Strange "Chick" Noise - NOT HARDDRIVE

Hi Guys,

2011 Macbook Pro 15" running OSX 10.7.1 Lion.


This is my first ever post so be kind. I have searched, and found nothing. Maybe my searching skills aren't great. I apologise in advance if this has been covered.

Basically, I am getting a strange "chick" noise from my speakers at a reasonably regular interval. It is not a hardware noise. It is a software noise. It is definitely a digital sound coming from the speakers.

The bizarre thing is, this used to happen on my Windows machines. I can't believe it's happening on my Mac too.

1) No it isn't a hard-drive click when I move my Mac suddenly.
2) I have no speakers plugged in. It's coming from the regular, built-in speakers.
3) A week or so ago I was having an issue where after having headphones plugged in, when I took them out I no longer had audio. The volume buttons just caused the 'muted' icon to display on screen.
Going to Utilities -> Audio MIDI setup showed there were no sound devices installed.

At the advice of a forum somewhere I went to Library\Preferences\ and changed \Audio to \Audio-old then rebooted. Apparently this is a fix. It fixed the problem. I now no longer have this issue. However, now I'm having this bizarre intermittent "chick" sound. It occurs around every 15 minutes. I should time it.

I know that last paragraph will get me flamed for sure. "WHY CHANGE SETTINGS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING?" etc. What can I say? I'm a tinkerer. I followed the instructions to resolve an audio issue.

Does anyone have advice? Has anyone ever had this before? Is it possible to "reinstall" audio drivers on a Mac? Or is it possible to run some sort of maintenance?

Cheers all!

Fixed title although I have no doubt that a "chick noise" would get this thread a little extra attention.

Edit: Changed it back since after closer read - I guess you meant 'chick' - but I have to admit, I have no idea what a 'chick' noise is.

BrianLachoreVPI said:

Fixed title although I have no doubt that a "chick noise" would get this thread a little extra attention.

Click to expand...

Cheers mate. I appreciate it. The funny thing is though, it sounds exactly like "chick!". I've googled click noises and all I get are foaming, rabid threads about dying hard drives. I was hoping someone would google "chick" noise lol!

Still, I'll wait and see what people say. I've searched high-and-low. Creating a profile and posting a thread was the only course of action.

Thanks again

Piers

MacPiers said:

Cheers mate. I appreciate it. The funny thing is though, it sounds exactly like "chick!". I've googled click noises and all I get are foaming, rabid threads about dying hard drives. I was hoping someone would google "chick" noise lol!

Still, I'll wait and see what people say. I've searched high-and-low. Creating a profile and posting a thread was the only course of action.

Thanks again

Piers

Click to expand...

I changed your title back - since I saw you reused the term in your post. Can you describe the noise a little better - or perhaps post a recording?

I find it very interesting that you've experienced this on your Windows machines previously. Leads me to believe it's either environmental or perhaps some common audio SW that you have running on both machines?

Do you get this noise if you take the MBP to another location - say a library or coffee shop?

BrianLachoreVPI said:

Edit: Changed it back since after closer read - I guess you meant 'chick' - but I have to admit, I have no idea what a 'chick' noise is.

Click to expand...

I know, it's hard to describe.

Um...well, a click noise is sharp. This noise isn't so sharp. Imagine the word "chick" but without pronouncing the 'i'. So it's like "chck".

Blargh! That makes no sense. Hopefully someone will have had the same issue

BrianLachoreVPI said:

Do you get this noise if you take the MBP to another location - say a library or coffee shop?

Click to expand...

Yes, I get it at my office, at home, on my desk at home etc. Everywhere. It's very odd.

I genuinely cannot think of a piece of software that could be causing it. I can try to get a recording of it at some stage. I might leave the laptop on the desk with my phone recording some time.

Not sure when I'll get around to it though.

Out of curiosity, if you open System Preferences->Sound and go through the various alert sounds, does it sound like any of those? Particularly "Tink" and "Frog."

Have you ever installed or played with a 3rd party clock app that might "chime" on the quarter hour?

If it occurs regardless of location then it has to be some sort of common software between the machines.

