Loud MacBook fan

My MacBook fan is running at 6200 rpm, 75 degrees almost constantly. In a class yesterday someone asked me to move because my computer was distracting. Please advise!
Even running just one program (FireFox) the fan runs constantly.

hi first time to post here~
my questions goes: the fan of my black macbook has started to "go nuts" for the past few weeks and it never happened before! I checked the fan speed using smcfancontrol and it was always around 6000 (exhaust). at first i thought it got to be the fan control software which messed up my fan and made it run like crazy, but after the uninstallation the problem remained the same. So like some advices here I checked "Activity Monitor" when my fan went crazy again. i found out the latest-updated iTune 8.0 took almost 55% of my CPU-especially whenever I turned on the "Visualizer." as long as I stop using "Visualizer" my fan is back to normal and quiet like a sleeping baby. May I ask is this normal?? Should i take my 4-month-old macbook to apple store for check?

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Really really loud macbook fan - with video example!

recently, my mac has been making a really loud noise, and it is obvious that it is the fan.
the video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVIwrGe17x4
and a better example is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDjmYiUdybI
any ideas?
i've had a look inside my macbook, but there seems to be nothing inside the fan.

I feel your pain. Hardware problems are big headaches...and your fan's noise almost caused me one. I have to say though, that was an extremely funny video! It looked like the camera man was sniffing the computer like a curious dog. Also, what military training film was playing on the screen? Scary. Maybe it scared your fan, too.
Good luck with the 'puter.

Very Loud MacBook Fan

I've had mine since January and never really experienced this before or at least never noticed it.
Lately the fan on my MacBook has been very loud - even at idol speeds (around 1000-2000rpm).
It sounds similar to a clipping or clunking noise and when it reaches the higher speeds it becomes extremely annoying, and it speeds up after watching just one or two flash videos (which makes since because the processor gets hotter) or just becomes very loud whenever it isn't 100% level (sitting in my lap, on my bed, or just picking it up while it's running).
I even tried opening the back and cleaning out the dust, but that did not help much at all. I'm planning on taking it in tomorrow, but has anyone else had this problem?

Some users have reported a noisy fan.

MacBook fan going off the rails

I've seen some threads on here about MacBook fans failing to spin fast enough, and oddly I have the exact opposite problem. My fan is very normal during typical computer usage, but acts up very loudly and spins quite fast at two times: when I watch videos online, and when I play Diablo 2.
Now I'm guessing the videos make sense, but I play a lot of games on this computer that are more graphically intensive and otherwise demanding than Diablo and the fans aren't half as busy. When I start the game up, a dialog box opens for settings and such before it goes fullscreen and all that stuff starts. Today I left it at this simple little dialog box and watched my fan speed: It jumped from around 1800 to around 6200 rpm in about the span of 45 seconds. I had no other applications open nor was I so much as moving the cursor on the computer. The temp went from 120ºish to 160º F.
It worries me that the fans are working this hard for what seems like no reason. What's more, I usually play the game when I'm plugged in, but a couple of times I've tried on battery power and as soon as the fans get in full swing, the computer just shuts off. This has happened while watching videos online too.
Naturally I'm worried. Any help would be very much appreciated!

Loud fan behavior while watching online videos is normal due to the stress placed on the processor by Adobe Flash.
Regarding Diablo, you are right that it is not a graphically intensive game. However due to the age of the game, I believe it runs in Rosetta, a software translation layer that allows you to run the game on Intel processors. So there is a lot of background software translation going on, and the GPU is used very little or none at all.
More about Rosetta:
http://www.apple.com/rosetta/

Help!!! Macbook fan not turning on!

