Is this the infamous CPU whine?

I recently got a new logic board for my MBP, and since then, I've noticed that a quiet whine coming from it. The MBP is a mid-2006 model; the logic board was installed by AppleCare a week ago. The whine only happens when the computer is not plugged in to the MagSafe adapter, and it's fairly faint; it's just barely bearable. Is this the CPU whine that existed several years ago, or is this just normal behavior? I thought they would have fixed the CPU whine problem on new logic boards by now. I don't think I heard this whine before in the 3+ years that I've had this computer. If I do stuff like scroll a page or run CPU-intensive tasks, then the whine seems to go away momentarily, which seems to be what the old CPU whine used to do.

Download SystemLoad and run that. See if you can get the CPU to "sing."
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Macsimum News Associate Editor  Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support'

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Analyzing the "idle CPU whine" issue

Hi All,
I have been waiting for a solution for the "idle CPU whine" issue since I returned my MacBook Pro because of the whine.
First of all, we need to filter out all the posts where a person says that he does not have the whine but has not heard a whining unit. So, we need to focus only on experiences of people who hear the whine or do not hear whine but have heard the whine in another unit.
Secondly, I think that the build week number has no significance on the whine issue. More interesting would be to have people sending here the last part of their serial number, which supposedly is some kind of configuration code, and stating if they have the idle CPU whine or not. Maybe we could get some new information out of that.
Do also state, if you have actually compared a whining and a non-whining unit. If you have not compared the no-whine opinions are useless as they are merely opinions without a reference to a faulty unit.

This was posted on MacFitIt today (www.macfixit.com)
" Mike, I thought you might find this reply from Apple regarding my contacting them with a noise issue with the MacBook Pro. I noticed that if I were to disable a processor core the noise immediately stopped and this is Apple's reply.
Eric"
Begin forwarded message:
"Hi Eric, I heard back from engineering and was informed that this normal behavior for the MacBook Pro. When the processors are idle a capacitor on the logic board will take on additional power loads causing the capacitor to vibrate, thus creating the noise. Turning off the second processor and/or using better energy saver settings reduces the load on the capacitor causing the noise not to occur.
For more information check out http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/. Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions..."

Is this the infamous iMac interface freeze?

I have a brand new Aluminum iMac that's less than a month old. After reading about other new iMac owners experiencing Mac OS freezing on them because of a possible graphics driver issue, I decided not to do the iMac 1.1 update while I was on Tiger. My iMac has been working great with no freezing or lockups.
After upgrading to Leopard I'm noticing that my machine will not wake from the screensaver properly. I thought at first it might not be waking from sleep, so I turned off automatic sleep, so only the screensaver will come on, and monitor energy save.
For example, this morning I left the house with the iMac on. 15 minutes later the screen saver came on, then another 15 minutes later, the display was automatically turned off. I came back a couple of hours later and moved the mouse. The display came back on, and I can see the mouse arrow move along with the mouse. The rest is a blank screen. The screensaver (arabesque) isn't showing. I let it sit for 10 minutes with no change.
I ssh'ed into the iMac and didn't noticed anything out of the ordinary doing a "ps". Nothing was eating up the CPU cycles or taking up unusually large amount of RAM.
I tried to turn the iMac off by holding down the power button. This actually ended up putting it into sleep mode. When I pressed the power button again, it woke up from its sleep and gave me a login window. I can move my mouse but it doesn't respond to clicks. Also unfortunately I can't type my password. My keyboard is dead. The mouse is connected through the keyboard, and the keyboard's caps lock key responds.
As a test I tried using VNC to get into the iMac, but unfortunately I can't type my password in that way either.
I also tried plugging in a different mouse and keyboard at this point, and same problem.
My only way out is to hold down the power button again to shut it off, and start it back up from scratch.
Is this the iMac interface freeze people are talking about? Or is this a new problem? Anyone know what's going on? Thanks for your help!

I should also add that at the time of the freeze, I only had Entourage, Quicksilver, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adium, and Suitcase Fusion running.
Also this problem only seems to happen when the machine's idle for several hours. If I try to resume right after the monitor energy saver kicks in, I'm able to revive it.

