New hi-res G4: Constant fan noise

Hi,
I just received my brand-new 1.67 GHz PowerBook today, as a replacement for a year-old 1.33GHz PowerBook which was stolen from me.
The old 1.33 used to be silent as a graveyard during normal use. But the new 1.67 issues a constant fan noise. It is not very loud, but very noticable and definitely annoying. It is always present from start-up until shut-down, even if I am not running any applications.
Should I return it to Apple? Or are there any tests/fixes I can try?

I have also got one of the latest PowerBooks and the fan noise is more noticeable than my previous 1.5Ghz model, however I wouldn't have even noticed it if I'd not had a previous model.
There have been some other similar postings on these discussion pages.
One of the criticisms of the previous model was that the underneath of the case could get very hot, I believe the fans run more often to cure this problem and in practice the PowerBook runs a lot cooler. It never gets hot, just a bit warm.
The fans still speed up when doing anything intensive, such as playing some of the high definition trailers I downloaded from the quicktime section of this website. Try it yourself and see if the fan noise increases after a short while.

Similar Messages

Brand new macbook pro has annoying fan noises all the time

I just picked up my macbook pro 13'' with retina display from apple store today, and the first time when I start it, it generates constant annoying noise! no applications run, nothing, from the moment I push the power button, it just give the noises... very disappointed at macbook pro.... Restart it, same, still gives out constant fan noises.... Even the $300, $400 cheap laptops don't have such problem....

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Your Mac may be indexing files from the flash storage, and this may cause that your CPU usage is high. In this case, I recommend you to carry on using your Mac and fans will stop working at maximum speed soon.
Another thing you can try is to reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 The SMC is the part that manages fans speed, and if it is not working correctly, fans may not be working properly.
If the SMC reset does not work and fans carry on working at maximum speed for a long time, return your Mac and get another one.

Constant Fan Noise from Hard Drive

My power book runs with a constant 'fan' like noise from the hard drive (front left of pd)
My friend has same machine and has No sound,
checked with display models in Apple Store (ear right necxt to pb) - No sound
I have had this low level noise from new.
Anyone else have the same problem.
John

hello there!
When I upgraded to 1.4.0 and I notice that ear piercing noise and it was quite annoying. I called Apple and they advised me to look into the activity monitor. And YES, it ws the anti virus that came with .mac that 1.4.2 for some reason did not like and the process was running for such a long time consuming the resources including of course HD. I removed the anti virus (which at this point was useless) and the machine was just wonderful again.
I think what I may say is that you may want to look for a process (using the activity monitor) which is eating the cpu alive - if you can remove it the better, else try to deal with. Good luck - an OSX convert!

Problems with new Yoga 2 Pro (battery, fan noise, yellow, screen orientation, on-screen keyboard)

I purchased the Yoga Pro 2 on Thursday October 17. I love the computer for so many reasons, (especially since it replaces my 4 year old Compaq that was 6.5lbs!) however, I am also having a few issues with it.
It is the i7/8GB/256GB model from BestBuy. I am experiencing the same yellow issue as is mentioned by many on here. I didn't realize it, though, until reading these forums and then comparing to my old computer and my ipad and iPhone. A little disappointed, though it looks like Lenovo may be working on a solution.
But the real reason I originally came to look at this forum is because of 2 things: my fan and battery.
The fan (on the right side of the keyboard) is always on! I didn't expect this, and am wondering if mine is a lemon or if others are noticing the same thing. It's pretty noticeable, especially in a quiet room. I was showing off my new computer to a friend and the very first thing she said was that it was loud! She was using a MacBook pro, which wasn't making any noise at all.
The second thing is the battery... I am attaching 4 photos all taken within a few minutes of each other. If you cant see them, they are all of the battery meter on my screen. I am listing the time of day (to show how much time passed), percent remaining, and time remaining:
10:04 (88%) 306 hr 15 min
10:05 (88%) 8 hr 48 min
10:09 (86%) 4 hr 54 min
10:29 (81%) 5 hr 12 min
I feel like my computer just cant make up its mind!!
Another issue I had... I turned on my computer to show it to a friend (same friend who said it was noisy) and the screen image wouldn't flip when in any of the modes. This means I showed her the stand mode with an upside down image. Even in tablet mode I couldn't get it to flip. I turned the computer off and then on again, and luckily it decided to work, but it was frustrating, and I hope it's not something that becomes an issue.
Also, when I have the computer in tablet mode, the keyboard automatically pops up when I click somewhere to type... but this doesn't happen in stand mode or tent mode. Is this normal? I would have thought that the keyboard would appear in any of those modes, since the real keyboard is not accessible in any of them. And of course now that I am testing it out while writing this, none of the modes (including tablet) is having the keyboard come on screen. Of course, I know I can always choose the icon on the task bar to bring up the keyboard, but it would be nice if the computer did it automatically since it knows there is no other keyboard accessible in those modes. Is this an issue anybody else has had?
I really do enjoy using this computer, but some of these issues really need to get worked out if I am going to keep it. I'd love to hear if anyone is experiencing anything similar, and if there are any good fixes!

