Fan runs at max almost all the time on a 2.16GHz MacBook Pro

My fans are running at 6000 rpm for no reason. I've noticed this for a while but now I realize something is wrong.
I tried resetting the SMC (pulled the battery, held power button down for 5 seconds) and no luck. As soon as I turn it on and it comes up with the log in screen, the fans are running at 6000 rpm. I have 51 processes running right now and the one using the most cpu is activity monitor at about 2 to 4 ('m assuming percent).
I'm wondering if there is another way to reset the SMC on a 2.16GHz MBP?
And has anybody else had a similar problem?
Should I redownload and reinstall the firmware update for this model, I think I recall a while back a fan firmware update for it?

I've had the same problem.
On my 2.16 C2D MBP it was the thermal sensor of the GPU's heatsink that was intermittendly losing connection (you can see that in programs like Temperature Monitor and Hardware Monitor).
I opened up my MBP and reseated all the little sensor connectors I could see and now it works again...
First I'd run Apple Hardware Test from the installation DVD, it may throw an error that you could post.
Peter

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Fan runs at full speed all the time

The fan on my brand new iMac 17" runs at full speed all the time, creating an unbearable amount of noise. The activity monitor shows 99% spare time, i.e. nothing much is running.
I updated all software, checked the firmware version (it was the latest already) and performed an SMC reset. I also unplugged it for several hours, as some people have suggested.
I downloaded smcFanControl and it says that the ODD fan is running at 5200 rpm all the time. The CPU and HDD fans seem to run at normal speeds. smcFanControl also reports a cool 39 deg.
Does anyone have any idea of what to try to fix this problem?

I don't have a solution but thought I'd add a computer that showed the same behaivor.
A 20" iMac I was configuring for my company did the same thing, but just once so far. I used it briefly just out of the box and didn't have any problems. It's a stock install of OS X 10.4.8, no other software installed. Turned it on several days later and the fans ran during the 2 hours I used it to run Safari via Airport. I turned if off after it started to smell like hot electrical components. Activity monitor looks completely normal. After shutting it off for two hours, unplugging and re-plugging AC and keyboard, it came back on with no fans. I did not do the SMC reset or any updates between the power cycle.
ps. Repairing permissions is Voodoo
http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repairpermissionsvoodoo

IMac Fans running at maximum speed all the time

Hi Appleians!
I have an iMac 20inch with 8GB RAM and its an i3 intel processor. I purchased it from a friend of mine who had replaced the original hard drive with another that amounts to a terabyte. Now the fans are running at full speed all the time making it way too noisy to work with. It however works smoothly with no problems except the fans are irritating, it does not heat up though. Anyone with a solution? I tried resseting the SMC it didnt work.
`Oh and the computer is running on Mavericks.
Please help!

See the suggestions by mende1 here > Mac fan runs all the time

Can use of smcFanControl all the time be destructive to my macbook pro?

Hello forum,
I grilled my hands on my MacBook pro for over a year now till I found this lovely small application called smcFanControl. This app really keeps the temperature of the surface of the keyboard low only if the fan power is >50-60% all the time.
Now my question is if it is harmful to the fan if it's working all the time? or is there any limit for that? like say higher than 90%?
Thank you,
Stan

I would just like to chime in here and vouch that these fan control apps will make a difference when graphics or video ecoding (Handbrake) for example.
Then there is the other side of the hill, where encoding and CPU is normal for that high temp because you wouldn't expect video to encode at a cool would you.
Then again, while these apps do their job, be careful, as "forcing" the speed to to stay cool may genate more heat as fans spin up to reduce to cool it down. Thats my understand anyway. Based on that i'd prefer to just use iStat to monitor, not control which control.
I mean, the temps rise for a reason when encoding/ graphics intensive use. Your basically asking the machine to take it it its limits, which may work fine, but its probably on the boarder line.
Also, just for the record, its not only Apple that has sensors that prevents overheating.. Most Intel chips do and shutdown when heat is above and beyond.
Just out of curiousity, what is the max. fan temps on the MBP ? I know it was 6200rpm on the 13"

