Possible solution iMac cooling fan stuck on high and loud

Had iMac go to sleep and just died, no lights or anything, power switch ignored me. Unplugging from wall, holding button in various ways on and after power up did not help in any way. Read articles on knowledge base and googled the web. Finally decided to pull out the round power plug on the rear of the iMac which to a regular user does not even look like it comes loose but it does. I checked the end with a volt meter and saw 120 volts ac and knew the cord was good. Plugged it into the Imac then momentarily touched the power switch and wham the iMac came on with a fury and the fan on super high speed. I'd never heard any of the iMacs in the house ever sound this loud, even on hot summer days. Pulled my hair out for a while but then repeated the steps removing the power cord from the back of the iMac, not the floor, and this time I pressed and held the power switch after plugging the AC back in and held it until I heard a beep, maybe 10+ sec. Of course I knew this worked because I could hear the iMac coming on quietly but making normal noises the moment I touched and held the power button. Now the system is working great again and I,m not looking at bringing it into a service center for no reason and injected more possible problems. I started another topic on the power on issue but I just wanted to document what I found and make it easier for someone else to get a search hit on a solution.
Here's the other thread and hope it helps someone else.
http://discussions.apple.com/messageview.jspa?messageID=9424884&stqc=true

Do a SMC reset and if that doesn't fix it back to the store you go!
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

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My iMac g5 starts up , responds slow, freezes after approx. 2 minutes, then upper fan starts running high and loud. ANy ideas on what could be wrong? Worth fixing?

My iMac g5 starts up , responds slow, freezes after approx. 2 minutes, then upper fan starts running high and loud. Any ideas on what could be wrong? Worth fixing?

Could be over-heating. Try cleaning out the air vents.

Athough there is not much usages in the CPU , but the Fan runs really hard and loud , and i've ready try to reset the SMC ! i don't know what to do !

Athough there is not much usages in the CPU , but the Fan runs really hard and loud , and i've ready try to reset the SMC ! i don't know what to do and i'm very worried.

Nguyen Phuc wrote:
Athough there is not much usages in the CPU , but the Fan runs really hard and loud , and i've ready try to reset the SMC ! i don't know what to do and i'm very worried.
I suspect you didn't reset it right.
Turn off the machine, let it charge up and then try the SMC reset again.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Run a Hardware Test
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

Compaq Presario model SR5710F hangs/freezes when cpu cooling fan switches to higher speed

Compaq Presario SR5710F with AMD Athlon X2 4450e dual core micro-processor - after the desktop has been on for a little while, I can hear the cpu cooling fan switch to a higher speed. As soon as the fan changes speed, the PC locks up. Power off/on is only option to recover. A precursory inspection did not reveal any noticeable build-up of dust/debris around case fan or cpu fan. Any suggestions?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hello DTCothren,
You state whenever your CPU fan goes to a higher speed the computer locks up, is that corret? I will try to assist you with this issue.
I would recommend you open up the hardware diagnostic tool on your computer, and run a full system test. This test does take some time so just allow it to run. If you not sure how to locate the program have a look at this document.
Please respond back at your earliest convenience.
Thanks
Clicking the White Kudos star on the left is a way to say Thanks!
Clicking the 'Accept as Solution' button is a way to let others know which steps helped solve the problem!

Fans stuck at high after singleuser boot

I just finished installing 10.4 (archive and install), the 10.4.11 combo updater, and various updates that popped up in Software Update.
After doing a few things I booted into singleuser mode to do some cleanup stuff.
I did this a lot in 10.3. In 10.3 when I booted singleuser, I'd get to the prompt, run fsck and then mount the root filesystem. At some point during fsck the fans would ramp up, and then would go back to "normal" after issuing the reboot command.
This time, first singleuser boot under 10.4, the fans ramped up immediately, possibly even before the first prompt. They did not ramp back down when rebooting, even after rebooting multiple times and even after going through "Shut Down" through the GUI and restarting using the power button.
Some other threads I've browsed have recommended a few procedures including zapping PRAM and (I think) resetting SMU (which I think is accomplished by holding the power button in for 5 seconds with the power cable unplugged). Haven't tried those yet out of concern that my backup battery might be old (machine was purchased late 2004, both logic board (2005?) and power supply (2008) replaced, but no idea if backup battery was replaced) and a PRAM zap or SMU reset could break stuff.
Advice?
Thanks.

