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

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Fans always running at 6000 RPM.

I have had this problem since my friend gave me his old macbook pro. The fans are very loud and running very fast. First I thought dust might be stuck inside but I checked and nothing was there. Nevertheless I cleaned it. When I powered on my macbook it was still very loud so I checked with SMCFanControl and it was still running at 6000 RPM. I have tried resetting PRAM and the SMC without any success. Also software like SMCFanControl and iCyclone won't let me change the speed even though the CPU is at 40C most of the time. I don't really want to take it for repair at the apple store because they will probably charge me a fortune. It is a MacBook Pro Late 2006 model. Thank You.

Same situation here - the only update: it started to happen after I replaced the palmrest, screen assembly and installed SSD Intel X25M drive. First, at startup fans are quiet, and then slowly going to higher speeds. Since I did upgrade everything at the same time I did not catch what was the source of this issue. First I blaimed SSD since it's not getting any warmer (as oppose to standard SATA drive) and that might have confused the Mac's fan control. The other thought was the SSDs have a different SMART reporting method... Well, all kinds of resets (SMC and PRAM) did not help, neither utilities like smcFan Control and others. BTW, smcFan control shows temps from 35C-37C and 5200-5500 RPM. Fans are blowing a cool air, no signs of overheating at all.
Bad temp sensors?
Any thoughts?

Fans are running at 6000 rpm at all times.

Hello I´m from Germany an try my best to explain ;-)
in my MacBookPro2,2 Intel Core 2 Duo 2,16 GHz the fans are running all the time without stopping.
When I start the MacBook the fan start to run at maximum.
It is making me crazzy. Please help me. SMC Reset and cleaning the Fans and what ever else I did does not help.
I tried a tool to find out whats up?
Akkulader Nachbarschaft    51°C
Akkumulator    30°C
CPU A Nachbarschaft    39°C
CPU A Temperaturdiode    43°C
CPU Kern 1    40°C
CPU Kern 2    38°C
Grafikprozessor Chip 1    39°C
Hauptkühlblech 1    39°C
Hauptkühlblech 2    34°C
Hauptplatine    40°C
Linke Handauflage    31°C
SMART Festplatte FUJITSU MHW2120BH (NZ0ST6B2A4NB)    35°
Nothing is really hot?
Hope you can help me ;-)

Run the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test that you'll find on one of the DVDs that were shipped with your MBP. I expect AHT will report a SNS error, indicating that one of the temperature sensors in your machine has failed. When a temp sensor fails, the fan or fans usually run at top speed all the time as a precaution, in case the machine is overheating but the bad sensor is failing to report it.

My fans are running at 6000+ RPM all the time - new MBA 1.86

I have a new MBA 1.86. It seems like the fans are constantly running high at 6000-6200rpm while only running a few apps (Firefox, iTunes, VMware).
Is this normal?

i was such a big fan of apple but now using the 1st gen macbook air has begun the pain it works very sluggishly cannot watch videos on youtube it gets freaking hot and then the os becomes so sluggish i have to close the lid and reopen but every 10-15min interval i've to do it.I tried contacting apple did every possible thing but didnt get any solution so have planned to sell it off and buy alienware as it is the best powerful machine,in india no proper support for apple no proper repairing guyz really screwed up this time buying MBA iam **** up now apple better take some measures or discontinue MBA coz everone is complaining abt overheating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why do both fans always run at 6000 RPM

I have a 17" MB Pro which spins both fans at 6k ALL the time (when it's on), even though the machine is not running hot.
They go off properly when it's in sleep mode, but after wakeup or restart the fan speed will start out slow (and inaudible), then slowly increase until after a minute or so both are running at max speed.
CPU heatsink temps are in the 93 - 95 degree (F) range.
I have reset SMC, deleted com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file, same behavior.
Any thoughts on this? The noise is getting to me.......

I have just begun to have the same problem as of last night, also with a 17" MBP. I spent time on the phone with an AppleCare rep, but the fans stopped on their own after a reboot into Windows and then back into Mac OSX. As of right now, they've started again.
As in the case of the first poster, my computer is not running hot, nor is any process taking up a lot of CPU cycles. This is really perturbing me.

Will fans running at 6000 rpm hurt my macbook pro?

Whenever I run certain programs the fans will run at 6000 rpm after 20 mins or so. The actual temp of the computer will reach 80C max but the fans seem to be working very hard. Will this harm my computer?

Yes and no. The fans are spinning at that speed to try and keep the system cool. That is normal. But the excess heat being built up from that program will cause parts to ware faster than less heat.
Will it cause the system to fail sooner than later? Maybe then maybe not. Each computer is different, even of the same exact model. Some last a long time, other don't no matter how they are ran or treated.