Hello there!
I have a problem with my macbook fans. The fans do not turn on until the computer has been running at 80°C for 5 minutes and only then my macbook only runs at 3000 revolutions. The fans idle is 2000... I know this because I have an application from the mac app store called temp. guage and that tells me temperatures and fan speeds.
The fans to both of my brothers macbooks turn on once the computer is about 60-75°C and it turns onto 6000 revolutions and their idle is 2000 revolutions . Could it be that I have a macbook and not a macbook pro? Or could there be something wrong with my fans?
When I got the computer about 1 year ago the fans turned on a lot but I didn't have this app for various reasons but I could hear the fan turning on. I know that the fan back then was faster becaue i could heat it and when the fans now are at 3000 I can not hear it.
Could a connection be loose - I have never opened the back case but I carry the macbook a lot with my in school? Could there be so much dust on the fan that it tries to spin faster but it simply can't? Could it be the grease on the fan? can anyone help me narrow my decision? Do I need to replace my fan?
Today I was at the apple store and I did a diagnostic test. The only problem was with my speakers but I did not notice that. Point it the fans were all right in the diagnostic test but in reality the fans are not all right...
Someone please help! This is a desperate problem my computer keeps on shutting off because it gets too hot.
Category: Power
Thanks in advance!
Avranius

First thing I would try is resetting the machine SMC.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

How my macbooks fan works.

This is how much macbook fan works.
http://mb.neom.ca/fan.mov
I started the recording when it was mooing, and then I ran a process to max out the cpu and heat it up. As you can hear, the hotter it gets, the harder the fan spins. Once I turn off the process (you will hear a beep on the movie when the process is terminated), you can hear the fan start to spin down. About 30 seconds after the movie was done, the macbook resumed mooing, and is still mooing as I type this.
It's an interesting look at how the macbook heat management is telling the fan to work.
My macbook is a week 24 built.
Message was edited by: neom (fixed the link!)

Updated with smaller movie.

MacBook fan running high most of the time after HDD/Hard-drive Upgrade

Hi guys,
I've just recently upgraded my MacBook white's (MacBook5,2, 2GHZ duo core, 4GB ram) stock harddrive to a WD 2.5" black 750GB. After which, I noticed my macbook fan running at high speeds majority of the time... Even when just doing light weight stuff on it, such as surfing the net using Safari or even just leaving my computer idle after startup.
I did a clean install twice, the second was too see if it was really just a badly installed OS, but the problem still persisted, well at least till I decided to come here to type the post =P (maybe my macbook's scared about being talked about). Do note, that I did a pc migration each time.
After the upgrade, My fan usually runs at about 5000-6200 rpm, but right now as I'm typing this post, its surprisingly alot lower then what I've been experiencing. About 3000rpm-4000rpm.
As for the harddrive temperature, I noticed it runs between the 37 degree to 40 degree celsius range, so I'm guessing the hard-drive temperature sensor isn't busted, which was the problem for others from what I've read from other discussions here.
Also, when I boot my windows partition, the fan doesn't go as crazy, but it eventually will too.
Any idea what the problem could be? =s Or could it be that my MacBook can't handel 7200rpm hard drives =/ If so I'd probably downgrade to a 1TB WD blue =s
On top of that, does any one know if the 2.5" WD blue are as reliable as the 2.5" WD blacks? As I'm heistant to downgrade as I've read that the blues have a higher failure rate, and wouldn't want that happening. Oh and I'm not considering an SSD for this particular MacBook at the moment, as I may upgrade in another two years or so!
Thank you!
Edwin

