Fans spinning up for no reason on PowerMac G5

We have a PowerMac G5 (2.3 GHz) which is having some odd issues with the fans. There have been times that the computer was just sitting, doing nothing and all of the fans kick in. When I was booting the computer up from a CD, I also saw this problem with the fans going and blowing papers around, it was so bad.
I ran several hardware checks, but didn't come across anything wrong (dying hard drive, bad RAM, etc.). Any ideas on what is going on?
I've also seen this issue with some iMac G5's, that once in awhile the fans will just kick in for whatever odd reason.
I did a search for a firmware update, but I'm not finding anything in particular.
Yesterday there seemed to be no problems. Is this just an intermitent problem? Or something to be concerned about?

Chad, try resetting your PMU/SMU and nvram. It can't hurt and has helped several people with exactly the same problem.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341

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CPU fan spins up for no reason and never spins down

I'm having problems with my new and otherwise immaculate iMac Intel 2.4 GHz. The CPU fan often spins up to 3500 rpm for no reason, even when left idle.
There are no processes running to justify the noise (no Spotlight indexing or anything) and the temperatures are as low as can be.
I have tried resetting PRAM and SMC many times to no avail.
Usually putting the Mac to sleep and waking it up slows the CPU fan down again, but it will go nuts at 3500 rpms sooner or later.
Once the fan has spun up to 3500 rpm it never spins down again unless the iMac is reset or put to sleep and woken up again. Even when hours of useless fan spinning has left it freezing cold.
SMCFancontrol won't help as it can't slow down fans only make them go faster.
Apple Support suggested I'd take it in for repairs but I'm reluctant as this smells like a Leopard/Boot Camp Issue from what I gathered on the boards. Also the repair service in Denmark is outsourced to third party repairers of questionable quality.
Any ideas?

I got my iMac back from repairs. They said they couldn't reproducere the error which might be as it at times appear very sporadic. The fans began to spin within the first day of use after I got it home though.
It seems that more and more users on the boards experience this problem. My theory now is that this must be a software issue as it usually begins once people update to Leopard 10.5.2.
The problem manifests itself like this:
The CPU-fan will start blowing at 3500 rpms for no reason (CPU-load and temperatures can be as low as can be.)
The CPU-fan will never slow down again by itself. Even after hours of unnecessesary spinning has left the Mac freezing cold.
Putting the iMac in sleep mode and waking it up again will temporarily slow down the CPU fan down to the usual 1200 rpms (usually for about 10 mins).
Resetting PRAM and/or NVRAM (SMC) will not help.
Installing SMCFancontrol will not help as it will only let you speed up the fans further - not slow them down.
So now I really hope Apple will address this problem with a new OS X release soon.
Still, if anyone manages to fix this problem with a hardware replacemnt please let us know.
Cheers, Jez

Macbook pro not starting up. fans spin only for a second.

Hello.
Okay so my MacBook Pro won't start up. When I press the power button I hear a weird sound like something trying to move but not being able to and after a second when its shutting down I hear it again. I've taken hdd and dvd rom out and the weird sound still comes. I removed both ram modules and the computer starts beebing the error sound. I tried srarting with only 1 ram module and nothing. The fans spin for a brief second and then stops. If I hold down the power button it stays on until the sleep light start to blink and then shuts down again while making the weird sound. I tried removing the battery also.
Any ideas?

Nice botch job there Dr. Zoidberg.
If you would have taken it into Apple for a free evaluation, it might have been a simple fix.
Since you have basically ruined your machine, costing more to repair than it's present value, you should just connect the internal drive to a new Mac using a SATA to USB adpater cable and use Migration/Setup Assistant or manually transfer files and trash the old one.
You also could get a Windows PC tower, where you have the option to do your own surgery as it's modular designed for that purpose.
Just install MacDrive into Windows and ues the SATA to USB adpater to access your files on the Mac formatted drive.
Good Luck

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) fan runs excessively for no reason?

