed as well. The bearing of the fans wears down with time, so it might happen that the moo appears on yours after a few months.
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The new one idles about 50-60 degrees C, which is 5-10 degrees lower than the previous. Hence, on light workloads it does not get into the 65-68 C range to trigger the moo.

Nevertheless, on slightly heavier loads it could conceivably be trigger the fan often. It's not too much of a concern for me, as the motor noise is inaudible.

The fans spin pretty slowly so the wear on the bearings shouldn't be too much of a concern over the normal lifetime of the product.
 
A potential fix for mooing

Hi, guys. My macbook had been mooing since the day one. And im currently in the process of getting it replaced but apple told me to check it first at the retailer. Apprently a report is needed from the authorised apple repair agent stating the problems before i can get mine replaced. I think its a reallll hassel.

So i had been trying to find a cure and i think i had found one. You can install QuietMBP and set the slider to 250 to utilise your cpu more so that the temp reaches to above 71 c. The reason it stops the mooing is becuase when my temp reaches above 71c, the fan will just keep on spinning without coming down, thus make the moo disapeear. You can try on yours as each macbook's mooing kicks on at different temp.

Hope this helps!
 
netdog said:
Mine has never whined or mooed.
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Worst thing that's happened to me is my fan going on full blast, but that was my fault. Other than that no whine moo humm hiss anything - this thing is the most quiet Mac I have ever owned.
 
Mine hasn't moo'd yet (my MBP did moo occasionally so i know what it sounds like). However it does whine. No where near as bad as my MBP and definately no where as noticable. Unless i'm listening for it i don't actually notice it.
 
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