Hard drive fan speed

When I had just 1 hard drive in my Mac Pro the computer was nearly silent. The fans almost didnt move at all. I now have 4 hard drives in the system and the Pro has a considerable hum. Not terribly loud, but noticeable. Is this because the fans will naturally move faster when there are more hard drives in it?

Sometimes conduction can carry vibrations to other parts of the chassis. One user reported that his drive sled washers were doing their job, but that the "pull handle" portion of each drive sled was touching the rail above, and that vibration was being conducted to that rail (which acted as a resonator).
His solution was to bend each sled into a very slight concave-down shape to provide a small clear space between the rail above and the "pull handle" on each sled.
Another user reported that the side door was vibrating. Placing a wad of folded paper towel between the door and the processor shelf seemed to damp out that vibration and reduce the noise.

Similar Messages

Lacie 500GB External Hard Drive Fan speed / heat issues?

I have a 500gb Lacie Mini hard drive with the 1394/usb2.0 hub and for some reason when it is connected to my mac mini in the office, it works totally fine, doesnt spin really fast or anything. When I take it home and hook it up to my other mac mini, after 10-15 minutes the fan starts to blow at full speed on the Lacie. The mac mini at home is from March 2005 and its a 1.66 Core Duo, and the one at the office is from March 2007, and is also a 1.66 Core Duo, both with 2gb of ram.
I have noted at the bottom of my home mac mini is very warm to the touch after feeling between the drive and the computer, but it seems odd to me that both computers dont get just as hot considering they are virtually identical aside from the build date. Has anyone else experienced this problem with their Lacie mini drive? The fan spins so high on the drive that its annoying to even use it, and I'd like to take care of it if theres a remedy.
Thanks!

I agree, the link you posted is strangely inaccurate. I have been trying to post the attempts on this link: http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=109630#109630 but as you can tell I have been frustrated with the whole process. The posts may be confusing because they are step by step. The lacie drive is loud under the mini but not when it is by itself.
As of now the test seem to be inconclusive. It is so strange that I would be convinced if someone told me the fan in the lacie has a temperature sensor inside. But the only thing I can come up with is that the mini gets hot on the bottom, while the lacie gets hot on top. Their combined heat seems to be too much for the lacie's fan to cool. I will also mention that I have fan control software installed on the mini, but this doesn't seem to have any effect as I am not changing the settings during my tests.
The fan having a temperature sensor is just crazy... I removed the fan from the lacie (fan still plugged in) and set up the stack. The lacie bottom was removed for this test. The lacie fan never turned on, and the drive increased in temperature that I felt was too hot. This is where sensing strips would assist in further data.
So here is my next step: Since the fan didn't turn on when the lacie bottom was removed, it seems that the open back and open bottom (the back and bottom is one piece) was enough to keep the sensor from turning on the fan. But as said before, I felt the drive was still too hot. So maybe the lacie case needs more ventilation. Two ways I have thought to do this:
----- cut the fan one large hole instead of a bunch of little ones, allowing more air out.
- or -
----- cut the bottom vents out (maybe not all of them) to allow more air intake.
I think the first one would solve the problem, but I don't currently have the time to do it. I am going to cut the fan hole first, once I get the time.
I will tell you that the lacie drive is mounted closest to the top of the case. I have thought of purchasing some thermal sensing strips to determine what is hot and when; haven't yet.
AndyO, you said everything right except one part... the mini's air-intake is the vents on the bottom, and the air is obviously pushed out the back by the horizontal fan (there is a special plastic mold that the fan sits horizontally in). Which you would lead us to believe that the mini would heat up with the lacie underneath, but I haven't noticed any drastic changes in the mini fan speed or temperature. Instead the lacie drive gets hot or at least the fan goes crazy.
Hope this helps, I'll let you know when I get the scalpel (really sharp knife) out.
-p13th0r4

