On a quiet day, I noticed some odd crackling noise coming from my brand new MacBook.
At first, I thought it had something to do with the hard drive.
Crap, I said to myself.
After a bit of crawling on forums, I drilled to the core of the issue.
The problem seem to have stemmed from thelaptop’s sound system.
Apple implemented a power-saving feature which turns the audio subsystem off after about 20 seconds of inactivity.
These crackle sounds are most obvious when connected to external audio systems or headphones.
The syndrome mostly affects portable Macs but there were several incidences involving iMacs.
Here’s how to cure it: download Antipop.
There’s still a very silent pop once in a while.
Perhaps that’s a separate issue.
Antipop doesn’t use very much processing power.
In fact, on my 2.4GHz Intel MacBook, it uses close to none.
Antipop was written to run only when connected to AC power.
If it doesn’t work for you, uninstalling it is easy.
initiate the uninstallation script that is found in the Antipop DMG image.
After your system reboots, Antipop will be removed.
Antipop was tested only with Leopard but it should also work on Tiger.
It weird but that’s how it goes.
