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fan comes on all the time.... bad sign?

B

bob2131

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
hi,
black macbook.
Over the past few days, ive noticed the internal fan comes on increasingly.

Could this be due to the room temperature being too warm/hot?
Or just purely based on number of apps open and what im doing?

Does it matter if one app is open? or if 10 apps are open?

I have three diff internet browsers on the go (dont ask) i need them all.
This is ok, isnt it?
Or would it be better if i had 3 windows open of the same internet browser?

thanks.
 
Well aren't the fans there to cool the computer?

Maybe the computer is getting too hot because the room is too hot...
 
take a look at activity monitor. You might be able to find what's causing the issue. How much ram do you have? Have you only had 10 apps open more frequently of late? While room temperate could play a part, maybe check to ensure you aren't blocking the vents at the back.

Yes having one app and 10 matters but I'm sure your macbook should be able to handle it.
 
zer0tails said:
take a look at activity monitor. You might be able to find what's causing the issue. How much ram do you have? Have you only had 10 apps open more frequently of late? While room temperate could play a part, maybe check to ensure you aren't blocking the vents at the back.

Yes having one app and 10 matters but I'm sure your macbook should be able to handle it.
Click to expand...

thanks.
activity monitor is complex info.
i have 4gb ram.
Ive always been using lots of apps open at same time.
Fan hardly ever used to come on.
Only of late.
I did upgrade ram from 2gb to 4gb recently.
i did seem to think that the laptop was getting more hot after the upgrade. But only when was being recharged.

would having 10apps open cause the laptop to heat up more than if it had say 3 apps open?

blocking vents at back? thats interesting.... its often on my bed...or pillow...the back is kinda blocked....better to put on hard surface i think then....

cheers.
 
is there like a temperature application, where it tell you how hot your mac internal parts are getting...as you open more apps and do more things....?
 
bob2131 said:
thanks.
activity monitor is complex info.
i have 4gb ram.
Ive always been using lots of apps open at same time.
Fan hardly ever used to come on.
Only of late.
I did upgrade ram from 2gb to 4gb recently.
i did seem to think that the laptop was getting more hot after the upgrade. But only when was being recharged.

would having 10apps open cause the laptop to heat up more than if it had say 3 apps open?

blocking vents at back? thats interesting.... its often on my bed...or pillow...the back is kinda blocked....better to put on hard surface i think then....

cheers.
Click to expand...



yeah blocking vents would make it hotter. that would mean the hot air can't get out.

annnd the more you run, the harder it has to work - so the more heat everything will produce


just click on CPU and arrange it from most use to least you can see what is using the most resources and you can edit what you see in Activity Monitor under View->Columns


another good investment would be to install iStat pro, or iStat nano so you can monitor it all in a simpler view. it's a great app all together and you can quickly see what is happening by just invoking dashboard.


if you use a lot of widgets... consider disabling dashboard - which you will be able to find on MR
 
michael.lauden said:
yeah blocking vents would make it hotter. that would mean the hot air can't get out.

annnd the more you run, the harder it has to work - so the more heat everything will produce


just click on CPU and arrange it from most use to least you can see what is using the most resources and you can edit what you see in Activity Monitor under View->Columns


another good investment would be to install iStat pro, or iStat nano so you can monitor it all in a simpler view. it's a great app all together and you can quickly see what is happening by just invoking dashboard.


if you use a lot of widgets... consider disabling dashboard - which you will be able to find on MR
Click to expand...

thanks people...this board is the best.

istat sounds good.
right ll try hard surface...
opera and firefox are hogging system most at moment.
in terms of ram and cpu usage.
ill test having one tab one browser v 20 tabs open later too.
i dont use widgets.
i have only 15gb hard drive space left. This is an issue too i think. As i learnt from other on another thread. More free hard drive space the smoother and faster it will work. I plan on getting a bigger internal soon, probably 7200rpm, just hope that dont make it even more hot!

cheers.
 
bob2131 said:
thanks people...this board is the best.

istat sounds good.
right ll try hard surface...
opera and firefox are hogging system most at moment.
in terms of ram and cpu usage.
ill test having one tab one browser v 20 tabs open later too.
i dont use widgets.
i have only 15gb hard drive space left. This is an issue too i think. As i learnt from other on another thread. More free hard drive space the smoother and faster it will work. I plan on getting a bigger internal soon, probably 7200rpm, just hope that dont make it even more hot!

cheers.
Click to expand...

yeah having so little hard drive space could be another reason your system is having to work harder. Get one of those 500GB seagate drives and pop that bad boy in. Together with your 4GB ram it should fly.