Hard drive remains spinning at 5,000 rpm, and doesn't spin down by itself!

OK, I thought this was a fan problem until I installed the iStat Pro widget, and discovered that my hard drive was spinning at 5,000 rpm even when no operations were being performed. It doesn't slow down on its own, and I have to put the drive to sleep to get the rpm to return to around 1200 rpm, which seems more normal to me. However, over time (perhaps 20-30 minutes) the rpm gets back up to 5K again. But the CPU fan stays constant at around 1200 rpm. This doesn't seem normal to me. Oh, and Apple just replaced the hard drive on this five-week old iMac. Before I got the new drive, it was not noisy, and did not rev as high, and stay high. Any feedback about this situation would be helpful. I think I'm probably going to end up taking it back to the Genius Bar (sigh)...

Hello grejambri
That does sound like a problem with the Hard Drive or it's temperature sensor.
One thing you might want to do is run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it reports a problem with the HD's temp. sensor. > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Then be sure to record and report any test results to the folks that replaced your Hard Drive.
Dennis

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop (dv6108nr) with Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recov

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad. Or does the disk have a mechanical failure, in which case, is a recovery disk even helpful at all?
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer. (But see below, "UPDATE")
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
===============================
UPDATE:
I found a website that offers the following:
www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then my computer goes to a blank blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.
Any help here would also be appreciated!
Jon

Hi @goshenguy
Thank you for your inquiry, I am happy to help.
I grasp you tested the hard drive from the bios and it failed. This tests the physical aspcects of the hard drive and when it fails it does require replacement. You were able to retrieve some of your files using recovery software but not all.
Your recovery partition is still intact and when you try to do a recovery with the disks from Best Buy you do not get past these options R / F / Q but will not proceed.
Here is a link to Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows XP, 2006 or Later) that may assist you in performing a recovery.
Here is a link to the Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion dv6000 Notebook PC. Please note chapter 3 page 42 for a replacement hard drive part number.
HP Parts, HP Replacement Parts
If you are still unable to do the recovery, you could try contacting Best Buy for assistance with the recovery kit they provide.
I don't know if it is possible, but you may want to check cloning software to see if you could clone the D partion to the new drive or connect both drives and try a drive to drive copy of the D partition.
If you were able to successfully put the D partition on a new hard drive you should be able to do a recovery from the D partition to take it back to factory.
If none of the above has allowed you to successfully do a recovery, I suggest contacting Best Buy to see it they have options other then purchasing a third party recovery kit.
Good Luck!
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

My external hard drive is suddenly locked. It doesn't unlock through 'get information' as I'm restricted to read only.

My external hard drive is suddenly locked. It doesn't unlock through 'get information' as I'm restricted to read only.

The drive has malfunctioned and corrupted itself. If that has ever happened before, or if it ever happens again, replace the drive. You may want to consider replacing it anyway for the safety of your data.
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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.
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• Turn on the computer.
• Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
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Release the keys.

HELP ME !!!! My MBP fans are stuck on 6000 rpm

I recently cleaned the right fan on mbp because it was making a grinding noise . I then ran smc fan control to make sure that my fans were running well , now everytime i switch on my mbp the fans rev up to 6000 rpm and stay even if no programs are open. My temps are averaging around 35 celcious . I have tried everything , smc reset , pram reset , osx complete reinstalation and also tried to do a firmware restoration . None of these things have worked . Please help me

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The underflying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
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I used a USB 2.0 to SATA cable to adjust the formatting.
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My hard drive desktop suddenly will no longer hold or maintain the icons in place when I shut down and restart. The icons all change positions, alphabetically. Just started happening. Any thoughts?

My hard drive desktop suddenly will no longer hold or maintain the icons in place when I shut down and restart. The icons all change positions, alphabetically. Just started happening. I prefer the icons to a list format. Concerned this might be a symptom of a larger problem. Any thoughts?
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Cpu fan is running at -1 rpm!!

h, i've been facing slight problems with my mac that it overheats sometimes, so after some research i found out that i can download a program called fan control where i basically can control the speed of my fans. then i found out that my cpu fan is running at -1 rpm, the desired rpm is 300, my other fans (hd and dvd) are running at the desired rpm, i'm not sure if i should be worried!!! i mean do i have to replace it!? and if so where and how!!!?? btw i've just got this laptop used, it's a 15" late 2008 with the highest configueration.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
After that if the issue persists, I would call AppleCare.

Hard Drive fan suddenly running at 6000 rpm

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