Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What's the big deal with September? What's happening? Or is this Mojave?
Whats happening in September. Ok so apple didn't plan on releasing the intel 8th gens, it was a last minute move. The Operating systems were designed for the 2017 or earlier. Changing everything through the t2 chip including Siri was not implemented into HS or Mojave. That is why there was no leaks or test scores act as apple didn't bring it that far. So what the OS does is routes everything thru legacy Ktexts aka generics. You can see the issues yourself. Go to network utility then wifi, you will notice 54mb/sec no higher no matter what you do. Siri is the old non-t2 Siri. the display can't use the p3 color profile. The sound distorts when multi channel streams process, The processors throttle including the 2.6 is doing it also, Check the system report you will notice the DGPU and IGPU run only 24bit color not the advertised 32bit. The 2015-16-17 all run 32bit color. 2018 24bit. The display thinks it supports 4K as there is no hardware coding to advise it of its allowed resolutions. Several memory leaks. bluetooth transfers only at 4.2 speeds not 5. and SSD's under perform not the advertised 3.2gb/sec. Also bootcamp has not been made for the 2018 MacBooks. Its using the 2017 version and several hardware drivers are missing. If you restart from Bootcamp to MacOS the mouse and keyboard will stop working until you perform a hard reset. Apple is aware as several cases were escalated to Apple executive relations and their engineers. They replied as of right now we are working on revising Mojave to be compatible with the 2018 laptops. For high Sierra we are trying to release updates to hold it over till the official release of Mojave. Apple knows whats going on.
[doublepost=1533126445][/doublepost]
It might be software, but there is also a chance that it is a hardware problem.

CoreAudio uses a ring-buffer model to talk to the hardware, with periodic hardware interrupts used to maintain timing synchronisation between the software and the hardware. If interrupts are missed or not delivered, the ring buffer skips - which is exactly what you hear when the audio starts to break up.

I think that this is most likely a power management problem with the IO subsystem. Apple puts as much hardware in to a low power state as possible, and it sometimes takes too long to wake up in response to hardware events. However this iw just speculation (and an observation that anything which seems to stop the lowest power IO states being entered appears to prevent the problem).
You couldn't be more wrong, You should read my threats, its due to the T2 using generic ktexts. causing over volt of the bass Channel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bwintx and Stux
You couldn't be more wrong, You should read my threats, its due to the T2 using generic ktexts. causing over volt of the bass Channel.

Well maybe you have a completely different problem to what I have. I can clearly hear sections of the audio repeating or skipping before eventually the buffer positions are far enough out that the audio breaks up resulting in violently loud pseudo-static. Sleeping the computer resets the driver and it will run cleanly again for a while before the problem occurs again.

I develop audio drivers (TB & USB) as well as plugins for a living, so I am very familiar with the symptoms.
 
Ok so apple didn't plan on releasing the intel 8th gens, it was a last minute move. The Operating systems were designed for the 2017 or earlier. Changing everything through the t2 chip including Siri was not implemented into HS or Mojave. That is why there was no leaks or test scores...

I think you nailed it. I didn't mention the WiFi speed, but that too seems off. I don't believe there is any point in me returning the laptop. I don't think the hardware is defective. They just need to figure out the software. Quickly, one would hope.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stux and Tapiture
Ok so apple didn't plan on releasing the intel 8th gens, it was a last minute move. The Operating systems were designed for the 2017 or earlier. Changing everything through the t2 chip including Siri was not implemented into HS or Mojave. That is why there was no leaks or test scores act as apple didn't bring it that far. So what the OS does is routes everything thru legacy Ktexts aka generics. You can see the issues yourself. Go to network utility then wifi, you will notice 54mb/sec no higher no matter what you do. Siri is the old non-t2 Siri. the display can't use the p3 color profile. The sound distorts when multi channel streams process, The processors throttle including the 2.6 is doing it also, Check the system report you will notice the DGPU and IGPU run only 24bit color not the advertised 32bit. The 2015-16-17 all run 32bit color. 2018 24bit. The display thinks it supports 4K as there is no hardware coding to advise it of its allowed resolutions. Several memory leaks. bluetooth transfers only at 4.2 speeds not 5. and SSD's under perform not the advertised 3.2gb/sec. Also bootcamp has not been made for the 2018 MacBooks. Its using the 2017 version and several hardware drivers are missing. If you restart from Bootcamp to MacOS the mouse and keyboard will stop working until you perform a hard reset. Apple is aware as several cases were escalated to Apple executive relations and their engineers. They replied as of right now we are working on revising Mojave to be compatible with the 2018 laptops. For high Sierra we are trying to release updates to hold it over till the official release of Mojave. Apple knows whats going on.
Had no idea about any of this, thanks for enlightening me. Will this all be fixed in Mojave?
 
I think you nailed it. I didn't mention the WiFi speed, but that too seems off. I don't believe there is any point in me returning the laptop. I don't think the hardware is defective. They just need to figure out the software. Quickly, one would hope.

Hi, on my side I experienced exactly the same problem while downloading a huge file. When I stop the download the buzz stops right away. It looks like a software problem between the Wifi chip and the sound card. I had this problem with my homemade PC !! (it's been solved with updates)
Told apple today my experience and hoping for a update very soon...
It could be something else though, but as I'm not downloading the music goes with no problem since 2 hours now.
 