15 " MBP C2D fans running at full speed all the time

hi
just purchased new MBP C2D 15 inch, the fans are running all the time at full speed (or at least sound noisy).
i know there were several updates on earlier machines but none for this one that i can see.
SMC Version: 1.12f5.
any idea's please.
thanks

A very reasonable thought although it's clearly not DOA. Nor do we know whether it was bought as a CTO or not. The requirements for classing a system DOA are very clear and this system, while possibly not operating correctly, certainly is not a DOA.
I would however make every effort to determine the cause of the problem. Potentially the issue can be caused through software and no fault of Apple. Being able to quantify an issue does go a long way to resolving it.

X800 fan runs at full speed all the time. Help!

Hi folks,
Apologies if this has been answered before - I tried to use the search but to no avail!
Anyway, I recently purchased an X800 and installed in my G5 1.8DP (OS X 10.4.9) with the intention of having something to drive my shiney new 30" Cinema display. All booted fine and, in glorious wide-o-vision, I spent the next 30 mins playing with all of this extra screen real-estate. At that point, I started to notice that things were not as quiet as I'd initially anticipated. In fact, the amount of fan noise was so high that I'm not going to be able to use the new card as the machine is part of a project recording studio installation. Doh! So, a quick trawl of the ATI web site lead me to the ROM updates claiming to address fan speed control. Update to the most recent version of the ROM and no change. Similarly, I've installed the most recent version of teh ATI control panel. Odd as other people seem to be saying that they're not experiencing the same problem. And strangely, the GFX card fan runs at a low "normal" speed in Safe Boot mode whilst installing the ROM updates.
Any ideas what to do next? It would be great to get this working but I'm kinda stuck. Otherwise, it's to ebay with the X800 and time to find a 9600 which has passive cooling.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Mike

Hiya,
Thanks for your thoughts. Yup, I'm starting to think this is just one of those things and I need to swap for something with passive cooling. The mac fans seem to be fine although there have been moments when they decide to have a mad minute or two. I think the card next to the graphics card (digidesign core card) is not going to help. Was previously pretty acceptable at normal monitoring levels with the 5200 Nvidia but now you can hear the machine over conversation levels which is tedious. Was thinking about moving the machine to another room or get a quiet rack to house everything but it might be easier to use the cash for a Magma chassic and use my Powerbook. Or stop using Protools and go for Logic? lol! .....
So, anyone want to swap an X800 for a 9600? Ebay, here we come ...
Cheers,
Mike

Fans running at high speed all the time

Hi,
I still haven't found a fix for full throttle fans at start up and session on my imac 11,3 mid-2010, 27", 2.8Ghz, i5 since Mavricks installed.
CPU temp 72 degrees F, CPU fan 3992 rpm, optical drive fan 3589 rpm, CPU usage <2%. Installed boot rom 1M112.0057.B01 is the latest version available.
Resetting PRAM & SMC don't work. As with others with mid-2010, 27" macs running 10.9, AHT does not work with the D key or the Option/D keys, so no hardware test.
Worked fine with 10.8.
If someone has a working solution, please let me know. Otherwise I will have to wait for Apple to release a fix. The fan noise is extremel annoying.
Thanks

I hate to say this but 72º F for the CPU is not hot. Did you have a hard drive replaced recently?
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

My fan(Left only) is running at high speed all the time since last update. Any ideas? (Mac OSX version 10.7.5 on 27" mid 2011)

My left side fan is running at full speed all the time. I have downloaded free fan speed control app but does not help. Any advise

