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Rattling noise within laptop while typing or shaking

I am on my third rMBP (first had a defective battery, second had a defective hinge). After a few days usage, I am noticing that a large item inside of the laptop is loose. It can be heard when typing, and seems to knock on the bottom cover when the laptop is closed and shaken. I took it to the Apple Store today, and shook it in front of the "genius". He told me he couldn't hear it or feel it, and took it in the back room and had "15 people try to hear it" as well, but none of them could. He reports opening it and seeing nothing wrong. When he handed it back to me, there was no rattle.

Sure enough, I'm home and I'm using it once again and the rattling has begun. When I close it and shake it, I can hear it knocking around inside. What's strange is that as I let the laptop cool down, the rattling minimizes or goes away.

Is there a chance that the battery glue is weak on this particular unit and is coming loose when the laptop is hot? If so, what should I do? The Apple Store geniuses are consistently unhelpful when I visit the store.

Edit: I might also add that the object seems LARGE, like what I believe to be the battery cells or a board within the unit. I've worked on laptops for 15 years and this is the first laptop I'm literally locked out of (pentalobe screwdriver on the way). Just wanted to do some research in the meantime. Not sure what to expect when I open this thing.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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I'm having this same problem but the rattling happens if I tilt my computer left and right and also back and forth in the other direction. Sounds like its under the keyboard and nearer to the screen, not under the wrist pads. Also can't recreate the sound if I tap the wrist pads... Does this mean something else is loose in my macbook Pro? I bought it new last year, full price...

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Mine has this same sound... it is coming from the cd drive.... when I close the laptop nothing happens but when it is open and I tilt it from left to right I can hear i.. I manually entered a disk in and it only went in a little over 3/4 of the disk and stopped so I spun the disk a little bit and something shaved a little bit of plastic off of the side...

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Hey I had the same problem. I am using MacbookPro 2017 Touchbar and first laptop I got was having the same issues where there is a click noise when I close the lid and also rattling noise when I shake the laptop. First I took it to Genius and they said they don't know and as performance is good, they will not take the issue seriously but I replaced the laptop from the seller. I got a new one and I shaked it again and I had same rattling noise and I was super angry on seller thinking they sent me the same one without replacing but there was no click noise when I closed the lid, that is when I realised he sent me a new one. I took it to genius again today and today technician was a good guy and after running diagnostics he told me that it's coming from under touchpad and it is common as it is a moving part designed for Mac and he also showed me a picture, so if you shake your laptop and if you hear something is moving that is totally ok, even the technician brought his laptop and showed me which had same noise.

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Ok, so it seems like alot of us here a... Apple users. Unluckily for me I am not sure if any of this applies to me, becuase I am loyal to microsoft windows... so... I have a hp. I have this problem except its a smaller rattling when I move my HP or tilt it side to side. Again, it's a smaller noise. Help?

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I noticed the same rattle on my brand new MBP 15" Retina and found this post. I looked at the internal pics of this Mac and it looks like the only thing that could be rattling under the palmrest is the battery. It is a distinct sound of something being loose. I noticed it first when I picked up the Macbook and it sounded like something was broken. The iFixit teardown explicitly shows that glue is used to hold the batteries down. My assumption now is that the glue is failing and the batteries have come loose. I can easily reproduce when holding the Macbook open on my lap and tapping on the front right and left corners of the palm rests. If I lightly shake the open Macbook left to right I can also hear something inside shifting left to right. My hope is that this is not intentional and is some sort of manufacturing mistake. I will be showing this issue to a genius bar this week.

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I opened the laptop and here's what I saw: http://imgur.com/gKgjY

It's definitely weak battery glue. This, Apple, is why you should use screws. Now I gotta take the thing back.

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Sean, thanks for posting this. Yours and my suspicions confirmed. I can't help but think this must be happening to lots of people. What a shame on Apple for such a simple design flaw. Taking my MBP in on Sunday!

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Update: I took my macbook into Apple and had the genius bar look at it. They took it off to the back room and 15 minutes later brought it back. The loud rattle had stopped and the genius told me that they had to tighten down the screws of the back panel. He didnt say anything about the battery when I asked him about it. I spent some time trying to make it rattle again and it seemed to be fixed. A few hours later the rattle was 100% back. My guess is that they opened it up and merely pressed the batteries back down, which didnt permanently fix the issue of faulty glue. Next step for me is to open it up myself and confirm that the glue is loose and take some photographic evidence and then demand a replacement. Either that or find some glue that is safe enough for me to glue it down myself. Such a shame that I should have to be dealing with this on a $2400 product.

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Before I showed them the photo (and risked being accused of tampering with the batteries myself), I took it to the Apple store a second time, turned automatic graphic switching off, and ran a stress tester to get the machine nice and warm while I waited for the genius to arrive. When he got there, I closed the lid and shook it, and let him shake it. I also told him very specifically that I hear the rattling coming from underneath the wrist rest, that I'm aware of the battery's being adhered by glue directly under the wrist rest, that the problem is most apparent when warm, and that I suspect the glue is losing its adhesiveness when warm (though the batteries are now loose 100% of the time).

