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Mac Studio making high-pitched whine—anyone else's do that?

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TimmyDee

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2007
77
11
Got my Mac Studio yesterday (Max 32 core, 32GB/2TB), and it's been making a high-pitched whine. I tried placing something soft underneath the base to see if it was resonating with my desk, but that didn't fix it. The noise doesn't seem to change with load, either, which has me guessing that maybe it's coil whine.

I'm going to try plugging it into another outlet later today to see if that fixes anything, but I'm not hopeful. Anyone else experiencing this?
 
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karl76uk

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2021
9
2
I have the same configuration as you and mine is doing the same it’s only very quiet so I’m trying to live it as I don’t know what else to do as it sounds like even if you have it replaced the likelihood is the replacement would have the same sound.

I’m more just putting it down to fan noise.
 
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mikeboss

mikeboss

macrumors 68000
Aug 13, 2009
1,544
860
switzerland
I guess all Mac Studios make this high pitched sound. AFAICT it's emited from the fan motors. lowering the fan speed does not make this noise disappear, it just changes the pitch. this is why I'm returning my Mac Studio. since I also got the Studio Display and I didn't want to go back to the intel based 5K iMac, I bought an M1 Mac mini instead. total silence again...
 
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TimmyDee

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2007
77
11
Some of my colleagues have Mac Studios, too, but they say they don't hear the sound, either. They all have Maxes, too, which makes me think this isn't inherent to the Studio but some problem either with the fans or the PSU.

If I could lower the pitch, that would be great. The fans aren't very loud, but the whine is more noticeable than the low whirr of the fans.

edit: words
 
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K

karl76uk

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2021
9
2
I’m 45 and can hear it from across the room ! £2799 for a box with a noise. Why does apple let these thing slide????
 
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jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
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BSPBSP

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2018
18
9
I have the M1Max 24Core 1Tb model and I noticed the whining too after half a day.

Mine also seems like it is changing ever so slightly every few seconds...
 
tevion5

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
TimmyDee said:
Got my Mac Studio yesterday (Max 32 core, 32GB/2TB), and it's been making a high-pitched whine. I tried placing something soft underneath the base to see if it was resonating with my desk, but that didn't fix it. The noise doesn't seem to change with load, either, which has me guessing that maybe it's coil whine.

I'm going to try plugging it into another outlet later today to see if that fixes anything, but I'm not hopeful. Anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Got mine today, exact same config, exact same issue.

What "fixes" it for me is manually bringing the fans down from the standard 1300 RPM to around 1200 RPM.
Makes virtually no difference to temps even under artificial max load but gets rid of the whining.
Minimum of 1100 RPM also works, virtually silent in every way.

Oddly if you run it at some fan speeds higher than 1300 RPM you get a louder usual fan whir but the whining also goes away. Some faster speeds just make the whining more intense too. So seems to me like a bit of nasty resonance on the fans / fan motor that causes whining at certain frequency intervals. Doesn't seem like coil whine or something, it's 100% determined by fan speeds.

Bit annoyed now because while I can basically solve it by doing manual fan control, it's ridiculous that I should have to do hacks like this on day 1! Think I'll take it up with Apple support but annoyed I might have to do a, likely very lengthy, return.
 
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T

TimmyDee

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2007
77
11
tevion5 said:
Got mine today, exact same config, exact same issue.

What "fixes" it for me is manually bringing the fans down from the standard 1300 RPM to around 1200 RPM.
Makes virtually no difference to temps even under artificial max load but gets rid of the whining.
Minimum of 1100 RPM also works, virtually silent in every way.

Oddly if you run it at some fan speeds higher than 1300 RPM you get a louder usual fan whir but the whining also goes away. Some faster speeds just make the whining more intense too. So seems to me like a bit of nasty resonance on the fans / fan motor that causes whining at certain frequency intervals. Doesn't seem like coil whine or something, it's 100% determined by fan speeds.

