Macbook Pro Fan noise

I have had a 2012 macbookpro (15 inch) since they came out, and just now, I have begun to notice fan noise sort of like a faint grinding sound. It only occurs when I tilt the computer to the left, and then back to a level position, or fowards and backwards. I have seen some postings were some say it is the fan motor, though I wonder if it could be dust collecting in the fans.
Even though some suggest taking it to the Apple store in other threads, I can't because I simply don't have the time to take it about 100 miles.
So here is my real question: Is there a safe and effective way to clean the fans of dust without potentially voiding the warranty?

take off the bottom case and check for dust and remove if necessary.  Taking of the bottomcase does not void the warranty as Apple allows you to upgrade the ram yourself and that is required to do so.

Similar Messages

  • Macbook Pro Fans Noise

    I was using my Macbook Pro today when I suddenly heard my fans make this really loud noise. The programs I had open were Safari, iTunes, and iMovie. I closed all the programs but iMovie. However the fans kept making noise and eventually the noise died down. I noticed that my Mac was VERY VERY hot as well. Do I need to take my Mac to the Genius Bar or is this normal?

    Have you done an SMC reset? That can sometimes effect the fans running: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    When the fans are going full tilt, bring up Activity Monitor, and see if there's a particular program or programs that are driving high CPU usage.
    Confirm that your system thinks it has 4GB memory, and that some didn't fail.
    Check your print queue to ensure that there are no print jobs that didn't complete printing. OS X can put alot of effort into trying to reprint them.
    That's just a few ideas ...

  • 2009 Macbook Pro fan noise with Windows 7

    Hello Apple community,
    I'm not sure if I should post this in the bootcamp section or not.
    I've recently installed Windows 7 on my mid 2009 MBP. I used OS X Lion to create the bootcamp partiton. Everything installed ok but now my MBP's fan is getting noticably loud whenever I use Windows. I've used OS X Lion, and then Mavericks before installing Windows 7 and the only time I heard the fan that loud was when I was playing a video game or doing something hardware intensive. Once I quite the game the fan would stop being so loud. The fan is not consistantly loud, it subsides for a breif period of time only to go full speed again shortly. But it is loud enough most of the time for it to cause me some concern.
    Does anyone have any idea about this issue? Is this a consistant problem with MBP using Windows 7? Should I do an update to OS X Lion? Any adive would be greatly appreicated.
    Rados

    Thanks for replying turostar.
    I did as you suggested. I have noticed an improvement in terms of the noise. It isn't as loud for as long a time but every now and then the fan will kick start to make noise again. Is this to be expected?

  • Macbook Pro Fan Trouble.

    I recently sent my Macbook Pro Fans to get replaced. The problem was that my fans started to work even when the computer didn't need it. They would accelerate up to 6000 RPM and I would only be running Safari and iChat. Then the computer's fans would start to slow down and then speed back up. I sent in the computer for repair to get the fans looked at and they replaced them. Well the problem is still persisting. Should I call them about it again or is this normal? I only ask because I don't know if it is or not.

    I have the same trouble with mine. I took it in for repair as it had a logic board issue, and they gave it back to me yesterday, but when I started using it, the fans ramped up to 6000rpm constantly for the entire day.
    This morning I installed Fan Control to see if that would help, but it appears that Fan Control is not actually doing anything. The fans have been stuck around 4400 rpm at 35 degrees celsius even though I told Fan Control not to run at anything above 2000rpm until it gets to 40 degrees.
    Is there a mysterious apple setting that says don't go above 35 degrees, or if you do ramp up the fan speed to max until it gets below it again, because according to Fan Control that is what is happening. It is not logical to be wanting to keep a powerful modern laptop at that temperature when the fan noise is so high. 45 degrees would be a fine operating temperature.
    BTW, I checked the Hardware test and there is nothing to report from it.

  • HT202179 MacBook Pro Fan is very loud overnight. How are they replaced?