IMac 21.5 hard drive fan increases speed after HDD Replacement

The hard drive on my iMac 21.5 failed two months out of warranty, so I decided to replace it myself. I replaced the drive with a duplicate of what was already in the iMac, which is a Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200. The replacement and restore went well, however, now the hard drive fan slowly increases speed during operation, until I assume it reaches maximum RPMs. The increase in fan speed happens regardless of how busy the unit is. This is not particularly a problem, but the noise at maximum RPMs is annoying and I assume the life of the fan will be shortened. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and received the error "4SNS/1/40000000:TH00-9.000" which I've seen from another post that this may or may not indicate a problem with the thermal sender unit on the HDD. During installation I was careful to verify the proper orientation of the thermal sensor cable, so doubtful that is the problem. Is there a way to definitively determine whether the thermal sensor is bad on the HDD, or do I need some type of Apple-specific firmware installed on the HDD?

Beginning in late 2009 Apple began using HD's that had the heat sensor integrated into it, if you are absolutely positive your replacement drive has an integrated sensor in it then your problem might be solved by doing a SMC reset. If you haven't done one before here are the instructions:
SMC RESET
• Shut down the computer.
• Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
• Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
• Release the power button.
• Attach the computers power cable.
• Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
• Shut down the computer.
• Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
• Turn on the computer.
• Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Hard Drive fan suddenly running at 6000 rpm

Hi, I have a 2009 20" iMac, 2.66GHz Intel Core Due running 10.5.8. I have iStats Pro and SmcFanControl installed.
Randomly, my HD fan goes from 1099 to 6000. I can fix it by putting my Mac to sleep, wait for 10 seconds, and then proceed, The HD fan speed goes from 6000 down to 1099 and it will stay there. Sometimes this hapens a second or 3rd time. Every time I put the machine to sleep. And every time it "fixes" it. After 3 to 4 times going to sleep, the problem weems to be permanently solved and the "vacuum cleaner" does NOT turn on anymore. Obviously, this is highly annoying and not a solution.
Is there any real solution to this problem? I bought this machine in July 2009, no Apple Care because I have had luck with Apple products in general (my iMac DV from 1999 still runs...). It seems as if my luck has run out.
I scoured the boards but nobody seems to really know what is going on. I read about temp sensors and logic boards. Seems dramatic to me. Is this something I can fix myself?
Has Apple recognized this as a real problem??? Because it IS! I am very disappointed. You do not expect this from a newer machine.
Thanks for your help.

First off smcFanControl is not going to fix the problem, it can only run the fans faster and not slower than the iMac's System Management Controller is telling them to run.
It sounds as if you have either 1 of 3 problems:
1. you need to reset the iMac's SMC.
2. the Hard Drive is actually over heating for some reason.
3. you have a faulty HD temperature sensor or bad connection (wire) between the sensor and logic-board.
I would do the following:
1. disable or uninstall smcFancontrol
2. reset the iMac's System Management Controller
as per > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
4. Release the power button.
5. Attach the computers power cable.
6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
3. then if and when the HD fan acts up (ramps to 6000rpm) run the extended Apple Hardware Test
as per > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
4. use the iStat Pro widget to check the sensor readings for the Hard Drive and Hard Drive bay when it acts up.
see > http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
Dennis

T420s hard drive noise / speed /battery life trade off and Screen Roll Cage Info

I know this is a brand new laptop but has anyone over at lenovo spent enough time with both the 7200 rpm and the 5400 rpm version of the 320GB hard drive in this laptop? I am trying to decide between ordering one and would like to get the 7200 rpm but I really dislike hard drive spinning noises in quiet environments. I am currently using the t400 with the 5400 RPM 320Gb drive (which I realize may be different from the drives in the new t420s) and do not find the noise objectionable but would like to get the 7200 in the t420s if there is no noise penalty and very little battery life penalty. Also, does the T420s have a "screen" roll cage like my current T400. I had heard that the T410 did away with the screen roll cages....
Thank You for any assistance.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

