Are you troubled with having filthy laptop/MacBook speakers? Do dirt, mucus, and dead skin always find their way on the speakers’ grills? Do you want to find a solution to this dirty mess? Then I’m here to help you with your dirty speakers.
Laptop speakers often get dirty when it has been exposed to a lot of objects throughout the laptop’s lifetime. You may have been using your MacBook with filthy hands or accidentally spilled some soda on your speakers that may damage your speakers and make them look dirty.
MacBooks, and other similar laptops, have grill speakers (the holes/grills you see on your laptop where sound is played). Without proper cleaning and maintenance routines, the speakers can be blocked, filled with dirt, and possibly may be damaged if still used within these conditions.
With enough knowledge and my tips and tricks on how to clean it faster, safer, and more accessible, you’ll be able to use a newly cleaned MacBook speaker and listen to crisp and fine-tunes with no problem.
How Do You Clean Laptop Speakers Holes
The easiest way to clean your laptop speakers is to vacuum all the dirt away and brush off small debris together with a micro brush to remove all the dirt and filth stuck in the grills of your speaker holes.
Similar to the laptop’s screen and keyboard, the laptop speakers can also catch some dust and dirt every once in a while. Most people disregard cleaning the laptop speakers because they don’t know how to start cleaning the laptop speaker holes.
According to PC Webopaedia, there are different ways you can clean the laptop speaker holes. You can clean it using a brush, a toothpick, a vacuum, and even a lint-free microfiber cloth that’s good at absorbing oil and dirt in confined spaces.
Why Is My Mac Sound Crackling
It’s because of the Core Audio service. The main role of the Core Audio service is to process audio on your Mac. Kill the Core Audio service and force closing the service may help you to fix crackling noises. Go to Applications, select Utilities, and launch the Terminal. Run the sudo killall coreaudiod command.
Killing the Core Audio service may be one of the reasons your MacBook sound is Crackling. By running the sudo killall coreaudiod command in the Terminal, you’re forcing the Core Audio to close and restart.
MacBooks have an issue regarding its macOS where sound crackles and is more likely OS issues. In an Apple discussion thread, it’s highly recommended to restart your computer in safe mode.
If you own a newer MacBook Pro model powered by an Apple Silicon chip, follow the instructions below:
- Disconnect all power cables and shut down your MacBook completely.
- While it’s starting up, continue to hold on the Power button, until you see startup options on screen.
- Select your startup disk and click on the Shift key, and hit the Continue in Safe Mode option.
- Type your credentials then check and see if the crackling noise still exists.
After that, boot into macOS recovery, know all About macOS Recovery, select “Get help online” from the utility pane and enter a site that has audio. From there, check and see if the issues occur here. macOS runs in a separate operating system, so if the problem is software-related, it would not be present in macOS recovery.
If this is the case for you, you need to check my similar article, Is It Worth Getting a MacBook Fixed? (Detailed Prices Inside), to know if getting your MacBook fixed as this can be an irritating error to face.
How Do I Clean The Speaker Grill On My MacBook
Use a brush and a vacuum to brush off and suction all the dust and debris that can be found on your MacBook grill. Make sure you brush the grills gently and carefully to remove the dirt away from the grill and be sucked by the vacuum cleaner.
Here Are The Different Ways Your MacBook Speaker Grills
1. Using a Electronic Cleaner
With a vacuum cleaner, the dirt and dust will easily be sucked out of the MacBook’s speaker hole since most vacuums come with a mini brush attachment so that dust will either be blown off or be sucked in the vacuum cleaner, depending on how you utilize the vacuum to clean your speaker grills.
This is the best way to remove dust if you have a vacuum available in your household. It’s more effective when used on a laptop with a dusty speaker hole (with no other sticky/mucky debris) since a vacuum’s blowing & suctioning power is best suited for removing the filth.
2. With a Brush
With a pain brush or a toothbrush like the ones you can find on Amazon, the Small Portable Plastic Handle Nylon Anti Static Brushes Computer Keyboard Cleaning Brush Kit, you can try to gently brush off dirt and other debris that’s found in your MacBook holes. Brushes have fine fibers that can reach the depths of the speaker hole where the dust hides.
One pro tip I can give you is to cut the brush short. That way, the fine fibers are harder, which can make cleaning your laptop speaker holes much more efficient. You don’t have to do this, but this is what I recommend, so cleaning is made more accessible.
3. Using a Lint-Free Micro Fiber Cloth
Using a lint-free microfiber cloth like the MagicFiber Microfiber Cleaning Cloths can clean your MacBook grills a lot easier. Dust can linger around your laptop speakers and may even enter the grills and holes.
Over time, this dirt and dust will pile up and clog all the holes in your laptop speakers, which can lessen your laptop’s volume and may even damage your laptop’s speaker if something else enters your speaker.