Is it safe to ramp up your MacBook's Fan speed?

So I got a new MBP 13" retina mid 2014 edition (i5 @ 2.6GHz, 8GB RAM, INTEL IRIS, 128GB SSD). As you can all see this configuration is CLEARLY not meant for gaming, but I did try to push it to its limits. I tried out DOTA 2 in 1080p res and the MBP started overheating like crazy, it was about 90 degrees CELSIUS. That is way too higher than what Apple recommends. So I downloaded TG Pro from the app store and ramped up my fan speed to about 5500RPM and got down my avg Temperature to about 50-56 degree CELSIUS. I was worried that this would decrease the life span of my fan and would need a replacement maybe in a year or so if I continued like this. I then contacted Apple support and they gave me a thumbs up saying its absolutely safe to do this and won't do much harm to the fans. I ask this here again for a second opinion from someone who has been doing this for a while now to bring down their temperatures.
link for TG Pro:
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/temperature-gauge/id467830521?mt=12
more details about TG Pro:
http://www.tunabellysoftware.com/tgpro/

i was thinking along exactly the same lines as you. that's why i was worried. the first i heard of this application SMCfan control, was from someone who had bought a secondhand white macbook and was using it for some kind of CPU heavy audio DJ'ing application, which he said was heating up the machine a great deal. he had only previously used PC's, so maybe it was something he had used on that platform. I had no interest in this application at all until about a week ago my machine started making a loud noise, and i called apple support, they had me try resetting the PRAM and when that didnt work they said take it in for service. i reasoned that the only two moving parts in the machine are the fan and the HDD. so i wanted to see which one was the culprit. thats why i went for the fan application. I wanted to see if i sped it up and the noise got worse i could reason that the noise was coming from there. Anyway, miraculously when i sped the fan up, whatever was knocking around in there must have flown out because that completely solved the issue!!! since then i haven't used the app to speed up the fan, only to read the CPU temperature, more out of general curiosity than anything else.

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Macbook Pro Fan Speed

Hi. I was having some trouble with my temperature of my MBP, but I somewhat solved it using Temperature Monitor and smcFanControl. I turned the fanspeed to Higher RPM in the smcfancontrol menu, and my temperatures are down from ~95 celcius to ~65 celcius (when playing Minecraft / other extensive tasks.)
Now, I would like to bring them down more (should I?) because I feel 65 c - 70 c is still really high...
So, my only question is: In smcFanControl, the Higher RPM setting is 4000 RPM, should I change that to 5000 RPM? I know it would help, but, can the fans handle that?
Thanks in advance
Could 70c (max) shorten it's lifespan?
(sorry I just am extremely extremely paranoid)

I am seeing a lot of negative talk about third-party software to control fans:
Istat menu 5 is good.
It conforms to apple's SMC; this means that it will never allow the fans to go slower than what SMC is asking, thus your computer will be safe using this software.
In contrast I have a Macbook Pro fan controller for bootcamping Windows 7 called MacFanx64.exe (64 bit) that requires you to understand command prompt.
It's nothing difficult, you just need to make sure that you enter parameters properly.
The only way I see one of these damaging any hardware components would be if you accidently told the fan to spin faster than the max speed.
I would agree that for OS X you aren't going to really need this because the engineering on the SMC isn't terrible, but if you happen to have SMC screw up like it sounds like you had, there's no way to know it unless you feel it getting really hot like that which I'm sure isn't great for your MBP.
Therefore having a monitor system is helpful because you can see the temperatures constantly.
Now for Windows 7 bootcamp it's a whole different story.
There is something wrong with the drivers that control SMC for bootcamp because the computer will get hot fast even in idle.
I was marking temperatures around 60-70 C just in idle - the fans still stay at 2000 rpm.
If someone finds something better than MacFan for Windows 7 bootcamp let me know.
Moral of the story, if you pick a good third-party application you're not going to harm your computer.
Think of it like a second line of defense.
Last but not least, if you're still having this problem do an SMC reset.
Apple has instructions on how to do it, just note that you need to pay attention to whether your MBP has a removable battery or not when doing SMC reset.
Cheers

Macbook pro fan speeds

Can anyone please help me on my fan speed. Normally my macbook pro 2.66ghz core 2 duo (2009) runs around 2000 rpm on basic use.
I am currently doing the same but the fan speed has gong up to 4000rpm constantly. The CPU is gernerally below 60 degrees celcius though. My CPU usage is also below 20% all the time i was jsut wondering why had the fan speed suddenly gone up a notch.