The T420s's rollcage is made of a hybrid carbon fibre reinforced plastic. It's not metal since that interferes with the wireless signal.
It's apparently a bit better than the one the T510 has right now (which is the same carbon-reinforced plastic)- and the T410, with a "weaker" roll cage, should pass a 1.6 metre drop anyways.
I can vouch for that plastic's use since you can step on another laptop who's lid (I'm pretty sure it's made from this) is made from that (an old 600E) and it will survive.
Also, the noise isn't all that different for 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM. The fan will be louder if you are using it.
And if you really hate hard drive sound and want a bigger boost than just an RPM bump, consider an SSD. That'll blow any hard drive out of the water in terms of speed, but will do the same to your wallet if you need anything larger than 40-60 GB. And, if you choose to do this, be aware that the T420s only takes SSD's that are 7mm high- so you'll probably need to get an X25-M or Intel 320 to accommodate that.

Hard drive fan comes on full blast for no apparent reason!

I have had this problem since buying my new 27in iMac. It happens maybe once or twice a month. I took it to apple and they said "everything is ok".
I come home from work at night and the machine sounds like a leaf blower on my desk. I pull up iStat widget and it reports the following
CPU:
User 0%
System 0%
Nice 0%
Idle 99-100%
Memory:
Wired 587mb
Active 764mb
Inactive 301mb
Free 2.29gb
Temps:
HD Macintosh 95
CPU 86
Ambient 65
GPU diode 103
GPU heatsink 101
mem contoller 103
Northbridge 131
Optical 92
Fans:
Optical Drive 998rpm
Hard Drive 5272rpm
CPU 940
So it is obvious that the HD fan is the one making all the noise, the question is why is it running at that rpm? The machine is cool to the touch and has been at idle all night. Mac Genious had me reset the SMC in several different ways and if that didnt work, bring it in to the store. I did, and he said everything looks fine and passed all diagnostics. He said next time it happens to go into activity monitor and see what is creating the most CPU usage NOT ONE TASK IS USING MORE THAN .9% of CPU. I see nothing out of the ordinary in there. I think a fix for this would be to figure out why the unit doesnt ever actually go to sleep on its own. As soon as I force it to sleep the fans stop and when I wake it they stay off.

Hi Zoe,
Welcome to Lenovo Community!
As per the query we understood that you are facing fan issue in your G500 laptop.
Please try to boot the system to safe mode and check for the issue.
Also perform a clean boot and check for the issue, if still the issue persists try to update the BIOS and check for the issue.
Click here for the BIOS update.
Hope this helps. Do post back if issue persists!
Best regards,
Ashwin.S
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Hard drive rotation speed

hi guys
i am just wondering that how do i know the true rotation speed of the hard drive. except reading from the lable of the hard drive, is there any other way to find out how fast the hard drive is actually spinning? like a little software or application that would test the rpm of the hard drive? especially for powerbook hard drive.....
thanks

Hi, YuWei. I don't know of a software tool that measures the actual rotational speed of a drive, nor can I think of any reason to want one, since the user has no control over that in any event. Why do you ask? Do you have some reason to believe your drive is spinning faster or slower than its label says it should?

Optical drive fan speed - and noise

I have a new 27" i7 3.4Ghz iMac and I'm extremely pleased with it's functionality, performance and good looks; however, a consistent and irritating "chugging" noise has just started to be heard ...or perhaps it's that I've just become aware of it. Anyway, having trawled the communities here and run iStat Pro it seems the optical drive fan is running 10% faster than default at about 1150RPM although the drive is not being used and the temp is low at 30 degrees.
Might this speed be the cause of the noise and why would it be over-speed anyway if the optical drive is not being used? And can I re-set it back to default without stuffing up the iMac??
Other data seems quite normal at:
CPU          939 RPM          32 degrees
HD          1101 RPM           29 / 35 degrees
Ambient                            16 degrees

Hello
at first check that you have no disk left in the drive.
According to Apple Support, reset SMC if the drive or the fan behavior seems not normal.
How to --> http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
If the drive produce an unusual series of noises after startup or system wake up from sleep, you may reset the optical drive as described below.
Insert a CD or DVD almost all the way into the drive. (until the drive want to start pulling in the disk)
On this point remove the disc.
Insert the disc fully into the optical disc drive.
Ceers - Lupunus

