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petemc

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
37
0
Does anyone know what this sound could be? I've been told its probably a broken fan. When I run "yes" I don't get the normal airplane taking off style fan sounds. I've been playing WoW all afternoon and I haven't heard any major fan sounds. When I do run "yes" all I get is a change in pitch from the whirring something. Its coming from the top right hand side just before the speaker and from underneath.
 

thegreatluke

macrumors 6502a
Dec 29, 2005
649
0
Earth
That does sound like there is something wrong. It sounds like maybe the fan got caught on something or other.

Try taking it in and having it repaired. Sucks, I know, but at least you'll have a fixed machine.

:)
 

petemc

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
37
0
Yeah :( Gunna ring my local Apple store tomorrow but its so small I bet they can't do anything.
 

thegreatluke

macrumors 6502a
Dec 29, 2005
649
0
Earth
Well, they'll either:
A) Take it and ship it to Cupertino to get fixed,
B) Fix it right there on the premises,
or
C) If they're really nice they might replace it for you.
 

petemc

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
37
0
I contacted my local store who said it could be away for at least 10 days. That wasn't acceptable. I'm a photographer and I need my laptop. So I rang tech support who told me to try and reset the power management. Disconnect the power, remove the battery. Hold down the power button for over 10 seconds then turn it back on. It seems fine now. I've ran WoW, Aperture and yes for at least 10 mins with no broken fan sound. Give that a shot.
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
Dude, I have that EXACT sound after playing Titan Quest and it's the first time I've never heard that. It's driving me freakin' crazy! I brought it to the Apple Store and they couldn't do swat about it and told me it would take a one week turn around time to to get fixed.

I never heard this noise before I started to use 3d intensive programs. That noise doesn't always sound like, but comes in quite a number of variations. I retightened all my screws and ran a lot of 3d intensive apps and it's not gone, it's weird.

Is the right speaker area fan suppose to sound like the left side like the airplane engine taking off?
 

petemc

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
37
0
If you read my previous post I posted a fix that solved my problem :)
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
HAhaha, ya, i just did right after i posted. I actualy did a PMU reset before, but not for that issue. I'll run it and let u know how it goes, thx again :)
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
The PMU reset didn't work :(

On regular OSX usage w/ it slows like someone is spinning a bike tire through a stick.
 

HermanTheGerman

macrumors member
Apr 24, 2006
84
0
Same Here

I have been suffering from the exact same problem for the last two weeks. So I called up Apple Tech Support where I was told to turn my MBP in (after getting really mad at two ignorant, incapable and unfriendly Tech Support geeks who later forwarded me to second level support; just after letting me stay on the line for 35 minutes). Additionally, Apple's tech support via phone is not even free over here.

There, I was accused of just being picky. By the way: I am on my fourth MBP, as two of the previous ones had really bad hardware issues (loose, skew keys or a severe frame problem - the display was wobbling). No American or German assembly worker would have committed such a crime, guess you can blame that on Apple's quality control in China (which I highly doubt is even existing at all).

Thus, I got into my car and drove to the closest Apple service provider, who happens to be 80 km away (I live in Germany, in the center of Europe, everything is supposed to be close over here) from my place. The other choice would have been to arrange a pickup and wait for a 10-working-days-repair (which I cannot afford). The whole trip took me three hours (traffic, parking space issues; and the gas happens to be not inexpensive over here); all that just to turn in a two month old $ 3000 MBP (what the heck???)

The tech guy in Munich (who happens to be not affiliated with Apple, though being a licensed Apple repair agent) was more than capable, disassembling the MBP quickly and telling me that the sound was due to a rotten fan and a misfunctioning logic board (Apple has been issueing new MBP logic boards with new system restore discs for the last two weeks by the way), which has to be replaced.

He told me that he has been doing his job for the last twenty years and never ever before did Apple perpetrate such low quality work. Furthermore, he stated that every second MBP is turned in with a logic board failure.

The reason for this longer article is the fact that I am so mad at Apple. I just switched, but I am annoyed beyond recognition.

If I would just have bought one of those crappy Dell plastic boxes, I would even have in-home repair service (with Dell, the word deserves its actual meaning).
 

NJuul

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2006
492
0
Boston
Well, that really sucks.
Guess I'll have to send mine in as well then, the fan noise is really annoying when it comes on. Like it's constantly hitting a piece of plastic or something.
Haven't tried that PMU thing, but it's probably better in the long run just to get the logic board replaced. Maybe they have fixed the whine.
I just really need it for everyday work...
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
Damn, my right hand side fan has just started making a soft fast ticking noise...

I cant afford to let it go at the moment. What risk, if any, do I take using it for a few months until I have second Mac so my online life doesn't grind to a halt with repair delays?
 

JDM DC2R

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2006
13
0
Greetings.

I was up late tonite and decided to search for problems other MacBook Pro users have with their stubborn fans. I know this post is almost a month old, but the topic still lingers and much people have this very same problem.

That .mp3 sound clip was exactly what I heard on mine, and just like you I am a religous WoW player. I called tech and they told me about PMU and I performed it. The sound disappeared but I started to have worse problems.

It seems as the fan crapped out, and now it doesn't work at all. I have yet to call tech, but I've noticed in very extreme cases where the video card is stressed (such as games such as WoW or counter-strike) my computer totally shuts off. Seems like my computer overheated. I temporarily fixed this problem by putting a laptop cooler fan AS WELL AS a household fan (facing the back of my monitor) and it seems to work fine.

