Sunday, September 4, 2022

High-Pitched Buzzing Sound With Studio Display

Tim Hardwick:

There are complaints on Twitter, Reddit and the Apple Support Community dating back to June, and more recently on the MacRumors forums, about the issue, which is variously described as an “electrical buzzing” and “constant ringing” that is “loud,” “high-pitched,” and “very annoying.”

Several owners have found that the sound is not fan-related and only happens when a MacBook Pro or iPad is plugged into the Studio Display. Some have also noted that the noise can vary in intensity and pitch depending on the time of day, suggesting an electrical shielding issue may be the cause of the fault.

Of course, one the reasons people wanted Apple to make this display is that the LG one had shielding issues. Thankfully, I’ve not been getting this buzzing, but I’ve had problems with the display’s camera, audio, and USB.

Previously:

Update (2022-10-06): Alvinyang:

I have this problem and this is my THIRD replacement. The whining electrical buzzing high pitch noise is very annoying!!!!!!!!

4 Comments RSS · Twitter

Here in the UK, three-prong power plugs often have fuses in them. Some years ago, I had a high-pitched noise coming from something in my home office, and it took a long time to find where it was coming from. It was coming from a fuse in a plug (I forget which device, but it might have been a UPS). Replacing the fuse solved the problem. I wonder if there are fuses inside the Studio Display.

Capacitor / coil whine from when the display is charging the device plugged into it?

Hardware is hard

Might be worth adjusting the brightness and seeing if that makes a difference.

Once had a Mac Pro with an Apple LCD display, which was producing a buzzing noise through the speakers attached to the Mac. Turned out the display was one step below full brightness, and raising the brightness stopped the buzz.

That LCD may have had a CCFL backlight, and if so that might have been the root cause of the buzz, and it wouldn't effect the new displays.

But it is worth a try.

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