I purchased this new MacBook Pro in late 2014, and have not had any issues until recently. On startup, and when sitting idle, the computers fans speed up rapidly for no apparent reason, and the system temporarily lags up for a few seconds before the fans slow down again. This happens a few times an hour, when in use or even idle, with no applications open, and no ports in use. Activity monitor says that a Kernel_task is running at over 300% CPU when this occurs. I ran a hardware diagnostics test (restart holding 'D') which said I may have an issue with SMC, and after looking at older forums I found that I may need to reset SMC, which I did (following the instructions from apple), with no change to the situation. Does anyone know what the issue may be and how I might be able to fix it?
Thanks,
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There's nothing wrong with the battery. Your MBP simply seems to use quite a lot of power. Try to find out what's causing that with Activity Monitor: How to use Activity Monitor - Apple Support
If that doesn't solve it, try the four steps in this topic: Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage

Fans coming on for no reason!

Hi its me again already!
My macbook has been running perfectly, however the fans now repeatedly come on quite loudly or constantly at a low level when before they were NEVER on.
Activity monitor says only 8% processor usage (I have quiet macbook script running to shut up that CPU whine) but the fans never used to come on with this.
Nothing is taking up a greedy load, and it should be silent?
I installed a CPU temp monitor someone on here recommended, which asked to install a kernel extension, it said CPU was around 60 most of the time, I then uninstalled this program.
Could what the program did be responsible or not?
It is really odd...
Thanks for any insight..
Steve
(week 35 model - all updates)

well actually I have several problems, but a mac genius at my apple store said 'all was perfectly fine'.
I have major CPU whine so much so I installed quietmbp script.
I have an 80 gig hard drive that whirs quite loudly I can hear it from 3 or 4 feet away in a quiet room but the genius said that nothing was wrong with it and that I have a 3 year applecare so any probs would be sorted.
Now the fans and heat generation are a new one since visiting the apple store.
I reset the PRAM last night and the battery life went from a predicted 2 hours to 3 hours and 50 minutes, so that was that issue sorted.
The fans seem to be doing ok, just a very faint vibration on the macbook and little if any fan noise.
I thought macbooks were supposed to be silent? *shrugs shouders*

Fan going into full blast for no reason

the fan in my macbook has been going to 6000 rpm for no reason. like when im not doing anything, suddenly i hear the fans start spinning. usually, at 2500(min speed for my mb) rpm, it is barely audible. then suddenly i hear this low hum, and i look at the smcfancontrol, and notice that my fan's at 6100rpm. any idea why? is this normal? oh, and i usually have my itunes on most of the time.

Yes, do check Activity Monitor (just type activity in Spotlight). Click on the CPU column and the most demanding application (the one that's sucking up your CPU cycles) will show up at the top of the list.
For me when this happened (twice so far in a week or so) has been Airport. So just disable or force quit the offending application. For me I just turned the Airport off, waited about 15 seconds and turned it back on and all was well.
Good luck
Greg

Cooling Fan ran full speed for no reason

iMac G5 17in 1 meg ram less than year old. Was sitting there in sleep mode and fan started running full speed for no reason. Computer screen black and would not wake up with keystroke. Shut down computer via rear panel switch and restart, all fine now. Do not understand why this happened but suspect it is actually a software problem, see below. Anyone have an idea so can understand what happened?
My iMac has the combo drive, not superdrive. I use an external 8x DVD burner for backups and iMovie. Yesterday I burned a iMovie (short) just fine. Then decided to back up my some of my Movie files along with iPhoto and iTunes media files. I tried three times but the burner did not work as usual. The first copy failed to verify and when I put it in the iMac slot, dumb I know, it did not show on the desktop. I restarted the computer to eject the disk, worked ok. The second copy did not work either, but did not put it in the iMac. The third copy burned but took a few hours to get 39% verified. I tried to stop the process with force quit, but it would not quit. Finally shut down the iMac via rear panel power button as a last resort as nothing on the desktop would respond to a mouse click. Computer restarted ok and worked fine for several hours until it went to sleep as I did last night.
I know using the power button is a last resort and possibly there is a keystroke that can force a proper shutdown. Also suspect the DVD external drive is balmy now, BenQ. But was amazed that the iMac still seemingly had some bug up its operating system this morning causing it to freeze and the fan to run full speed.
Again, any ideas...now be nice....I have tender ears
btw have three year warranty and just love the Mac, am going to sell my Dell laptop and get a PowerBook real soon.

