WHY AM I HEARING A FAN GOING INSIDE MY IMAC?

why am I hearing a fan going inside my iMac-it is 3 yrs old and I have never heard it before.

Problems related to unexpected system sleep, shutdown, lights or fans call for an SMC reset:
Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
If this does not help, run Apple Hardware Test to rule out any hardware problems.

Similar Messages

  • Major heat problem. should i be able to hear the fans?

    my black macbook with 1gb ram is getting very hot when i use front row to play videos at full screen. after about 30-40 mins the left corner of the macbook is so hot i can only touch it for a second or so. then without warning the video just freezes. the picture remains on the screen but looks like it's paused. i then get the spinning colour wheel. the only way to rectify is to force a power off (force quit has no effect). i have to let it cool down for a while and try again. it works fine after that until it gets hot again.
    when it locks up, it is completely silent. should i be able to hear the fans working? there is no warm air being expelled from any part of the unit as far as i can tell. the case is just really hot.
    i ran a little experiment by pointing a desk fan at the notebook and it played fine for five hours without problems!!! the corner of the macbook was cool to the touch.
    this happens in lid closed or open modes.
    anyone else have this or is it time to call applecare?
    Macbook Black 1gb Ram 120gb HDD   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  
    Macbook Black 1gb Ram 120gb HDD   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    UPDATE
    ok, so we have had the firmware update and guess what?
    all seems ok now!!!!
    coreduotemp now reports 65 degrees after playing video at full screen. much better than the 85 degrees it was hitting. now when it gets hot i can hear the fans going. i ran a terminal window and did yes > /dev/null and after only a few seconds the temp was rising to 85-87 and the fans came on really hard and brought it to 68-70. no system stall yet.
    normal idle while using only safari over airport is between 41-45 degrees!!!!
    i am very happy so far. lets just hope it is the cure.
    many thanks for reading and replying.
    Martin.

  • Why am I hearing a clicking noise in my headphones? I'm on the iMac and I'm going through logic pro x. i have a focusrite scarlett 2i2 and my mic is a blue spark. is it my presets? i just want the clicking/popping noise to go away

    why am I hearing a clicking noise in my headphones? I'm on the iMac and I'm going through logic pro x. i have a focusrite scarlett 2i2 and my mic is a blue spark. is it my presets? i just want the clicking/popping noise to go away

    Hi,
    Sorry to hear you are experiencing problems with you device.
    Please raise a case with our Customer Support team and we will do everything we can to help:
    http://global.focusrite.com/answerbase/contact
    We look forward to hearing from you.
    Best regards,
    Luke
    Focusrite Technical Support UK

  • HT203171 Why does my laptop overheat and then the fan goes absolutely beserk!!!

    Well basically after about half an hour of use the laptop starts to make a luder fan noise.
    After 10 minutes of this the fan goes beserk - I mean beserk and it's quite scarry. Then the entire operating system fails and the system restarts. I tried resetting the PMU but it won't reset properly. I need some other way of fixing it.

    Hello:
    You need to take the computer in for diagnosis.  There is a hardware issue, but no one can diagnose that on-line.
    Barry

  • My fan goes on and is very loud, why?

    Hi,
    The fan goes on sometimes on y IMac and it is very loud and won' tstop.
    Could you tell me what is the problem?
    Tx,
    Mimi

    If the fans are very loud and won't stop, you need to find out what's causing that. Open the Activity Monitor
     > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app
    Select 'All Processes' from the drop-down menu on the right.
    Click the %CPU tab in the window, twice if necessary, so that the little arrow is pointng downwards.
    What's at the top, and how much %CPU is it using? That's what's causing your fans to run fast.
    If you're burning or rendering a video or doing a lengthy download, it'll stop when your process stops. If you're not doing anything but some process is using up 80% or more of your CPU, select it and hit 'Quit' from the taskbar. You may have to choose 'force quit' and add your password if requested depending on what the process is.
    If you're not sure, post back with the name of the process.

  • Fan going into full blast for no reason

    the fan in my macbook has been going to 6000 rpm for no reason. like when im not doing anything, suddenly i hear the fans start spinning. usually, at 2500(min speed for my mb) rpm, it is barely audible. then suddenly i hear this low hum, and i look at the smcfancontrol, and notice that my fan's at 6100rpm. any idea why? is this normal? oh, and i usually have my itunes on most of the time.

