Loud fan

Howdy all!
I've just got a spanking new mac mini and I've installed 10.6 server on it.
Now, mini's are supposed to be quiet (that's why I got it in the first place) but the fan is always going
at full tilt. I've tried putting the display to sleep on the presumption that it's the graphics that needs cooling but this makes no difference.
Is there something obvious I'm missing or is there something wrong with the mini?
Thanx in advance for any pointers
cheers

Typically a fan that always runs full-speed loud is due to one of the following causes:
1) someone mistakenly applied the PMU reset procedure (meant for G4 Minis) to an Intel Mini (which is supposed to get the SMC reset, instead)
or
2) the Mini has been opened to add memory and someone forgot to reconnect the fan control wire.
If the cause was the PMU reset procedure, then applying the correct SMC reset will usually (but not always) fix it.
If the fan doesn't always run full speed, then the cause is usually impaired or insufficient access to room temperature air.

Similar Messages

IMac 27" (Late 2012) Loud Fan and Overheating Issues, causing Hard Drive Failure

Hi all,
I'm having some serious overheating issues with my new iMac. Any help to help me solve this problem would be gladly appreciated since it's really beginning to bug me. Here's what's has happened:
I noticed in the first few hours of switching the iMac on that there was a short burst of very loud fan noise. This has been happening about once every two days since and every time I haven't been doing any heavy processing with the system. I've noticed that the main fan will spin, on average, at 1200rpm. Is that normal? The iMac is very well ventilated and sits right next to a window...
I have also boot camped the iMac with a copy of Windows 8 so I could run some fairly power-hungry games. I intentionally purchased a high end iMac (27" display, Intel Core i7 3.4GHz, Nvidia GeForce 680MX Graphics, 1TB Fusion drive) and expected the iMac to run games flawlessly. However, after a few days, I noticed that the CPU and GPU had shot up to a worrying 80°C whenever I ran power-hungry games, with a very loud hissing noise from the fan. After running games for about 10 minutes, the fan will stop hissing, causing the GPU and CPU to increase to 100°C. The iMac then fails and switches off unexpectedly without any warning. After analysing the Windows event logs, I received an event ID 41: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
As this occurred about six times whilst I was testing my iMac's performance, I think my hard drive has now begun to fail - sometimes I will hear the hard drive make a click noise, about once every 5 seconds. Sometimes, the clicking noise causes OS X and Windows to run very slowly (even though minimal RAM is being used and nothing too intensive (Safari, Mail etc.) is being processed). Running Repair Disk and Repair Disk Permissions under OS X's recovery mode as well as a repair in chkdsk in Windows suggests that there were no problems with the hard drive. All I can do is wait a while for the clicking noise to stop, and then performance will increase. I have backed up everything externally.
I have also performed a reset of the SMC as well as the PRAM, which hasn't really helped.
Any help will be appreciated. I will gladly provide any extra logs etc. if they're needed.
Thanks so much,
Alex.

Alex Cummaudo wrote:
I've noticed that the main fan will spin, on average, at 1200rpm. Is that normal? The iMac is very well ventilated and sits right next to a window...
That's the default fan speed on iMacs, so there isn't any problem with this.
Alex Cummaudo wrote:
I have also boot camped the iMac with a copy of Windows 8 so I could run some fairly power-hungry games. I intentionally purchased a high end iMac (27" display, Intel Core i7 3.4GHz, Nvidia GeForce 680MX Graphics, 1TB Fusion drive) and expected the iMac to run games flawlessly. However, after a few days, I noticed that the CPU and GPU had shot up to a worrying 80°C whenever I ran power-hungry games, with a very loud hissing noise from the fan. After running games for about 10 minutes, the fan will stop hissing, causing the GPU and CPU to increase to 100°C. The iMac then fails and switches off unexpectedly without any warning. After analysing the Windows event logs, I received an event ID 41: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
You must know that Boot Camp isn't compatible with Windows 8 and that Apple hasn't released drivers for Windows 8, so it can fail. Install Windows 7 inmediately until Apple launches updated drivers.
As it looks like the hard disk is damaged, I would take the Mac to an Apple Store. It's in warranty, so it should be repaired for free or you should receive a new one

Mac Pro will not boot, constant loud fan noise and nothing else

hello,
earlier tonight,i put my mac pro on sleep, then later on, when i wanted to take it off sleep and use it, it made the loud fan noise, which it always does but goes away, but this time it the fan wount slow down and the loud noise stays and i dont see anything on the screen. im guessing the fan noise is the ATI x1900 card...
any help please..i just bought it 2 months ago...