Well the problem is fixed. I did call Apple Support and they ran me through the hardware utility. The problem I reported was that the system took forever to startup and that once the fan ran at full speed for no reason. I was not aware of the slow boot when I wrote this question so did not refer to it. But, after the DVD debacle my iMac would hang on the black screen just after the chime for about a minute or longer. The system worked fine once booted. This long boot came from both restart and a cold start. Think it happened once when I was trying to wake it from sleep yesterday, that is when I shut off the 'puter with the poer button. Anyway, the disk utility showed no problems
The Apple Careperson was very nice and stayed with me until the issue was resolved. It turnes out that unplugging my USB hub cured the slow bootup problem, and probably the fan.
So I am guessing that something in the external DVD hardware went and damaged the USB hub. It would be too odd for two devices to fail, on their own, at the same time.
The good news is that I just found a nice LaCie external DVD with firewire 400 support, so guess what I am buying.
As for the USB hub, well without the external DVD I don't need it right now so will wait to replace it.
Thanks for your help and I hope this may help someone else down the line.
Ed

External disks spinning up for no apparent reason.

Hi.
As long as I have had this iMac 27" i7 my external disks will at random intervals spin up for no apparent reason.
One is set as a TimeMachine disk, the other is just for storage.
I run iStat Pro, but have uninstalled it to see if it made any difference, all to no avail.
There is no program I know of trying to acsess them.
I have lost a TimeMachine disk before, and are therefore a tad conserned when it comes to life expectancy.
Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.
P.J.Berg

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Why does fan spin for 1 second only? K7N2GM-1L

Hi Guys,
First post here. I have read all the stickies and FAQs, but I don't seem to have found an answer to my specific problem. If it is here, and I missed it, please just point me to it and accept my apologies ( and thanks) in advance.
I have just put in a K7N2GM-1L for a friend who was struggling. When I hit the case power switch, the CPU fan spins for about 1 second, then stops. Nothing else happens. If I reset the power switch on the PSU (i.e. set from 1 to 0 then back to 1), I can repeat this process - but nothing seems to help get the board to progress onto POST.
I have tried with and without RAM. I have tried removing the power switch cable to the board, and shorting (briefly) with a screwdriver, in case the case switch was bad (same result). I have tried with no IDE drives, all IDE drives, with and without the floppy connected. I have tried the board mounted in the case, and outside the case (on a non-conducting surface) - always the same result.
After a lot of head scratching (I normally consider myself pretty competent inside a PC case, and have installed / upgraded / fixed numerous PCs) I realised I had done something pretty dumb. I had been powering the board with the BIOS reset jumper set in the RESET position. I know, I should have checked first, but I didn't :(
The manual says that this will *damage the board*, but does not give any further details. Does anyone know whether this is the real showstopper, or is it just a generally bad idea and there is still something else that I have not checked?
I see from many other posts that the PSU is pretty critical to these boards. I have tried two separate PSUs - both from known working systems. Specs are below.
Jeantech 400W
+5V = 35A
+3.3V = 28A
+12V1 = 15A
+12V2 = 17A
-5V = 0.3A
-12V = 0.8A
+5V SB = 2A
Jeantech 500W
+5V = 40A
+3.3V = 30A
+12V = 18A
-5V = 0.3A
-12V = 0.8A
+5V SB = 2A