    Yes, do check Activity Monitor (just type activity in Spotlight). Click on the CPU column and the most demanding application (the one that's sucking up your CPU cycles) will show up at the top of the list.
    For me when this happened (twice so far in a week or so) has been Airport. So just disable or force quit the offending application. For me I just turned the Airport off, waited about 15 seconds and turned it back on and all was well.
    Good luck
    Greg

  • Mac Os 10.6.6 update start the fans goes crazy

    Hi to all
    Some months ago (almost a year from now) my mac start to become hot after only a few minutes it started up and the fan goes crazy but I never realize why. I made some search on the internet but the only answer I found was using some software to reduce fan speed. It didn't work. I run the Hardware test but nothing strange. I also took my macbook to an apple certified repair center but they told me that nothing was wrong. I also ask to another repair center but same thing. So I left my macbook as it was with this super fan noise all the time. A quite disturbing thing but there was no solution and for what I'm doing my machine is ok so why change it? (It was the only solution they gave me)
    Last day my hd broke down so I had to replace it. I took my macbook pro a1211 model to an apple repair center they change the hd with a new one.
    So I reinstall everything for the beginning. I took my snow leopard dvd formatted the new hd, installed the os, iWork 2008, iLife 2008, Mamp, CSS Edit, Espresso, Pixelmator and few other application such as Firefox, Camino, Etc...
    I use the macbook with mac os 10.6, because I had to finish some work, and with my big surprise for two days the machine was super silent no fans, no hot body ..... nothing. I never reboot it and still no fans and hot body wow.
    Today I wanted to install the developer kit with ios 4.2 and so I had to update the Mac os x to version 10.6.6 as soon as I made the update after the reboot the fans start again to go like crazy and after 15 minutes of work the macbook body become very hot.
    The question is why?
    Anyone can help me?
    Thanks in advance
    Gianfranco

    HI R C-R.
    The apps i've installed are just a few. Espresso, CSS Edit, MAMP, TextWrangler,Firefox, Camino, Chrome, Opera,BetterZip, Stuffit Expander, Pixelmator, 1Password, Dropbox, Xslimmer, VLC, CyberDuck, littlesnitch, iworks, iLife, wacom tablet driver.
    Nothing more. All the software is updated.
    Here the data but as you can see nothing strange but fans are on at the maximum speed!
    PIDProcess Name % CPU Threads Real Mem Kind Sudden Term.
    ## Firefox 2,1 15 106,3 MB Intel
    ## Activity Monitor 1,2 2 20,0 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## activitymonitord 0,9 1 1,3 MB Intel (64 No
    0 kernel_task 0,9 57 138,0 MB Intel
    ## Finder 0,3 9 36,1 MB Intel (64 Yes
    81 WindowServer 0,2 5 53,4 MB Intel (64 No
    ## Dock 0,1 3 15,5 MB Intel (64 No
    ## Little Snitch Network Mo 0,1 4 4,4 MB Intel No
    14 configd 0,1 7 3,3 MB Intel (64 Yes
    1 launchd 0 3 1,1 MB Intel (64 bit)
    ## SystemUIServer 0 3 19,5 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## Apple80211Agent 0 3 9,5 MB Intel (64 No
    ## Safari 0 12 236,2 MB Intel (64 No
    16 distnoted 0 3 1,3 MB Intel (64 Yes
    11 DirectoryService 0 6 4,7 MB Intel (64 No
    ## launchd 0 2 1.000 KB Intel (64 No
    13 diskarbitrationd 0 3 1,4 MB Intel (64 No
    44 mds 0 5 31,4 MB Intel (64 No
    17 blued 0 3 4,7 MB Intel (64 Yes
    10 kextd 0 3 2,5 MB Intel (64 No
    22 securityd 0 2 3,0 MB Intel (64 No
    33 ntpd 0 1 1,1 MB Intel (64 Yes
    34 cupsd 0 3 2,9 MB Intel (64 Yes
    19 mDNSResponder 0 3 2,2 MB Intel (64 No
    35 httpd 0 1 3,9 MB Intel (64 No
    ## UserEventAgent 0 3 5,6 MB Intel (64 Yes
    62 coreservicesd 0 4 18,8 MB Intel (64 Yes
    60 lsd 0 3 3,8 MB Intel No
    ## TextEdit 0 2 12,0 MB Intel (64 No
    57 autofsd 0 2 940 KB Intel (64 Yes
    ## pboard 0 1 832 KB Intel (64 Yes
    ## fontd 0 2 6,4 MB Intel (64 Yes
    51 dynamic_pager 0 1 788 KB Intel (64 Yes
    49 fseventsd 0 13 1,9 MB Intel (64 No
    48 hidd 0 2 948 KB Intel (64 Yes
    46 KernelEventAgent 0 3 988 KB Intel (64 Yes
    45 loginwindow 0 2 8,2 MB Intel (64 No
    42 RFBRegisterMDNS 0 2 1,7 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## mdworker 0 3 11,2 MB Intel (64 No
    ## TextWrangler 0 3 27,9 MB Intel No
    38 usbmuxd 0 3 1,6 MB Intel (64 Yes
    36 krb5kdc 0 2 1,9 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## Preferenze di Sistema 0 2 25,7 MB Intel (64 Yes
    97 coreaudiod 0 3 3,2 MB Intel (64 No
    ## WebKitPluginAgent 0 2 992 KB Intel (64 Yes
    ## mdworker 0 4 3,1 MB Intel (64 No
    ## TabletDriver 0 2 4,4 MB Intel (64 No
    ## ConsumerTouchDriver 0 2 5,5 MB Intel (64 No
    84 cvmsServ 0 1 856 KB Intel (64 Yes
    ## iTunesHelper 0 3 2,8 MB Intel (64 Yes
    83 httpd 0 1 620 KB Intel (64 bit)
    ## AppleSpell.service 0 2 7,0 MB Intel (64 Yes
    15 syslogd 0 4 684 KB Intel (64 No
    ## 1PasswordAgent 0 2 9,3 MB Intel (64 No
    12 notifyd 0 2 596 KB Intel (64 Yes
    ## Little Snitch UIAgent 0 3 5,9 MB Intel No
    ## Quick Look Helper 0 6 8,6 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## PenTabletDriver 0 3 9,3 MB Intel (64 No
    ## Agente base AirPort 0 3 5,5 MB Intel (64 Yes
    ## AppleVNCServer 0 4 3,7 MB Intel (64 Yes