Hi, here are the steps I would go through. I would unplug the Mac Pro completely from everything and look at the video card's fan intake to make sure it isn't plugged and just make sure everything "looks" correct. I would then plug the machine back into one monitor/keyboard/mouse (leave all the other peripherals disconnected. Once that is done push the power button. Does anything happen? If not then if you have another mac and an external hard drive, make a copy of the OS on the drive and see if you can get the Mac Pro to boot off that drive. If the video card doesn't work then it will not show anything when booting off an external drive. If the external boot does work then I would suspect that you have a bad hard drive (or it crashed). At that point I hope you have a back up of all your data and such.
Mind you these are steps I would go through. What a nightmare. One other thing to check, make sure your monitor didn't die.
Message was edited by: jlseattle74

Mac Mini - Flashing Folder Icon / No boot / Loud fans

I recently got my Mac Mini back after 8 months of it being 'elsewhere' (someone had it, tried to gain access, failed because I have filevault).
When I first got it back yesterday I turned it on, booted and then logged in, noticed no sound, and system was saying there was no sound card. The computer wasn't lagging or freezing whatsoever, so I reset it and still no sound.
I open it up and what do you know, someones opened it (I assume to get to the HDD) and had unclipped the sound card ribbon. Reseated that and put it back together, turn it on and finally a chime, but then nothing, White screen, and fans turn on full blast. I reset it, same thing. Reset it about 10 times, only thing I noticed was half the time my mouse cursor would show and let me move the cursor around.
So I take it apart again, check all connections, restart, same symptoms.
Pull it apart again and try installing 1 RAM chip at a time, same symptoms.
I tried booting it with resetting PRAM, NVRAM, I tried starting holding option, pressing c, everything, and nothing happens! Same symptoms. I tried holding down power for 10 seconds, hear a long beep, then chime, same symptoms!
So I take it apart again, take out hard drive, check connections (all ok), put it back in, same symptoms.
Anyway I got angry so i turned it on and left it doing it's White screen business. Come back 45 minutes later, flashing folder icon with '?'
I reboot, wait 15 again, same folder icon, loud fan, nothing else.
This doesn't make sense, HDD was fine 5 minutes before, no noises at all, no lag, no errors. I didn't touch the hard drive previously to the problem, and now nothing is helping. I've had the hard drive replaced 2 years ago due to near failure, but saved all data by cloning the disk, the HDD isn't old!
I just bought an external HDD enclosure, should arrive soon, and a new HDD, issue is this disk is filevaulted, I'm scared my data is going to be lost for good.
What can I do? I've lost my OS X disc, but judging by the computer being unresponsive to other commands at boot I doubt it would boot a CD anyway.
Please help.
Thanks

Whew, what a bad ride.
Does it also have Firmware password protection in Mac OS X ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
It would block usage of all the startup keys, like C, N, T, D, CMD+s, CMD+Option+p+r, CMD +v, Option, and Shift, as well as booting from anything but the Hard Drive.
Force Removing Password Protection
1) Add or remove DIMMs to change the total amount of RAM in the computer.
2) Then, the PRAM must be reset 3 times. (Command + Option + P + R).
http://www.securemac.com/openfirmwarepasswordprotection.php
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Loud fan and metal cracking noise on Macbook Pro 13''?

I have the late 2011 model Macbook Pro 13''. The problem started out with just a loud fan, the computer started to operate really slowly and just yesterday I started to hear loud metal rattling on the inside. At first it was just when I turned the computer but now it will do it periodically while it's sitting completely still while running. It also is heating up a lot. I've already gone to Activity Monitor and killed all activities using too much CPU and the fan doesn't stop.

I have the same model and accidentally dropped mine off my bed today.
I looked around for a while to see what the noise could have been and found this
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1935?viewlocale=en_US which seems to explain the problem, even if you haven't dropped yours. My fan has also been loud lately but it seems unrelated.
I'd suggest you try turning off the SMS and then back on.
I did that with mine and it hasn't made any more noise since. If that doesn't help, it's never a bad idea to go to the apple store to have it looked at. Especially for how expensive the computer is.

My 2008 Macbook Pro makes a loud fan noise.

Hello -
I bought my 15" macbook pro back in October 2008. I was very happy with my purchase due to the machine's performance. But over the past year I have noticed an increase in the fan noise. It almost sounds like it's hitting against something at a very high speed, hense this irregular fan noise. The noise also increases drastically when I am working on Photoshop or InDesign. I also partitioned my hard-drive to hold windows so I can work on AutoCad.....noise increases also as I work on my machine.
Why is this happening? Could this loud fan noise damage any internal component to the machine? Should I bring it in to Apple immediately?
Thank you!