Is this the infamous 8600mGT problem?

Hi guys,
just yesterday, I was watching a video and browsing the net... I noticed some strange pink dots that were appearing all over the screen. I thought it might be a driver issue or something but then they quickly became more and more. The computer (at least the screen) froze. I hit reset and the pinkish dots were on the start screen as well. Then suddenly rectangular artifacts during bootscreen and then kernel panic.
The macbook pro was bought june 2007, 2,4GHz with the famous 8600mGT. I figured this might be the unfamous Nvidia bug and took it the the service center. They'll take a full 6 days to diagnose it since they're busy but I fear I might have to buy a new machine..... The reason:
All of the reports I've read so far indicate that with the official bug, the display just turns black but the computer boots up fine. Well, mine does not anymore. I figured it must be a graphics glitch since it looks like a graphic problem but I can't even boot the machine anymore (kernel panic).
What exactly did the problem look like for you (that had one and got it fixed for free?!?!) What do you guys think? If the GPU failed, did the system never stall?
Here is a pic of what it looked like before it crashed and was unable to boot ever since. For me it clearly looks like an electronic problem with the GPU or the video RAM!
http://idisk.mac.com/andreas.brand/Public/temp/mbp_error.jpg
I really fear they might try to talk their way out of it, claiming it is something else to make me pay another two grand and get a new machine, really afraid of that and ****** about the quality of that 1.5 year old machine.
Here is the log of the kernel panic that I got of the disk....
========================
========================
Thu Feb 26 02:56:31 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A9C68): Kernel trap at 0x00bffa73, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x000000bc, CR3: 0x01545000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x554a1630, EBX: 0x079ed004, ECX: 0x076f2800, EDX: 0x00000000
CR2: 0x000000bc, EBP: 0x554a1668, ESI: 0x00000000, EDI: 0xffffffff
EFL: 0x00010246, EIP: 0x00bffa73, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x076f0010
Error code: 0x00000000
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x554a1408 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x554a143c 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x554a1458 : 0x1a9c68 (0x464700 0xbffa73 0xe 0x463eb0)
0x554a1538 : 0x1a038d (0x554a1550 0x9 0x554a1668 0xbffa73)
0x554a1548 : 0xbffa73 (0xe 0x48 0x554a0010 0xc30010)
0x554a1668 : 0xc079ff (0xc1d00002 0x1000000 0x1000003 0x40)
0x554a16c8 : 0xbfa1ed (0x554a1858 0x6 0x0 0x0)
0x554a1828 : 0xbeb3e2 (0x0 0x600d600d 0x7027 0x554a1858)
0x554a18e8 : 0xdd86b5 (0xc1d00002 0x1000000 0x1000003 0x40)
0x554a1918 : 0xde2e01 (0x46c17000 0x1000000 0x88100090 0x3e)
0x554a38a8 : 0xdbfb3e (0x46c17000 0x1000000 0x15 0x46c1701c)
0x554a39a8 : 0xbe6b09 (0x46c17000 0x0 0x554a3ab2 0x80)
0x554a3a08 : 0xbdb69d (0x732ec00 0x0 0x554a3ab2 0x80)
0x554a3b38 : 0xbdcf44 (0x732ec00 0xbe062c 0x554a3bec 0x4)
0x554a3c08 : 0xb7ebf0 (0x732ec00 0x1 0x0 0x13)
0x554a3c68 : 0xb77be6 (0x732ec00 0x554a3d2c 0x6c8c298 0x732ec00)
0x554a3c98 : 0x411791 (0x732ec00 0x6c8c298 0x6c8c298 0x0)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.NVDAResman(5.3.6)@
0xbe3000->0xe3ffff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0xbd5000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x5c6000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0xb6f000
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0xbd5000->0xbe2fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x5c6000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0xb6f000
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0xb6f000->0xb8bfff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x5c6000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer
Mac OS version:
9G55
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro3,1 (Mac-F4238BC8)
Message was edited by: randfee

I had a similar issue (I have MBP Early 2008) but I managed to fix it at home!
After a chat with an Apple Tech he told me that my problem was very frequent and I had to press a key sequence in order to fix it. I was displaying distorted colors and black shaded stripes from the bottom of the screen (like photoshop's spotlight effect).
I pressed control + shift + eject until the screen went black. Then I pressed a key and everything was fine! Maybe your problem isn't the same, though... but try it!
Bye

What to do with the CPU whine?