    MacBook Pro Fan just started to make a lot of noise.This is a MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.4/2.2GHz purchased June 2007. Is this something that most people can replace or does Apple need  to fix it or is it time to get a new one base on age and potential repair cost? 

    Your Mac uses measured temperatures to determine fan speed in a feedback loop.
    Racing fans are an indication that your Mac is overheating, or a temperature sensor is not working properly. Replacing the fan will not fix the problem.
    Your appointment for an evaluation at the genius Bar of an Apple store is free, in warranty or out. There is no obligation to have them do any work for a fee, but if you choose to, charges are generally flat rate for guaranteed repair, no surprises.
    If you recently replaced components, such a RAM DIMMs, with parts that do not have Apple-approved temperature sensors, that can also cause such problems.

  • Macbook pro fan running slow

    macbook pro fan is running slow and hot.  it fluctuates between 212 and 375 rpms.  heat rises up to 104c.  do i need to replace the fan?

    Before I suggest advice, I urge you to keep your machine under 160F at all times. I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but you can seriously damage your machine with that kind of use. Some solders melt at 225F, weaken at 190F.
    You may have to replace the fan - or you may need to clean the inside of your machine and fan. It's hard to tell without inspecting your machine.
    Or you may find that you need to get a different browser, and become more aware of temperature; laptop machines are much more sensitive to termperature issues than desktop Macs. Some day, you'll thank me for that advice.

  • What is causing my Macbook Pro fan to run constantly?

    Hello. Recently my Macbook Pro fan has begun to run constantly at high power. I've checked the activity monitor and even when there is little RAM or CPU this occurs. I am wondering if the issue is the hard drive because the I am seeing spikes in disk activity at random times even when I am not using the hard drive. The computer is actually heating up when the fans are on at full power, so this also leads me to believe it could be the hard drive. I have already tried resetting the system management controller. Any other ideas? What should I do about this?
    Thanks a lot.

    Try raising the the the machine with wood, or , plastic botttle caps t get it up an inch or so, that way there is more air flow under the MBP to help with the air flow to help keep the cooling more een.  Hope this helps.

  • Mainstage 2.1 makes my Macbook Pro fans run full bore.

    Upgraded to V. 2.1 and Snow Leopard. Now my Macbook Pro fan kicks in at full blast whenever I play any patches or run backing tracks. Cpu hit looks low and memory usage is average. This never happened before. Any ideas as to what's happening?

    My MBP fans have always run at full capacity when using MS 1, 2 or 2.1. They start out running normally but then start to rev up after a couple of minutes. You could try running some fan control software to manually adjust your fan thresholds but ultimately, does it really matter if the fans are running hard? Seems to me that they're running hard because they need to....MS is still very hard on system resources even if the meters say otherwise. It's the only app I run that causes the fans to run flat-out.

  • My MacBook Pro fan runs while sleeping

    My MacBook Pro fan runs constantly, even while sleeping.
    The problem started about 2-3 months ago, but was pretty rare. When I noticed the problem, I would restart the computer and it would stop for 1-2 weeks. More recently it has become more constant, and now it always has the fan running when it's sleeping.
    Any ideas on what I should do? Thanks!

    Mine too. If you're worried you might like to try a laptop cooler like one of these:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_kk_2?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Alaptop+cooling+pad&keywor ds=laptop+cooling+pad&ie=UTF8&qid=1344763538
    Not sure how well they'd work on a Macbook as there aren't any vents on the underside but it couldn't hurt and they're quite cheep.

  • My Macbook Pro fan

    My Macbook Pro fan is always running and slows don't my computer, What's the issue and is there various ways to try and solve the issue?

    Hey Unknownflavour,
    There an be a few different reasons why your fans are running. I'd read up on the function of your MacBook Pro's fans in the following document:
    Learn about the fans in your Mac
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4543
    Regards,
    Delgadoh

  • Do you think my macbook pro fan could be broken?