Some of the applications that you mention are somewhat CPU intensive which creates heat and results in fan speed increase and hence additional noise (to state the obvious). However if you are experiencing excessive noise when CPU loads are modest it could be that your fans are failing as all mechanical devices eventually will or you may have 'schmutz' inside that is the cause of the unwanted noise.
I suggest you open the MBP and see if there is any dust in the fans that may very well be affecting their performance. After 4 years, this is not an uncommon situation and it could be the solution to the problem.
If not, then you may consider getting replacements from iFixit or Powerbook Medic and replace them your self. It is not rocket science in this instance. If you suffer from chronic fingerfumbilitis, then have the Apple store do it for you.
Ciao.

My macbook pro i7 (2011 version) has a loud fan and high cpu % when I have Skype on or when I am on Safari. Help please!

My macbook pro i7 (2011 version) has a loud fan and a high cpu % when I have Skype on or when I am on Safari. My laptop would sometimes freeze for a while and it is usually hot. Has anyone else encounter this problem and know how to fix it? Thanks!

Skype is a very resource intensive activity...it has been reported on here users are seeing cpu temperatures on the order of 80-85 °C, within the limits of the cpu, but still hot to the touch.
Make sure nothing else is running so you keep the thermal load down.

Macbook pro retina start to make loud fan noise and work slow

I bought macbook pro retina display less than one years ago. For some reason my macbook pro has been making loud fan noise for about five mounth. Whenever macbook pro makes the noise, all the programs start to run slow. Typing, opening safari, and etc takes forever. It takes 20min to 40min for the noise to stop. At first, the macbook pro made noise once or twice in a day, but now it's making the noise frequently; It happens every 2-3 hours. It got to the point where it start to annoying me. Is there a way for me to fix this issue? If not, can I use one year warrenty to fix this problem? Thank you.

If your Mac works slowly when fans turn on, it's quite possible that there's a process which is eating the CPU and/or RAM.
Open Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities), select "All Processes" above "Show" (in the toolbar) and then, order the processes by CPU usage. Do you see any process which is consuming more CPU or RAM? If so, tell us the name.
Additionally, you can reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Ati & vaio = overheat &loud fan

since a few months I was very annoyed with the loud fan and overheated laptop (70-90º). reboot to windows and all normally. i try everything.. believeme..
yesterday, while moving teamviewer's wine window with Mod4key (windows' super key) and mouse (dwm's way) fan speed came slow and temperature went down. i really don't know what's happening here...
any clue?
catalyst hd5650 sony vpceb x86_64
tried oss driver, same

Same behaviour for me.
If you keep a key pressed and simultaneously a finger on the touchpad it will further decrease the fan speed. Oddly this also occurs on Windows. The same trick almost stops the fan!

New logic board...now LOUD fans

hi everyone.. i have a MBP 15". I had my logic board replaced last week due to graphics and power problems that i was experiencing. Ever since, the fans turn on to full blast (6000+ rpm) for the littlest things. If i open itunes, fans on, open word, fans on, sync iphone, fans on. Im in law school and its crazy how loud they can get in a quiet class room. my fans never were audible before this logic board replacement. anyone else have loud fans? i have owned 2 MBP's, a few Powerbook G4's, and never had fans like this. any advice would be appreciated, i dont know if apply would service it again for these fans, but its embarrassingly loud.

for the first time, i am honestly disappointed with apple. when i first arrived, i put on itunes and played a song to show the tech that the fans were at ~5700 RPM. he took it in back, came back 5 mins later, and said that he made a test account, the fans were silent, therefore its not a hardware problem but a software one with something im running. (pretty interesting because it NEVER did this until last week, and the only thing that has changed is hardware)
so i explained to him yes, it is silent with nothing except for the OS is running, but the second you open any applications, the fans jump to 2k, then to 3k and eventually to 4. his response: word and safari are VERY resource intensive, people are surprised how resource intensive they are. needless to say i was upset, especially since my 2500 laptop never sounded like a small cessna about to take off.
next, i showed him that the logic board didnt fix the black spot i had on my 4 month old sreen, as the previous tech said it would. his response: these glossy screens damage easily when you close them, its normal wear and tear. thats good to know, buy a $2,499 laptop, screen can damage within 4 months due to "closing it", who would have thought anyone would attempt to close a crazy laptop. sounds like 1) breach of warranty, express and implied and 2) breach of fitness of merchantability.
i love apple, but im disappointed. what am i supposed to do now? he said he would sent it off to the depo, but it takes a week and implied that since their hardware tests didnt show any problems, the depos wouldn't either.