Hey Mende1,
Well I guess I'll try returning the drive at the end of this week then my fan seemed to have slowed down abit since the upgrade, it's sorta spinning around 3000rpm now. I'm not sure if it's gonna be the same thoughout, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't spin as much as it did when I had my old HDD on. So I'm giving it a few more day probably till the end of this week. And if the noise issue still surfaces I'll try a different hard drive! and update you on the results!
Thanks alot Mende1!
And hello there rauldoppler!
Well, firstly, I'm using a early 2009 MacBook white! The pre-unibody one. It's running on a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB for ram.
As for the hard-drives, I'd actually reccommend you to upgrade to an Solid State Drive if you can afford it, but if you're like me who needs more memory space then boot speed etc, I guess a HDD will be fine =) As for which brand of hard-drives, I would actually recommend WD (their black drives especially, 5 year warranty, 7200rpm speed hehe), but right now I'm having the fan problems, so I'm not too sure anymore.
I did however, do quite abit of digging around on the net and concluded that WD was a better choices amoungst the rest... But yeah the fan issue is still something I didn't expect. All in all, I guess as for which drive is better, it really depends on your needs or wants, if it's for casual internet surfing and stuff, a WD blue HDD would be fine, or a black if you want a slightly faster boot speed etc at the expense of your battery life and all. If you however value blazing fast boot times and application start up times, go for an SSD. If you need the memory space more then anything then I'd say go for a HDD again too, as it's cheaper interms of gigabite to dollar ratio. (for example, the older 500GB version of my new WD black would cost USD $43, while a Samsung 500GB SSD Pro would cost $349) Also, You could do abit of reading up on SSDs if you're interested in it There's alot of plus points to it, like ALOT, and if the price tag wasn't so huge, I would have used it for my macbook already!
Lastly, I used a WD Black 750GB for my macbook upgrade. However, I'm gonna downgrade to a WD blue 1TB this weekend if the fan doesn't settle down over time Cause well, the fan noise is really an issue for me.
Peace out guys!
Edwin

Detailed Stat Macbook Fan Question

Dear Apple Community,
After quite some time spent online sifting through threads related to macbook fan noise, overheating, and everything related to it i have finally decided to ask directly for some guidance as i have yet to find a clear solution.
My problem, like many, is that the moment i start using my CPU more than just a few % , temperatures soar out of control and i guess as a result so does my fan.
I have double-triple check alternate causes for this problem. Definately not the printer-que issue as some have posted before.
It is 100% as soon as i go out of idle and use CPU problem starts and noise because problematic when sitting in library.
Here is a quick table on what happens when i go from using just excel to starting and using flash animations/journals/magazines and then back to idle again.
CPU USAGE
CPU: T
HEATSINK A/B T
Exhaust
Idle
1-2%
52
49/49
1802
Flash 1min
87-90%
94
74/72
6200
Flash 5min
70-80%
87
71/72
6212
Flash 10min
70%
85
72/70
6196
Idle 5min
1-5%
54
50/50
2134
Idle 10min
1-5%
56
50/50
1797
(Above stats are from iSTAT Pro. (CPU usage verified via Disk Utility activity monitor).
Here are the stats of my Black Macbook 13'..
Model Name:          MacBook
Model Identifier:          MacBook2,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
System Version:          Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
My questions is what i can do to be able to work with normal programs without my mac going crazy? Is it thermal paste problem? Fan seems to work, but maybe i need to open up and either clean with compressed air or replace fan? Other solution?
Thank you for taking time to respond.
Best regards.
Magnus

i have also been looking at this thread:
Flash Player Eating Up CPU, Bogging Down System
However my problem has started within the past 6 months or so..and i defiately have been taxing computer before. Not only with fp usage.

Macbook Fan Hack - force it on

hey guys,
just wondering if anyone knows a way to hack the macbook fans to manually turn them on. i just updated to 10.4.7 but the heat is still driving me nuts. and the fans don't seem to turn on as regularly as i would like.
thanks!
Ronny

What about a firmware update that enables the fans to come on sooner
Apple has made updates firmware or OS updates that seem to effect when fans come on. Its a tricky balancing act, turn the fans on earlier or faster and battery life suffers. Don't have them come on sooner and heat increases
What temp do the fans come on at? 80 C?
I think for my MB they start coming on in the mid to low 70s, and if the temps reach the mid 80s they ramp up full bore.
Mike

Macbook fan runs continually with Zynga games...

My wife reports that her Macbook fan runs continually when playing Zynga games...internet games in facebook. I watched her, and it's true...if she quits the game the fan stops. Is this a potential problem? Seems that's all she does on that laptop... I suggested she stop playing the games, but that advice will not be heeded:) thx.