  • IBook not starting, fan going really fast

    Hi everyone.
    Yesterday something happened. Everytime I try to switch on my iBook G4, the power goes on, but the screen remains black and the fan starts to go really fast, like never happened before even when it was too hot. Yesterday I managed to hear the startup chime, and even once I managed to switch in on, but it lasted for around 10 minutes, and the the screen went black again.
    Now I can only hear a sound, like a click (not the start up chime) and then the fan going fast, as I said, but nothing else happens.
    Sorry for my English and thanx in advance for any help. It's much appreciated.
    Regards.

    Did you try booting off of Install disc #1 to see if you have video? If you can, it wouldn't hurt to navigate to Disk Utility and verify both permissions and the disk and repair if necessary. This probably won't solve the problem, but it is good practice to do before and after software updates.
    If you can boot off of a CD, you could also try running the Apple Hardware Test and check for hardware problems. Very likely there won't be any that show up, but it will give you some assurance that your hardware has no major problems. The AHT won't find everything, but it does test quite a few things.
    If you can boot from a CD, then you could consider doing an Archive and Install, as suggested in the article. It would be best to back up your data in advance if you can. If you have access to another Mac, you might be able to do this using Target Disk Mode. A fresh install of the OS will take care of any corrupted software, especially if it was caused by an update.
    If reinstalling the OS does not fix the problem, then it is likely a hardware problem. But given what you have said here, it sounds more likely to be software.
    good luck!

  • Is it normal that i hear my fan on my macbook pro?

    wow i was uploading a video to youtube via screenflow and i could hear my fan really load i have never heard my fan like that is that normal?
    Message was edited by: go lakers

    Was your machine hot? If so, that's why your fan was running at high speed.

  • For those who can't hear their fans...