I should send it in to get it fixed, but this is also my work computer and I have yet to take 10 days off. I also noticed my computer has gotten a LOT slower (reboots, shutting down, etc) and freezes more frequently. Just sharing some of my experiences. Will look further on this topic if it is still alive =P
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
JDM DC2R said:
Greetings.

I should send it in to get it fixed, but this is also my work computer and I have yet to take 10 days off. I also noticed my computer has gotten a LOT slower (reboots, shutting down, etc) and freezes more frequently. Just sharing some of my experiences. Will look further on this topic if it is still alive =P

Sounds to me like it could die any moment. I know how you feel though,my noisy fan is annoying but I want to get a second Mac so i can continue my online life in the repair absense of my MBP
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
Dude, last night i was playing some CS Source when suddenly it seemed like the fan was really starting to crap out on me, the noise got SO loud it was emitting small vibrations and making a large range of broken fan noises. It wasn't like those baby small *tick* sounds either. I thought the damn fan was about to blow up or something, the sound was horrific.

I attempted to open it and see if I can fix the issue and I didn't notice anything the fan could be hitting against, so I'm assuming I just have a bad fan assembly to begin with.

It's obvious 3D applications trigger these problems and afraid my GPU might fry if I play games again, I decided to send it in to Apple to have this fixed ASAP.
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
n8236 said:
Dude, last night i was playing some CS Source when suddenly it seemed like the fan was really starting to crap out on me, the noise got SO loud it was emitting small vibrations and making a large range of broken fan noises. It wasn't like those baby small *tick* sounds either. I thought the damn fan was about to blow up or something, the sound was horrific.

I attempted to open it and see if I can fix the issue and I didn't notice anything the fan could be hitting against, so I'm assuming I just have a bad fan assembly to begin with.

It's obvious 3D applications trigger these problems and afraid my GPU might fry if I play games again, I decided to send it in to Apple to have this fixed ASAP.


please let us know how it goes. I think its ba logic board replacement.
 

thestaton

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2006
478
0
I was at the Apple Store in DE today while buying my MBP. The store is kind of loud with the music / people etc. But I had my friends put there ears down to the MBP's that where being demo'd and I happend to find one that had this same exact sound. I had a mac associate put his ear to it and he told me he had never heard that noise before. Needless to say it was taken off the floor pretty quick.

I ended up getting a week 31 build MBP and so far she's quiet as a church mouse.
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
Yep, I called AppleCare this afternoon and the rep gladly sent a box for me as soon as I told him the fan had issues. I even mentioned the cpu whine on the left side and acknowledged they'll take a look at if it requires the mlb to be replaced.

The thing is, I'm hoping they can duplicate the problem w/ the cpu whine because after I installed InCrew's Speedit whine cancellation program, the whine is no longer there, but that's not the type of fix i'm looking for. I hope they completely wipe my hd and ghost a 10.4.7 OSx on there to notice the whine.

The box should be arriving in a couple days and i'm gonna slip in a direction sheet as to what the problems are etc so the techs don't miss anything besides what the rep had put down on the case number.
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
n8236 said:
Yep, I called AppleCare this afternoon and the rep gladly sent a box for me as soon as I told him the fan had issues. I even mentioned the cpu whine on the left side and acknowledged they'll take a look at if it requires the mlb to be replaced.

The thing is, I'm hoping they can duplicate the problem w/ the cpu whine because after I installed InCrew's Speedit whine cancellation program, the whine is no longer there, but that's not the type of fix i'm looking for. I hope they completely wipe my hd and ghost a 10.4.7 OSx on there to notice the whine.

The box should be arriving in a couple days and i'm gonna slip in a direction sheet as to what the problems are etc so the techs don't miss anything besides what the rep had put down on the case number.

Any further developments?

My rhs fan went nutz a few days ago when hot. Now its quite - I am not even sure its spinning under load.
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
It's been almost a whole week (7 days) since I had my mbp sent in and it's still in the "service request pending," no idea why. But i'll find out. I hope to have it back by weeks end.
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
n8236 said:
It's been almost a whole week (7 days) since I had my mbp sent in and it's still in the "service request pending," no idea why. But i'll find out. I hope to have it back by weeks end.

I ran a hardware test.

Results bad fan

4MOT/1/40000002: Left_Middle-Front

I'll back everything up this weekend, not put any pressure on the processors and take it in Monday.

Damn.
 

n8236

macrumors 65816
Mar 1, 2006
1,065
32
Update: I called Apple to see where they were w/ the repairs and apparently they had a typo when they created my repair file, thus that's why Apple's repair status still shows it's still pending. But the rep Maggie (extremely nice lady) said the repairs are complete and did the final runs on it earlier in the afternoon that I'll have my mbp tomorrow afternoon, YIPPIE!

It sucks sending it in, but gives you a chance to do the stuff you've been putting off for a long time. It stops the internet addiction hehehe. Feels kind of good to be productive hahaah. But the turn around time is definitely fast like others have reported.

Mbp picked up @ 12pm Wed, back next Wed. 5 days just like others promised. Now, I'm just hoping they repaired everything I requested, otherwise I would be a bit disappointed.
 
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