intermittent Macbook whine... WTF?

[mopppish]

Hi.
Just got the Macbook in my sig. According to the serial number, it's a week 39 build. Fantastic machine.
Unfortunately, I noticed the ol' processor whine (which I thought was weird since it's not an MBP) the other night. It seemed to only be an issue when it was plugged into the power adapter. I decided that it wasn't enough to bother me, but tonight it was extra loud and kind of driving me nuts.
Well, I put it to sleep, crawled into bed, remembered something else I wanted to look up online, woke the Macbook back up, and the whine is completely gone. I didn't change anything else. No other apps are running. Is this always going to be an intermittent issue? Why would it sometimes be there and sometimes not when the conditions are the same?

 

[benthewraith]

Hi.
Just got the Macbook in my sig. According to the serial number, it's a week 39 build. Fantastic machine.
Unfortunately, I noticed the ol' processor whine (which I thought was weird since it's not an MBP) the other night. It seemed to only be an issue when it was plugged into the power adapter. I decided that it wasn't enough to bother me, but tonight it was extra loud and kind of driving me nuts.
Well, I put it to sleep, crawled into bed, remembered something else I wanted to look up online, woke the Macbook back up, and the whine is completely gone. I didn't change anything else. No other apps are running. Is this always going to be an intermittent issue? Why would it sometimes be there and sometimes not when the conditions are the same?

I've noticed the whine intermittent on CPU as well. Interestingly enough, the whine goes away entirely when it dims the monitor...no joke. Only when I start to use the computer does it decide to whine.

 

[Steve Jobless]

I've noticed the whine intermittent on CPU as well. Interestingly enough, the whine goes away entirely when it dims the monitor...no joke. Only when I start to use the computer does it decide to whine.

im pretty sure thats a screen inverter issue you have. Give applecare a ring if you want to get rid of it.

 

[Cybergypsy]

Mine had it after the Intel update.....then after the last one gone!

 

[mopppish]

The sound doesn't change when I adjust the screen's brightness. It does't respond to speaker volume, but it does vary under processor load i.e. goes away when I open Photo Booth. But sometimes it's not there at all with nothing open (except perhaps Safari), sometimes it's there a little with nothing open, and last night it was there A LOT. Then suddenly it wasn't...
When it's there a little, I can totally handle it. I do on-location acoustic audio recording though, so when it's there A LOT (which happened for only the first time last night) it's unacceptable.
I'd certainly rather not send it in for service, especially since it may come back with exactly the same problem, but I suppose if it's that loud more often then I'll have to try.