Had no idea about any of this, thanks for enlightening me. Will this all be fixed in Mojave?
Mojave probably not. Beta 6 is not expected to have any new ktexts.
[doublepost=1533137499][/doublepost]
Hi, on my side I experienced exactly the same problem while downloading a huge file. When I stop the download the buzz stops right away. It looks like a software problem between the Wifi chip and the sound card. I had this problem with my homemade PC !! (it's been solved with updates)
Told apple today my experience and hoping for a update very soon...
It could be something else though, but as I'm not downloading the music goes with no problem since 2 hours now.
On the internet is on the internet it can't tell the difference between a download of a file and watching youtube. What you are experiencing is the T2 chip having load interface and the issue when 2 audio mixes try to run at same time. On all other Macs and pc's you can run 100 mix if you want. on the new MacBook when you use 2 or more it will fail after a few minutes.
 
Same problem here. The skipping/repeating is definitely there, and it even continues after pausing playback. I've had similar experiences when Ableton makes the CPU spike, but this happens regardless of what I'm doing. It's even happened after letting the computer sit idle for an hour.

I've been in touch with support, but according to them I'm the first user to report this problem here in Norway, so they've sent my syslog to their technicians for further investigation. I'll let you guys know if they get back to me with anything interesting.

If this is indeed a hardware related issue, what does that even entail? A full recall of the entire '18 line? The problem doesn't seem to pick up the same traction as the termal throttling issue; would Apple even do that unless this becomes another "...gate" controversy of the same magnitude?
 
Well maybe you have a completely different problem to what I have. I can clearly hear sections of the audio repeating or skipping before eventually the buffer positions are far enough out that the audio breaks up resulting in violently loud pseudo-static. Sleeping the computer resets the driver and it will run cleanly again for a while before the problem occurs again.

I develop audio drivers (TB & USB) as well as plugins for a living, so I am very familiar with the symptoms.
other than the fact that that what you said has nothing to do with anything apple. Sleeping the computer just terminates and restarts the SERVICE not driver. Ktexts not DRV

My brother is a Apple Gold case engineer. Apple doesn't use DRIVERS they use ktexts. KERNAL EXTENSIONS. while a driver is a KERNAL MODE. IF you write "drivers" you would know the differences and not use improper terminology.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I hope they get a software fix out ASAP. I highly suspect this audio issue is damaging speakers and they're in for another round of hell if that happens AGAIN.
 
This is probably a problem with the T2 co-processor as some news were quoting these had some other problems and they also control the sound. I have the same problem on my iMac Pro... sound cracking, doesn't matter if I'm using external or internal speakers, it happens on both so it has to be a chip issue. Changing from one output to another momentarily resets the problem though, but doesn't prevent it from appearing again later.

EDIT: Just to clarify there are two scenarios: 1) Sometimes it is just momentary "one-off" crack or pop and then sound goes back to normal. 2) The sounds cracks and keeps cracking until the output is changed
 
I suspect not, mine has been fine and I have tested and used the audio a lot.
Do you happen to run any games? Mine primarily does it when running a game for 30+ minutes, then is consistently every 10 seconds following that.
 
Do you happen to run any games? Mine primarily does it when running a game for 30+ minutes, then is consistently every 10 seconds following that.
If that is the case then it must be related to the cpu and gpu stressed for a long period of time. You can also run prime95 stress test for some period and then try to play music to see if this is the case.
 
If anyone would like to try a *possible* workaround for the audio drop-outs, I have uploaded a driver to GitHub:

https://github.com/tSoniq/AudioFix

Unfortunately it is very difficult to test, since the audio dropouts are somewhat random. What the driver does is to reduce the power management applied to the IO system to improve responsiveness. Because of this, it may impact battery life.

If you want to try the driver without permanently installing it the install script can be run via "./audiofix.sh try". Rebooting will then restore things to normal. I do not recommend installing it permanently as Apple will presumably fix the problems in due course. In any event, the driver disables itself on an OS other than High Sierra on the assumption that everything will be fine in Mojave (so if you are running the Beta it will not do anything useful).

If anyone has any feedback - positive or negative - it would be helpful...
 
  • Like
Reactions: vom and dalb
If the sound crackling is not permanent, it can be possibly fixed through a software update. Which is the only hope for these macbook pros
 
Using the "Audio MIDI Setup" I changed the output format to 48.000Hz and that has kept the issue away since yesterday. Immediately when I changed the value the crackling stopped.

Could be a coincidence or just a temporary fix, but so far the issue hasn't come back.

Fingers crossed... (I bought the computer 2 days ago and REALLY don't want to take it back to Apple)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stux
If anyone would like to try a *possible* workaround for the audio drop-outs, I have uploaded a driver to GitHub:

https://github.com/tSoniq/AudioFix

Unfortunately it is very difficult to test, since the audio dropouts are somewhat random. What the driver does is to reduce the power management applied to the IO system to improve responsiveness. Because of this, it may impact battery life.

If you want to try the driver without permanently installing it the install script can be run via "./audiofix.sh try". Rebooting will then restore things to normal. I do not recommend installing it permanently as Apple will presumably fix the problems in due course. In any event, the driver disables itself on an OS other than High Sierra on the assumption that everything will be fine in Mojave (so if you are running the Beta it will not do anything useful).

If anyone has any feedback - positive or negative - it would be helpful...

This does seem to have fixed the problems with my laptop, which ran overnight successfully. Logic X also runs cleanly using the internal speakers.

If this is the only problem then it is good news, because Apple just needs to add four lines of code to its driver. Unlike AudioFix this would apply the power management settings only while audio is streaming.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.