A quick update on my MacBook problems: I received the replacement power brick yesterday from Apple, but it had the same noise and heat issues as the original one. After around 30 minutes on the phone with Apple Support, I was told that there is a known issue with the power adapters and that I had gotten another defective one from Apple’s parts stock. The Apple Support rep said that he would send out another replacement power brick and that—for sure—it would not have the issues as the others. I received this third power brick this morning, plugged it in, and heard the same noises. Ugh. After another call to Apple Support today, I was told that they now needed to take a look at my MacBook and that they didn’t want to send any more power bricks. So, I’ll be taking the MacBook to the local Apple Store tomorrow to see if they can find what’s wrong with the power brick and/or my MacBook.
As for the mooing, well, I feel like I’m writing this from the pasture of a dairy farm, if that tells you anything. I swear, I must have the most talkative heffer ever living inside my MacBook. During Tuesday’s Apple Support call, I explained the mooing issue after taking care of the power brick issue. I was put on hold by a “Tier 2” Apple specialist who went to talk with an on-site Apple engineer. Said engineer stressed to the specialist that this was not a hardware failure of any kind. He said it was “totally normal” and that the mooing would in fact be addressed with a forthcoming firmware update. (I believe this as Apple has recently released MacBook Pro firmware updates that “adjust fan behavior”.) He said that basically every MacBook has the potential to moo if they reached the same level of heat/processor load. Also, I can confirm that the Mac OS X 10.4.7 update released late yesterday does not kill the cow. The mooing began minutes after installing the update and restarting the MacBook.
So, the power brick problem might not be a power brick problem at all. It might be a MacBook problem, which will anger me greatly if I have to send in the MacBook to get it fixed. (I’ll see how that goes tomorrow.) And the mooing problem should hopefully be fixed soon. I really, really can’t wait. It’s easily the most annoying issue I’ve ever had with a Mac or PC. But hey, at least it isn’t turning yellow.