    This is pretty much my experience and you could follow my original posts if you care. I'm just going to break it down.
    1st MBP - Week 12 build 2.16 1g 7200 which had to be returned because of the 4SN error message during hardware check. With this MBP I never heard my fans rev up no matter how hard I pushed the machine or how uncomfortably hot it got. Also, I noticed that the error would occur whenever the fans didn't turn on during the system test. This was during the week of April 1st. Went to the store and they kindly swapped the machine.
    2nd MBP - Week 12 build 2.16 1g 7200 which also had to be returned. This one also had the 4SN error message during the hardware check and I never heard the fans rev up no matter how hard I pushed the machine. I went to the store to return the machine and I was told by a genius that the error is just a software glitch and as long as the machine is working properly then I shouldn't worry. I wasn't happy, but I needed the MBP and decided that I would hold on to it. After a few weeks I noticed the machine slowing down (marginally) and I occasionally had this issue where my screen would go all glitchy and the computer would freeze. This worried me and I returned to the apple store for it to be sent out for repairs. After explaining my problems (strange HD noise, screen flicker) and showing them a pic of the screen issue he the genius said my graphics card is fried and surprisingly, he wanted to swap the machine again (it was 20 days past the return policy date)! That was very nice of them, but I had to settle for a lower model.
    3rd MBP - Week 17 build 2.16 1g 5400 which is running great. I had to settle for the 5400 model because apparently, the 7200 model is no longer an option at the store (you can get it on line). This was fine with me because they returned $400 to me due to the lower model and the genius made good points of battery life and heat. Also made me feel better about the whole 17" vs. 15" top model price point. Anyways, on to the fans. I actually hear them rev up at appropriate times and I never recive the 4SN error message.
    What does this mean? Well, it's all speculation but, from my experiance you should hear your fans rev up when the computer is being taxed. With each of the 3 machines I did all the same processes and with the first 2 I never heard the fans. I did not keep the first one long enough to notice any process degradation and I'm not saying that there would have been one. As for the second MBP, I did notice degradation and throughout the weeks of owning that machine never once heard the fans rev up. I have had my third MBP for 2 weeks now and the heat is much better and I do hear the fans rev up occasionally.
    Anyways, I love the new machine and I hope this helps people understand, a little more, about the fans/4SN error issues.

    Yes I still have the whine, but I need to put my head to the keyboard to hear it.

  • My pic cd is not going inside the mac

    my pic cd is not going inside the ma

    also, when i click on one of the other tabs, the about tab stays highlighted. not sure why this is happening to this one tab and not the other
    s.

  • Tunnel Traffic going inside IPSEC tunnel

    Hi Everyone,
    Site A  has IP Sec Tunnel to Site B via ASA.
    Now Switch on Site A has GRE tunnel and destination of that tunnel is going inside the IPSEC tunnel.
    In other words IPSEC tunnel between 2 sites is also carrying the GRE Tunnel Traffic.
    Which command i can run on ASA to know if IPSEC is carrying GRE tunnel traffic  or
    What line in ASA config will tell me that this IPSEC is also carrying GRE tunnel traffic?
    Thanks
    MAhesh

    Hi Jouni,
    I can not put config here.
    But here is the info
    sh crypto map shows ASA  outside interface say GGG this interface has ipsec connection to other site.
    also sh conn all | inc GRE shows bunch of output.
    It shows ASA outside inetrface which is to WAN say GGG   8 times and it has say subnet range
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.4  XY 10.x.x.x.x
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.4  XY  10.x.x.x
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.3
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.3
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.3
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.4
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.4
    GRE GGG  10.22.31.4
    Where XY is interface of ASA which is next hop to tunnel destination.
    IP 10.x.x.x  is the tunnel source IP which is loopback on the switch.
    Do you know why it has 2 entries for same ASA  interface XY ?
    Also it has other entries for other ASA  interface.
    So does number of entries tell us number of GRE connections running ?
    Thanks
    MAhesh
    Message was edited by: mahesh parmar

  • Fan going and monitors didn't turn on

    Today I had an isolated incident it seems when I turned on my mac and the startup fan never spun down. The monitors also never turned on but I could still hear the drives going. I since restarted and fixed permissions and it hasn't happened again. I found this really weird. Never happened before. Thoughts?
    My iPad was also plugged into the computer but I dontmthink that had anything to do with it.
    Thanks.