Bit annoyed now because while I can basically solve it by doing manual fan control, it's ridiculous that I should have to do hacks like this on day 1! Think I'll take it up with Apple support but annoyed I might have to do a, likely very lengthy, return.
Click to expand...
You're right. I finally had some time just now to play with the fan speeds, and the whine changes distinctly with fan speed. At the lowest (1100 rpm), it's still noticeable. Higher RPMs do seem to help somewhat, but I still don't have the perfect setting nails down.

This reminds me of the Power Mac G4 MDD fan problem. Apple ended up replacing a bunch of PSUs (including mine) because owners made a bunch of noise (no pun intended).
 
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tevion5

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
TimmyDee said:
You're right. I finally had some time just now to play with the fan speeds, and the whine changes distinctly with fan speed. At the lowest (1100 rpm), it's still noticeable. Higher RPMs do seem to help somewhat, but I still don't have the perfect setting nails down.

This reminds me of the Power Mac G4 MDD fan problem. Apple ended up replacing a bunch of PSUs (including mine) because owners made a bunch of noise (no pun intended).
Click to expand...
Ha weirdly I had to replace the stock fan in my PM G4 with a aftermarket one too.
 
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Juraj22

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2020
179
208
It is most likely PSU. Mine on M1 Max macbook pro is also producing weird sounds. Now that macbook is totally silent, because fans are off most of the time, this is source of the noise. But for me this is not the reason to bother with replacement yet.
 
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jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
Juraj22 said:
It is most likely PSU. Mine on M1 Max macbook pro is also producing weird sounds. Now that macbook is totally silent, because fans are off most of the time, this is source of the noise. But for me this is not the reason to bother with replacement yet.
Click to expand...
I hope all mini form factors will move to an external power brick like the iMac. This will free up some space to get components better EM shielded, lower internal temps, put the ethernet connect on the floor where the cable is, and if there is any PSU noise it will be on the floor with the desk separating it from our ears.
 
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fstoprm

fstoprm

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2021
98
298
Zero noise here, and I'm extremely sensitive to hi-pitch/frequency sounds. I tend to work overnight when it's dead silent and it's such a pleasure to work in silence.
 
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MaskedCarrot

macrumors 6502
Mar 25, 2009
464
270
Northern VA
I returned my Max Studio the other day.

Mine had the high pitched noise also. Within 10 minutes of using it, I started getting a headache and a little nauseous. Strange though, I don't have hearing issues, but something about that pitch affected me. I also had to deal with display issue drama with the Max Studio also.

I am thinking of getting an M1 iMac now.
 
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fstoprm

fstoprm

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2021
98
298
MaskedCarrot said:
I returned my Max Studio the other day.

Mine had the high pitched noise also. Within 10 minutes of using it, I started getting a headache and a little nauseous. Strange though, I don't have hearing issues, but something about that pitch affected me. I also had to deal with display issue drama with the Max Studio also.

I am thinking of getting an M1 iMac now.
Click to expand...
The Studio 32/24 is not suffering from that issue. I will say the 16/512 Mini rocks as as well. That is what I've been using since the day it was released right up until the 18th when I picked up the Studio. My wife has it now and is in love! It will easily handle Davinci work w/o stress and pretty anything else you can throw at it.
 
T

TimmyDee

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2007
77
11
MaskedCarrot said:
I returned my Max Studio the other day.

Mine had the high pitched noise also. Within 10 minutes of using it, I started getting a headache and a little nauseous. Strange though, I don't have hearing issues, but something about that pitch affected me. I also had to deal with display issue drama with the Max Studio also.

I am thinking of getting an M1 iMac now.
Click to expand...
I turned mine off last night after using it all day and was stunned by the silence. Mine, unfortunately, is very noticeable, too. I've got an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow morning. On the phone, AppleCare said they didn't have any notice from engineering about the problem yet.
 
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