Clicking Noise on multiple M1 MacBook Airs

[Yebubbleman]

I've got multiple M1 MacBook Airs that I mainly use for my IT side consulting gigs. A couple of them do this weird thing where, when the computer is otherwise sleeping (or at least with the display being off), it'll wake up (partially; to either a black screen with a mouse cursor or to the standard macOS Lock Screen, give or take a few notifications on-screen) and a clicking sound will play through the speaker. At first glance/listen, one might think it was speaker distortion, but it's not. This is a sound coming through the speaker. It sounds almost like someone took the clicking sound that the haptics on the trackpad make and then dialed up the volume on it a ton and then pumped that sound through the speakers at a loud volume.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I'd have posted this in the MacBook Air forums were it not for the facts that (a) I've never had this on any Intel Mac (be it running Big Sur or Monterey), (b) when I've taken affected M1 Airs to the Genius Bar, they remark in passing that they've mainly experienced this with 14" MacBook Pros (although one dude yesterday remarked that he also heard it on a 2021 16" MacBook Pro too).

I'm currently testing to see if this is software related and something that might just be exclusive to the Apple Silicon version of macOS Monterey. So, I'm running an affected M1 Air on macOS Big Sur for a while to see if I notice anything.

But certainly if anyone else has any other data points on this oddity, I'd love to hear it!

 

[macbookm1airlover]

I can’t see this being anything related, but do all of your M1 Macs have the same software programs running on them? It’s possible that if you have a certain program in common on all of the affected Macs, it might be a bug in said software.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I can’t see this being anything related, but do all of your M1 Macs have the same software programs running on them? It’s possible that if you have a certain program in common on all of the affected Macs, it might be a bug in said software.

Generally speaking, yes. And I'd say that's probably a factor were it not for the fact that I haven't had these issues on any Intel Macs (haven't had them on M1 13" MacBook Pros so far either). Although, interestingly enough, so far I am not having this issue whatsoever on one of the M1 Airs that had this issue while it's on macOS Big Sur. So maybe it's Monterey on Apple Silicon? Or Monterey on MacBook Air (M1, 2020) models.

 

[jav6454]

Try shutting down all software you currently have open. Then try to replicate what triggers the "click sound".