I just got a Lemontine Yoga 2 Pro i5/8GB/256GB from lenovo.com and the silver one from BestBuy in the same configuraiton. The silver one has no issues except for the crazy number of hours remaining on the battery which is fine, doesn't bother me. The fan noise is very quiet, and you can only hear it if you put your ear up to the vents in a quiet room.
Now the Clementine one...It was heating up pretty good. I put my ear to it on many occasions and can hear nothing at all, the fan is either missing LOL or doesn't work. I had an issue where I left the thing on for 4 hours, but sleep is configured after 5 hours. When I tried to use it, it showed me the screen brielfy, then blank. Tried hard reset, called Support, nothing. Support says its dead. Ok, an hour later, it turned on. I'm guessing it was too hot and was in some mode to protect itself, like a smartphone that is left out in the sun for some time, it won't power on till its cooled down.
I'm still in process of trying to get a hold of Lenovo to swap it, but since they no longer sell this configuration, I doubt they'll be able to get me a new one.
The silver one from BestBuy us solid though, love it, best in class in my opinion...actually got it from Future Shop sorry...from Canada, but they're essentially the same store.

Constant fan noise on macbook pro

Hello, my macbook pro (mid 2010 model, 13 inch, 2.4 ghz intel core duo 2 running Mountain lion) is experiencing constant fan activity at very high speed. The CPU however is only used at 9% of its capabilities top. The problem occured after a freeze in adobe Lightroom, since then, the fan noise start as soon as the computer starts (except if i press some keys before i turn it on for some reason, the noise would come back if i shut down the computer and restart it, or simply close it). I'm dully aware that it is normal that the fan is constantly working, but not usually at such high speed (top speed of the system), I checked all the major solutions offered on the net so far with no success (reset SMC, reset Pram, checked if i had some printer activity on the waiting list, checked the activity monitor for any particular demanding activity or tasks and finally i tried to run an apple harware test to see if some temperature probes are broken on the motherboard, however my computer for some reason is not taken care of...).
I also would like to mentionned that i change the original hard-drive not long ago for a hybrid harddrive (seagate momentus XT), yet the problem did not start after the change.
if you do not think of any solutions, you could maybe tell me if its problematic for my computer's fan to run at full speed..
thank you very much for any help you could provide and sorry for the eventual mistakes in english (its not my first language).

Re: Apple Hardware Test. There was no original install disk, as i downloaded mountain lion. While the connection was established to access to Apple hardware test, the test could not run on my mac, the AHT program said that my machine was not supported.
thank you for your diagnostic, it seemed to be a logical explanation, however, thanks to a monitor program i could check that my processor was running under normal temperatures (35°c to 75°c) so at least the temperature informations seems to be correctly assessed by the sensor.

My computer is all of sudden making a constant "fan" noise

For some reason my computer started today with a sound like a fan is constantly going.
Before this sound happened, my computer would not turn on. I proceeded to follow the steps (which I have to say is a royal pain in the butt to do) and yes, it finally turned on. But now I have this worry some noise as if it is over heating??
To further make matters even more confusing is now the battery indicator in the top right corner has an x in it and my battery charge indicator lights will not show up to tell me if my computer battery is fully charged AND my plug in cord's light does not turn on! The latter two problems just showed up AFTER my computer started up. The lights were before I had to turn the computer on the strange way. But now my computer is acting as though it doesn't recognize the battery! (It is the same battery!)

I checked into your link and followed the directions to a "T", but still no luck! My Macbook Pro is brand new, I just bought it last November. I do not believe my battery is no good since everything was working properly except the fact that it wouldn't turn on. I had a full charge on my battery and my plug in light WAS showing green. During the time when I was attempting to turn on my computer, I noticed the plug in indicator light had turned orange. Now I have no light on it at all. Also, I am still able to use my computer if it is unplugged.
My problems continue to be:
1) Sounds like my fan is continually on and will not turn off.
2) My battery charge lights do not turn on.
3) The battery indicator icon (top right corner) shows an "x" in the middle of it.
4) My plug-in indicator light will not light up.
If my problem truly is the battery, what are my options? I don't even know how to get to the battery!