Quote from: Grayone on 08-May-06, 07:50:03
Yes, having the cmos clear jumper in the wrong position can damage the motherboard. I don't believe that it is an automatice thing to happen since I have done the same thing a time or two myself without any resulting problems
How many times did you try to start the system with the jumper set wrong? That may give us the answer since multiple tries might have been too much for the motherboard to endure.
Can you try the pieces in another system to verify if they are all good? If they check out, then it is probably time to request an rma on the motherboard.
It would help if you told us what other pieces are in the system: cpu-memory-video card-hard drives-optical drives-pci cards as I are just guessing now.
I'm afraid I probably started the board with the jumper in the wrong position a dozen times or so, while trying various combinations of other possible faults before I realised the jumper setting was wrong :(
The system is essentially bare at the moment - just a floppy, a stick of RAM, CPU (Athlon 1800), onboard graphics, no monitor, no PCI cards.
Just to humour me for a moment..... if we assumed that no damage was done by the CMOS jumper setting, what else might be causing the symptoms described in my post above? Any thoughts?

My ipod touch shut down for no reason. now when i try to turn it on again, it goes to the apple icon to the spinning wheel, then it repeats. HELP!!!!

My ipod touch shut down for no reason. now when i try to turn it on again, it goes to the apple icon to the spinning wheel, then it repeats.

Try:
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iOS device fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- Try another cable
- Try on another computer
- If still not successful that usually indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Is there a fan speed controller for PPC powermac G5

is there a fan speed controller for PPC powermac G5

Yes there is.
You must modify AppleFan.kext.
Code:
<key>fan-hysteresis-temp</key> <integer>14080</integer> <key>fan-polling-period</key> <integer>8</integer> <key>fan-slowdown-delay</key> <integer>48</integer> <key>fan-speed-table</key> <array> <integer>14592</integer> <integer>14922</integer> <integer>15059</integer> <integer>15164</integer> <integer>15252</integer> <integer>15331</integer> <integer>15401</integer> <integer>15466</integer> <integer>15526</integer> <integer>15583</integer> <integer>15637</integer> <integer>15688</integer> <integer>15736</integer> <integer>15783</integer> <integer>15828</integer> <integer>15872</integer> </array> <key>fan-speedup-delay</key> <integer>8</integer>
I modified the code to spool up gradually 129*f-163* then ramp up to max quickly between 165*f-167*f. Slowdown delay was cut by 2/3 from 48 to 16.
Code:
<key>fan-hysteresis-temp</key> <integer>13300</integer> <key>fan-polling-period</key> <integer>8</integer> <key>fan-slowdown-delay</key> <integer>16</integer> <key>fan-speed-table</key> <array> <integer>13800</integer> <integer>14200</integer> <integer>14600</integer> <integer>15000</integer> <integer>15500</integer> <integer>16000</integer> <integer>15500</integer> <integer>16768</integer> <integer>17200</integer> <integer>17800</integer> <integer>18176</integer> <integer>18700</integer> <integer>18950</integer> <integer>19100</integer> <integer>19150</integer> <integer>19200</integer> </array> <key>fan-speedup-delay</key> <integer>8</integer>
MAKE A BACKUP OF THE STOCK FILE BEFORE YOU CHANGE ANYTHING. Right click on AppleFan.kext and choose "compress" to make a copy that won't be modified.

MSI Neo2 Platinum will not POST, but fans spin.

I bought this board about 2 months ago.
I install the board and it works fine, until a few weeks ago. Im playing fear and it crashes into BSOD...then every time i try to load a game BSOD. This points to the memory- so i look at my DDR booster, and teh memory is a little off...i correct it and the game loads fine. I play for a little longer, then exit to windows and then the computer just starts BSODing like every 5 minutes. So i was like " it" im going to cut the memory back...strangly, the only dividers that work were 133 and 183...the rest just did not work.
Then finally, i restart the computer, and no POST screen. I clear CMOS, nothing. Take the battery out for an hour, nothing. Take the memory out, no POST...I dont get it...the fans spin and everything powers on, but no signal is sent to the monitor.
Then today, a few weeks later, I plug in just a PSU and a video card. Same thing happens: Fans spin, no POST. oddly enough, whenever power is supplied to teh mobo it turns on, it doesnt wait for a power button to be pushed.
2 things that might help diagnose the problem:
Almost every BSOD pointed to ntfs.sys
The PSU makes that clicking sound like its restarting about every 10 seconds when i boot up and there is no POST.
Anyone know what i need to do? All other componants work fine in a AV8 3rd Eye, so it is the mobo.
Thank you.