For me it was Flash taking over and running my MB Pro very hot. YMMV.
a/ back up completely.
b/ upgrade your Adobe Flash (and I use Click to Flash)
c/ go to Flash prefs which are NOW IN SYS PREFS, and set your preferred level of privacy.
Restart.
Note that using Flush, Ipurge Safari Caches and/or Netshred and/or manually wiping the contents of your cache folder in User/Library/Cache will reset Flash's sys prefs back to default / wide open / bend over for Adobe and flashmasters....
PS - Prior to the above fix, I was using SmcFanControl and going nuts re-changing my fan settings to keep my MBP's temp below 60ºc. Now unless I am running a ton of flash windows, it's at 50ºc and 2000 rpm all the time.

What brand HD is in your Macbook Pro?

What brand of hard drive is in your MacBook Pro, what speed, and what capacity?
Thanks!

seems like the 7200 uses about 25% more power during
disk usage.
Because the 7200 spins faster it doesn't have to spin as long as a 5400 to xfer the same data. It all evens out as far as actual power usage. The 7200 xfers 228MB more data per minute over the 5400. While the 5400 drive is still chugging along with a 400 MB file the 7200 has been long finished.
Here is another benchmark test for anyone interested: http://www.barefeats.com/hard61.html

Macbook pro fan always on... and I've read all the threads.

Have read countless threads, but still no definitive answer that i've been able to understand: MBP fan runs constantly with CPU load very low. i NEVER have a high CPU load when i look at activity monitor--(the highest CPU load when i look there is usually activity monitor itself!)
i am running 10.8.4 on a 15" MBP 2.53 core 2 duo early 2009. when i'm running relatively simple processes--listening to music, pages, keynote, google searches online -- fans run almost all the time and surface of laptop is hot. by comparison, i have a business MBP that is configured similar to this one--it's also a 15" 2.53 but an i5 -- it has less RAM than mine, but the fan almost never comes on, even when i run a bumch of stuff to TRY and make it come on.
any help out there?

1. Reset the SMC. Don't know which type battery your macbook has so both procedures are below.
2. Download and install iStatPro http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html so thatyou can actually monitor your temps and fan speeds.
MacBook and MacBook Pro
Laptops with a battery you can remove
Shut down the computer.
Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer, if it's connected.
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Newer Mac portables with a battery you don't remove
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Is Fan Control Safe for your MacBook Pro?

Im just wondering if Fan Control is safe for your MacBook.
does anyone here have an experience using it?

smcFanControl works fine. It won't hurt anything. You can't slow the fans down below the factory default setting.
17" 2.2GHz i7 Quad-Core MacBook Pro  8G RAM  750G HD + OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Boot HD 
Got problems with your Apple iDevice-like iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Try Troubleshooting 101

Is java safe to download on my macbook air

Is Java safe to downlaod on my Macbook Air?

Java on the Web (not to be confused with JavaScript, to which it's not related, despite the similarity of the names) is a weak point in the security of any system. Java is, among other things, a platform for running complex applications in a web page, on the client. That was always a bad idea, and Java's developers have proven themselves incapable of implementing it without also creating a portal for malware to enter. Past Java exploits are the closest thing there has ever been to a Windows-style "virus" affecting OS X. Merely loading a page with malicious Java content could be harmful. Fortunately, Java on the Web is mostly extinct. Only a few outmoded sites still use it. Try to hasten the process of extinction by avoiding those sites, if you have a choice. Forget about playing games or other non-essential uses of Java.
Java is not included in OS X 10.7 and later. Discrete Java installers are distributed by Apple and by Oracle (the developer of Java.) Don't use either one unless you need it. Most people don't. If Java is installed, disable it — not JavaScript — in your browsers. In Safari, this is done by unchecking the box marked Enable Java in the Security tab of the preferences dialog.
Regardless of version, experience has shown that Java on the Web can't be trusted. If you must use a Java applet for a specific task, enable Java only when needed for the task and disable it immediately when done. Close all other browser windows and tabs, and don't visit any other sites while Java is active. Never enable Java on a public web page that carries third-party advertising. Use it, when necessary, only on well-known, login-protected, secure websites without ads. In Safari 6 or later, you'll see a lock icon in the address bar with the abbreviation "https" when visiting a secure site.

What is the difference between closing your macbook & pressing apple-sleep?