    Earlier today when I opened my laptop the screen was black and it appeared to be shut down. I hit the restart button and when the screen came up it said that I had "shut off my laptop due to a problem", though I did not manually shut it down. It was working 100% fine yesterday, so I'm not sure what could have happened to it. I know it wasn't my battery, because I had a full charge prior to shutting it and upon restart I still had a reasonable charge. I was more or less ignoring my laptop's unusual pop-up until I noticed that my computer was feeling much hotter than normal, so I checked iStat pro to look at temperatures. The CPU temp was around 82 degrees or so when I checked, while I was playing a videogame, which doesn't seem too high but the area around my keyboard felt much hotter to the touch than normal. What is really concerning me is that iStat says my fan is running at 0 rpm, even while I was playing a graphic-intensive game. The CPU is down to 65 degrees since I have stopped playing the game, however I have heard that your laptop will shut itself off to prevent overheating, and I'm wondering if this is what happened to my laptop sometime between yesterday and today. Does it sound like my fan could be broken? There isn't an apple store very close to me and my warranty just ended so I'd rather work it out myself if possible. I don't believe it is a faulty sensor either as iStat gave me temperature readings for everything. If you think my fan is broken, do you have any advice or know how much it would cost to fix/replace?

    Good detective work.
    I don't believe that 80ºC is extreme for occasional use, but over extended periods of time, this can stress your machine. I beleve you should visit your local Apple Store. They can determine if the fan is broken.
    In the meantime, I could avoid:
    - CPU-intensive activities like 3D gaming for extended periods of time.
    - Using your notebook on your lap. That can raise its temperature thirty or more degrees.
    - Dust or dirt can choke the fans, increasing temperatures and even the risk of fire.
    Replacement of a fan is not very expensive, if it comes to that. You can also do it yourself:
    http://clarebayley.com/2011/10/how-to-replace-a-macbook-pro-fan/

  • Why is MACBook Pro making noises that I can't identify?

    Why is MACBook Pro making noises that I can't identify?

    It would help if you could describe the noise...does it sound like a clicking, or rubbing, or hum?  Where does it sound like it is originating?  When does it make the sound?

  • 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 Fans Just Went Spinning Nuts

    Hi.
    So I'm surfing the web (using firefox) have 2 tabs open and suddenly the fans on my macbook pro start to spin faster. Then they spin faster gain finally maxing out at 5360 rpm. The temperature all the time was never above 55 degress C. They spun at 5360 rpm for about 10 minutes and then spun down to a normal level of 3154 rpm.
    I checked the processes and some kernal task is up at the top using 1.84 GB of virtual memory. No other programs running but plenty of other tasks listed as sleeping.
    First question ... what is the max rpm that the fans should safely spin at?
    Second question ... why would it suddenly take off like that spinning fans when there's only one program running?
    I had an alienware before and it started running its fans like that after a few months ownership ... a few months later it chew the hard disk and lost a lot of data on me.

    The maximum RPM for the MacBook Pro fans is 6000rpm.
    I have no idea why the fans would suddenly "take off" like that but try running the Apple Hardware test. You can do this by inserting your original install disk 1, restart the computer with the D key held down until the hardware test starts loading. Once the test has loaded select the option to perform extended testing and then start the test. Note down any error codes and post them here.
    Note that when you load the hardware test up the mouse will be very jittery and the computer will appear to freeze during the test, I have encountered this on all the tests I have run and consider it normal behaviour.
    Hope this helps
    J.C

  • MacBook Pro fans are deafd

    Hi all.
    After some unexpected shutdowns, I discovered that my MacBook Pro fans are both dead. iStat Pro shows them always at 0rpm and after some hardware testing with Tiger DVD I get the error code that fans are broken.
    When MacBook Pro gets too hot it just shuts down so I wanted to repair it but I'd like to know an aproximate cost. Apple shops here in Barcelona (Spain) say they first want to ckech the laptop out (paying, of course) but i don't know if two broken fans can imply a motherboard change or whatever that can be expensive or worth it.
    Any idea of an aproximate cost?
    Thanks.
    R.-

    You should have it checked out by an authorized service provider to make sure nothing else is wrong. Better to be safe than sorry.

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