Thanks again to both.
Miriam -- I am familiar with the fan behavior you describe. When I would boot singleuser under 10.3 the fans would indeed ramp up, and it was indeed normal. But as WZZZ notes, the fans would immediately ramp down after rebooting -- in other words, extremely soon after I would reissue the "reboot" command. I never tried rebooting singleuser twice in a row, as far as I recollect, so I can't say for certain that the fan rampdown occurred *before* any boot code was loaded on the reboot.
This problem occurred precisely with my installation of 10.4 -- or even more precisely, the first time I booted singleuser under 10.4. The problem never occurred when I was running 10.3, and my last singleuser boot was probably within several hours -- no more than a day or two -- of installing 10.4. When I installed 10.4 over 10.3, I did an Archive and Install on my 10.3 boot partition, with Preserve Users and Network Settings checked. I'm guessing that probably reduces the probability that it's a hardware problem.
Background on my hardware: This is a Rev A 20" iMac (1.8 GHz), purchased refurbished from Apple. It has had both the logic board and the power supply replaced. Logic board was replaced under AppleCare, I believe not long after purchase (within a year, so probably sometime in 2005). And I believe the power supply was replaced in the summer of 2008. IIRC this particular unit had known problems with both the logic board and the power supply. Both have been replaced on my machine. I don't know if there's a good chance that the power supply would be failing again or not.
I have two clones of my old 10.3 system on external FW drives (cloned using Retrospect's Duplicate feature). I haven't cloned the new install yet. If there's a way of booting singleuser off a clone on an external drive, then that would make for an interesting test. I'm betting there isn't, though, unless choosing the external drive in Startup Disk causes the hardware to look there first even in singleuser mode (and if the FW bus is active in singleuser).

IMAC G5 fans running at high RPM

Hello,
I have a 20" G5 iMac and just had the motherboard replaced under warranty. Since the replacement my fans will start to run at very high rpm's fr no reason. It will happen even when the computer is not being used and no applications are running. It is currently at:
CPU 122 degrees
CPU fan 2996 rpm
HD 124 degrees
HD fan 4178 rpm
System fan 3098 rpm
I have called applecare and they had me do several resets which seemed to help for about 1 hour and then the fans have ramped up and not gone down in the past hour. This last time I was watching TV and heard a noise from the computer and low and behold it was the fans. Nobody was working on the computer and all apps were closed. I bought this computer in September 2005 and have had 2 lcd's replaced and a logic board replaced. I am getting frustrated with this, my first, Apple computer. Does anyone have an idea of why the fans are running so high? I never had a problem like this with my old logic board.

Have you looked in Activity Monitor to see if any applications are causing the fans to run? Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.

Cooling Fan Noise Through USB And Recording Software

Anyone know how to keep the cooling fan from making a pop in recording software and through the USB port while hooked to an interface and pa system. The pop comes when the fan turns on or off.
Thanks for any help

Fixed my own problem... if anyone else has this issue and sees this all I had to do was update to ML 10.8.3 and it took care of what ever bug was in the system.

Fan runs on HIGH and won't wake from sleep--it freezes!

I have a G5 (Power PC, g5, Dual 1.8 GHZ with 1.25 GB SDRAM, and Mac OS X 10.4.10-phew!) and I recently: added more USB ports using a PCI card, and purchased a non-Apple 22" widescreen display.
Prior to adding USB ports, I was using a hub that ran off its own power source, and used a Samsung 19" monitor.
My situation now: everything starts up fine, but ultimately the fan will kick in at SUPER HIGH and won't stop. I can put my Mac to sleep--which stops the fan noise--but then it won't wake up.
I have run the Apple Hardware test and everything checks out OK. I've also reset the SMU according to directions from this forum; AND I've vacuumed out all the dust bunnies.
The fan runs so loud and so high it sounds like it's an airplane that's about to take off.
Short of bringing in my Mac to a technician, can you recommend anything? My Mac has been glitch free up until now.

I have a G5 (Dual 1.8/2.5GBSDRAM,10.3.9) that I'm worried about. After stepping away from my machine for an hour, I came back to it and it sounded like the fans were about to blow they were revving so high! My screen was frozen and non-responsive, so I did an immediate shutdown via the power button. I let it sit for an hour or so and it would not reboot (Got the power on chime but nothing...except the three repetitive quick pulses of light from the power button). I knew that it meant it was a RAM issue. Did the old unplug trick and SMU button trick, nothing. Have 2 original 256MB and 2 6mo old 1GB pairs. Pulled the #2 pair then booted (failed), then swapped the #2's and seated in #1's slots...no luck, still get the three flashes on the power button.
All the RAM was seated firmly...so I don't think it's the RAM. Am I looking at a logic board or power supply failure? Is there an alternative I'm missing?

My cooling fan doen't work and computer shuts off during use

can someone please help i'm having a problem with my cooling fan it does not keep my computer cool anymore .it runs hot and shuts off the computer all the time what do i do?

What model are we trying to help you with here? Help us help you, please.

MacBook Pro fans stay on strong and loud

I have had my MacBook pro for a year or two and never had this happen. Fans are staying on strong and loud for no aparen reason (just sitting on a wood table in a 68º F room as usual). A full shut down and restart did not fix the issue. A permissions repair and disk repair did not fix the issue. Any ideas?

Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
If this isn't the issue, then perhaps there has been a hardware failure or sensor failure. You can see if this helps: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). If it does not then take it in for service.

