High pitch whine and FireWire bus power

Delighted with my MBP!
Just noticed the high pitch whine today when I set it up in a quieter room and plugged it into an IOGear bus-powered FireWire hub shared with my other Mac.
It was around 8000 hz and loud enough that I could not stand to stay in the room with it.
When I unplugged it from the hub and connected the cable directly to the FW port, the whine was greatly attenuated (I could hear it only by putting my ear next to the vents at the top of the keyboard).
Could the problem be related to powering the FireWire bus? (It reminds me of the sound of a switching power supply or DC-DC converter) Has anyone else had any success in finding ways to attenuate this high pitch tone?
MacBookPro Mac OS X (10.4.5) 7200 rpm

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion. I'm really trying to cut down on the number of devices that I leave plugged into the mains, so would ideally like a solution that relies purely on power supplied by the internal bus.
I've had a bit of progress with my current set-up. I've switched to using a 2 headed USB lead that came with my Hard Drive. This does mean I effectively lose a USB socket, but it appears that the Hard Drive + the Webcam can now live happily together.
It just means that I have to swap the 4th USB port for whatever ad-hoc device I need to use at the time rather than leaving things connected to it.
Out of geeky curiosity, I'd still be interested to know whether the USB and Firewire buses share their power or each have a dedicated amount.
Cheers,
Ian

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High pitched whine from netbook when power is plugged in. Does not charge when computer is on.

I have a specific power / charging issue On HP Mini Netbook 210-1077CA. Windows 7 starter ( I think)
With the computer OFF ...
When I plug in the power it gives a high pitched whine. Red battery light is on, showing it is charging. (computer is off.)
To test the computer I have turned in on after charging for a little while and the % of charge is increasing. Showing that it is charging properly.
HOWEVER,
With the computer ON
The battery light turns white and does not stay on, but flashes periodically. Its not a constant flash but a pause of several seconds between a series of flashes. The manual indicates a Flashing Battery light seems to indicate either going into a sleep mode because there is not enough battery power (however my power is at 14% normally this happens I think at 10%) OR as the manual indicates there is a problem with the battery.
I removed battery, removed power plug and then pushed power button holding for 15 seconds. No change in behaviour.
I also tried to boot the computer with just the power plug in and no battery. But it would not turn on. I don't know if that is normal or not?? Interestingly the White battery light, while trying to turn the computer on without the battery stayed white no flash. (but did not turn on either as I mentioned.)
I read a few posts that say that the whining are Capacitors doing some sort of harmonics. Although I have never heard this sound before.
Im sure that this problem is not fans or heat sinks etc. Since in only happens when the computer is off and charging. In my opinion its definitely electrical. The sound seems to be coming from the center of the netbook or the battery area..
So my conclusion is ...
1. Battery has problem and needs to be replace,
2. Maybe the AC adapter is bad, since it doesnt boot w/out battery (if it is suppose to ??) Also since it seems when I turn it on it goes from Red charging to white flashing as soon as it starts to boot. Could it be the AC adapter is not giving out enough power to charge and to boot at the same time.
Anyway can anyone help me on this issue. Im not sure whether to start by getting a new AC adapter or new battery. I would not like to buy new both and just throw money at it.
Maybe it is not either???
You help would be appreciated.
Regards.

I have resolved the problem.
I replaced the AC adapter. Everying works find now. I tested runing the computer without the battery, and it works. So I might add that a possible test for an adapter that is not functioning properly is to try running it w/out the battery. If it does not run its possible that the ac adapter does not work.
Thanks.