Quote from: JayBee on 26-November-05, 13:29:33
Welcome to the Forum. Please post complete system specs by creating a "sig" as described in the forum rules. Be sure to include complete power supply specs (brand, model and amps on 3.3, 5 and 12 volts) as shown on the label on the side of the power supply itself. The fact that a component works in the ABIT board does not mean that it is not the problem in your board, so don't forget to list all components in reasonable detail (e.g., memory size brand specs, hd, cards). Please confirm that you board is MSI #7025 too. Good luck.
EDIT - We need to know your Bios version and whether you flashed, and if so, how and from and to what versions.
fixed. All info should be in sig. I have tried 2 different PSUs, my Powersream 520 and my Antec SL400 all to no avail.
I did flash my bios via booting off a floppy to the most recent beta bios, but it worked fine for a good while before eventually failing.
All the componants in the sig were working fine in the mobo, and my HTT was 305x9 Stable. I was using a DDR Booster.
And im sorry, what do you mean by MSI #7025?

Fans spinning slowly

My Macbook's fans spin slowly (around 1000rpm), which lets my mac cpu heat up to about 65 degrees celcius when I'm not doing anything (i.e. having a few webpages idle and music playing). When I'm watching videos, for example, it heats up to around 78 degrees, and my computer starts to lag, which is an annoying issue I'd really like to fix. I use iStat menus to monitor my cpu temperatures and fan speeds, and the highest I've seen my fans go was 2200~ rpm, at 89 degrees, which, I feel, is a little too hot when I'm playing simple flash games. That lag a lot. These problems started about 2 weeks ago, and trying to use photoshop is a real pain.
Things I have tried: SMC reset, PRAM reset, Verify & Repair disk permissions, cleaning the fan, SMC reset, followed by 3 PRAM resets, another SMC reset, 3 more PRAM resets and a last SMC reset, None of which has worked.
This is a Macbook Pro, 13in Mid 2010 running OSX 10.8.2

I tried smcFanControl, and, playing around with the sliders, for some reason, my Minimum speed can be changed only from 5894 - 6200, even though the fan speed is still really slow at either end of the bar
Is this normal, or is it somehow related to the problem?

NB fan spins very slowly.

Hi Guys.
I have not really checked my fan speeds in a while, and when I decided looked recently, my NB fan was spinning at 789rpm according to SpeedFan, CoreCentre and the BIOS.
I physically checked the fan and saw that it was spinning, but I could see it was spinning quite slowly.
The settings on SpeedFan say that the NB fan is at 100%, but for some reason CoreCentre does not even allow me to adjust the NB fan speed anymore. The option seemed to just disapear!
I don't hear any noises comming from the fan, and it looks in running order. It's just spinning slow and I can't change it.
Has anyone else had this problem or know of a solution/ideas?
Thanks!!!

Un-install Corecenter, reboot system and use speedfan to control the fan speeds. For more info on how to configure SpeedFan, please kindly look for the link in Danny's Signature.

Fans spin during sleep

Hello,
can anyone help? - im using the latest os and the latest firmware, but for some reason my fans spin during sleep - its been like it a while, but it never used to happen...
any clues as to how i can remedy this?
thanks for your time
Lee

Hi Lee Harding-
Reduce your setup to keyboard and mouse each plugged into their own USB port on the Mac, and video connected to the monitor. Remove all internal PCI cards (if any) and unplug everything, including hubs, from the Mac.
If this works, add things back one at a time until you find the culprit. If this configuration doesn't work we will dig deeper.
Luck-
-DP

Fans spinning up for no reason on PowerMac G5

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