Much better- and question about constant fan noise

i couldn't start anew thread a few minutes ago. I replied to 2 threads, then the startanew thread iconmagically appeard! I am not making it up.
any way- i posted a while back about noise. I thought it may be the hard drive. But definatley it sounds like the fan(s) in my MBP dual core
my MPB was silen when i first bough it. then a few month in it got noisy. Now thw fans are on all the time.
anyone else with a MPB that is just noisy? this *****! macs are almost always quiet. this is annoying acually. and it is non stop! i can't recal a moment when the fns were not winding like tiny air craft jet engines! LOL wel, it's not that funy actually.
the noise does change in pitch on occasion. sort of like they slow down a tiny bit. other wise they just hum away.
I had a G-4 I mac- SILENT! then a dual G-5 tower- it was quest until it roared up on a task, then it roared with power then got quiet again.
but this tiny mpbis just noisy!
Well, i hoope it is the fans, not the HD. It prettty much sounds like fans, and constant.
but considering theroom temp is abou 68 in here, whywould the fans be on? and non stop?
we live in a cold climate, so it's not a 100 weather.
any help with the fans and perhaps a test or a way to turn them down? does my system think the core is hot?
thanks for any help

only about 13% is a peak ap. nothing major, nor a lot of stuff. but nothing consuming 30 40 or more percent or anything. Nothing running except safar in this case, activity monitor.nothingexcessive like 10 aps , whihc i have done in the past as we know the macs can handle it
well, nothing seems out of the ordinary.
I included a pic from that FAN CONTROL AP- well was going to, but not sure how.
any way my stats from it are:
base speed, 1500 rpm (on both actually)
ower threshhold 122F
upper 176F
current temp at that moment was 101F
can someone compare their fans to mine and their temp- i assume it is the cpu core temp.
any way, not sure what is a safe range, nor why my fans are running non-stop.
just noisy? but like i said they do occilate a little ans slow and the hum gets deeper then they go back to normal which is a slightly higher pitch.
as for that iStat pro ap. i opened it and it just made my application dock bar flash then the dock came back. The Istat pro didn't open.
Um- it looks like a widget. I may have taken my widget ap of some time ago. I hve yahoo widgets on. but not sure how to get that istat to work. I can't even recall the name of the apple widget program.
thanksfor help on tracking this noise down-
are any of your guys's fans really noisy? is this common? mine is just non-stop but if my settings are off or if there is areason, then I can adjust it from there. just want to know what the "normal range" or operation of the fans are. but man they are noisy for a mbp. and they WERE QUIET when i first got this laptop.
thanks again

Is an 'audible' constant fan noise normal?

I have browsed literally hundreds of similar questions and support pages related to this issue but none seem to relate directly to what I am experiencing.
I have very recently began hearing a very noticeable and constant noise from my MBP. It does look like the fan is the culprit but I have none of the symptoms. The fan speeds are always 1998-2000 rpm, temps are always 49-51 degrees, and absolutely no high intensity processes on the CPU ever.
Does anyone know what else might be the cause of this? Dirty fan blades? I am usually in very controlled and clean environments and have almost never used the MBP on any other surface than solid.
Also, could the noise be coming from the HDD? It is way too smooth to be coming from HDD but I am wondering if that is even a possibility.
Any advise or suggestions will be appreciated!
If I am unable to solve this within the next few days, I plan to take it in to Apple.

Well, yeah. I began noticing the sound only after the update.
I took it in to Genius Bar and they said it's working fine and offered to put it in extended diagnostics for 48 hours. Since I use this laptop for work, I'll have to go back there later but at this point as others have pointed out in this thread, I am thinking this is due to dirt buildup.
If I do get around to attempting to clean it, I will post an update on the outcome.

GT 70 missing graphic card and constant fan noise Issues

Not even sure if this is the correct place to post this thread if not could someone move it to a different section.
So today for some odd reason my laptop decided to freak out on me. I get a bluescreen saying VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE, I have GT70 NVIDIA GTX 675m I was doing a scan on my computer and the lower right hand corner it said Application has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware. So before it kept saying that over and over again. The computer basically just lagged out and I did a hard shut down to turn it off. I turned it back on and it started up to the BIOS for some unknown reason I didn't press any button so then I go over to Save & Exit and it said do you want to save the changes, I said no and it started up again to the desktop but very slowly.
Then my desktop finally shows up but now I hear what appears to be my video card fan or the fan that turns on when you are overclocking or just when you hit the fan button on the keyboard constantly running. I am freaking again myself because I don't want this laptop to die on me. My NIVIDIA card is no longer even showing up on the taskbar, even when I go to control panel I click on the NIVIDIA control panel and it doesn't even come up. So I try doing a system restore, after it restarts the video card is showing up I do a couple of restarts to get things back in order again. Even the fan is no longer blasting like before which puts me at ease.
I go to watch a YouTube video and then the video freezes then in the lower right hand corner I couldn't see what it was because it faded away something about the video card crashing so then after it crashes my fan starts to go off again and I am freaking out again. I tried to do another system restore but it seems that it's not working any more. Is my video card dying or do I need to install new drivers for it.
How come it's no longer showing up on my device manager? Did it die or something?