Loud fan and beep sound

Computer left on overnight when turned on has a loud fan that keeps getting louder and a long single beep every few seconds that gets gradually louder also

Hi,
Remove the side panel from the case, and look for the heatsink & Cooler for the CPU. Make sure there isn't a wire stuck in the fan and make sure the CPU fan's power cord has not come unplugged from the mobo.
Do you ever get the computer shutting down saying that there is a "Thermal Event" or something similar?

IMac G5 keeps freezing/crashing. SMU reset resulted in a loud fan noise.

I have a refubished iMac G5 OS X 10.6.8 desktop that was purchased in Aug, 2006. Recently it has been either freezing, shutting down completely, or the display will just shut off multiple times per day 20+ times/day. I am not interested in purchasing the $49 help from Apple. Is it time for a new computer?
I've been attempting some troubleshooting:
I have plenty of RAM- we installed more memory about 8 months ago.
Temperature running at 40 degrees C
I reset the SMU but now am hearing a loud fan sound and there is air blowing out of the horizontal vent in back of the desktop- which does not typically happen. The computer has not crashed since I reset the SMU 20 minutes ago. I'm worried about the noise.
Also, it has been really hot where I live, with a heat index of 110 today and I don't have air conditioning. Current indoor air temp is about 86 degrees F.
Also, I have been seeing thin horizontal stripes across my screen for the past few months, related or unrelated issue?
Thanks for the help!

Not that this will cure it but it may help:
As old as your iMac is, have you cleaned out the dust? Dust buildup can lead to over heating issues. Remove any and all things plugged into it including the power cord, Remove the RAM access grille. Vacuum all openings starting with the RAM access area (air intake). Vacuum all ports and plugs, DVD slot and the opening across the top of the rear of the body. Blow compressed air through all your openings and vacuum again to remove any dust you loosend. Reinstall the RAM grille. Plug in the keyboard and mouse if not blue tooth. Insert power cord...
You are now in a perfect position to do a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
It is the 5 second timing that initiates the reset.
Here is a link to a Widget to monitor your temps and other operations:
http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

17" iMac G5 2GHz (ALS but no iSight) runs hot and LOUD fans

Hi all,
I love my iMac. I've had it for nearly 8 months now. From day 1, I've been surprised by how loud it is under any significant CPU load. Unfortunately for me, I have waited until I'm well out of my phone support window to do anything about it. I have not yet purchased AppleCare.
As I type this, my CPU temp is 70 degrees C and fan is running at 2600 RPM, running nothing beyond the browser in which I'm typing. Should I attempt to work in iMovie and render said work to DVD (the reason I bought the machine), CPU temp will climb to ~76 and fan speed jumps to 4600-4800 RPM. At this speed, the noise is unbearable...but it is annoying even when idle.
Can any of you with this model of 17" iMac comment on your experience? Do these numbers and this experience sound normal? I know I'm not alone in this complaint, but I can't tell how widespread the problem is or whether my machine is normal or defective. I've been told by my local service center (CompUSA) that every single 17" iMac of this revision runs hot and has loud fans, and that there is nothing I can do short of complaining to Apple in the hopes of getting a replacement of a later revision. I was told by a "genius" at a different Apple store that my machine sounded about like he'd expect.
I'm getting a system board replacement tomorrow, but have been told not to expect it to make a significant difference. I figure I must do it before Apple would consider further action.
Any advice at all will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long message...
Thanks,
ctcaldwell
iMac G5 17" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Mine is still fairly new as I picked it up off ebay a couple weeks ago brand new. So I don't know when it was actually manufactured. The part of the noise that gets under my skin is that soft but constant background whining coming from the CPU fan. It doesn't really sound like anything rubbing or a bad bearing, just the sound that an electric motor makes. But, it just seems to resonate from the lower left hand side where the air intake is.
So quite accidentally one day I held my hand under the left hand side and it completely muffled the whine sound. You could still here the hum and the sound of air but the irritating element was gone. Playing around a little more, I opted to tape a business card under that lower left hand corner, bridging the gap from front to back to still allow an airspace for the fan's suction. It knocks out about 90% of the whine.
It's been running that way for two weeks with no ill effects. Yes, the fan speeds up and slows down when needed. Normal at rest RPM is 1500 and mid to upper 50's on the temp. The highest temp I've seen under max continuous load is 65 with the fan at 4000 rpm.
I did experiment with something longer than the business card but I did then see a decrease in cooling capability. The isight models have their suction ducted out the back and I bet that gets rid of that resonance.
So all in all it still makes less fan noise than my old B&W, it's just that the B&W wasn't up on the desk so close to our heads. But, If your fans are constantly on high, there is a procedure for resetting something in power management, I just can't find it right now. Hope this helps.