Fan Control Apps/Utilities generally can only raise the speed of the fans and not lower them.
Disable, turn off or uninstall whatever Fan Control that you installed and reset the SMC.
see > Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
Then if the iMac's fan is still running fast, you probably have a loose sensor cable or bad thermal sensor and the iMac needs to be taken into service
see > Apple - Support - iMac - Service FAQ

Often I will leave my office and return to find the fan running at max speed and the computer is unresponsive

I also have a MacPro3,1 (2009) I believe and just started experiencing similar issues as described here.
I have scheduled sleep and start cycles and often I will leave my office and return to find the fan running at max speed and the computer is unresponsive or I find the computer booted in to disk utility mode.
I also often loose ethernet connectivity and have to try renewing DHCP lease several times before it will finally work.
Has anyone found solutions for this. I have looked at the console errors right before shutdown and don't really see anything fishy. Here are the last couple of lines before it looks like it shutdown.
12/4/14 10:08:37.447 PM xpcproxy[5066]: assertion failed: 13F34: xpcproxy + 3438 [D559FC96-E6B1-363A-B850-C7AC9734F210]: 0x2
12/4/14 10:08:58.145 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:08:58.193 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:08:58.235 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:08:58.269 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:08:58.301 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:08:58.662 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:09:57.998 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:09:58.142 PM mds[38]: (Normal) ImportServer: Ignoring blacklisted Spotlight importer plugin:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode. mdimporter uuid:548A3091-3C5D-498A-A329-B532A6C896BB version:1085
12/4/14 10:10:30.000 PM kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 1514, Messages)
12/4/14 10:10:31.129 PM mDNSResponder[39]: DHCPWakeTime: SCDynamicStoreCopyDHCPInfo index 0 failed CFDateRef start 0000000000000000 CFDataRef lease 0000000000000000 CFDataGetLength(lease) 0
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
<Re-Titled By Host>

Mac Pro early 2009 is Mac Pro4,1, anyway, I think you need to boot into recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, then select startup volume and run repair disk.
Xcode is the latest one, by the way?

Macmini running at 1.83GHz all the time...

My Mac mini CD 1.83 arrived yesterday. I am surprised that it runs on 1.83GHz all the time even I only open Adium and Safari (but doing nothing). Does it sound alright? cause the temperture stay on 55-63'c all the time, will it be too hot? Any feedback is great....Thanks in advance.

