5 Possible Causes of Annoying Studio Display Buzzing

The high buzzing sound of the Studio Display suggests that an external Apple monitor may be overly sensitive to electrical noise.

• What is happening? Studio Display owners are complaining about a high-pitched whirring or whirring sound coming from the back of the monitor when it is turned on.
• Why care? Apple’s external display is a bit pricey. You certainly don’t expect annoyances like buzzing from a $1599 monitor.
• What to do? If you’re affected by this issue, visit places like Reddit and the Apple discussion forums to express your frustration and share your experience with others.

Possible Causes of a Buzzing Studio Display

Online reports summarized by MacRumors describe a subtle buzzing or humming sound coming from the back of the monitor when it is turned on. The sound is clearly amplified when the Mac laptop is connected to an external Apple monitor. By analyzing the reports, we identified the following five possible culprits for the buzzing.

1. Fans

When the MacBook Pro is connected to the display, the Thunderbolt connection also provides charging. As a result, the monitor’s fans start spinning to cool the internal power supply, which can make a high-pitched whirring sound. This happens regardless of the state of charge of the laptop battery.

Putting the laptop to sleep or turning it off won’t stop the buzzing. The fans only stop when you disconnect the laptop from the display. If you have a Thunderbolt dock, try using it to charge your MacBook while the Studio Display is connected to the dock. Read: How to manage macOS external display settings

2. Software problems

We’re reading suggestions that updating your Mac to macOS 12.3 might fix problems with your MacBook Pro and any connected external displays. This is likely because the Studio Display update requires macOS Monterey 12.3.

This, of course, is not the first problem with the Studio display that owners have to deal with. Early adopters, for example, experienced several issues with the webcam and occasional speaker issues.

Shortly thereafter, Apple addressed both issues in the software. You should bookmark the handy support document on Apple’s website, which lists the changelog for Studio Display firmware updates. Read: How to upgrade your studio display

3. Faulty units

While this seems very unlikely, there is a remote possibility that all those people complaining about buzzing issues may actually own a faulty device. If you think you’re in the same boat, contact Apple Support and see what they have to say about the humming sound issue.

If you recently purchased your display, you may want to try replacing it, although people who have done so say it still hums.

I just received a new Apple Studio Display and noticed a buzzing sound coming from the top of the monitor. I returned it and changed it, but it still hums. Even the demo model makes it too storey. Has anyone else noticed this? Like something is stuck in the fan.

— liamac (@liamac5) March 23, 2022

Another suggestion would be to send feedback to apple.com/feedback requesting that the fans only turn on when the innards get warm.

4. Coil whistle

Some people swear they hear a buzzing sound coming from the left side of the display where the internal power supply is located. This suggests that the high-pitched electrical whistle may be caused by coil whistling.

5. Good old electrical noise

Some people who have reported this issue may have positioned their monitor too close to another device that may be causing electrical interference. This could easily explain the buzzing. Your monitor may pick up interference from household power circuits, dimmers, air conditioners, electric vehicle chargers, etc.

A workaround would require connecting the very device that causes the studio display to produce an audible buzz to a different circuit.

Electric filters do not solve the problem. If it can be determined that Studio Display picks up electrical noise and amplifies it, then the monitor is most likely suffering from an electrical shielding problem.

Your experience with Studio Display

We can’t wait to hear from Studio Display owners who are experiencing humming audio or other issues with their $1,599 monitor.

Apple appears to be aware of the buzzing issue, but hasn’t said at the time of writing if it can fix the problem in software. If you’ve come up with your own workaround for this problem, don’t be silent in the comments section below!