kkapoor

So it seems that someone on the official Apple MBP forums has found a permanent fix for the whine issue.

1. Find the file 'IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext' in the /system/library/extensions folder.

2. Make a copy and place it on the desktop or another safe backup place.

3. Trash the file from the system/library/extensions folder.

4. Repair permissions.

5. Reboot.

Caveats:

1. 1st boot after this will be about 30-45 seconds longer.
2. You will lose about 30 mins of battery life.

Positives:

This proves that the whine is due to a poorly written power management driver. The 'IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext' controls the 'Speedstep' function on the MBP i.e. CPU throtteling under battery power.

The good thing about this is that my whine is completely gone and the computer is dead silent!!!

Now I just hope that Apple can write a decent power management driver so that I can get my 30 mins of battery life back and so that my system can boot in the 30 seconds that it used to. Until then this method suits me just fine.

WorldIRC

Very interesting...anyone else test?

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dona83

ew 30-45 seconds longer? Back to the PowerBook G4 days lol...

the battery life of the MBP is short enough... is this solution acceptable to anyone else?

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MacME

you can actually "move" the kext folder (it's not actually a file) into the directory system/library/extensions.disable.

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kkapoor

This is more like a proof of concept more then a permanent fix. It only proves that the fault is in the power management driver for the MBP.

The funny thing is that my Thinkpad T40 had the exact same problem with whining under battery. A couple of power management driver revisions later the whine was eliminated.

monokitty

Very interesting. Though I find the whine somewhat annoying, I'm not overly inclined to sacrifice 30 minutes of battery life to shut it up, personally. As mentioned earlier, the battery life of the MacBook Pro is short enough as it is, let alone shaving off another 1/2-hour on top of that.

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overkill

Does anyone know if the more recent MPBs that have come off the production line are having the same cpu 'whine' affect? I know that they have corrected the issue that was occurring with the screen emitting a sound when you would turn the brightness up or down and that it would only stop making a noise if you turned the screen off.

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kkapoor

I have a week 16 machine manufactured last week and it has the whine.

Ohenri

kkapoor, can you post the link to the original thread on the Apple boards?? Would like to see how others have dealt with it as this topic has been en fuego out there.

As well, is this the same whine that iMac users are getting?? I have a fierce one on my G5 2.0. And it's mostly teh fan (I guess) coming on all the time. Anyhow, just checking for now...

But many thanks for the 'workaround'. But I would like to read some more testimonials.

Looking to buy a MPB 'whino', but the reports are driving me nuts.

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kkapoor

Here's the thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....61317&tstart=0

It's obnoxiously long. Ignore the hack instructions at the beginning.