I have the same problem

I found this by searching "chick" sound because that is the only way to describe it. I had the same experience - other searches turned up "your hard drive is fried" posts. This is my first MacBook Pro and at a seemingly regular interval, my mac makes a "chick" sound. maybe more like "chi." it sounds a little bit like a cricket if a cricket only made a one syllable sound. It's almost like my mac is reminding me that it is on. Has anyone found an answer to this? I'm not really concerned that it is a problem - more curious than anything.

Someone should post a video or soundclip...

Me too !!!!! And I worked out what it is.

Hi MacPiers

I just upgraded the hard drive on my MacBook yesterday and when I got it home I found that it was making that same 'chick' noise. Good description by the way. That's exactly what it sounds like. Anyway, I timed it and it was about every 2 minutes for me which is what my automatic send/receive setting was for Entourage when I was using it. I had started using Outlook and it must have copied the settings to that and if you go into the send/receive schedules and 'Notifications and sounds' and untick the 'No new messages' box, it stops. Press the PLAY triangle and it's the chick sound!!!!

No more 'chicks' on my MAC. Sad but true.

Hope this helps.

Ahhh - is that the sound in question? I've gotten so used to it - it's just Outlook running through it's send/receive process - and the more accounts you have - the more 'chicks' you hear...

Yes. If you live in a household full of girls like I do, the less extra 'chicks' you have to listen to the better!!!

Okay, normally I'm someone who would prolong wisecracks and jokes at every opportunity, but I have to apologize for being a buzzkill.

By any chance, is it possible your speakers are simply picking up some interference?? Like cellular signals or other signals????

???????

Nope? Like I said, it was the default send/receive sound when you have no new mail in Outlook. Finished.

Unreal! I have searched for months for the ticking noise issue, and like you all, found the faulty hard drive. Tonight, for whatever reason, I googled "chick" sound, and found this post. peterin, you are spot on. It turns out, I switched to Outlook from Mail about the same time, and never occurred to me that the tick or chick noise on my Macbook Pro, coming from the speakers, was a notification sound. That has to be the most annoying noise ever. And now, thanks to you guys, it is gone! Thanks!

HOLY CRAP!! I have been suffering with this nuisance of a noise too when I switched from Mail to Outlook, and also found annoying "faulty hard drive" resolutions. Thanks to you, I have solved this issue too! Cant believe it alerts you when you have NO New MAIL ??? What kind of stupid feature is that Outlook!! I am soo relieved.
THANK YOU AGAIN! I spent 10mins looking for my mac-forums username/password just to thank you for this resolution, thats how happy I am!!

I am having the same problem.

Only thing is...I am not running Outlook.


Its a soft "chk" sound that comes from the internal speakers or in my earphones if i have them plugged in.


If its not outloook...then what is it?.
It's not Mail as i have turned that off have still heard it afterwards.
I THINK its skype...when i turn it off its seems to stop. Then u never know as its rather random.
Also i have checked all the sound settings to off in skype prefs... so i dunno.

stumped!!

It's Messages

Hi all,

This thing was irritating me as well. But after reading this thread, i realized that i started getting this sound only after i had enabled my gmail account on messages. See by default, messages is configured to play a sound when ever any of my buddies either signs in or out of gmail(gmail is what i am using, but it would apply to any account that you have configured to messages) i was getting the chichk sound.

Now to get rid of this sound, you simply have to go to messages>prefrences>alerts
Once in alerts, uncheck the 'play a sound' checkbox for the events, Buddy Becomes available and Buddy Becomes unavailable,:Blushing:

For all those who still are confused about the chick sound, they can check it out by doing the same thing as mentioned above, but instead of unchecking the play a sound checkbox, select the already selected value by clicking on the dropdown and again clicking again. You should get a preview of the sound.

Cheers.

Praise him with the strings. \m/

fixed the chck scratching sound Outlook 2011 for mac

OK,

I had exactly the same problem, was able to narrow it down where I heard the sound only when Outlook was running. I have a macbook pro retina screen, solid state hard drive, so I knew it wasnt a drive or a fan.

Anyway, the chick sound is outlook checking emails and not downloading anything.... and when you have several email addresses, that chick sound happens a lot, and in groups of 4-5 of them.

So here is how to get rid of it:
Go to Outlook > Preferences > Notifications & Sounds

You will then uncheck the box that says "No new messages" box, and that annoying chick sound will disappear!

Hope this helps.