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chenyichung · Sep 18, 2006, 04:31 PM

When you place your hand on your macbook's keyboard or palm rest, can you feel the vibrations from the fan spinning?
I can feel my macbook vibrating from when it's first turned on until I turn it off.
I don't think my fan ever cuts off.
I've got a build week 35 macbook, so I know the logic board should be ok, and the firmware update to better controle the fans was already installed. I just don't know why it's makin' the moooooing sound and why I can feel the vibration 100% of the time.
Very weird.

dparker · Sep 18, 2006, 04:48 PM

I don't have a macbook. When I was at the apple store testing one out I felt the vibration your talking about. Not sure if the fan was on or not but it was definetly noticable. Wonder if this is normal?

pat++ · Sep 18, 2006, 07:07 PM

The logic board should be OK starting week 36 (regarding random shutdown/logic board/heatsink). And yes, I did notice the vibration too at the Apple store.

craigb6 · Sep 19, 2006, 12:27 PM

I think the vibrations you are feeling is your optical drive spinning up, then spinning down. Well at least that's what I think is vibrating in my MB.

bingpwr · Sep 19, 2006, 03:07 PM

I feel the vibrations from the fans, but it's pretty weak. I feel it if I rest my palms on the palm rest, which is rare. I know it's a 'palm rest', but I think it's for only after you're done typing. Change your typing habits of resting your wrist on the palm rest and typing since this can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. I also started typing like this to prevent the damn palm rest from staining.

chenyichung · Sep 19, 2006, 03:17 PM

it's more the moooing sound that bothers me

scottious · Oct 1, 2006, 11:23 PM

I've had my Macbook pro for just over a month now and I think I know what the vibration feeling is.

First what's not:
1) definitely not the CD/DVD spinning as when I don't have a disc in it still does it.
2) and my macbook doesn't seem to actually shake and makes no difference how fast the computer is running,

so i believe it is an electrical current passing through your fingers, earthing out or something. Very faint but it's there (a little scary).

3 reasons why i think this is true:

1) If someone else is touching the computer and you light touch their arm or actually any part of their body you will feel the same vibration on their skin.
Still not convinced?
2) try touching and running your hand accross the computer with one hand and it vibrates. Now put your other hand still on the computer at the same time, and you won't feel it with the moving hand. I think this may have something to do with the current completing a circuit through your body (i'm no electrician).
3) try running your hand accross something that isn't metal on the computer (eg. screen, spacebar, rubber bit where the computer opens up).

Maybe this is why in the manual it says that you shouldn't use the touchpad with wet hands?

Dillon-K · Oct 2, 2006, 12:55 AM

The only time I noticed anything was when the optical drive was reading/writing... O.o

xsphat · Oct 2, 2006, 03:19 AM

Just got my MacBook, and I haven't noticed a vibration yet.

How do you guys find out your 'book's built week?

amru · Oct 2, 2006, 03:35 AM

thnks to simon as i didnt know either

Originally Posted by Simon

Serial number = 4H6xy...

4H is the factory code.
6 = 2006 is the production year.
xy is the production week.

xsphat · Oct 2, 2006, 05:17 PM

Cool! Thanks, mine is a week 36 built

hookem2oo7 · Oct 19, 2006, 11:12 AM

I've experienced this vibration with my macbook. Monitoring the status of the superdrive with SpindownHD (part of Apple's CHUD tools) revealed that it was indeed caused by the optical drive. When the status changes to Sleep, the vibration ceases. In addition, when it Sleeps, the battery life increases by ~20 minutes according to the menubar

SLiMeX · Oct 19, 2006, 02:23 PM

Sometimes I can feel the fan spinning, but then I wonder if it's just my hard drive...

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 04:54 PM

The mass of the fan blade is so tiny that it's unlikely that you could actually feel it unless it's really defective, in which case you'd feel quite a lot and it would ALWAYS happen when you could notice fan operation by air movement or software indications.

The hard drive, on the other hand, spins enough mass that you probably can feel that. I really don't think the fan would ever be physically noticable on any current or recent Mac laptop; it's not on my wife's iBook, nor on my MPB.

hookem2oo7 · Oct 19, 2006, 04:56 PM

I'm fairly certain its the optical drive... Vibration when it is active, no vibration when it sleeps...

ghporter · Oct 19, 2006, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by hookem2oo7

I'm fairly certain its the optical drive... Vibration when it is active, no vibration when it sleeps...

Optical drives are far more likely to produce noticable vibration because optical discs are not always well balanced-in fact they're often significantly off balance, which is one factor that can reduce the theoretical read speed of a disc. A hard drive, on the other hand, is usually very well balanced, so you don't feel the platters moving as much as the heads moving back and forth.

Tuoder · Oct 19, 2006, 07:14 PM

I really think that it is the hard drive. It is worse when an optical disc is in there. I don't think i is a fan. I have the same thing. I hear the fans when they come on. They are not on all of the time. The problem here is that we can't all hear each other's laptops.

C.A.T.S. CEO · Oct 19, 2006, 08:47 PM

I get a slight vibration, but its not something to get worked up over.