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M1 iMac buzzing whining noise with low display brightness
- Thread starter cookiemonster89
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Both of mine also have blotchy screens like they're smudged on the inside - I find it hard to believe Apple wouldn't have found these issues before production though.
Mine is perfect screen wise. My webcam is slightly out of focus on the right side but I think I'll keep it this way, too high risk of getting one with other defects like on your screen
Is the buzzing still an issue on recently bought iMac’s?
I’m in market and don’t want any defects ideally.
Has anyone tried this is the Apple community forum, does this fix it?
“After a little troubleshooting, I managed to see it was the power cable causing the noise. The noise disappears when the screen is tilted down to its lowest angle, lifting it even slightly brings the noise back”
I’m in market and don’t want any defects ideally.
Has anyone tried this is the Apple community forum, does this fix it?
“After a little troubleshooting, I managed to see it was the power cable causing the noise. The noise disappears when the screen is tilted down to its lowest angle, lifting it even slightly brings the noise back”
How come other computers, other iMacs etc don’t have this? Can’t be “just the way it is”.
I don’t have one so not sure how distracting it is but another on forum says sending it back.
Not sure on how bright needs to be (people say >75%) and if this is too bright for some though.
So everyone who has it, are you just going to live with it, or send it back, or replace?
I’m sure Apple can do something, shielding etc, may need a hardware update, but I imagine if more and more people report it, it gets further up the chain and took notice of, and then something is done. Sometimes it’s good to report to media as well so gets coverage.
Mine buzzes/whistles no matter the angle, and this is on my replacement Mac so it's clearly a widespread issue. The noise isn't too distracting when I'm working, although I do hear it when I'm not making any noise and it is considerably louder when doing a task such as exporting a project in Logic or adding a filter in Photoshop. For a product that's touted as being incredibly silent it sure is disappointing.
I think because it makes this louder noise as soon as you do something CPU intensive, it must be something to do with the internal wiring. I'm no computer expert though, just my guess.
This is what the noise sounds like when doing an 'intensive' task - although this was just visiting a certain webpage which makes it chirp loudly for some reason. Forgive the background noise (I tried to remove some of it). I had the mic right up to the lower chin of the Mac so bare in mind it's considerably louder in my recording than when you're sat at a normal distance, albeit still very noticeable ?
You can use something simple like Mac Fan Control 1.5.10 (free) to test fan nose. Normally you shouldn't hear the two fans most of the time unless as you say your doing something. Now because this software can spin up each fans separately to any RPM you can diagnosis you problem for a apple party to rectify. see https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
My model received June from a store has been quiet, but these are small fans that normally don't spin up RPM wise that much even playing a game that plays at 80 to 85C on the performance core. You might have a dusty environment and somehow you got dust in one of your fans that needs to be cleaned out. Given your attachment just posted.
It's not the fans. It's coil whine. It goes away when doing intensive tasks. I only hear it at night in an almost dead quiet room. It bothers me a little but I need the computer for work and they're all like this, what should I do? If Apple will ever recognise the problem I'll ask for a new one. There's already a longish thread on the apple discussions forums and Apple Store says it's within tolerance. There's not much we can do a part not buying the 24" iMac at all.
It gets worse for me when doing intensive tasks, would you mind sharing a link to that thread from the apple discussions?
Curious, is this sound on the iMac shipped in November 2021, too?
Wondering if this is merely expected, or...
Wondering if this is merely expected, or...
My replacement is from September and has the issue, don't know about more recent ones
Have you contacted Apple about this and gave them this info/attachment? The more they know and given evidence the better.
Everyone who has the problem should contact Apple as then it more notice.
Rather than live with it, better to at least register the fact, even so it’s recorded for future if becomes worse and out of warranty.
I’m having serious thoughts on where to order now, reading on here and Apple forums as they seems to think it’s normal. Maybe is on this iMac, but I didn’t have it on my old iMac and I’m sure a lot of Mac’s, computers don’t have it, so for me this is a problem with this iMac.
Don't buy it until the next hardware refresh. Maybe the one with M2. There's nothing else you can do really. I might contact Apple but they know they all behave like this. It's just than almost no user notices
I have no issue, wrong party that you quoted. I just check at the Apple store and buy it as standard stock. They also sell a 8/8/16/1TB model as standard stock. All the ones back in June when I bought mine were totally quiet.
I have no issue, wrong party that you quoted. I just check at the Apple store and buy it as standard stock. They also sell a 8/8/16/1TB model as standard stock. All the ones back in June when I bought mine were totally quiet.
At 100% brightness they’re all quiet. Try putting yours at 40% brightness, in a dead quiet room, and go with the ear near the usb-c ports in the back if you have troubles noticing it
I've had two iMacs with this issue The first was worse and was replaced. With the second, I rarely notice the whine (only when it's very quiet). It is directly related to screen brightness. It is not related to CPU usage. I generally have the brightness a little above 50%. If I were working in a dark room at night, it would likely bother me more. As it is, I love the Mac, and the occasional slight whine is just a drop in the ocean of annoying noises from time to time. (Incidentally, I don't think I've ever noticed the fan noise.)
Now I know about it I probably will look (hear) for it though. Nature if the beast.
If it’s that bad though I wouldn’t be happy. The price paying in my opinion it shouldn’t have it, not all computers have it, or at least it less or hidden or fixed another way otherwise everyone would be noticing it and complaining across Mac and PC.
Ideally I would like to wait for the M2 but not sure when it will come, would be better as hopefully sorted out any hardware problems with unit and CPU.
I honestly can't hear it during the day from 1m of distance. Only at night I can hear it faintly. It should not have it but it's not a deal breaker to me
It is also related to CPU usage. The screen is the biggest power drainer, but try going to a very heavy website, full of 3d graphics and scripts, and the whine will go away. Or when you apply filters in real time like in Lightroom. So yeah brightness is the easiest correlation you can find, but the wine in general is correlated with total power usage of the computer
So it’s an issue on both brightness being low,
This is getting worse than I realised, and someone has sent there’s back totally as couldn’t get along with it, so must have been an issue that they couldn’t live with.
I have to say, I haven’t noticed this on mine, but then I don’t fiddle about much with the brightness. I have used the machine under a variety of loads though and haven’t heard anything.