I have a Core 2 Duo 2,16Ghz White Macbook bought a month ago. It has the infamous CPU (or logic board) whine - which Apple aknowledged on their MacBook Pro line. I have gone to the local Apple dealer where they said yes it whines but that Apple hasn't issued any orders as to what to do with the whine so try to put up with it... not very nice actually.
The Macbook whine behaves almost identically to the Macbook Pro whine, so you can minimize it using PhotoBooth and some other programs. And using a Apple Might Mouse Bluetooth also takes the whine away (because the cpu is less idle).
How can i get rid of the whine (high pitched noise-buzz)?

I've seen quite a number of posts on the whine from various manufacturers. HP has actually posted a BIOS update to address the problem (at a significant cost to power management):
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c00965412&cc=us&dlc=e n&lc=en&jumpid=regR1002USEN
As the MacBooks (and MacBook Pros) don't have a BIOS, Apple would have to push out an EFI firmware update. I would certainly prefer that if they go this route, they give you an option in preferences to either enable or disable the power saver features.
Here is another comment referencing the whine other machines:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=103747 (Toshiba, Sony, and HP)
Unfortunately... I don't see any easy fix to this. I would imagine it is possible that some logic boards may exhibit the problem to greater or lesser degrees, but there would be no way to guarantee that replacing the logic board would result in a machine with less whine.

CPU whine on macbook pro 13in

Hi, ive been experiencing the alleged CPU whine, and was wondering if apple will fix or replace my machine for a new one. Im under the 1 yr warranty.

fuad24,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
They will fix it if they find there is a problem, take it into your closest Apple Store after making an appointment and they will look at it. Once they have then they will determine if there really reason to repair it.
Regards,
Roger

New Macbook CPU Whine? Wasn't this MBP only?

I bought my updated macbook last week (Black, C2D 2.16 Ghz, 2GB Ram) and I noticed that the CPU whine that bothered me so much in my macbook pro is on my macbook as well!
The photobooth trick works.. but I wish this could just be eliminated once and for all..
Any suggestions? And does anyone else have it?

I have covered this topic extensively for close to 1 year now. I've come to a conclusion that all MacBooks exhibit this problem to some degree. I've had my Logic Board exchanged in hopes to get rid of the problem - but no way - its still here.
I've learned to deal with it in the following manner:
1. I'm rarely in a completely quiet rooms - so in most cases I dont get bothered by the noise
2. If I need to work in a quiet room - I use the Photobooth trick (force quit Photobooth - put comp to sleep - wake it up)
3. I got Windows XP on bootcamp - I do most of my websurfing with the new Internet Explorer - and as most of you know - the CPU doesn't whine under Windows.
The fact that CPU whine is completly eliminated when using Windows Xp means that the whole problem could be solved with a simple patch from Apple. However - Apple will not release any such patch until more people complain directly to them.

C2D MacBook -- the CPU whine is GONE!

So, my black C2D MacBook has been up and running for the past three hours, and there is absolutely no hint of CPU whine!
That's my happy ending to a very sad tale of one bad rev. A MacBook after another...
This is the FOURTH MacBook I've had in the past six months. The first one was damaged right out of the box (misaligned case, and screwdriver scratches all over the bottom), so Apple replaced it. The replacement machine developed a really loud, grindy noise coming from the fan, and after two trips to the Apple repair center with no improvement, Apple finally agreed to replace that machine last week. The replacement had a nice, quiet fan, but plenty of CPU whine. Still not ideal, but I was resigned to live with it.
This morning, I learned of the C2D update. Fortunately, every time the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo, issued me a replacement machine, they also issued me a new sales receipt. So, I took the replacement MacBook I got last week to the Apple Store today, showed them my receipt for the latest replacement (indicating that I was within the 14-day return period), and asked for an exchange. I had to pay the restocking fee, which amounted to about $150. The way I look at it, I paid Apple about a dollar a day for the last five months to "rent" their rev. A MacBooks until the rev. B's were released!
Needless to say, I'm a very satisfied customer right now.
Whisper-quiet, super-quick and brand-spankin' new!
Black Macbook; Mini 1.5GHz (Late 2005); PB Lombard: PB 2400; PowerMac G3; Mac OS X (10.4.8) Blueberry iMac; iPod nano 4GB; and a Bill King bobblehead doll--Holy Toledo!