You raise some interesting points, to which I would like to respond - as much from curiosity as to your conclusions and observations as anything.
"smcFanControl" is a small app that will allow you to
set the minimum fan speed to a higher value than the
default 1500rpm. I have now set mine to 1750rpm and
the temps are now46/39C (core1 and core2). HD is
44C.
I can't entirely understand in what way users of this software feel the standard fan control based in MacOS is deficient - and that if it is in a specific system, why it would not be considered better to have that fault resolved rather than circumvented. That someone has written software to control the fan does not, in itself, suggest users would be wise to avail themselves of it.
I can not exclude the possibility that this may
decrease the life expectancy of the fan, but it
should definitely INCREASE the life of the
logicboard's components and harddrive.
'Should definitely' is a good disguise for lack of certainty! There is, for example, no indication that the design of the Mac mini's logic board would benefit in any way in common use from running cooler, and to take one of your later points regarding not wanting to cause vibration by use of the internal optical drive in order to avoid damage to the logic board, no reason to believe that the increased fan speed you have selected will not cause greater vibration impact over time anyway. That said, there is nothing to indicate that the logic board suffers from vibration damage anyway, but if it does as you suppose, then surely fan speed is just as much a potential culprit.
Someone else has reported that removing the top case
lowers the temps 12C,so it seems the Mini IS
suffering from it's diminutive size, not
unexpectedly..
It is self-evident that removing the casing would cause the system to run cooler, as would be expected in any conventional design where a box encloses a heat-generating source. The issue isn't whether it runs cooler that way, but whether the heat levels when running in more conventional 'assembled' mode are in any way damaging to the system.
There is always the possibility that your supposition is right, but if the history of laptops, for example, is anything to go by it would seem likely not. I have both Mac and PC laptops that have been in service for many years combined service and suffered no ill effects of temperature, vibration, even minor impacts and general handling abuse - things which the manufacturers (including Apple) have clearly designed the product to cope with. It is certainly true that both my iBook and TiBook run much hotter than my mini, that their optical drives create far more vibration and their cooling systems are far more challenged by cramped internal design, yet they both function flawlessly, despite continual heavy use. My experience is not, as far as I know, untypical. It leads me to believe that Apple have some competence in their design of products, and that they actually do know what they are doing.
Ultimately, given that the mini is heavily based on laptop technologies, it seems to me there is no reason to believe it will fare any worse in reliability and capacity to cope with heat and vibration than laptops do - and it certainly has more internal 'space' to allow air circulation.
However, removing the top case will expose it to
RFI/EMI, so the chance of it crashing due to nearby
radio transmissions will be somewhat higher..
Not really. The sides and base of the mini are metallic, though the clips that hold the sides to the base are plastic and there's no indication of a solid electrical contact which would help screen spurious RFI. The top panel is, however, a form of plastic, which has no RFI screening characteristics, so any stray radio frequency energy in the area is capable of leaking in there. Radio frequencies are not particularly directional (except when approaching microwave levels), and the worst common RFI generators are typically VDUs, which are normally above the mini anyway.
Much more of a problem than RFI getting INTO a mini is RFI getting OUT! The top panel is transparent to radio because both Bluetooth and Airport antennas are inside the unit under the top and they have to be able to 'see' out, and computers typically generate far more RFI than they are likely to receive in a normal home. Try putting a mini next to an end-fed wire antenna connected to a shortwave (HF) transceiver or receiver. The lack of screen on the wire allows a lot of stray RFI to get into the signal received! People generally don't notice RFI at that level anyway, and of course most modern domestic appliances, such as TVs etc, are designed to screen it out.
My personal choices are intended to make the mini
live as long as possible, and this includes not using
the internal optical drive AT ALL, since any
vibration from this will be transferred directly down
to the logicboard. This is not really my idea of
healthy design..
I can't disagree with the notion of using an external optical, though in my view not because of vibrational concerns, but simply performance and usability. I think all the indicators are that Apple's designers know far better than I do about what the system itself can cope with and how to design it to be robust enough to withstand time, but the optical drives used are frankly not that wonderful in terms of performance, and can be problematic to extract a stuck disk. An external allows the user to select a unit which specifically meets their need, and is more likely to allow easier retrieval of disks in the event of a failure.
Seems to me as if Apple's priorities were to make it
small, good looking and quiet, and they succeeded in
that. I wonder if life expectancy were ever part of
this equation..?
You imply it wasn't, but there is no evidence of that being so, and plenty of evidence it was. One has to accept that no modern product is designed to last an eternity, and the mini is certainly no exception, but as far as it is possible to tell from a model life that is still a little under 2 years, there's no indication that the mini will not last as well as any other system. certainly in my experience, one of mine has been running 24/7 since the end of January 2005, and it shows no indication of getting tired or suffering any problems - and I can tell you without any doubt that in that time it has suffered a far harder working life and higher consistent load than the average home system would get in twice that time or more.
A number of Apple's designs in the past have shown
that thermal management is not really their biggest
strength, so a little self-help here can go a long
way..
I can't help but wonder what you mean by this. I own three Macs which specifically are famed for high temperatures; an iBook, a TiBook and a G5 dual processor powermac. The laptops run hot, as laptops do, but are clearly designed to cope, and the G5 has incredibly efficient cooling which means that for the most part the fans barely do more than idle - indeed, the cooling of the G5 is really a masterpiece in its own right. Given that the switch to Intel results in lower overall heat generation than the PPC counterparts, it allows Apple to design systems of far greater power than was possible before without increasing heat generation beyond (or in many cases such as the Mac Pros, even as high) as those systems that went before.
For example, to get similar performance from a PPC mini that an Intel model is capable of producing, would have required a G5 (or indeed, dual G5s) which would have been impossible to accomplish in this sort of design. The Intel chips now being used allow substantially better performance without markedly increasing heat levels - indeed that was the argument used when justifying the switch. Intel minis do run hotter than the G4 models did, but at substantial gains in performance.
I'd say that makes for good thermal design - understanding the limitations of the physical space and ensuring the product is engineered with those factors in mind.
Overall, I think you raise some great issues for discussion, and no small number of common concerns. But, for example, the simple issue of heat levels, often argued as critical to component reliability because of heat stressing, ignores the fact that component and board tolerances and manufacturing standards have improved radically, and that in reality it's not, within operationally tolerable margins the temperature at which the system runs that is the actual problem, but the width of variation of temperatures as the system is in use. Variations around the steady-state operating temperature are what causes the worst effects of heat stressing, most likely to cause component failure, not the steady-state temperature level itself.
Anyway, I didn't set out with the intention of trying to demolish your arguments, and I hope it doesn't come across as such - indeed, quite the contrary, I wanted to explore the thoughts and issues because they are interesting and of no small value to the community of owners overall.

