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MacBook Pro 2018 - Speakers Crackling

vom said:
Yep I did - and it was loaded. I ran it with try - and I got the warning about code signing. Went into Settings and allowed it, and verified it was loaded. When it crackled again, I stopped my music and manually unloaded the kext.

Is there anything else I can try ? Do you think there would be any benefit in installing it and rebooting ?

Thanks.
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When you get crackling try sleeping the computer. This causes the Apple driver to effectively power down the T2 audio interface. If the AudioFix driver is loaded it may keep things working thereafter.

It may be that there is more than one cause of the problems. With the driver loaded it seems to be reliable on my system, whereas without I get audio failures after about an hour of streaming / game play / DVD playback. As others have noted, the sample rate in Audio Midi Setup may also affect behaviour. I have been running at 44.1khz and 48khz - i have not tried 96khz.
 
UnexpectedHuman said:
When you get crackling try sleeping the computer. This causes the Apple driver to effectively power down the T2 audio interface. If the AudioFix driver is loaded it may keep things working thereafter.

It may be that there is more than one cause of the problems. With the driver loaded it seems to be reliable on my system, whereas without I get audio failures after about an hour of streaming / game play / DVD playback. As others have noted, the sample rate in Audio Midi Setup may also affect behaviour. I have been running at 44.1khz and 48khz - i have not tried 96khz.
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Thanks for the additional info. I'm trying to understand the logical flows at work here. Since I initially loaded your kext with <try>, I'm wondering if a reset was necessary that didn't happen. I just installed your kext, and rebooted. So T2 should have been reset (I would think at least). I'm listening to a 2 hour vaporwave mix on YT now :) I'll let you know if installing / rebooting made a difference.
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vom said:
Thanks for the additional info. I'm trying to understand the logical flows at work here. Since I initially loaded your kext with <try>, I'm wondering if a reset was necessary that didn't happen. I just installed your kext, and rebooted. So T2 should have been reset (I would think at least). I'm listening to a 2 hour vaporwave mix on YT now :) I'll let you know if installing / rebooting made a difference.
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No dice :( This time I got what some of the other posters reported - audio skipping/looping. I quickly paused and stopped the youtube video (and got some crackling when I stopped it). I think I will remove the kext for now and try the MIDI sample rate settings.

PS: Can anyone explain what changing this MIDI / audio setting really does ? If I'm at 44.1 default and change this to 48 - does this mean that I'm changing for "higher quality" audio ? If so - does this devote more resources to audio to workaround the T2 issues (i.e. power saving) ?
 
vom said:
PS: Can anyone explain what changing this MIDI / audio setting really does ? If I'm at 44.1 default and change this to 48 - does this mean that I'm changing for "higher quality" audio ? If so - does this devote more resources to audio to workaround the T2 issues (i.e. power saving) ?
Click to expand...

As you raise the sample rate, the DMA rate also increases, although even at 96KHz the load is still very very low. Some sample rates could be problematic if they provoke a different pattern of DMA or sometimes because the software timing calculations are not quite right.

With the driver uninstalled my laptop is currently much more stable than it was a few days ago - I have only had one failure. It may be that the problem is provoked by some pattern of activity such as heavy flash access (such as the initial spotlight indexing, running games etc), which is it comes and goes seemingly randomly.
 
i bought a 2018 15'' 2.6 i7...didnt experience any issues until around day 4 when watching a youtube video...40mins in and i got the crackling...it was the first long podcast i had played and after that the crackling would start at around 40 mins into any video/album/stream...

I returned the computer and got a brand new one yesterday...put it through what caused issue on previous machine...and not problems yet...
also...installed logic pro x on first machine with problem...havent installed on new machine yet...have no idea whether it may have anything to do with it

just thought more people should share their experience of this problem to either get apples attention or a fix/solution of sorts...
i work with audio so really couldn't have it...
technicians here had not seen the issue before and still haven't informed me on what it may have been...
 
tjway2hot said:
bootcamp is missing 1 driver only for power ACPI and oddly no one is reporting the issue with the 2018 13in most likely because it uses the older intel chipset ect.
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you say YES based off of what? The 2018 13inch has NO reported speaker crackling as it uses the OLD bootcamp, and still uses the OLDER intel chipset that the 2016-2017 used as they converted to QUAD not sex (6) core. and uses the old ddr3 LP. So the answer is NO as the new quad core has ONLY a upgraded graphics chipset and processor. IF anyone had the problem then its a RARE hardware defect.
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It's happening on my 13-inch 2018 machine, too. It does happen on them and sounds just like every video I've seen on here, so how can the 15-inch be a software issue but mine be a hardware issue when it sounds exactly the same?
 