What is the difference between closing your macbook & pressing apple-sleep? My friend aid that it is better to put your computer to sleep by pressing the apple then hitting sleep. I have been just closing it. Is there a difference? Also, is it better to shut your computer down every once and a while. It seems like it gets slow if I just have it sleep after a couple weeks. ALSO, after it has been on sleep every night for a while, my computer has trrouble turning off. I get the problem that says, the application finder has failed to quit try force quitting and try again

None.
There's no particular need to shut down the computer except when traveling or moving the computer.
Whatever other problems you've described have nothing to do with sleeping or shutdown. More likely you need to do some maintenance and/or check that you haven't installed incompatible third-party software.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that presently AppleJack is not compatible with Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Giving your MacBook some personality

I was reading a thread where the poster wanted to cover up the Apple logo on the front of the black MacBook. Well that got me thinking. I absolutely love the Apple logo (especially that fact that it lights up), but would like to customize to make it stand out in a sea of other Macs. Now, I don't have any intention what so ever of taking apart my MacBook, but I was wondering if using a "acrylic-based, acid free, adhesive backed, double sided adhesive film " would be ok to cover just the apple logo? Specifically the product I had in mind was this: http://www.grafixarts.com/double_tack.htm It's the double tack mounting film. My idea was to use that with some colored transparent films to personalize the Apple logo, but is that safe? I would cover just the logo with it (none of the case).
Thank you!
Any help would be appreciated!

You cannot harm your MacBook by doing this. The ONLY consideration would be that it would be a way to retain heat if you were to operate it in a lid closed mode. Given most people don't do this the lid then is not a way to remove heat so no problems.

Do you Shutdown your Macbook regularly?

I wanted to know if you Shutdown your Macbook regularly. I am speaking about when you will not be using for few hours.
Someone mentioned to me that he never shuts-down his ibook, for days, he just closes the lid and let i go to sleep. And i am told with the lid closed but the power on it is safe to travel in a car or take a flight with the laptop.
I know with the lid closed the battery draning should not be a issue, as power consumption is minimal. But is it ok for HD or other components... while travelling.

OOPS! One comment added to mine... UNIX regularly
performs maintenance and cleanup, typically at
pre-dawn hours. Now, I have read this somewhere. That
would make one want to leave the computer powered-up
all night. UNIX would even perform this while the
computer is in ''sleep'' mode.
Someone more knowledgeable than me can better comment
on this since I'm relying on something I read a while
back.
Yes and no. The OS does do some maintenance tasks in the wee hours, but it won't when the computer is sleeping. Sleep is like off, except it provides power to the RAM, so the RAM state is saved in actual RAM, and you get "instant" on. Indeed these days off is not so much off as it is a lower-power state than sleep.
And you don't have to leave it on all night every night. For the average user using a Mac as a personal computer, once a week is plenty, once a month is probably enough.

What's on your Macbook?

What apps are on your MacBook?
I'm especially interested in any science/molecular biolgy/protein apps
Here is a list of what I've got:
Office 2004 (no Entourage or Instant Messenger) (CD)
EndNote 9
Palm desktop software
http://www.palm.com/us/software/desktop/mac.html
Journler
http://journler.phildow.net/
Documents to go
Adobe Reader for Palm OS (CD)
StuffIt 10.0 expander
http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/
TinkerTool
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html
Mozilla Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
DivX for Mac 6.5
http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
Azureus (must download Universal binary version from alternate site)
http://azureuswiki.com/files/Azureus2.4.0.2_OSXUniversal.dmg
Skype
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/
CoreDuoTemp 0.9
http://macbricol.free.fr/coreduotemp/index.php?rub=dwnld
iBackup
http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup/
Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

What is DivX please? I don't think I have it on my Macbook Pro. But the reason I ask is because on my old windoze machine at home, Quicktime never worked. It skipped horribly. Finally I downloaded the new DivX from microsoft based on advice on this forum- not the Mac forum, the QT forum. Anyway that fixed it. I thought DivX was something you used for WINDOWS machines to make QT work.
thanks

How do you transfer voice memos from your phone to your macbook? I don't want voice memos from my computer to go to my phone. It's so easy with other PC's.

how do you transfer voice memos from your phone to your macbook? I don't want voice memos from my computer to go to my phone. It's so easy with other PC's.

Hi King Arthur 2000,
Voice memos can be shared back to a computer in a number of different ways, described in this article -
Share a voice memo - Voice Memos - iPhone Basics - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/kb/TI227
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

How to properly shut down your Macbook?

Hello, I have been using a Macbook Pro for nearly a year now. I would like to know what is the proper way to shut down your macbook?
I went to iStudy for some app instalment and the sales asisstant gave me a piece of (advice?) that whenever I want to shut down my macbook, i should just snap it close after I have quit all the running applications. I don't have to press the shut down button on the keyboard or choose shut down at the apple upper menu bar cause it may damage my RAM.
Yet, I knew this girl who just paid 2K just to fix her motherboard due to improper way of shutting down her Mac.
So, my problem is do you have to shut your Mac down JUST by snapping it close (and of course, quit all the running applications)? Or you shut your Mac down by simply go to the Apple in the upper menu bar and choose shut down?