High pitch whine noise from speakers and other issues

I just got a 2010 Mac Mini and transferred all of my data and apps and accessories from my old Mac Mini which was running 10.6.4 (2007 I think). One of the accessories is a Griffin Firewave. I had to get a new firewire cable to attach the Firewave since the new Mac Mini has a firewire 800 port. On the old Mac it worked great, I was able to run 5.1 speakers with no problem. With the new Mac things aren't so nice. I get a high pitch whine through the speakers. The whine will go up and down in volume with the volume control on my sound system (Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra) as well as with the Mac volume control. I can increase the gain in the Firewave app which will increase the volume of what I want to hear without increasing the volume of the whine, however it will cause the audio I want to hear to distort. The other issue I have is that when I put the Mac to sleep it seems to cut all power to the firewire port, causing the Firewave to turn off and lose its settings. I believe this to be a bad design on the Firewave's part but the old Mac did not shut off the power to the firewire port when going to sleep so this was not an issue. So my questions are, does anyone else have problems with external sound cards having a high pitch whine noise and is there a way to prevent the firewire port from turning off when the Mac sleeps?
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I have the same problem. I have an early 2009 Mac mini and get the whiny noise from my powered speakers. The volume of the whine noise tends to change smoothly up or down, and often does a stuttering effect along with it. It stays there for up to a minute or so and then eventually goes away. It always seems to happen at random times.
I've heard this same sound effect coming from a podcast that I was listening to on my iPod Touch. It seems that the interviewer was recording from a Mac mini as well, though not sure. The sound in the recording was exactly like what I hear coming from my Mac mini. I often thought that this was a problem with my speaker system, but was surprised to find that others are experiencing the same kind of issues.

My 2000 G4 PowerMac tower will not power up. I do hear a high pitch whine

I try to start it up and nothing happens. I do hear a high pitch whine, like something is running. What would the problem be? Hopefully my HD is ok.

Hello,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at the top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

Envy 14 1095la. High pitched whine sound and fan cycling.

Hi. I'm in contact with the customer service about 2 (and a 3rd maybe related) annoyances I have on my Envy 14 1095la (XC515LA#ABM) notebook. I want to share them here in case someone has some clues and guidance about them.
Fan cycles continously on and off every couple of seconds
... on light usage (using the low performance GPU and a text editor).
Reading the temps using Coretemp and HDinfo, I can hear the fan kicking in when CPU temp is above 35º and turning off when it reverts back to this value.
Enabling the "FAN ALWAYS ON" option on the BIOS (as suggested by the tech guy) has no effect over the problem (yes, the fan remains always on, but you can still hear it cycling RPM constantly).
Since this model has no option to regulate the FAN via software, the only solution seems to be a BIOS upgrade.
Sometimes, I can hear a high pitched sound coming from the computer.
Tech guy suggested me to experiment a bit with this to better understand what can be the problem. I've found so far:
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Seems to be more louder if the battery is in use.
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Messing with the sound options (muting mics, audio etc) seems to have no effect.
Sometimes I feel a strong vibration on the palmrest
Perhaps related to the previous, sometimes I can feel a strong vibration on the right palmrest.
Resting the notebook over different surfaces (or lifting it in the air) seems to have no effect.
Reading a bit on this forum I can see that the Seagate Momentus HD is a strong candidate for the vibration+high pitched sound problem, but again, if anyone has a better idea or an aditional test I can made to be sure, is welcomed.
Thanks!

Well, notebook is out for repair.
I've in touch with a level 2 support guy that acknowledged that the "fan cycling" thing is odd and will pass a report to the engineer team (hope HP is not lazy because the Envy refresh and new BIOSes).
About the high pitched noice and vibrations, they will check the HD, but since SMART values are alright, I doubt they´ll change it.

H67MA-E35 (B3) emitting high-pitched whine/chirp

I am getting a high-pitched whine or chip coming from the bottom left area of the CPU/Heatsink. It isn't the fan, as I have stopped the fan and it still makes the noise. I was also able to correlate the vcore voltage with the noise. The noise is only present while the vcore is below 1.000v. After throttling over 1.000v it goes away. I am using a i5-2500k. I am not overclocked anything and made very few changes to the Bios (just boot order and things like that).
Is this a problem with the socket, northbridge, or some other part on the board? Or is this a problem with the power supply not supplying the right kind of voltage? Or is the computer throttling too low? Like how a car doesn't run properly if idling too low?
Thanks in advance,
m@
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Quote from: dilburt on 21-March-11, 08:05:56
No, this is a very common issue with chokes since a choke is very similar to a buzzer or speaker coil so if it's a bit loose, it can vibrate and emit high-pitched sounds. It will not damage anything by itself so if you can get it to stop using settings that are otherwise safe then there is no need to worry about it.
- D
I believe this is more common with iron chokes. The ferrite chokes used on this motherboard are far less likely to buzz. I did look at the board photos and it looks like the CPU PSU is standard FET transistors. Hmmmm.

A high-pitch whine from a KM2M?

