MBA is not silent anymore...

[ritmomundo]

When I first got my 11-inch MBA in November, it was completely silent. Couldn't hear anything in a quiet room. Now however, and for the past couple months, there's a weird noise that's gotten quite noticeable (in a quiet room, although its still not loud). The strange thing is that its more like an annoying high-pitched whirring noise, and it starts as soon as I open my MBA from sleep/startup. What the heck is this noise?? Do I need to run some diagnostics or something?
Thanks

Edit: oh and I'm pretty sure its not the fan...

 

[Satori]

Could be the video card or CPU - although it is not likely to cause problems, I'm sure it is irritating!

You could try resetting the SMC to see if that makes a difference:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Edit: Does adjusting the volume make a difference?

 

[Mac32]

The whirring sound when you wake the MBA up from sleep is normal. It's on all MBA. Even the MBA will make a very slight sound in a completely silent room. Remember the fan on the MBA is smaller than on the MBP, so the sound will be more high pitched. This is my guess anyway..

 

[alecgold]

Odd questions, but how old are you and how good is your hearing?
It could be a resistor or capacitor but also a chip starting to die.
If you are older it could be the fan you hear, but if you have a good hearing it also could be the components giving way.

If it are the components there is not much you can do although I would go to the genius bar and make a complaint. They would investigate it, find nothing wrong because their envirnoment isn't silent enough, but you would have it logged. If the chip starts to fail you have "a history" and it's not that easy to write it down to abuse or something else. On the other hand, Apple care has been one of the best customer services I've ever seen, so perhaps I'm just a bit to much suspicious.

 

[robanga]

I have a 13 inch MBA that was very silent until about a month ago and then I was hearing fan noise a lot. I was noticing the fan speed quite high via iStat. What I found out in Activity Monitor is that an application ( a logitech mouse app) was running and there was no mouse installed. I brought it over from another MacBook by mistake and it was constantly looking for a mouse it never found.

I uninstalled it and the MBA was back to its quiet self

Check activity monitor for an errant application.

 

[ritmomundo]

Thanks guys for all the replies!!

Could be the video card or CPU - although it is not likely to cause problems, I'm sure it is irritating!

You could try resetting the SMC to see if that makes a difference:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Edit: Does adjusting the volume make a difference?

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't change anything. The sound does not seem to be related to volume/the speakers.

The whirring sound when you wake the MBA up from sleep is normal. It's on all MBA. Even the MBA will make a very slight sound in a completely silent room. Remember the fan on the MBA is smaller than on the MBP, so the sound will be more high pitched. This is my guess anyway..

What you say makes sense, and I hope it is normal on all MBAs. But I need to make sure if its not...

Odd questions, but how old are you and how good is your hearing?
It could be a resistor or capacitor but also a chip starting to die.
If you are older it could be the fan you hear, but if you have a good hearing it also could be the components giving way.

If it are the components there is not much you can do although I would go to the genius bar and make a complaint. They would investigate it, find nothing wrong because their envirnoment isn't silent enough, but you would have it logged. If the chip starts to fail you have "a history" and it's not that easy to write it down to abuse or something else. On the other hand, Apple care has been one of the best customer services I've ever seen, so perhaps I'm just a bit to much suspicious.

I'm 27, and I've been told I have really good hearing for my age. I'm going to follow your suggestion and take it into the Apple store, just to be on the safe side. I hope nothing is failing, but I suppose all electronics do eventually.... Thanks!

I have a 13 inch MBA that was very silent until about a month ago and then I was hearing fan noise a lot. I was noticing the fan speed quite high via iStat. What I found out in Activity Monitor is that an application ( a logitech mouse app) was running and there was no mouse installed. I brought it over from another MacBook by mistake and it was constantly looking for a mouse it never found.

I uninstalled it and the MBA was back to its quiet self

Check activity monitor for an errant application.

Interesting! I was hoping this was the case for me too, but I don't see anythign that shouldn't be there. Thanks tho.