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Does your MacBook Moo?

  • Yes

    Votes: 59 54.6%
  • No

    Votes: 49 45.4%

  • Total voters
    108

Cedd

macrumors member
Feb 15, 2006
96
18
Nr London, UK
When mine first mooed I thought it was some weird (but intentional) sound effect. It really sounded like a cow in a distant field!

After nearly a week of use it has only happened a couple of times and only when it gets really hot. Whilst it is a bit annoying I can only compare it to my old 900 mhz desktop which makes so much noise that it is a real pleasure to turn it off. The Macbook has more than twice the processing power and it is about an eighth of the total size - I think a gentle moo when it is getting hot is OK in the circs...
 

panoz7

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2005
904
1
Raleigh, NC
I took it to the local apple store and told them that it was whining and mooing. The genius bar guy looked at me like I was crazy. He took it in the back room where it was quieter and came back in a few minutes and admited that it did sound exactly like a cow. They are replacing mine with a new one. Sadly, White 2.0 macbooks were out of stock at the moment, so as I type this I continue to be serenaded by a cow every 15 seconds.

Anyway, mine didn't moo intitially. It only started whining and mooing after about a day or two. Mine only makes the mooing sound when working heavely or when photobooth is open. I have photobooth open almost all the time to quell the whine issue (it gives me a headache and is a thousand times worse then the mooing) and the mooing's been getting more and more frequent. Can't wait for my replacement...

On a side note, do the black macbooks have so many issues? They offered to let me upgrade to a black one at the apple store. I don't feel like paying the extra $150 (and I like the white better then black) but if it'll get me a perfect sounding macbook I might.
 

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
the moing is just the fan going on and off around 67 degrees, mine does it as it passes that threashhold at half load personally it does not bother me as it's quiet and it's better than the fan being on for ages like my ibooks fan was.

by the way i'm typeing this from vista and the fan comes on a heck of allot more, i'm on like 10% load most of the time and it comes on and off every now and again.
 

karmakoma

macrumors newbie
Jun 1, 2006
7
0
Yes my MacBook DID moo...

So I bought a white 2GHz MacBook and it was great - except it whined, mooed and got pretty hot. I used QuietMBP to keep the whine quiet which increased the temperature to the dreaded 68-69°C so that it started mooing!

So, I took it back and upgraded it for a MacBook Pro which didn't moo, but got REAL hot and whined a whole lot worse than the MacBook. I then took that back to the reseller and got my money back - after a fairly lengthy 'discussion' about 'subjective' issues.

I'm now debating whether to try another MacBook - if it didn't whine or moo then it would be pretty damn perfect! I'm now back on my G3 ibook and already miss the screen, the keyboard, two fingered scrolling, the speed...

BTW - I have a mooing fridge too - what it is it with todays white goods? ;)
 

bobbyMACbear

macrumors newbie
Jan 9, 2006
15
0
63 Celsius

My Macbook moos when it reaches a temp of about 63 Celsius according to the "CoreDuoTemp" program. Is there anyone out there who has this program, and can go to these temperatures without a moo? The temp usually get this high when I'm multi-tasking with Word, Excel, and other various media programs open. Otherwise, I would assume this is normal, just something the fan does when it gets too hot...? Anyways, I'm happy nonetheless, very nice laptop.
 

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,916
4,846
Japan
Mine moos, too.

If this isn't fixed by a firmware or software update within a week or so, it's going back to the store.
 

AcousticDoc

macrumors regular
Jul 18, 2005
193
0
According to this poll more than 50% of all the macbooks owned on this forum moo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

da sola setter

macrumors newbie
Jun 1, 2006
19
0
MA
mooing

i have had mine for over a week and it has had the moo at 64C since i got it. i also noticed it constantly has a very low moo/whine at 65C. personally i don't mind it...

worth bringing it back?