    The fans spin up to Max with hardware when the power comes on. If the software "wakes up" fairly soon, it measures the temperatures and adjusts the fan speed, for as long as your Mac is on, multiple times a second.
    The point of this is if your Mac crashes, the hardware will kick the fans up to maximum, avoiding a meltdown.
    Earlier, you probably saw the Hardware start the fans, but the Processor never got started for some reason. Probably not to worry. (At least that design means it does not melt.)

  • Fan going out in my Beige G3 AIO

    huh my case fan in my AIO is going out in my AIO . the problem it i dont know the size and what will fit. cause i am trying to find one that is real quiet but will push as much air if not more than the stock but be way quieter

    Frank,
    Measuring sides:
    The plastic housing is 91 mm x 91 mm (just under 3 5/8th inches square)
    The holes are 82.5 mm center to center.
    Measuring diagonally:
    The overal dimentions are 127 mm corner to corner,
    117 mm from center of hole to center of hole.
    Thickness is 25 mm (just under 1" thick)
    The metal case into which the fan fits will accomodate a fan up to 2'' thick.
    The fan is attached to the metal case with only two diagonally opposed screws so the 117 mm measurement for fasteners is what really counts.
    I am never disapointed in Apple design engineer's aptitude for fancy cases that make it difficult to access something as simple as a fan. The metal case protrudes down into the same cavity that the sliding motherboard tray occupies.
    Do you think that they would have the fan fasten from inside that cavity? NO. They have you disassemble the upper portion of the computer. The decorative case has to come off - six screws; the metal static shield has to come off - six more non-matching screws -- two into plastic, four into metal; one more screw holding a thermosensor and metal case tab and a matching screw holding the opposite tab.
    I thought I would get lucky and be able to leave the metal case in place and just remove the two fan attachment screws. Alas, only one was accessable. I would have had to remove the power supply circuit board. Instead, I just bent one metal tab up, pushed down hard on the metal housing on one side to bend a second tab and the metal case dropped into the lower cavity. All of that work could have been avoided by having one tab slot on the underside of the CRT case and one screw that would require a short screwdriver.
    Have design engineers never talked to someone who actually services these machines? My hat is off to the guy that finally perfected the hinged door approach of the B&W tower. Changing a battery in a IIci/Quadra 700, RAM in a Quadra 800 form factor machine including the 8100 PPCs, opening a 6400/6500 case and doing anything inside an iMac all rank mention as cumbersome tasks that could have been made much simpler.
    So much for my rantings. The fan size is pretty standard so shop away. Just use the old fan until you have a new one. Removal and replacement is only worth doing once!
    Ji˜m

  • MBP Fans going crazy!!! HELP!!

    I am going to give you all the WHOLE story!
    (grab pop corn)
    four weeks ago I came home and heard a loud "roaring" noise from my room. When I got in there I noticed it was my MBP's fans. They are spinning at full speed. Well the MBP was on but nothing would come on the screen. I took out the battery and tried again and AS SOON as I touched the power button the fans would already be at full blast but nothing would come on the screen.
    I pretty much figured the logic board went out on this thing, so I took it to get repaired. Well the total price on the repair is...$1,735.79. I just got it back today and AS SOON as you press the power button THE FANS ARE SUCKING SMALL BIRDS FROM THE SKY! but this time the screen comes on and I am able to work for about 30 minutes then the battery is completly dead.
    I got iStat pro and and a couple of other Fan/heat monitoring devices, and it will NOT show the fans...Pretty much it says
    Fan 1: 0RPM
    Fan 2: 0RPM
    Now keep in mind this happens as soon as I power it on. I can boot into windows and I still get the same problem.
    Also another anoying thing, my date and time is suppose to sync up with Apple..for some reason im stuck in January 3rd 2001!!!
    Someone please help me out on here I am going crazy.

    Have you been back to wherever you had the repair done? Clearly something is very wrong here. Whoever did the repair should have tested your Mac and made sure it was working properly before giving it back to you. I assume that you mentioned the fans going all out as a problem? Obviously this very expensive repair did not fix the problem.
    There should be some sort of warranty on the work that was done. Both on the labor and on the replacement logic board itself.
    The error code you got on the right fan may indicate that it is beginning to fail. If they keep running like this, they will both fail.
    I have no idea why iStatPro should indicate 0 RPM when the fans must be running at 6000 RPM. It's almost as if it is reporting the exact opposite of what is really happening. I wonder if it is possible to plug the fans in incorrectly?
    Good luck!

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