Fan noise (not moo or whine)

I have a new mbp, the second one, both whined. On this one while moving my laptop I can listen to the fan scratching against something. Should I worry about this and get it repaired now, I need my laptop a lot and I can't afford to be without it. By the way, it whines like **** and it's a 1,83ghz. I've seen 4 mbp 1,83 and they all whined. I've also seen a white macbook that didn't whine.
It's very difficult to me to get support and replace my laptop, no apple stores arround here. (Portugal).

It's very difficult to me to get support and replace my laptop, no apple stores arround here. (Portugal).
I know getting AppleCare support can be difficult in some countries. Does this list of Apple support numbers help at all? I know Portugal isn't listed, but perhaps one of the nearby countries...?
You don't need to be near a retail Apple Store to get warranty support, as long as you can contact AppleCare by phone.
On this one while moving my laptop I can listen to the fan scratching against something. Should I worry about this and get it repaired now...
It's not a good idea to move a running notebook Mac, although we all do it sometimes. Obviously they can moved a bit when in use without problem, such as when using in a moving bus, train, airplane, etc. But I've never had one that didn't make some ugly-sounding fan noises when moved abruptly. (The optical drive with a CD/DVD in it will also make horrible noises if picked up abruptly while in use. Not a good idea.)
In other words, unless the sound occurs when all you have done is lightly move the MBP, I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't jar the computer heavily when it's running. That's never a good idea.
If the sound does occur at the slightest movement of the computer, and it sounds like something is being damaged, then definitely call AppleCare if you can.
(Yes, we now have the sudden motion sensor, which should help in such a situation by protecting the hard drive. But that doesn't mean some damage can't still be caused by dropping or jarring the MBP. It's still best to avoid such things.)

Similar Messages

Minor Fan Noise (not typical, I don't think)

Have a new 13" macbook pro (june '09). The noise I'm hearing is not the typical HD "beep" noises or high pitched whines or any of that. It's a very subtle noise, seemingly from the fans. It sounds like a clock ticking at a faster rate. There's no vibration to the laptop or anything. I tried using compressed air at the exhaust but nothing. Help?

Hi there, I have the exact same model and this is exactly how I would describe the sound made by my Pro. I think it is actually giving me tinnitus.
It seems silly mentioning it as the level of sound is so low but it really does cut through me like a knife. In my case I would say that the noise is emanating from the far left side of the body, near the escape key. It is so subtle that the angle of my head affects to a large degree my perception of the sound. But once you notice it you become obsessed by it.
I also started telling myself that it has always made this sound but I honestly don't think I would have lasted 3 months with it were that the case.
I assumed it was the processor but I have no idea where that would be within the casing of the macbook so don't know if that is likely or not.
Does is the fast ticking clock sound constant or intermittent in your case? Mine is intermittent but the gaps in the ticking are brief, less than a second.

IMac Fan Noise - Not The Usual Problem

Hi,
I have seen plenty of discussions on iMac fan noise but mine is a little different. A week ago, a 'tink' noise (similar to tapping your fingernail on a glass) started coming from my mid 2011 iMac. At first, I thought it was the "click of death" for my hard drive, so I replaced it myself. This didn't fix the noise, so I ran an extended hardware test. This came back with a 4MEM error. I had some spare RAM, fitted it, ran the test again, no 4MEM error.
So, I booted the iMac again. 'Tink'... 'tink'. I finally located it to the bottom right of my iMac, where the optical drive fan is located. This fan has always rattled a little now and again but now it seems intent on driving me round the bend with its very own form of torture. At first, the 'tink' was now and again, but now it constant. 'tinktinktinktinktink'. Is there a way to stop the optical fan for now? I don't use the optical drive often anyway. Or would it just be a replacement fan?
Resetting SMC or PRAM does nothing.

This may be way off target, in which case ignore me. Do you have an app called Free Memory installed? There have been a few posts on here where it seems to cause repetitive odd noises to occur, particularly when running Mavericks?

Do MacPRo mid 2010 models run with level fan noises or uneven whine?