As for firefox, opera etc. not much you can do there if you really need to use them. Firefox works great on windows but i've found its more ram hungry on my mac. Not sure if it'll help but try getting the latest firefox build, 3.1 i think? No harm trying to see if that eases things up abit.

good luck 🙂
 
My Day

bob2131 said:
hi,
black macbook.
Over the past few days, ive noticed the internal fan comes on increasingly.

Could this be due to the room temperature being too warm/hot?
Or just purely based on number of apps open and what im doing?

Does it matter if one app is open? or if 10 apps are open?

I have three diff internet browsers on the go (dont ask) i need them all.
This is ok, isnt it?
Or would it be better if i had 3 windows open of the same internet browser?

thanks.
Click to expand...

Do you run Microsoft 'My Day'

I have seen My Day eat around 50% processor cycles WITHOUT being reported in Activity Monitor.
Updating to Version 12.1.5 helped, as well as removing it completely...
 
On my White Macbook i found that my fan would come on doing the most mundane tasks, i finally figured out i had a rogue widget running amok with my CPU cycles, disabling it solved the problem, You'll find having it on the bed or a pillow wont help either, Also Flash seems to be a problem for me, if i leave a browser window open with a big bit of flash on it, or a flash video my fan soon ramps up.
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
Do you run Microsoft 'My Day'

I have seen My Day eat around 50% processor cycles WITHOUT being reported in Activity Monitor.
Updating to Version 12.1.5 helped, as well as removing it completely...
Click to expand...

Ha ha I used to HATE MyDay with a passion! lol


It could as you've said also be room temperature...

When I use my Black MacBook in my room the fans are nearly always on, mainly because the room is about 26 degrees (C) and I usually lay on the bed where the quilt ends up covering the air vents! 😡

Downstairs in the kitchen or the office, I rarely have the fans come on and the MacBook is used as the powerhouse in the family...
 
Detektiv-Pinky said:
Do you run Microsoft 'My Day'

I have seen My Day eat around 50% processor cycles WITHOUT being reported in Activity Monitor.
Updating to Version 12.1.5 helped, as well as removing it completely...
Click to expand...

Activity Monitor. Show -> All Processes.

Now you see everything.
 
certain website only work on firefox on the mac.

what is micosoft my day? dont think i run it....but there is a microsoft database daemon and microsfot AU daemon running says my activity monitor .

"if i leave a browser window open with a big bit of flash on it, or a flash video my fan soon ramps up. "...... that could be a point...i have tons of tabs open in 3 browsers.

rogue widget? i dont ever look at my widgets, does this mean they are not running?

inash = yeah that exactly like me...i have heater on (as its cold always in uk) and bed quilt etc cover the back....(used a hard surface last night, and fan did not come on)

activity monitor >show all processes?
that is not there.....activity monitor > show all ( just shows all open apps)

thanks people. great help.


istat pro, istat nano, or istat menus?
im using menumeters already. so my menu is pretty full.
 
bob2131 said:
certain website only work on firefox on the mac.

what is micosoft my day? dont think i run it....but there is a microsoft database daemon and microsfot AU daemon running says my activity monitor .

"if i leave a browser window open with a big bit of flash on it, or a flash video my fan soon ramps up. "...... that could be a point...i have tons of tabs open in 3 browsers.

rogue widget? i dont ever look at my widgets, does this mean they are not running?

inash = yeah that exactly like me...i have heater on (as its cold always in uk) and bed quilt etc cover the back....(used a hard surface last night, and fan did not come on)

activity monitor >show all processes?
that is not there.....activity monitor > show all ( just shows all open apps)

thanks people. great help.


istat pro, istat nano, or istat menus?
im using menumeters already. so my menu is pretty full.
Click to expand...

Just get iStat Pro or iStat Nano. Then when you open dashboard you can find the temperature for various parts of the computer very easily.
 
bob2131 said:
inash = yeah that exactly like me...i have heater on (as its cold always in uk) and bed quilt etc cover the back....(used a hard surface last night, and fan did not come on)
Click to expand...

Stick to the hard surface for a few days, you should notice that the fan comes on a lot less, hopefully that will be it 🙂

What do you mean it's cold over here in the UK... Really? 😉 lol (Sitting in my office with the toastiest heater ever 😉 )
 
yeah will do it all tonight....thanks people...

hard surface may be helping i suspect. But learnt a few things here.

dude, its freezing in uk every day of the year. 'orrible wevaaa'.
 
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