Is the crackling only happening on builtin speakers?
Or on connected audio devices as well? Either via BT or audio jack.
 
Are you guys sure this is 100% replicable on all machines? I've had my machine for a week now with zero crackling. And I'm the type of the guy who would go through 10 refunds to get a perfect machine.
 
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Agenesis said:
Are you guys sure this is 100% replicable on all machines? I've had my machine for a week now with zero crackling. And I'm the type of the guy who would go through 10 refunds to get a perfect machine.
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which configuration?
 
Agenesis said:
Are you guys sure this is 100% replicable on all machines? I've had my machine for a week now with zero crackling. And I'm the type of the guy who would go through 10 refunds to get a perfect machine.
Click to expand...

For me it always happens within 30 minutes of using the machine at high stress, e.g., gaming while listening to music on iTunes with Slack, Safari and a few other apps open at once. Can replicate this at ease actually.
 
MBHockey said:
So this only seems to affect the 15" models?
Click to expand...

No - I have a 2018 13" and I have been getting "crackling" with the same behavior as other posters here (i.e. 30-60 min into a long youtube video / other stream, heavier load with audio running etc.)
 
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AdamA9 said:
For me it always happens within 30 minutes of using the machine at high stress, e.g., gaming while listening to music on iTunes with Slack, Safari and a few other apps open at once. Can replicate this at ease actually.
Click to expand...
so the easiest way to replicate is to play a game while listen for example itunes radio?
 
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ok, then based on all of the info...i really think its a software issue...and until the fix, should not use the speakers to a very loud settings to not affect the internals too...i remember the bootcamp audio driver that on some people broke 2016 MBP speakers until Apple came with a fix
 
This is becoming a horror story for me to replace the Macbook Pro 13inch 2018 / customized with 16Gb RAM that starting with the same sound crackling issue while gaming on Mac OS or listening to Apple Music. Currently in Canada and waiting for Apple to send the same configuration to a local Apple Store.

Here is a video of my crackling audio issue, very similar to the ones I saw previously on this thread.


I could live with that until a software fix but then I experienced other crashes that I suspect are related to a more serious hardware issue :
  1. Screen remained black at startup and would light up only when asking something to Siri, for a few seconds during Siri answers, then the screen would become black again. Issue occurred 2 times at startup, temp. fixed after PRAM and SMC reset.

  2. The mac completely froze when watching a music video from iTunes, even the touchpad haptics would not work. After a hard reboot, now all videos from Apple Music videos play with audio only with no video at all, only a black window. Reinstalling iTunes from Apple package did not fix the issue.

  3. Still on iTunes, when watching a trailer of a Movie, or a purchased movie, the video either does not show at all or it is very choppy and the whole mac becomes unresponsive (cursor included) for around 0.5 seconds every 5 seconds or so.
Did any of you experience one of those issues besides the crackling sound issue, on the new MBP 2018 ?
 
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3-4 hours non stop audio stress testing in Mojave begins right now.

I have a Logic Pro project, YouTube video, Spotify playlist, HEVC video playing at the same time.

I will keep these going on a loop until bedtime. Right now Mojave handles them perfectly.
 
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fokmik said:
so the easiest way to replicate is to play a game while listen for example itunes radio?
Click to expand...

I suppose
Agenesis said:
Base 15 2.6 $2700 after taxes

Apple return period is 15 days, I'm surprised you guys are not returning your machines for new ones and instead hoping for a fix... these are really expensive machines.
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I will return it if it is clear that is a hardware issue.

Seeing that there are many other issues with these 2018 MBP, my next machine could be worse than my current machine if I change it for a new one. Hence that is why I am waiting for some tests from others to see if it is a hardware issue or not.
 
I exchanged my 2018 MacBook Pro for a new one because of the speaker problem and the new one still have the same problem, so ill just wait until Apple gives us a solution because if I exchange this one, the new one (third one) will most likely have the same issue.
 
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UnexpectedHuman said:
As you raise the sample rate, the DMA rate also increases, although even at 96KHz the load is still very very low. Some sample rates could be problematic if they provoke a different pattern of DMA or sometimes because the software timing calculations are not quite right.

With the driver uninstalled my laptop is currently much more stable than it was a few days ago - I have only had one failure. It may be that the problem is provoked by some pattern of activity such as heavy flash access (such as the initial spotlight indexing, running games etc), which is it comes and goes seemingly randomly.
Click to expand...

So knock on wood - I've been running all day listening to music on Youtube - and no crackling. I have been juggling tons of Safari tabs, running Virtualbox Win10 VM, etc.

I went into MIDI and Audio setup - and changed from 44.1 to 48. I'll see how long this lasts...
 
I haven’t had the issue all day myself also.

But I know I can get it if I try hard enough.
 
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