Apple is replacing my mid-2010 mainly because of a disturbing modulating, up and down, fan noise problem. Not sure of the source. At first thought it was 5870 graphic card, but haven't been able to nail down exactly why.
They claim that these machines run with a very even level noise, and that this breathing or modulating noise is not the norm.
I have read that these machines, relative to earlier models, are quiet hummers, at least relatively.. Do most people with this year's model have machines running at a constant noise level or do the fan noises, even at idle, modulate and whine up and down, even with light usage...or on idle. I don't want a replaced machine with the same issue. I do work in a quiet environment, and don't mind the fan noise, but the modulations of up and down sound like a tunnel and I need to turn off the computer at times. Model is 3.2 ghz quad core, with ati 5870 graphic card.
thanks

I am very much interested in comparison here too. Unfortunately our local reseller doesn't have any Mac pros to compare (they deliver only when you make an order:(). So I have no other machines to compare...
So I've read a lot of forums and generally there's no simple answer anywhere. People say that their hdd/optical is making more noise than fans. That's true to my case. Hdd/optical indeed sound louder than fans. From the other hand, I work in very quiet environment (no street noise, no ventilation noises in the room or whatever) and my new Mac Pro sounds... well loud! Once again - relatively it is QUIET, I can hear older PC from the other room (and the 'other room' connects through a corridor so...). Still, a lot of people mention that they literally don't hear ANYTHING from their mac pros except for hdd/optical operation sounds. I do hear fan noise...
So i was wondering is my room too quiet/ear too sharp;) or is there some kind of a problem with the mac pro and I should bother contacting retailers?
Anybody here who can compare their mac pro's with say mac book pros? I clearly hear fans of my mac book pro (even being idle) in the main working room and mac pro is like 2-3 (may be 4) times louder than mac book pro. This might be OK for tower, but definitely it is not 'dead silent'...
So far I've even tried some iPhone decibel measurement apps (yeah it's not even close to 'pro' measurements but no other means are available to me at the moment). They doesn't notice mac book (most noise measurement devices as far as I've read don't count noises beneath 40 dB for good), but mac pro is about 42-43 dB while idle at some 10 inch from the machine and some 45-46 if I bring the mic like 3-4 inches to the case. Is it like OK or what? Unfortunately all Mac pros I've heard before where in environments where even my 42-46 dB would be completely lost, so i cannot judge if it is OK. It is still one of the quietest towers I've heard/owned but those posts about 'dead silent' and 'only hdd/optical' make me a bit uncomfortable...
Oh, and the modulation. Indeed idle operation has some modulation. As far as I can tell it comes not from varying speed of the fans but rather from how frequencies of the fans inside of the case are different and modulate when added to each other (like those FM/AM in the synthesizers). More to say, there are angles in a room where other frequencies are heard (probably reflections produce some additional modulations)...

Mac Pro will not boot, constant loud fan noise and nothing else

hello,
earlier tonight,i put my mac pro on sleep, then later on, when i wanted to take it off sleep and use it, it made the loud fan noise, which it always does but goes away, but this time it the fan wount slow down and the loud noise stays and i dont see anything on the screen. im guessing the fan noise is the ATI x1900 card...
any help please..i just bought it 2 months ago...

Hi, here are the steps I would go through. I would unplug the Mac Pro completely from everything and look at the video card's fan intake to make sure it isn't plugged and just make sure everything "looks" correct. I would then plug the machine back into one monitor/keyboard/mouse (leave all the other peripherals disconnected. Once that is done push the power button. Does anything happen? If not then if you have another mac and an external hard drive, make a copy of the OS on the drive and see if you can get the Mac Pro to boot off that drive. If the video card doesn't work then it will not show anything when booting off an external drive. If the external boot does work then I would suspect that you have a bad hard drive (or it crashed). At that point I hope you have a back up of all your data and such.
Mind you these are steps I would go through. What a nightmare. One other thing to check, make sure your monitor didn't die.
Message was edited by: jlseattle74

T430s fan noise and fan speed monitor not working?

Hi, I just bought this T430s from the outlet store. I noticed a rather loud fan noise and found out s lot of compalints about the T430 model. I guess the problem I have is not as severe as those T430 users (e.g. the noise may not be as loud), but I still want to monitor the fan speed. Here's my problem:
1. none of the third party software can show fan speed, they can only show the cpu temperature, such as speedfan and aida64.
2. I tried to download the fanspeedcontrol driver from lenovo, but after installing it, the task manager does not show that the fanspeedcontrol exe. is working.
I do not want to change the fan speed, but just want to monitor the speed so that I can have a better understanding of whats going on. Does anyone have the similar problem?
Thanks.