i would like congratulate you and to share your jubilation!
i have also had three macbooks since they came out after my very reliable ibook was stolen. no end of problems with my macbooks and just send the last one back a couple of days ago. only to log on today and find they have 2 core duo's now. So ordered one straight away. now i cant wait to recieve it :o) but am scared of what problems these may come with

New factoid about the infamous WHINE

I have had my MBP2.16 with stock 1GB for one week and have noticed the CPU whine. It's not too loud, worse when on battery, goes off with photobooth, and mirror widget.
What I recently noticed is that when I open quicktime, go to preferences, and click the RECORDING tab, the whine starts up again. I don't know enough about computers to know what this means. Thought I'd throw it out into the community to see if any true gurus have any insights.
Thnx.
New Mac Convert x 1 week. Yeah! (whine or no whine)
i kinda miss right click though :^(

Curious as it may seem, I can endorse this - opening the Recording preferences panel in Quicktime makes the (high-pitched) whine come back (on mains power, screen brightness on full FYI). Damned if I know what'd make something odd like that happen... I guess if it's polling the iSight or the microphone it might be something to do with them.
(Please don't flame if I just said something dumb and obvious - I barely have time to read these forums during the week...)

Is it possible to run Labview ver 6.5 with PowerPC as the target CPU and VxWorks as the target operating system? If version 6.5 does not support this configuration, do any of the later versions support it?

Is it possible to run Labview ver 6.5 with PowerPC as the target CPU and VxWorks as the target operating system?
If version 6.5 does not support this configuration, do any of the later versions support it?
I have an Ada executable that's creating a buffer of data that's being fed to a Labview executable that's displaying the data in a GUI. We're re-architecting some legacy system hardware and I'm just trying to figure out if this configuration is even possible.
Thanks

Hi,
I never heard of LabVIEW6.5. I only know of LV6i, LV6.1 and LV7.0...
Why don't you just call your next/regional NI sales rep?
Best regards,
GerdW
CLAD, using 2009SP1 + LV2011SP1 + LV2014SP1 on WinXP+Win7+cRIO
Kudos are welcome

Is it possible to run Labview ver 6.5 with PowerPC as the target CPU and VxWorks as the target operating system? If Labview ver 6.5 does not support this configuration, do any of the later versions support it?

Is it possible to run Labview version 6.5 with PowerPC as the target CPU and VxWorks as the target operating system?
If version 6.5 does not support this configuration, do any of the later versions support it?
I basically have an Ada executable and Labview executable that currently run on a Sun Machine with Solaris as the operating system. I'm re-architecting the system hardware and will be getting rid of the Sun Machine and Solaris. I'm don't have any issues with the Ada executable, but I'm not sure what configurations Labview supports.

duplicate post
In the future, please don't try to stuff your message in the subject line. Thanks.

After uninstalling/installing itunes I get this window 16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction CS:05aa IP:0480 OP: 6300 72006f Choose close to terminate. Neither ignore or close works

After uninstalling/installing itunes ( there was a problem with an upgrade) the following window appears on my account page
16 MS-DOS Subsystem
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction CS:05aa IP: 0480 OP:6300 72006f Choose close to terminate application. Neither close or ignore works. I don't know where to turn for help I'm using Windows 7. Thx

Hi there,
I am also experiencing this problem, but with 1.4.2_06. Last week (late Jan 2005) the dynamic versioning was working fine, downloading and installing the latest version of Java as required.
However now (early Feb 2005), I am finding that after downloading the latest version of Java and beginning the install, I am getting this error.
I was hoping that you may have heard of a cause or solution for this problem?
Many thanks

Is this a cure for the "Infamous iMovie Audio Blast" glitch?