Thank YOU for the reply. Wanna nother star? Help me figure this one out:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10572587#10572587
as this one is with my machine and not my wife's and has me REALLY worried!

Macbook Fan Broken?

I think my Macbook fan is broken. It keeps getting hotter and all I keep hearing is the sounds of something loading (like the sound of a CD when it is being loaded in the CD ROM. I downloaded the Mac fan control program to see if that would help. The temperature was at 147 degrees fahrenheit. I put the base speed of the fan at 1800 RPM. The left fan turns on at 500 RPM and then quits after a second. The right fan is at -1 RPM. I set the lower threshold to 104 degrees fahrenheit and the upper threshold to 158 degrees fahrenheit. So far, I have not heard any, even minute, noises coming from the fans. And no air is coming out of the vents.

there is only one fan in a macbook and yeah it sounds broken...bring it to an apple store and check the price to get it fixed...
if you are handy you can change it yourself and check ifixit and ebay...if you are not...backup your data as the end of your laptop is really near...

My Macbook fan just died as well as my computer

My Macbook fan just died as well as my computer starting to shut of after 20 minutes., anyone have heard of this?

You might try to reset the SMC and/or PRAM.

ICal makes my MacBook fan go wild

when starting up iCal my MacBook fan stirres up for a couple of minutes and in Activity Monitor I can see it needs more than 95% CPU. Sometimes also SyncServer kicks in taking also all CPU and even more time.
Is this normal? Or is my ical database corrupted. How can it be that a simple background sync is taking so much CPU?
If this is kinda normal I will switch to Google calendar, to avoid the whining of the MacBook.
Looking forward to your response.

I don't always get the whining fan, but once I launch iCal, I can say goodbye to any free system memory. This has been recurring for at least 2 months, and I've been watching Activity Monitor very carefully, and see an absolute connection with iCal and SyncServer. It's very frustrating, 'cause I really want iCal to work, but not at the expense of my (theoretically powerful MacbookPro w/) System memory (2gb).
At the suggestion of my Apple store's "genius," I exported all my calendars, deleted them from iCal, trashed all iCal cache and metadata folders, plists, etc. I then brought in a few calendars one at a time. I purposely avoided any subscribed ones, and let iCal delete alarms. I ran the computer for a few days with only 3 or 4 calendars, and the behavior was a bit better, but still SyncServer was using LOTS of memory.
My console logs are showing lots of lines with "Invalid address property:" warnings (w/ referenced to eddresses that are valid); and "WARNING: BestCalendarDateFromString - can't interpret:"
So, I'm back to wondering: what can I do!?!?!?
(It is slightly comforting to know that someone else is experiencing similar problems. I only hope someone reads this and has a clue as to what's going on and how to solve it.)

My Macbook Fan Is Running Very Loud...

My fan has been running very loud for the past week and I'm not sure whats wrong with it.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If the fan is working all the time, it looks like a sensor problem.
Run Apple Hardware Test > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US Plug the MacBook Pro to its charger, choose your language, tick the box to run an extended test and start the test. If at the end of the test you see an error, copy it here.
It's probable that this is a sensor problem, but if the problem doesn't happen during startup, it would be a process which is consuming your CPU. Open Activity Monitor, select "All Processes" above "Show" in the toolbar, and order processes by CPU. Do you see any process which is consuming more CPU than the others?

MacBook fan running very loudly

I have been having issues with my MacBook overheating and causing the fan to run very loudly (so loudly I can't listen to music or watch videos on it very well). I have had the motherboard replaced twice this year alone by Apple and I still have coverage till November of this year. They told me if I keep it on a flat surface (like a desk), the problem shouldn't keep happening. More times than none, I only have one application running like Safari or Firefox with only one page open and still the computer is incredibly loud. Any suggestions? I really do not want to take it out to a retail store again unless I can get a new MacBook out of it since it'll be the third time the motherboard has been replaced.

Hi Brandon: This is a shot in the dark, but check out the troubleshooting tips in the Apple article below.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473
Stedman

Loud MacBook fan

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