Getting prepated to order macbook

I'll have a look - it is a 3 and half year old external HDD which was originally designed for use with windows only a believe - possibly the reason!
 
Every now and then I get a small static like pop from the speakers - every 5 or 10 minutes. It only comes through on my external 2.1 speakers.

I read somewhere that this is the sound coming in and out of power saving mode. Is this true?
 
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Every now and then I get a small static like pop from the speakers - every 5 or 10 minutes. It only comes through on my external 2.1 speakers.

I read somewhere that this is the sound coming in and out of power saving mode. Is this true?
Sounds feasible however I would assume that if you're using your speakers then you will be plugging in the external power supply. In this case wouldn't power saving settings be not applied? Try having a look in your power settings, disable any power management on ac power and see if you still get pops.
 
Sounds feasible however I would assume that if you're using your speakers then you will be plugging in the external power supply. In this case wouldn't power saving settings be not applied? Try having a look in your power settings, disable any power management on ac power and see if you still get pops.

Sorry I tackled this in another thread now - but basically I've tried my macbook with my parents' 2.0 speakers and there's no longer a pop so I think it's just static building up on my cheap logitech speakers. :)
 
This might stop sounds turning off, if it turns out that it is the power saving 'bug'.
http://www.ziksw.com/soundon/

Thanks!

I downloaded and installed this and moved it to system start up. I clicked run and nothing came on screen but the pops seem to have stopped :)

Now I know these things seem to be random so I'm not going to jump the gun but I'll report back tomorrow. You may have just saved me a lot of frustration....
 
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Well I noticed when the silent sound was playing as it lagged my pc a bit every 20 seconds or so, so I said I'm not compromising when I've just bought something that's meant to work.

So I called their support and told them all bout it. They said it shouldn't be the sound switching off at all. They asked me to reset pvram and s-something or other which I did. This did nothing. Then I was told it may have been an installation error with the original OS - so they said to reinstall leopard...

And it's still there. So now I have to send it off to be returned and fixed :(

Disappointed with my first mac experience.
 
Shame. There are a few issues with audio, some I've witnessed, others from reading forums for a few months.

- The external adapter is not a standard size. Some headphones do not fit correctly, leading to sound cutting out. Mechanical fault.
- Sometimes the internal 'switch' that swaps between analog audio and digital gets stuck to digital on. Mechanical fault.
- Sometimes the internal 'switch' that swaps between analog audio and digital, constantly flips between the two modes. This causes some insane kernel issue and results in terrible lag and a huge increase in heat. Mechanical and Software fault.
- The audio chip seems to be pretty susceptible to interference. As such you get constant white noise through headphones. You can work around this with adding impedance but this shouldn't be necessary. Mechanical fault. Possible software workarounds.
- The audio chip has powersave mode enabled all the time. This results in the audio turning on and off constantly. This results in pops and clicks. Possible software workarounds.

I need a laptop too. I would like to purchase a Mac as my others have been OK. Sadly there seems to be a few dodgy issues with the Unibodies. For some anal folk is not acceptable given the cost of these things. :D

That final issue got me thinking though. If it was Linux you could rectify that with a script or even just unloading some module.
 
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- The audio chip has powersave mode enabled all the time. This results in the audio turning on and off constantly. This results in pops and clicks. Possible software workarounds.

Sounds like what I'm experiencing but apple have told me this should not be happening and that they will fix it. I actually asked them if it were a power saving measure with the audio chip and they were adament that this would not be the case.

My mate just replicated same thing on his macbook with some speakers and he didn't get the pop.

Anyway they can either fix/replace it or I'll take a refund.. we'll see
 
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I'm getting the pops on my white 2.4ghz Macbook, glad to see I'm not the only one. I'll be interested to hear what happens.

Did your Macbook come with the Nvidia graphics that they are selling the white one with now? If not maybe get a refund anyway?
 
Spoke to apple and in the end they also put me through to some american. Anyway they once again confirmed there should be no pops coming through the sound after anytime of use. Therefore any popping will more than likely be a hardware fault.

I told them as a gesture of good will I would expect them to swap it for the newer white macbook with the better specs but they said they only did like for like swaps.

So I said I'd take a refund then repurchase the better model and hope it didn't have the same problem! As I said my friend have now confirmed with his amp and all of his many speakers that it doesn't happen to him (and he'd hear it I'm sure!). When I get the newer one I'll test mine over at his place since he seems to be the expert!
 
Hmmm not sure whether to send mine back as well then, a pain in the arse though to be honest. It's definitely related to some kind of power off/on of the sound though, you get it sometimes if you touch the volume keys.
 
That KeepSoundAwake thing fixed it, looking at the amount of people with this issue I don't really think it's worth me sending it back, I'm sure any replacement will be the same.
 
TBH since I just bought it new I was not going to be having a popping laptop. Its getting picked up in next few days and I'll be ordering the newer white macbook. And then if that has the same problem then I will no longer be looking at Apple. But the next one I hope to test with my friend who has a macbook which he claims doesn't go pop.

I might ask my graphics studio at work if they get this problem since they have a range of macs.
 
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