Hi. Long time lurker, first time poster.
Ever since leaving iMovie 2 I have encountered the dreaded "quick blast" of sound at the beginning of a transition. This frequently happens when transitioning from a still clip, or a second of black, to a video clip.
The workaround I discovered today is working very well. I've read every post I could find in this and other forums regarding the audio problems, but haven't seen this relatively easy solution before. If someone has previously posted this, my appologies.
The short answer is : turn the still frame into a video clip, then lower it's volume to 0%
If you check the volume level of a still frame, it will say 0%. I think this is not true. Even though there is no audio on a still frame, the volume level is really at 100%. Once you turn it into a video clip, and lower it to 0%, it will no longer cause the audio blast at the beginning of the next video clip or transition.
There are probably several ways to convert a still frame into a video clip. Applying an effect is what I did. I applied Virtix Zoom, at the minimum setting (no zoom). Other effects that involve movement or a gradual change, in their "neutral" setting, will probably work as well.
Before the effect is rendered, the following dialogue box pops up:
"This effect generates different results for each frame, which will not show up on Still Clips. Do you want to convert selected Still Clips to regular clips to apply this effect?"
Select "Convert". Once the effect has been applied, lower the volume to 0%, and add a transition between the now converted still clip and the regular video clip. The "Infamous iMovie Audio Blast" is now gone.
The other time I've had this problem is following a section of black. Instead of creating a black section by dragging clips apart in the timeline, place the head over the first frame of any existing "fade in" transition, go to your edit menu and "Create Still Frame". Then turn this still frame into a video clip using the method above.
Does this work for anyone else? It solved a major problem for me.
G4 iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi bmitchell,
That's a great solution to the "old" audio glitch (which I've also experienced in the past). I think it has been fixed in later versions of iMovie/QuickTime, as I've not noticed it for a while. As you can see from my details, I'm using iMovie 6 (just updated to 6.0.2) and the latest QT 7.1 - what are you currently running? I notice that you've posted in the iMovie HD forum - are you still on version 5?
But back to your solution - well done! I don't recall ever seeing that solution posted previously - it would have been handy when I was having problems. I used to export the offending clips/transitions to QT then re-import to iMovie - but won't go through the whole process again here (unless anyone wants more information).
Thanks for your post - hopefully if you upgrade to Tiger (are you on 10.3.9?) and also to the latest versions of iMovie and QuickTime, the issue might go away!
Cheers
John

10.4.8 and cpu whine

Is there any difference with cpu whine after installing 10.4.8 patch?

I was not under the impression that the CPU Whine was software related. Most everyone who seems to have successfully combated the CPU whine has gotten their machine fixed (c.f. Daniel Jalkut @ www.red-sweater.com).
Apple's own tech article regarding CPU whine asks users to call Apple Care which seems to be code for: we need you to send it in.
I haven't had (or maybe just haven't 'heard') the whine, so I can't tell you what 10.4.8 does to it in this regard, but I'm guessing not much, one way or another.

Is CPU "whine" a sign of bad things to come, or just annoying?

I bought a MacBook Pro for my wife in April. It's been good -- especially after the firmware update cranked up the fans and knocked down the temps a bit -- but it has the CPU whine/buzz/high-pitched noise under the keyboard. Like the MBPs of other folks, it goes away completely if you open Photo Booth etc.
My question is, is this just an annoyance or should we worry about shortened lifespan of the MBP or other problems? My wife is loathe to give up the machine if it's not necessary, despite the aggravating sound.
I asked Apple Care this question and the rep said it shouldn't be a problem -- as far as she knows. I didn't find that as definitive as I'd like. What do you guys think?

There are different power saving modes, they are labeled C0 (full power) through C4 (deep sleep). By disabling C4 the CPU only can enter C3 (sleep) and therefore consumes a little bit more power. I don't know if this increased power consumption is significant, but I guess you will barely notice it.
Mario
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.6) Core Duo / 2GB

Is this the infamous CPU whine?

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