I know this was all a bit of overkill, but these guys have a tendency of pushing customers out of the store. Needless to say, a new unit is on the way. I didn't end up showing them the photo.n't necessary.

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Oh, and the genius said that this looks to be a refurbished unit with old adhesive and new adhesive applied on top. Funny, this thing arrived brand new in a sealed box and I paid full price...

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I am having the same issue with my 13" Macbook Pro Retina - Has been back to Apple 3 times and had the screen and chassis replaced. The issue was gone after the chassis was replaced which included batteries and now its back again 3 months later.

Going in again tomorrow and demanding a new one as I have had enough of the issue, mine sits on a desk most of the time which is probably why the glue is letting go but if they cant engineer a laptop to sit on a desk then thats not my problem.

Update

UPDATE: My Macbook was replaced with a new unit. Apple store believed this was the first time they have seen the fault lol.

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I just got my MacBook Air sent to apple like 4 days ago, how long did it take for them to send u a new one?

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Hi i also have this rattling problem, mine is relatively loud, located in in the middle left side of the laptop between bottom of speaker and the Z key i think.

Makes noise even when laptop is stationary and on a cooling pad.

im afraid of going to genius bar and getting tricked and not getting the issue resolved :S.

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I use a Lenovo yoga 2 pro and kind of know what it would be like to have a problem such as this on an expensive laptop, so if I were you (anyone with the problem) i would go to the genius bar quietly put this website on then as if accidently, turn it round and look confused, make it seem awkward then seem outraged. and believe me they'll do something... hope this helps (:

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Hi, I have kinda the same issue at my rMB pro 13(early 2015), I went to apple service and they said that the matrix of the display is not well fit, and my screen will be replaced. Hope that will help, I should wait 1 month for delivery of the screen :/

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did they fix it? has the problem gone away?

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hey i'm facing this problem of ticking sound when the laptop is tilted. Please help me!

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hello

even i have this problem. My rMBP 2015 is making ticking sound when tilted. I visited the service centre many times but they could neither fix the problem nor they are giving me a replacement(according to them, the hardware is all okay so they cannot give me a replacement).

Guys is it okay to use the laptop like this.

If not please help me. guide me what i should do.

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Contact apple directly! It's not a normal! :-/

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Hi, I have the same problem with my MacBook 12 inch what is really interesting because Apple said it's all without any mechanical components. On Monday I will bring to authorized service in Czech and we will see. I hope it will be changed. Does anybody try to contact apple management directly? Sorry for my english, I am not native speaker.

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Hi did apple fix the problem ? I have the same 100% and im from Czech Republic too. thanks Tony

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Hi, please write me mail on L.Zelinko@me.com ... I will send you what I got from apple.

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I have the same issue as well. I took it to Apple 4 different times, and the first two visits they basically told me that I'm hallucinating. On my third visit, they took in for repair and disassembled and rebuilt it but the noise was still there when I tilt it. I took it in again last week and they changed the top case, and guess what, the noise is still there. I asked for a new MBP to replace this one since the issue is not being resolved and I have brought it in so many times, but they refused to do anything more for me.

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Not a MacBook user, but having a similar problem if anyone could help me...

I use an ASUS notebook laptop, running Win8.1 Pro, and currently, it is making a soft, yet annoying, clicking noise. The noise mostly occurs when the laptop is tilted up and down, and seeing as that rarely happens with me, it shouldn't be an issue however it is bugging me incredibly now.

The noise comes from, in my opinion, above the keypad and below the screen. The object doesn't sound big at all, nor heavy, and could easily be mistook for a speaker disk with it's dimensions and weight, but I know for sure that's not the case. Listening to what a few of you have said, I definitely feel at this point something is loose and that Battery damage is imminent.

My only explanation for as to what may have caused this is an accident which occurred around January 2016.

I had the laptop perched on the edge of my bath and sink, listening to Music as I dried my hair on it, when it slipped back. While the laptop was fairly dry, it was wet enough in the bottom to be noticeable. About 5cm of water, which the laptop fell from approx. 50cm into. The Laptop instantly went black, from the jolt, and I immediately ran in to plug it in to charge and get working. Before, the charger worked fine, however at that point the charger did not work and I could not turn it on. Whilst it was charging, it was still off.

About 3 days later, we tried again and got a slight reaction out of it. Then, out of the blue one morning it began to work again. The problem was, it died instantly when the battery got too low, to like 6%. As well, it would turn off immediately if you plugged it in to charge while still on it and working. Instead, you had to wait for it to be turned off first. Anyways, after some tinkering from a tech savvy friend, it was working again- slow at first, then gained speed and became pretty well working. I have it in this state now.

It started staying on while charging now, and my main problem is, as mentioned earlier, the ticking!

What do you think guys? I personally believe it knocked the battery out of position...

Thanks,

Tom

chokeoutmc@gmail.com

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Hey i am having the same problem with my macbook pro 2015 but they said that they identify this as a cosmetic problem so there is nothing i can do. They have already opened the laptop and nothing was found -.- . can anyone help me and tell me what to say and how in order to get my laptop fix.. its not normal to have loose parts in a laptop!!

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I have same that problem too. What should I do?

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Sean will be eternally grateful.
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