Comments on: MacBook Squeal / Whine (Core 2 Duo) – FIXED!

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:51:10 +0000

exactly, right on–apparently, this is an issue with one of the sleep levels of the cores on these processors, so keeping them both with a load on them keeps them from sleeping, and thus the noise stays away. (some of the first “fixes” for this whine actually were running photo booth, which used both cores!)

i can’t remember which of the sleep levels it was that caused this, but a different fix for you would be to figure out which one and disable it–google should hold the key.

By: Sae Geas

Sae Geas — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:41:13 +0000

I’m just reading this with interest. I have a first-gen Core Duo running Linux with both the whine and flicker problems. (Both of course are extremely grating on the nerves.) I don’t know if the flicker is gone, but I fixed the whine just before reading this. I fixed it by writing a tiny C program to load (one of) the CPU very lightly:

main(){ for(;;)usleep(50); }

For me a value of 50 is enough, but 100 is too little. (Smaller numbers make a heavier CPU load.) When I run this program the whine stops instantly; when I kill the program the whine resumes instantly! Hmm…

By: Jason Villa

Jason Villa — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:48:29 +0000

1000x thank you!!!! Annoyed beyond belief… I literally typed “what the hell is the squeel from my macbook” into google and this site was the first result!! I’m a little paranoid its running hotter now but im happy the noise is gone.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:43:49 +0000

evidently, this is still a problem for people, and shhmbp is still working on macbooks. i’ve been running it for over a year with no ill effects, so you can probably feel pretty free to use if necessary. glad to be a help to everyone in need!

By: isotopes

isotopes — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:32:18 +0000

I put this on my regular late 06 MacBook and it killed the whine. Thanks a million, it was driving me nuts.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:19:55 +0000

As a side note, I used to have a wicked screen flicker, and now that problem seems fixed too! Wow. I’ve had it in the shop twice for the screen flicker, and everytime they tell me it’s ‘normal screen warm-up’. Which it wasn’t. But miraculously this has done it! There are lots of people out there with the flicker problem, hope they find this!!

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:02:59 +0000

THANKS SO MUCH!! I have a regular Macbook 2GHz and the squealing seemed to be getting worse by the hour. Installed this fix and BOOM…all gone. Hopefully for good. Thanks again!

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:21:05 +0000

Glad to help!

By: Tya Writer

Tya Writer — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:27:27 +0000

DUDE! THANK YOU so much for this information!
since installing leopard, the high pitched squealing noise started in my MacBook and it has been driving me CRAZY! i took it to the apple service center, they said they fixed it. i got it home, and NOPE! still there!!!! funny enough, i discovered if i ran i tunes, the squeal wouldn’t happen—go figure! ANYWAY! who wants to have to do such quirky things when it shouldn’t be there in the first place!!! so i googled the problem, found your blog, and i said “what the hell!” and gave it a go.
sure enough……..PROBLEM SOLVED!!!! (and knock on wood, so far no subsequent problems resulting from downloading software for “MacBook Pro ONLY”…
you are my HERO!
THANK YOU a thousand times!!
cheers,
Tya