OK, this is REALLY upsetting me and I figure someone out there might be able to help.
I bought a KM2M combo motherboard from a local computer shop about 3 months ago. I was using an AMD XP 1900+ w/ 192 megs of pc-133 memory.
Well, I upgraded a few things and here's my current list in my rig:
KM2M Combo mobo
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
Cables Unlimited Super Quiet "whisper" cooler w/ copper core (it dropped my cpu down from 104F to 84F!!!)
8x AGP PNY Nvidia GeForce 5200 Ultra w 128 megs ddr memory
512 megs(2x 256) Paired ULTRA DDR pc2700 dual-channel memory
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2 80mm high-flow Speeze brand case fans
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Well, after a few changes, my mobo starts to make this REALLY high-pitched whine! Well I thought it might be the PSU or heatsink, so I go through EVERYTHING and NOTHING is making this sound! I even tried changing memory & power settings in the BIOS, but no luck.
Well I set up this exact setup on a chaintech mobo and I get NO shrill sound whatsoever! (proof it isn't something outside of the mobo)
Any ideas on how I can fix this? I would take it back to the computer store & get it replaced but my dog chewed up the box it came in a few weeks back so I can't take it in to get it switched out...

That is a fine set of stuff you have. The PSU also has a fine name, but what ampères does it give on 3.3, 5 and 12 volt? Try to localize the sound, for example by holding your hand to a device - not a fan! - and see if it is a bit loose, cause it sounds like something is loose, the Northbridge heatsink or a capcitatior, as you say.
Elsewhy, follow the thrilling development in the thread suggested by Osnavi.

Firewire Bus Power - Un-needed

I've been using an Echo AudioFire 12 firewire interface for years with my Mac Pro, but now I'm using it in the field with my MacBook.
The AF 12 is (AC) self powered yet the MacBook automatically sends it bus power, thusly running hotter and the fan never stops.
If I plug in a 6 pin FW cable to the MacBook and leave the other end un-attached the fan never turns on. When I plug in the AF 12, the fan starts up (within a few minutes).
Or is there a way to disable Firewire bus power on the Mac (10.6.5). Or can this be achieved using a cable that doesn't send power.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Someone may know of a way to disable power on the macbook side of things, but I don't know how. I do know that if you use a 4-wire FireWire 400 cable it will not send power, and that they do make 6-pin cables that don't have power pins connected. It looks like the AudioFire 12 does not have a 4-pin FireWire port, but you may have some luck with a 6-pin cable that doesn't have power pins. This may not fix the issue, however, as depending on how many system resources are consumed by the AF 12, it may just be using enough CPU cycles or taxing the FireWire interface enough to kick the fan into high gear.

High pitch whine in 23-g116

Band new computer and there is a constant high pitch whine coming from within the all-in-one computer. Have ajusted settings to power saver and no change. Any suggestions on how to correct. Very annoying.

Hi Gary,
It might very well be that a piece of an electronics circuit is causing the whine. Your ears may be more sensitive than others but this issue has occured with other PCs. Your PC is under warranty so I would contact HP Support. I know some PCs have been replaced due to high pitch whines.
HP's support number is 800-474-6836 or 800-HPINVENT or online here.
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High pitch whine/noise coming from 880G-E45 when PC is off

I just recently built a PC with the 880G-E45 motherboard without any major hiccups except for the fact that my PC makes high pitch whine noise (similar to a charging flash bulb on a camera) whenever it is powered off. When the PC is on and just after the PC is turned off, there is no high pitch whine at all.
From what I can tell, the noise is not coming from the CPU, but the corner of the motherboard where the 3 LED-lit RESET, CLEAR CMOS, and POWER buttons are. I eliminated all other components of the PC by only powering them one by one and whenever the 24-pin ATX power cable is plugged in, the high pitch whine noise would be made.
Is there anything I can do to silence this noise or is this normal for this motherboard? This is a problem since the PC is for my room which is very small and while i can't hear it during all the activities of the day, in the dead of night, it is loud enough to keep me awake. The only shorthand solution was to switch off the power on the PSU (BTW, will this damage my PC if I do this too much?).
Here are my specs:
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Quote
I'm guessing the power being output by the PSU is too much.
Nonsense, the PC will only draw as much power from the PSU as it needs, not the other way around.
Evidently, the CX430W is somehow faulty. Contact your retailer, or Corsair directly, and see if they will replace it for you.