NEW HARD DRIVE - FANS RUNNING LOUD AND RED LIGHT

I've just installed another hard drive in the lower bay of my G5 1.8. I took one drive out and inserted the new one, leaving the original hard disk with the operating system on where it was.
As soon as I pressed the "on" button the machine powered up but with the fans on very loud and a red light on inside the machine.
The G5 starts up fine. The new hard drive is recognised.
Any ideas what's gone wrong as it wasn't behaving like this before?
Thanks in anticipation

Hi gravenors, and a Warm Welcome to Apple Discussions and the Power Mac G5 Forum!
You could try checking that the clear plastic air deflector has been replaced correctly.
If it seems to be in place, but the fan and red LED are still on, please post again - as there are further things to try.

MBP Hard-drive / Fan Noise

My macbook pro has started to make a funny noise, at first I thought it was the fan, but it's on the left hand side of the trackpad so I am assuming it's the hard drive?
It sounds like a fan / slight grinding noise it's not too loud but it's noticeable and irritating.
Anyone had this issue before or have any suggestions on how to fix?
I've not long had my machine back from a previous repair and I can't afford to loose it for another month, I'm a freelance designer, last time I took it to my apple reseller store (Bristol) and was told it would be fixed in a week, it ended up being a month, and that resulted in my loosing a month wages. What are my options?

Also, get a firewire external hard drive and baak up all your data and keep it backed up, just in case. In the meantime, you could use the Disk Utility on your install disc #1 to verify and repair if necessary both permissions and the start up disk.
There is also a little utility called "SMART Reporter" that you might like:
http://homepage.mac.com/julianmayer/smartreporter/index.html
This will allow you to install a hard drive icon in your menu bar that will let you monitor the SMART status of your hard drive. SMART status doesn't guarantee your hard drive has no problems, but if the icon turns from green to red you know you have to worry.
Good luck!

2011 i7 iMac optical drive fan speed

Can aynone confirm whether the deafult speed for the optical diive fan on 2011 i7 iMacs is 1150 RPM, i.e. 150 RPM faster than the 1000 RPM for 2009 / 2010 iMacs?

It is normal for the fans to run, they're there to cool down your machine by >>passing air over parts that heat up, they should be extremely quiet so you >>cannot hear them unless you have extremely sensitive hearing. 3500 RPM is >>extremely fast though so it indicates something else might be going on.
I am noticing the optical fan running quite high. And this is with normal usage. Web surfing, file manager lookups, nothing much else. However, I notice the optical fan speed climbing and getting louder. It will get up to approx. 5000rpms. This i can confirm because I am running hardware monitor and this is what is is showing.
So my question is this. Are the iMacs supposed to be relatively quiet for normal processing? When I say quiet, quiet so that you cannot hear the fans? I can understand a graphics intensive/watching movie causing them to get louder but other than that should they not be relatively noiseless?
Maybe some of you techies out there can reply with telling me what an iMac should be running at. (wrt fan speeds/temps). I would like to know how far off the norm my iMac is.
Thanks again and I look forward to your replies.
....Bruce
Message was edited by: BGmail

Hard Drive xbench Speed

I have a new 2.8GHz MacBook Pro with the 7200rpm 500GB hard drive and my xbench scores are as follows...
Disk Test 46.82
Sequential 82.63
Uncached Write 136.34 83.71 MB/sec 4K blocks
Uncached Write 77.64 43.93 MB/sec 256K blocks
Uncached Read 44.60 13.05 MB/sec 4K blocks
Uncached Read 173.30 87.10 MB/sec 256K blocks
Random 32.66
Uncached Write 10.62 1.12 MB/sec 4K blocks
Uncached Write 110.02 35.22 MB/sec 256K blocks
Uncached Read 81.57 0.58 MB/sec 4K blocks
Uncached Read 142.79 26.50 MB/sec 256K blocks
My external WD 1TB drive scores in the mid-sixties, it seems like my internal 7200rpm drive should be scoring much higher than my external....Anyone have an xbench score from their 7200rpm drive?