Hi Alan, (I know this conversation was from several months back),
I don't know the answer to your questions. It seems that your fan is operational, as far as its most basic functional requirement.
I don't have experience with any particular software programs or widgets that indicate fan speed, sorry.
Do you have any view, through software, of the CPU (and GPU?) sensed temperature? Those would be very good data to observe.
If it were either disconnected or non-functional, I assume that your computer would report a POST error right after power-on (and self test).
But I just wanted to suggest here that in an unfortunate possible scenario, consider if the thermal grease on the heat sink(s) was inadequate (or was missing), then the fan would be running higher than normal (probably always spinning at a high rate), and it won't be taking enough heat away from the processor(s), i.e. inadequate cooling.
Which could be corrected by a technician (or DIY). This is pure speculation, it is not a definite, at all.
Larry

Have an iMac. Problem is I hear the fan noise, yet no power on the screen yielding no power. I have checked the power cord and it seems to be fine. Not sure if computer is a total loss. What would be the next step?

Have an iMac. Problem is I hear the fan noise, yet no power on the screen yielding no power. I have checked the power cord and it seems to be fine. Not sure if computer is a total loss. What would be the next step?
<Email Edited by Host>

What does the EMC# say on the base?

Our brand new quad core imac will not start up. We hear a drive and fan noise but the screen remains black. Any suggestions?

The computer shut down on its own while we were gone and will not start up again. When we press the power button we hear drive and fan noises but no chime and the screen remains black. Any suggestions?

A pretty common thing for computers that have been shipped is a RAM chip becoming dislodged just enough to cause what you are describing. Try re-seating your RAM chips. Basically just pull them out and push them back in. Take a look at this article if you need some direction on this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423

Return for Fan Problem (aka mooing)?

Has anyone actually returned their Macbook for the fans coming on and off (or "mooing")? If so, did you get a moo-free MB?
The mooing isn't too bad - and I have hope that software could fix it; but if there are Macbooks that don't moo, man, I would like one. However, no point in going thru the process if there is no possibility of getting a moo-free MB.
Thanks.

There definitely ARE some that do not moo. Or if they do, they do it much softer. Last night I had a white one that, every 10 seconds, would moo. It was horrible. Even with my TV on, I could still hear that fan revv up and then revv right back down, then 10 seconds later the process would repeat itself. I certainly couldn't live with that. I'm a student and would surely be kicked out of class with a laptop that sounded like a zoo, lol.
So anyway, I returned it today (demanding an exchange). What got me is when I explained the moo'ing to the girl, she sounded surprised and that she'd never heard of the problem before. THEN she takes it in back for about 5 or so minutes and comes back out and persists my MacBook didn't have a fan problem. I told her the machine had to be running for about 15-20 mins before it would kick in. Well she's gets my exchange and then continues to tell me "they're supposed to do that." She said hers at home did it. She also even commented about the posts on these forums about it at that point, too. I was thinking, okay then why didn't you tell me that when I explained the problem? I have a feeling the manager told her to tell me that.
Well, I got my black one home today and have been using it for about an hour before work (while it charged), and now for almost 2 hours (running down the battery). I've only been using it lightly and my temp hasn't gotten higher than 60C even on AC power. Perhaps this is why it doesn't moo? My white last night was close to 70C (on light use) and the moo wouldn't quit.
Unfortunately, this one does whine (somewhat loud on AC power, but very very soft on battery). However, that is a non-issue because turning on bluetooth shuts it up right away, or using QuietMBP works also. Whine I can deal with, but there is no work around for the moo.
So, my advice, is yes, return these moo'ing MacBooks. Like others have said, the more returns they get back for this fan issue, the faster they will (should lol) correct it. There's no need in my eyes to sell a laptop that behaves such as some of these do. I do not pay well over a thousand dollars to have to sit in a zoo-like atmosphere. And that's exactly what I told the sales woman. A lot of times I sit in quiet and this fan noise is too loud to ignore. However, I really do believe this is tied to a heat issue, because it is clear some of these run much cooler on light use than others do. That must be why I haven't heard the fan on this one - my temp is much lower than the one I had that moo'ed.

2 years of this fan noise....check my temperature?

so i've been battling the dreaded imac g5 (first gen) fan noise for the entire 2 years I've had the computer now. one midplane (out of 3 now? 4?) almost fixed the problem, but it had other problems. For the past year I have just let it go as it was in a room with a noisy window air conditioner and a noisy PC. Now I've moved and am back in a quiet room and the noise is unbearable.
Took it back to the apple store but they said it wasn't noisy (and it seemed less noisy there, not near as much "whine", but that could have just been all the ambient noise as well - music, crowded store, etc)
but my real question here is what temp should the imac g5 (1.8ghz) run at? at idle my CPU usually sits at about 155, under load about 165-170. this is acceptable right?
maybe its just a sign to give up on this machine and be an early adopter with the new mac pros and get to deal with whatever engineering probs are there (had the cube before this, bought right when it came out, cracked case, flaky sensor, temp problems, etc) or learn my lesson and wait another 9 months or so
I'm also having USB problems, but Apple told me they couldn't replace it (logic board) because my headphone jack is broken and that part isn't under warranty even though the USB is. sigh

Hi Eric, you might get more help posting in the G5 forum. This forum is for the iMac Intel Core Duo.