It has been acting very strange today. I turned it off last night and went to sleep, woke up a couple of hours later to turn it back on and it went to the desktop very slowly but my GTX 675m card showed up in the display under device manager also the fan was working normally like it usually does and not constantly going. I was sort of shaking my head not understanding how it showed up again.
So I took it into a computer repair place to see what they might make of it. Won't get any word until tomorrow or Monday to see what it might be, strange enough when they booted up the system at the computer place it booted up quickly and he told me that the GeForce Experience thing opened up and all that. But I don't really trust the laptop, I told them I would still like for them to check it to see if my GPU is really dying. They said they will run some tests to see if it's a hardware problem or software problem.
As for buying a new GPU I am not sure i want to pay that much, is there something more cheaper that might be better than 675m? I keep hearing people saying how bad the 675m is and how NVIDIA does not care much for that particular card. Also my 2 year warranty for the laptop just expired in January and I have no idea why this always happens to me once the warranty expires something wrong happens, not sure if it's a coincidence or just bad luck.
Guess I will see what happens when I get the computer back from the repair place, paid $89 dollars just for them to check it which they say is a lot better price than Geek Squad cause they would have me paying $200. Ugh! This crap makes my anxiety go sky high. Hate to lose my laptop, I mean it seems to boot up to the desktop but that stupid cooler fan going full blast is what concerns me.

New 2011 MacBook Pro - Constant clicking noise (every 10 or 15 sec)

HI there,
I've got an issue about clicking noises coming from the right of the Macbook.
It feels like the SMS working, but it does this sound even with no movement at all, when sitting on my desk...
It's not very loud, but it can become annoying as it really is constant. A click (sounds like a needle clicking on something), followed sometimes by a subbtle "hum". What's your feeling about it? Would it be the SMS being too sensitive ?

Well, after some research, I've got more details: It seems that the sound is the same the HDD does when the MBP shuts down. When the sound comes, it seems the HDD runs for a changing period of time (from 1 to 15 secs) and then returns back to normal. When it does so, the disk activity monitors a red spike whcih is alos variable. It is not the SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor) as I turned it down in Terminal.
So, with that info, can anyone help me?

T420 Fan noise

I just bought a T420 a couple of days ago, and am rather surprised by the constant fan noise (level) after having read that it is very quiet. The fan runs constantly with a noise level that is much higher than other notebooks I've used (maybe noisy isn't the right word here, but it's noisy relative my expectations).
Even the Dell E4300 and D505 which I have at home is much more quiet, and I only hear the fan when there a lot of load. On the T420 even small loads will trigger the fan to run and at a noisy level. It could be my expectations are unrealistic, but I have quite a few notebooks in my history to compare with.
I've already had a noisy keyboard replaced by IBM (called them the first day I received it) and I don't want to be a difficult guy (the space key is still irritatingly noisy!).
Any similar experience with the T420? Is it a general feature with this notebook?

@lenovoT420,
The T420 is fairly new and there hasn't been any reports on fan noises on this particular model so far. Maybe you can upload a clip on youtube or record it?
A very good example of a customer who recorded the fan issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqQwp6K1kK4
//JameZ
Check out the Community Knowledge Base for hints and tips.
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X240 | 8GB RAM | 512GB Samsung SSD

X1 annoying fan noise even in standby.

Yesterday I switched out my Cisco RNG200 black HD DVR for the new X1 DVR.   Receiver Native Ver 2.0.2
XRE Protocol Ver 2.8.0
Environment p6-k6 This X1 unit is the one with the blue LED power, which from my google searching tells me its the latest ?  Unfortuntely, there's a very annoying fan noise that has no way of turning itself off, unless i pull the power from the unit. Even in standby mode...  I only watch TV for a small percentage of my time spent in my living room, so to have to put up with a constant fan noise even when no TV is being watched is simply unacceptable. It's coming in at 50db using SPL Meter on my iPhone next to it. and about 45db from my seating position.  Is this an inherrent design flaw of the unit, and will i be wasting my time and effort, switching the box out for something that will be equally as loud ?  I understand that this has an atom cpu and some form of cooling is req'd, but even while on standby?  At this point, i will have to go back to my local store and ask if i can either have my old RNG 200 back or move to a different provider, that has better designed hardware.  Unless I am just unlucky and that yes the fans do normally only spin up when req'd, and that i have a faulty box. Please advise.