PS the people that don't have moo's what are your temps???
 

chairguru22

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2006
668
159
PA
no problems while running... however shutting down and starting up from sleep have caused me some problems with some of my settings. i basically do a restart and things become normal again. thing is, in the time it takes me to do two starts my PC does one... go figure
 

NVRsayNVR

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2005
53
0
No cow's living here. My machine exibits ZERO negative traits that I have been reading about. Musta got lucky! :D

Don't know the temp but it has gotten plenty hot while playing movie trailers. I have yet to even hear the fan come on.
Wonder if I even have one! :D :D :D
 

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,916
4,846
Japan
NVRsayNVR said:
No cow's living here. My machine exibits ZERO negative traits that I have been reading about. Musta got lucky! :D

Don't know the temp but it has gotten plenty hot while playing movie trailers. I have yet to even hear the fan come on.
Wonder if I even have one! :D :D :D

The same guy who put way too much thermal paste on your processors probably also forgot to put in the fans! :D
 

bobbyMACbear

macrumors newbie
Jan 9, 2006
15
0
Challenge!

I'm guessing the moo is completely normal when you reach high enough temperatures. Anyone disagree? Curious to know if somebody can go to mid to high 60 Celsius temps without the moo...
 

chrispl

macrumors newbie
May 31, 2006
25
0
Moo definitely NOT normal...

so as i said before, i have been considering returning my macbook because of the moo. ive been afraid to actually go in because i dont want to have the genius tell me its perfectly normal and that i cant do anything about it.

anyways, look at this link http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=505976&tstart=0
people have actually called in and apple care says that it is defenitely a defect! i called in, but they just told me to take it to the store to have the genius there verify if it was indeed a problem or not.

i guess ill be going into the store soon! i still have about a week to return/exchange.

chris
 

xcalibur

macrumors member
Apr 29, 2003
88
0
Kuala Lumpur
My 2.0 white Macbook works flawlessly. No mooing, my temperatures seem to be a bit better than reported as well. I maxed out at 70C when doing CPU intensive things. I guess I have been very fortunate :) To be honest, I have bought 5 laptops and 3 desktops from Apple in the last 3 years and the only one with a problem was the dreaded white spots on the the 15" Powerbook. I really feel that it's unfair that Apple claims that the mooing is normal though. They should really get to the bottom of this.
 

karmakoma

macrumors newbie
Jun 1, 2006
7
0
Interesting

These temperatures/CPU utilisations are interesting. Mine mooed at 68/69°C - all I had running was Camino or Safari, Quiet MBP and Quicksilver. Utilisation never went past say 20 - 25%. My guess is the MacBook I had was a hot one, I did the 'yes dev/null' trick and it maxed out around 88°C!

The moo definitely isn't normal. I fail to see how fans barely even spinning up to speed are going to help cooling much, they need to stay on longer at a slower rate ie step up as the temperature steps up.
 

7on

macrumors 601
Nov 9, 2003
4,939
0
Dress Rosa
no moo here. but I do feel a slight vibration almost like an electrical shock when I touch the case. but plastic doesn't conduct electricity... yet
 

tetmin

macrumors newbie
May 22, 2006
4
0
Mine runs pretty cool and quiet apart from the moo. It happens all the time, even when the Macbook is idling. Every few seconds, moo, moo, moo, moo. Temps are around 67-70C while this is happening.
 

chrispl

macrumors newbie
May 31, 2006
25
0
"all macbooks moo" says the genius...

so i called apple care a 2nd time after i was told to go into the store the first time about the moo/whine, and they still said i have to go into the store to prove anything was wrong. i only called again after reading some encouraging posts about how apple care said there was a defective batch that mooed and how the macbooks werent supposed to do that.

anyways, brought it into a store and the genius told me they all moo and that its definitely not defective. he said that the macbook was designed to turn on the fan that way, but if it turns out to be more of a hinderance, then theyll fix it. he also said said "im sure apple is working on a fix for it". so if your macbook just moos, then i dont think you can return it or anything. but my powerbrick and magsafe connection also hissed/whined. he took it into the back to hear it more clearly, came back and said "i hear a liiiittle bit of sound...." but still offered me a 10% restocking fee FREE return.

i wonder if hes just saying the moo is on all of the macbooks just to keep people quiet. i mean... would a teeny tiny sound that he supposedly heard (its actually really loud and annoying) really warrant a waiver of the 10% restocking fee?

chris

PS. and for those who havent heard the moo before here is my garage band recording.. http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~chrispl/Moo.m4a
 
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