Hi alswaki,
When you close all apps and then physically close it, you are putting the Mac into Sleep mode, not shutting it down. So, it depends on what you actually want to do. When you go to the Apple menu and select Shut Down, it literally shuts off the Mac, and you have to push the on/off button to start it back up. By closing the lid, you are putting it into Sleep mode so when you open the lid again, the Mac doesn't have to be powered back on to start up again.
Both are correct things to do. I pretty much don't shut down my Mac at all. I close my apps, and close the lid, then plug it in to recharge. When I want to use it, I open it and it "wakes up". I only restart it when I need to for an update, I pretty much never shut it down.
But again, either way is fine to do. If you want to completely power down your Mac when you finish using it for the day, then you would select the Shut Down option. Otherwise, just close it to put it into Sleep mode when not in use.
Cheers,
GB

I bought 2 new memory card to 4 grams each - replace them in your MacBook Pro 13-inch but it will not turn on - If you are installing a card for 2 and one for 4 d all works - tell me what could be the problem

I bought 2 new memory card to 4 grams each - replace them in your MacBook Pro 13-inch but it will not turn on - If you are installing a card for 2 and one for 4 d all works - tell me what could be the problem

I assume that you have installed new RAM in your MBP.
It would be helpful if you indicated the EXACT model/year MBP that you have.
What the the RAM specifications that you are trying to install?
Ciao.

A warning about your MacBook Pro (Do not let this happen to you)

If your MacBook Pro is nearing the end of its warranty do like be like me. Purchase the extended warranty!
Just before the warranty ran out on my 17" MacBook Pro in December of 2007 the NVIDEA Graphics chip set failed. (8600GT). As you will see below, this is a known issue that can affect your MacBook Pro. Since the machine was still under warranty the logic board was replaced at no cost to me. (Yay!)
Well, the new board came with a 6 month warranty. I decided (foolishly) not to purchase the extended Apple Care. Two weeks ago, it failed again. Apple claims that it ought to have failed (if it were ever going to) within 90 days. Obviously this is false since I had the first quite a while before it failed. They will not pay to fix it this time. So I am stuck with a broken machine since it would cost quite a bit out of pocket to replace the board.
Needless to say, Im very disappointed with this and have no where to turn. I should have bought the extended care even though at the time I hadn't researched enough to realize they are aware of these issues of the NVIDEA 8600 mobile sets randomly failing. I've been a loyal Apple customer all my life, owning many many different models since my first 512K "fat mac" in 1985.
So, be aware. If you own a MacBook Pro at any given time in its life the graphic chip set might fail you and if you are not covered under the extended care (even if the warranty ended a short month and half before it died) you will not get your board replaced.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/08/13/nvidia.loses.on.bad.chips/
NVIDIA takes rare loss on faulty chips, competition
Graphics chip builder NVIDIA has reported its first quarterly loss in almost five years, writes the Wall Street Journal. The company has taken a net loss of $120.9 million for its second financial quarter, admitting that materials used to package its mobile graphics chips caused unusually high failure rates. Third-party observers have suggested that the company's desktop processors could be affected as well, but this allegation has not been confirmed.
Chip failures could be responsible for an error with Apple's MacBook Pro, in which the display goes black but every other component keeps running.

Sorry Dave, have to chime in here as you're very wrong, and BermudaSeal has gone through a lot here and doesn't need to be fed false information, however good the intention.
When the Nvidia cards go wrong, what happens is exactly what BermudaSeal is experiencing, they get reported by the OS as an intel X3100 - which is the core card that forms part of the SR chipset, and coincidentally the graphics card in the MB. Basically the hardware is reporting no external graphics card (the nvidia card), and so assumes that the default one is present. It's a bit like PC motherboads that have built in GPU's, which can be bypased by adding in your own third party part. In this case , the third party part has failed, and unfortunately there is no built in GPU either - hence, black screen.
This is a classic case of a failed NVidia chip, and, depending on the country where Bermuda Seal lives, he/she should be able to get this sorted very swiftly by Apple, as it is a known defect with the hardware that can be proven - BermudaSeal should not have to foot the bill for this - keep trying and refer Apple to the multiple posts on this forum where folks out of warranty have got the issue fixed.
That plus the fact that Bermuda Seal clearly described his machine in the first post - haven't seen many 17" Macbooks around, have you?
Good Luck!

Is it safe to ramp up your MacBook's Fan speed?

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