Not as easy as just swapping unfortunately.  I've now been to two stores... Spent Fri, and Sat morning on this now. Even though they even had an Arris XG1-A as their display model, they tried to deny Arris made X1 boxes. That was at least until i showed them the underside of their own box, with the Arris sticker, and used my SPL meter app on my phone at the difference of noise coming from this box and the other Pace they had on show.. Regardless of which, they said, they didn't have any. But the lady was pretty good, she said, they could request a shipment of an X1 box, and only put it in the notes to make it an Arris box... I guess i have a one in four chance...  I also took an Xi3 box, and that's proven to be a pain also... not in noise, but in activation. After an exchange at one of the local stores and it doing the same thing, and a lenghty call to customer service, i'm having a tech come out to look into the issue. Kudos to Comcast for having escalated this to one of their X1 tier 3 support teams, who was savvy enough to realize that there's nothing wrong with my signal, and that i probably need a Point of Entry Filter installed at my box outside... Anyway, this whole X1 transition hasn't been much fun all in all. I still have a noisy box, that i'm not going to be able to put up with.. Came downstairs this morning, and it was the first thing i heard... Hopefully the one that's being shipped will resolve... I now know that the box can be hidden away somewhere completely different and have the remote control still work, but that isn't as simple as it may seem.. I'd still need to get an HDMI signal from the box to the TV, and it would involve cutting into my walls to run cat6 to accomplish that.  I may just opt for the old 80's style clunky i-guide, instead of the x1... if my third attempt of getting an Arris box fails... That or go to Dish, as the XOD has so many drawbacks on the older iGuide system.

Fan noise after memory Upgrade

Hello,
I have a Mac Mini and I upgraded it to 2GB of memory and now I got a fan noise constanlty going. I have tried to reset the SMC and I left the machine without any cables plugged in for about 45 minutes after my second attempt.
I had upgraded the machine before and this never happened.
Any clue as what I got to do or what may be wrong?
Thank you for any help!
Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

To quote from a post by "damfair":
There is a fan speed regulation wire at the front of the Mini that needs to be unattached to get to the RAM slots - if this is left unattached, the fan continually runs at full speed. Could this be the source of the constant fan noise?

High Fan Noise and 100% CPU usage by Dock

My MacBook Pro 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.6.8 just started making a constant fan noise. When I checked the Activity Monitor, it shows my Doc CPU usage as 100%, and my Percent User Usage is about 52% System 2.5% and % Idle is 47%. These numbers are when there is nothing running except Activity Monitor. When I log out and log in as another user, the high fan noise stops, and the CPU usage of the Doc is <1%. I have tried restarting my computer, Rebuilt my Permissions, Emptied the Trash, and Reset the SMC (I think I did it correctly for the MBPro, but the Power Light did not change, and nothing seemed to be any different on my computer.) I think I recently did a recent Apple Update, but I don't know how long ago that was. But it was sometime in the past few days. Does anyone have any idea about what could be going on?
Thanks,
Frank

Frank Moore wrote:
How do I give you the credit. It looks like I only gave you a Helpful credit instead of Correct Answer? The only correct option was in one of my replies under you correct answer. You gave the correct answer.
Oh well, no worries.

My new Imac 24", 2.8GHz Intel Core is suddenly making a loud fan noise

Please help!
This Imac is only a week old. I bought it on apple online store. This is 24" 2.8GHz Imac and it's been the best computer I've ever had. It was wonderful to work and silent until yesterday. And suddenly I can't stand the fan noise coming from my new Imac. I downloaded i-stat Pro to check the status of my computer and it reads *CPU fan:1198rpm, hard drive:1198rpm, optical drive: 4401rpm*
what is wrong with my computer?
I searched many mac forums, and I've tried many things including shutting it down and unplugging everything and replugging everything after a while, but nothing solves this problem. Does anybody have experienced this problem? I am not even using many applications. I am only using safari, and the fan is at full speed. SO LOUD! What can I do to solve this? Should I take it to apple to look at it?

Hello lovingimac
Welcome to Apple Discussions
That sounds like there is something wrong with the temp. sensor for the optical drive.
If carefully following the SMC reset instructions below, does not fix the fan issue:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446-en
Then yes you need to make a trip to your local Apple service center.
Dennis

New hi-res G4: Constant fan noise

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