IMac g5 fan noise with update to 10.4.11

Has anyone else experienced this?
I have never had any problems with fan noise with my iMac, though I know it's a problem, till the recent update to 10.4.11. After restarting, it sounded like an airplane. Never heard that before. I shut it down and restarted, and it doesn't sound like a plane anymore, but the fan is noticeably noisier than ever before, a constant whine/hum.
Besides the energy saver fix and resetting the SMU and canned gas in the vents, any other suggestions? This is annoying, it's been running pretty perfect for three years till this. Thanks.

The questions are certainly not dumb - almost anywhere is cheaper than Apple for RAM, I recommend [macsales.com] and [smalldog.com] or [newegg.com]. I don't think that going back to 10.4.10 will help, you should really vacuum the vents to get dust out, and make sure that there's nothing hogging your CPU and making the fans noisy, look at Applications>Utilities>Activity Monitor to see if anything is using an unusual amount of memory or CPU.
If you do want to install Leopard, I would suggest making a full backup of your system,I use SuperDuper! to clone my system to a firewire external drive. You should certainly upgrade your RAM if you install Leo, but I don't think your machine will be any quieter with a new OS.
You need to remember that your machine is several years old, and that things get creaky with age (I certainly have). Since you have the iSight, it's not a simple matter to open it and clean the fans off. If you are really disturbed by the noise, you can take it in to an Apple service place and have them clean and oil the fans, which should help enormously.
Sorry I couldn't offer more help, but fans will, and do, get noisy.

WRT1900AC Fan Noise

My WRT1900AC router runs hot all the time even when there is no internet usage. I wake up and it's running extremely hot. I'm come home from work and it's already running hot. The fan used to be quiet. All I heard were ticks. Soon after it became an audible small fan noise. Now it's an annoying small fan on full blast with annoying coil whine to boot. The fan turns on 1-3 times an hour. I have kept it in an open space.

What all is connected to it. Where is the router place? In a open, well ventalated area on wooden shelf or desk is recommended and not in direct sun light.What ISP service and Mfr and model # of the modem you use? Disconnect all but one or two devices to see if the router runs cooler. What is your uptime and load rate when you log into 192.168.1.1\sysinfo.cgi. Post this here in the thread. Also as a extra measure you can place a laptop cooler under the router and us it for additonal cooling if you need. They run quiet.

Finally ready to fix my cpu fan noise - can someone PM?

So I have a 17" rev a imac (1.8 ghz) - now that my 3 year Apple Care plan is up (a new power supply, 2 new logic boards, and a new hard drive later) - I am ready to do anything to fix the model airplane fan noise/whine coming from the CPU fan. I know when the issue has at the forefront a couple of years ago, there was a housing modification that seemed to work for a lot of people, but I haven't been able to find it again. Could someone PM me with info about it if you know of it?
Thanks!

"Could someone PM me with info about it if you know of it?"
Sorry, Apple Discussions is a user to user message board without a PM feature. Reason is this: we (all users) ask that you post all questions to the appropriate discussion forum. This allows other users and other helpers to have a chance to view and respond to your post. *That way, everyone benefits from the exchange.*
Except for the keyboard & mouse, disconnect all devices from your computer.
See Knowledge Base Article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733 iMac G5: How to Reset the SMU (iMac G5, the iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor), and the iMac G5 (iSight)).
See if your computer qualifies for the G5 iMac Repair Programs
**WARNING: DUE TO SECURITY REASONS, PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR COMPUTER'S SERIAL NUMBER ON THESE MESSAGE BOARDS.**

Problems with new Yoga 2 Pro (battery, fan noise, yellow, screen orientation, on-screen keyboard)