Ignore the stats you get from XBench for hard disk performance - they're poor and unreliable at best. In my opinion anyways.
Have a look at my article here on SSD in a Macbook Pro: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2009/8/4SSD_in_a_MacbookPro.html
Also maybe this one: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2009/6/13Macbook_Pro_Hard_DiskUpgrade.html
... second one is probably more relevant.
Do some real world tests and I'll think you'll find the 7200RPM unit does out perform the slower RPM drives, and quite significantly too.
I don't believe the XBench states, they don't hold true.

I think my hard drive fan may be going or it could be my hard drive itself. Any input?

When I have my 21.5" iMac on for a little while or when playing games it just makes a loud spinning sound. I have a video which I will find a way to get on here. The video is mainly for the audio so people can base it off that. When I have my fans controlled by smc which I just tried now it goes away when I go full speed and is only faint when the HDD fan is set low. I have not tried it yet when it is fully happening.

If you've got AppleCare, you're still under warranty, and the Genius Bar might be able to help.
Sounds like you've already tried resetting the SMC, which I would normally advise in this situation.

Compaq CQ61-360sa Laptop Hard Drive spin speed? 5400 or 7200?

Compaq/HP websit states 7200 rpm
Comet website states 7200 rpm
Comet confirm 7200 rpm on this page: Comet Q&A page
but . . . . . the Compaq box the laptop comes in from Comet states 5400 rpm !
Who tells the truth?
is there some way of telling on the actual Laptop without taking the HD out?

I recommend the 7200 rpm drive. It is the standard recommendation for video and you will not regret spending that $100 in the long run. The 5400 rpm drive works but as you do more video and load up that drive you will find that its performance will not keep pace with your needs. And don't worry about heat or power issues with either drive.

Lousy 'fan' noise after installing a new internal hard drive

Hi,
I installed a new internet hard drive to replace my corrupted hard drive. The new hard drive is WD 320GB. Somehow, i got it installed and work. I install leopard on it and it works well as far as this point. Now, I have a new problem. Before installing the hard drive, my iMac run very quiet. Now, as soon as I turn on my iMac, i can hear a very noisy and loud 'fan' sound. I do not know if it is hard drive spinning or one of the fan. I do not notice any weird sound except it definitely a very loud spinning fan sound. I do not have Apple Care or warranty with Apple. Any suggestion to isolate the problem pls ?
I use iStat Pro and have the following info:
- CPU fan : 800-900 rpm
- CPU and GPU temp : 40 - 60 C degree
- Hard drive fan : 5000 rpm
Another question is : when i take my old hard drive, i noticed it has 1 power cable, 1 SATA cable and 1 small cable with connect some kind of chip on my motherboard to a small chip on the right hand side of hard drive. It appears to me that Apple attached a small chip on the side of hard drive. And i do not know where to connect that wire to my new hard drive. So i just left it un-connected. Thought, i connect power cable and the SATA cable. Any idea what that wire used for ?
Thanks
Message was edited by: DeathNote

Hi Dennis,
Thank for informing me the heat sensor. Basically, i can take the heat sensor out from my old internal hard drive and stick it on the new drive ? If so, how do i do it ? can i use any glue to stick heat sensor on new drive ?
Also, I just figure something. I opened the front cover, then run iMac. I noticed the noisy sound, i thought it might be the fan or the hard drive. So , i disconnect the fan power cable and restart the computer. Now, it runs very quitely. I can not hear anything noise as all. No thing. So i assume that the hard drive is not the problem. As soon as i plug back the power cable for the fan. The noise come back.
Is there a software to control the speed of the fan ? Using Istat, i have the following info :
- CPU : 42 C degree
- HD : 29 C degree
- GPU : 43 C degree
- Ambient : 22 C degree
- mem controller : 37 C degree
- CPU fan : 860 rpm
- HD fan : 5000 rpm
- Optical fan : 800 rpm
Thank you .
p/s: inside my iMac is different than in the picture.

Hard drive fan speed

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