Little circle turns/ page doesn't load/ problem triangle comes up almost all the time

The little connecting circle comes on and turns no matter what -- whether it's from a bookmark, an email, a typed in address. It turns and turns, then either times out or says problem loading page ALMOST all the time (I can't figure our why or why not). I just downloaded the latest versions of both Firefox & Thunderbird. I check my AVG and Firefox has a clear pass.

It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/fix-problems-connecting-websites-after-updating
Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Creating a profile":
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

HT201263 my ipad give me the apple sign without running up it appears all the time in the screen , i tries to reset my ipad , but still in this problem , can you please help me?

my ipad give me the apple sign without running up it appears all the time in the screen , i tries to reset my ipad , but still in this problem , can you please help me?

You may want to look at this about using recovery mode to restore your iPad.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4097

Verizon's iPhone 4S is dropping the first call almost all the time?

Hi.
I have a verizon iPhone 4S.
Everytime I make the first call to someone, I don't hear anything.
When I end that call and try calling again, it works.
This has been happening almost all the time.
I tried letting the phone app turned on but it doesn't solve the problem.
I'm not sure if other carrier's iPhones are having this problem.
Does anyone know what the problem is to this?
Thank you very much.

I tried letting the phone app turned on but it doesn't solve the problem.
What does that mean?
Try a reset by pressing the home and sleep buttons until you see the Apple logo, ignoring the slider. Takes about 5-15 secs of button holding and you won't lose any data or settings.
If still a problem, restore.
If still a problem, take it in to Apple for a warranty replacement.
IMO, you'll probably end up taking it in to Apple but the other steps are worth trying.

Knows someone why my iphone 5 is shuting down by itself, almost all the time?This is happening to me since I updated to iOS 6.1.3!

Knows someone why my iphone5 is shutting down by itself for no reason, almost all the time?...
This is happening to me,since I updated the iOS 6.1.3.
Please!!! Someone??!!!

If no change after restoring the iPhone with iTunes from the iPhone's backup first followed by restoring as a new iPhone or not from the backup, make an appointment at an Apple Store if there is one nearby.

Should I run Firefox with Rosetta all the time?

I was just wondering if it's a good idea to run Firefox with Rosetta all the time or will the browser run faster if I turn it off when it's not needed?
I need to turn it on enough to make me think it'll be easier for me if I leave it on all the time.

It will run faster and use less memory if you let it run natively- whether the loss in speed is made by the convenience of not having to switch it (for whatever reason you're switching) is a personal calculation.

Fan runs at max almost all the time on a 2.16GHz MacBook Pro

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