I purchased the Yoga Pro 2 on Thursday October 17. I love the computer for so many reasons, (especially since it replaces my 4 year old Compaq that was 6.5lbs!) however, I am also having a few issues with it.
It is the i7/8GB/256GB model from BestBuy. I am experiencing the same yellow issue as is mentioned by many on here. I didn't realize it, though, until reading these forums and then comparing to my old computer and my ipad and iPhone. A little disappointed, though it looks like Lenovo may be working on a solution.
But the real reason I originally came to look at this forum is because of 2 things: my fan and battery.
The fan (on the right side of the keyboard) is always on! I didn't expect this, and am wondering if mine is a lemon or if others are noticing the same thing. It's pretty noticeable, especially in a quiet room. I was showing off my new computer to a friend and the very first thing she said was that it was loud! She was using a MacBook pro, which wasn't making any noise at all.
The second thing is the battery... I am attaching 4 photos all taken within a few minutes of each other. If you cant see them, they are all of the battery meter on my screen. I am listing the time of day (to show how much time passed), percent remaining, and time remaining:
10:04 (88%) 306 hr 15 min
10:05 (88%) 8 hr 48 min
10:09 (86%) 4 hr 54 min
10:29 (81%) 5 hr 12 min
I feel like my computer just cant make up its mind!!
Another issue I had... I turned on my computer to show it to a friend (same friend who said it was noisy) and the screen image wouldn't flip when in any of the modes. This means I showed her the stand mode with an upside down image. Even in tablet mode I couldn't get it to flip. I turned the computer off and then on again, and luckily it decided to work, but it was frustrating, and I hope it's not something that becomes an issue.
Also, when I have the computer in tablet mode, the keyboard automatically pops up when I click somewhere to type... but this doesn't happen in stand mode or tent mode. Is this normal? I would have thought that the keyboard would appear in any of those modes, since the real keyboard is not accessible in any of them. And of course now that I am testing it out while writing this, none of the modes (including tablet) is having the keyboard come on screen. Of course, I know I can always choose the icon on the task bar to bring up the keyboard, but it would be nice if the computer did it automatically since it knows there is no other keyboard accessible in those modes. Is this an issue anybody else has had?
I really do enjoy using this computer, but some of these issues really need to get worked out if I am going to keep it. I'd love to hear if anyone is experiencing anything similar, and if there are any good fixes!

I just got a Lemontine Yoga 2 Pro i5/8GB/256GB from lenovo.com and the silver one from BestBuy in the same configuraiton. The silver one has no issues except for the crazy number of hours remaining on the battery which is fine, doesn't bother me. The fan noise is very quiet, and you can only hear it if you put your ear up to the vents in a quiet room.
Now the Clementine one...It was heating up pretty good. I put my ear to it on many occasions and can hear nothing at all, the fan is either missing LOL or doesn't work. I had an issue where I left the thing on for 4 hours, but sleep is configured after 5 hours. When I tried to use it, it showed me the screen brielfy, then blank. Tried hard reset, called Support, nothing. Support says its dead. Ok, an hour later, it turned on. I'm guessing it was too hot and was in some mode to protect itself, like a smartphone that is left out in the sun for some time, it won't power on till its cooled down.
I'm still in process of trying to get a hold of Lenovo to swap it, but since they no longer sell this configuration, I doubt they'll be able to get me a new one.
The silver one from BestBuy us solid though, love it, best in class in my opinion...actually got it from Future Shop sorry...from Canada, but they're essentially the same store.

HP TouchSmart 610-1280qd CTO Desktop PC Fan Noise

Hi,
Can you tell me if a loud CPU fan is normal for this computer?
The CPU fan is working very hard and the CPU and GPU are all ~38 degrees Celcius. The bios reports 1100 CPU Fan Speed and 3800 system fan speed. It sounds like my CPU fan is actually spnning faster than that.
Thanks
SOLVED: I spent some time with technical support and they had a model in the lab and confirmed that the loud fan noise is not by design. I returned my Touchsmart and received a new replacement and it is almost silent. I checked the BIOS and the fan speeds are reporting 1100 CPU Fan Speed and 2100 system fan speed with the same low temps above. I believe in my original machine they did not install fans right by swapping the plugins on the motherboard; I do not have solid evidence of this though.
I hope this help and just know that these machines should be very quiet most of the time other than some low level harddrive access noise.

Hello sal4303. I understand your screen is going blank.
Have you tried changing the settings for how long it takes your monitor to turn off? Here are the instructions.
Let me know if this has an effect on your issue.
Have a lovely afternoon!
Please click the white star under my name to give me Kudos as a way to say "Thanks!"
Click the "Accept as Solution" button if I resolve your issue.

Fan noise (not moo or whine)

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