Boot Camp, Windows driver issue may be damaging new MacBook Pro speakers

Some reports are circulating that Boot Camp users with heavy audio use in Windows 10 are experiencing random, loud pops, and seeing distorted audio after a period of use that can persist when the computer is rebooted into macOS.

Some users are experiencing a periodic loud pop out of proportion with the volume settings while booted into Windows. The behavior does not manifest in Parallels or other virtual machines. Additionally, users of only macOS on the new MacBook Pro are completely unaffected.

The loud pops appear to be manifested by what appears to be an out-of-date Windows audio driver in Boot Camp. Over time, users report that the pops are physically damaging the speakers.

Users seeing the damage are reporting across the board volume imbalances between speakers, and others report distortion when the volume of the audio in any OS above around 50%.

The problem does not appear to be related to a particular model of the new MacBook Pro family, with scattered reports surfacing from users of all configurations.

AppleInsider has contacted Apple about the situation, and was told to have users manifesting the problem contact Apple Care phone support to document the problem, and to make a Genius Bar appointment for assessment and evaluation.

Amelioration of the problem

AppleInsider suggests that users who must use Windows with Boot Camp plug in a pair of headphones or speakers into the headphone jack on the computer while inside Windows. This completely bypasses Apple's speakers, preventing damage.

Some users experiencing the problem have solved it through installation of the Realtek HD Audio Driver version 6.0.1.7989 released on Nov. 15. The updated non-Apple-approved driver appears to rectify the popping issue.

22 Comments

macxpress 16 Years · 5913 comments

About 8 years ago

Thats what you get for using Windows....*Waits for all the dislikes*

wiggin 17 Years · 2265 comments

AppleInsider said:

Amelioration of the problem

Somebody got out their thesaurus this morning. LOL

gustav 22 Years · 828 comments

So it seems like Windows lets you turn the volume up enough to blow the speakers. On regular audio equipment this has never been an issue, but computers traditionally never allowed the amplifier to run hard enough to do this. Given the speakers are integrated into the machine, this seems like a hardware design flaw. The amp should be hardware-limited.

dysamoria 12 Years · 3430 comments

wiggin said:

AppleInsider said:

Amelioration of the problem

Somebody got out their thesaurus this morning. LOL

What word would you have preferred? I give AI a hard time for constant typos and not proofreading, but I don't see a reason to get on their cases for utilizing an adult vocabulary.

macxpress said:

Thats what you get for using Windows....*Waits for all the dislikes*

Aren't bootcamp drivers provided by Apple? Sounds to me like this is one of those cases where Apple didn't do due their diligence because of disinterest in thoroughly testing something they don't care about.

My one attempt to use Bootcamp on a MacBook Pro was thwarted by bad trackpad drivers. That was on Apple because it's their custom trackpad. The audio chipset might be standard PC hardware but it's still up to Apple to make sure the drivers work correctly with their hardware.