What it means loud fan noise?

Hi there,
I have a Imac G5 Rev2 and I read a lot of topics about loud fan noise. I bought an Imac about 4 months ago and the fan noise is a bit louder than when I just got it. What do all the users mean by "loud"? It is only once, when I was running the hardware test, that I heard my Imac did the "airplane" (very loud) fan noise. When I am using applications using a lot of CPU, I hear a louder fan noise but not the "airplane" noise.
Then what is the most reliable program to check the temperature of the iMac G5?
Which range of temperature is normal for the iMac?
Thx in advance for ya replies....

I have a Rev b just like you and light use the temp of the cpu is 65-68º C while the hard drive is about 53º C. This is the temp as I am using two browsers, with iTunes and MS word open and running.
For a temp program you can try Temperature Monitor at this link:
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
You can also try the very handy iStat Pro Widget (Of which the temps I gave you above came from). It has a lot of very useful data, from CPU to Memory usage, from CPU to Hard Drive temps---and even the speed of all three fans. You can find that here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html
Hope this helps.

Radeon HD 3870 PCIe 2.0 overheating and loud fan problem fixed?

Hello everybody.
I just wanted to know if anybody on here has bought an 3870 lately and still has the overheating/constant loud fan issue. I have been told by Macsales that this issue has been fixed on the new cards? Is that correct? I am still shopping for a card for my MacPro 2007 1,1. Don't really have the money to buy the 4870 and the only other option I have is the 3870. Pretty sad that there are no other ones in that $200 (or less) price range. Every other card for that Mac version is in the $350-$450 range.
Anyway, just wanted to know if these 3870 issues have been fixed.
Thanks.

My experience with the 3870: I have 2 of them for 2 computers and have never got the fan issues reported all over this site. I dont think it applies too ALL 3870s'. They have been pretty much silent or close too. Its a great card with Motion and maybe I was tripping, but it seemed to make the interface a bit more snappy.
Having said that, I have removed them now and replaced them with the 8800, due to Snow leopard and support for Open CL (FYI 3870 does not support Open CL, which is a shame, why? baffles me!) not that apps support that yet, but soon.
<Edited by Host>
good luck
BKT

Loud fans in sleep mode 20" G5 iMac Rev A, OS 10.4.11 New Info

This is more of a confirmation and heads up on a problem I encountered and solved to see if any of you have other ideas.
Several weeks ago I replaced the power supply bought from Mac Pro Online in my G5 iMac. When I put it to sleep I hadn't noticed anything odd at first because I'ld just walk away until one day I could here the fans going full blast. The screen was off as usual but the sleep mode light wasn't on while the fans were running. I waited about a minute until the fans returned to normal speed and the sleep mode light returned to its usual behavior only it seemed to be a lot brighter.
I awoke the iMac from sleep and all was fine. I put it back to sleep and the screen shut off as usual but the sleep mode lights wouldn't turn on. I waited about a minute and listened to make sure that the iMac hadn't shut down and then the fans started up full blast for about 30 seconds and then returned to normal and the sleep mode lights turned back on.
I shut the iMac down, disconnected all USB and ethernet cables and reset SMU using the unplug power cord, 10 second wait, replug holding down rear start button. Fixed it!
Swapping out USB devices I narrowed it down to a Kingston USB Multi-sized port memory care reader hub-part number: FCR-HS219/1. I tested and got repeated results described above reconnecting it and downloading some images and ejecting. Loud fans in sleep mode happened again.
Tried a MobileMate Memory Card Reader, downloaded images, ejected and no problems with sleep mode.
My question is what could've messed up the Kingston Card Reader? It was working fine before the power supply replacement.
Thanks,
Tim

There's no telling.
Only cause that came to mind is a lightning hit last week that sounded very close by where all it did was cause the lights in my home to blink. The computer didn't. However, this might have fried the Kingston card reader.
To give an idea of the resilience of the former power supply, about a year and half ago I had the back off with the iMac sitting upright on a towel on the table while I played a YouTube video to see if I could cool this thing down. Instead of cooling it I overheated it by blocking the vents to where suddenly the iMac just shutdown. I could detect a strong smell of melted plastic from the power supply.
Put the iMac back on its stand and restarted without a hitch and I've never had any problems until several weeks ago when it just started shutting down for no reason. It passed the LED light test as it still does now with the new power supply.
This is the first Mac out of three I've had since 1998 that allowed me to see odd behavior like this. I had to rely on my 2000 Pismo G3 PB to find a replacement PSU online. That thing never breaks.

Loud fan

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