FireWire Bus Power - How Much Power?

Is there any way to find out how many watts the FireWire bus power is on a Mac?
I have one of these:
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ultragbplus.php
It's an external bus powered FireWire 800 drive. I have the 500GB version. It runs flawlessly on bus power on my PowerBook G4 17" using the FW 800 cable, and even runs fine on bus power when I try the FW400-to-FW800 cable.
On my Intel iMac Core Duo 20" though, it wil not run on bus power using the very same 400-to-800 cable so I guess the bus power on the iMac has... eh... less power.
It works fine on an iMac G5 using 400-to-800 but on the Intel iMac I have to attach the optional power supply to use it.
QUESTION: Has the bus power on the MacBook Pro changed too, is it lower than on the PowerBook G4???
This IS a strange one...
Intel iMac 2gHz/500/2GB/20" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

According to a FireWire white paper distributed by WiebeTech, FireWire ports usually provide 6-15 watts. A 3,5-inch drive needs 8.
My Intel iMac is not damaged. Any 2,5-inch bus powered drive works flawlessly. I tried this 500GB drive on three iMac G5 machines, works on bus power on all of them. Tried two different PowerBook G4s and it works on bus power on them too. I have now tried three different Intel iMac Core Duo machines and it does not work on any of them so obviously Apple has lowered the FireWire bus power output to just below what this drive needs.
I sent an email to WiebeTech who confirms this as a "known issue" and they don't know how the drive works with the MacBook Pro.... YET.
I guess I will have to try it out, just have to find an MBP

Firewire Bus Power - Not Needed

I've been using an Echo AudioFire 12 firewire interface for years with my Mac Pro, but now I'm using it in the field with my MacBook.
The AF 12 is (AC) self powered yet the MacBook automatically sends it bus power, thusly running hotter and the fan never stops.
If I plug in a 6 pin FW cable to the MacBook and leave the other end un-attached the fan never turns on. When I plug in the AF 12, the fan starts up (within a few minutes).
Or is there a way to disable Firewire bus power on the Mac (10.6.5). Or can this be achieved using a cable that doesn't send power.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I had the same idea as you.
I didn't think of looking for a method of turning off the Mac's firewire power - this would be excellent.
The method I used was:
A firewire 6pin to 4pin cable like this (not this actual ebay item).
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2M-Firewire-IEEE1394-Cable-4-6-Pin-DV-out-PC-Lead-/2605482 48174?pt=UKComputing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item3ca9e2c26e#ht_2727wt1141
A firewire Adapter 6 Pin Male to *4 Pin Female* (not this actual ebay item).
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1394-Firewire-Adapter-6-Pin-Male-4-Pin-Female-/35040349329 7?pt=UKComputing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item5195acfdb1#ht_3761wt1141
My idea was that a firewire 4pin connection does not carry power, so the firewire signal would get through, but the power from the computer wouldn't.
The combined 6pin plug and adapter were heavy. They needed to be supported to keep them level when plugged in, if the socket was horizontally aligned, like on the MacBook Pro.
If you try this - be careful when ordering the adapter - some adapters are male to male - you need 6 Pin Male to *4 Pin Female*.
I also wrapped a piece of tape around the combined plug and adapter.
Hope this helps.
Richard

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I called Apple today to get my 24.99 back! This has been the worst exprience I have ever had. At first I was excited that almost all my songs were matched. I figured I would be able to upgrade the 128 to 256. YEAH OK!!!
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High pitch whine

My iPod is all of a sudden started to make a high pitched whine. When i plug it in and after i turn it off.

Try this: (this will not damage your music, dont worry.)
starting with your ipod on:
1) flick the hold switch at the top back and fourth three or four times, stopping when it is off, so that you can still press buttons.
2) hold the center and menu button simultaneously, until the ipod shuts off, and the apple logo appears and your ipod turns on.
Good luck!

Does anyone know why my MacBook has an intermittent high-pitched whine?

Today my MacBook started making a high-pitched whine. It's like a high musical note and comes and goes. I closed as many programs as I could. Still working in Chrome (and that's what I have been on when it makes noise). It almost reminds me of a fanbelt issue.... but that's impossible, right?

Yeah, if you go to Programs > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup
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High pitch whine and FireWire bus power

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