Cooling Fan N200 3000 Ticking and Buzzing

Hey
I was sitting at my labtop, and suddenly it began doing small ticks, 10min later it began to be worse. And now it is doing tick sounds when its cooling. (5 sec inbetween, its cooling) - also I can hear small peebpeeb sounds. Very low, but it is comming from the same place of the computer (left side).
If I open up the computer in the back to check if everything sits where it should will I break the warranty of the computer? - At the moment, I would really not like sending my labtop to service because I am doing the finish of a major project at the moment.
The computer is less tha ½ a year old - never been dropped or anything.
What to do?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

And I just checked the video of how to remove the fan/cooler. But it did not say anything with the warranty not being broke.
I just really want to be sure that I can atleast check how things look like inthere without breaking the warranty. Because it would be a shame to send the computer to service for 2-3 weeks and then it has been a minor problem, which I in fact could do my self.
And I am not going to replace any components, and it only said at the page I looked at, that the warranty is gone if you replace component.
But if you just open up your computer with a bit of care and a light hand? Would that break the warranty?

Possible Solution to Frozen iPod, iTunes not responding and sad folder

There may be hope for frozen iPods, unresponsive iTunes and sad folders. This solution is totally anecdotal at this point as it only has worked on my iPod. However, try it you got nothing to lose. Our iPods broken right? It's a $300 paper weight right?
History
My iPod 4G 20GB started skipping songs then rebooted and gave me the sad folder. I reset and everything went downhill from there. I would:
- not be recognized in My Computer
-when I did get a drive on My Computer it would lock up My Computer
-reboot and either give me sad folder or Menu with no songs
-refuse to be updated
-be seen in Device Manager as ipod both with Firewire and USB connections
I read through the many threads here and tried all Apple's Solutions to no avail. I even called and they told me, very nicely and free of charge, that I would have to send it in and because the repair price was such to "look at the new models to see which one I wold like". I was totally bummed. I went and bought an new Nano 4GB (with warranty this time) swearing I would never buy another with a HDD again until they became more reliable. I even tried the smack it to get the disk head unstuck method. I figure my iPod was a paper weight at this point so what the ****.(Oddly this method works rather well with all sorts of broken electronics)
Solution
Then I cam across this special Diganostics Mode that you can get to by resetting and then while the Apple is showing pressing the Select and backwards keys simultaneously. It bring up and weird Diagnostic utility witha a abunch of tests. Here is what I did
- I tried the 5in1 test and got and error on Firewire.
- I did the HDD R/W and surprisingly it passed.
- I went on to the HDD scan. This supposedly tkaes acouple of minute so I waited. I think 4-5 dots appeared then nothing. The iPod started to get hot. THe disk was spinning away. After a while the battery got very low. THis test chews up the battery. So I escaped out by resetting and went to connect it to a power source.
My USB was dangling out of my computer and I was too lazy to get the Firewire AC adapter thing going so I connected expecting the whole lockup thing with iTunes. Surprise. IT was recognized immediately and has been working like a champ. So go figure.
iPod 4G 20GB Windows XP
Details on Diag mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/index.shtml
hp a330n Windows XP

My ipod only gets the sad logo and whenever I try to start it up I can hear the hard drive trying to start and then failing and it does so like 3 or 4 times. After I read your post I wanted to try that diagnostic thing but I can't get it into that mode. How long should I have to hold select and back? After I reset the ipod, it goes to the sad face, the hard drive seems to fail a few times and then the screen goes blank and stays like that for as long as I hold those buttons. I'm so sick and tired of dealing with a broken ipod but I really want to get this thing working again so I can never buy another Apple product again. Thanks.

My Window is stuck up high and I can't get it down...sorry for odd explain

See this picture:
http://skitch.com/annelize/wr1e/picture-2
Obviously you can se that the window bar is stuck up beyond a "reachable" area by my mouse so I can't drag it back down.
I have no idea how it gets up there, and the only way I can get it down right now is to change the resolution of my screen so it comes into view, then move it down, and then change resolution back.
Any advice is appreciated. TY!

V.K. - thank you for the quick reply...solved it immediately.
...But, still a little annoyed by that happening. Hopefully I'll notice what triggers it so I can stop doing it or whatever!

Just replaced battery on MBP, and seems that fans run at higher rpm/louder

Hello all;
Tell me that I'm crazy, but I just replaced my MBP battery with a brand new OEM MBP battery and it seems that the fans are running at 4K rpm constantly now. With my just replace old battery, the fans would stay around 2K rpm.
Is this normal? Seems quite annoying. The older battery is ~1 yr old, and had very poor statistics on life and cycles. I accept the fact that I had to replace, but this fan noise is driving me CRAZY!!!

Hi TooManyApples: It may be an activity using too much of the CPU. Check by going to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor. Select CPU at the bottom of the page, sort by CPU column, and be sure to select "All Processes" from the drop down list at the top of the page.
Hope this helps
Stedman

Macbookpro Fan suddenly spin fast and loud whereas it's not hot

Hello, i have an issue with my new macbook pro 13 early 2015, i had it for about 1 month now, when i use may mac on easy task (not on high load) my fan suddenly spin so fast and make loud noise whreas my mac isn't on hot condition and i use it on room temperature enviroment, an not so long after that, it comes back to idle... anyone have solution for this?
Thanks
note : it's happened just 3 times since i bought this laptop...

A new Mac comes with 90 days of free tech support from AppleCare.
AppleCare: 1-800-275-2273
Try resetting SMC.
Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
Best.

Possible solution iMac cooling fan stuck on high and loud

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