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Fans stay at 2000rpm

I

itsxtian

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 7, 2009
22
0
Now I know it's rare to hear anyone complain about their fans being too silent, but this is different.

I recently switched from a MacBook 2.0GHZ to a MacBook Pro Unibody and the tasks that I used to do with my MacBook, like watching flash videos or playing games, used to kick my fan speed up to at least 4000rpm or so. But my Pro doesnt go up at all. It stays at 2000rpm and below.

I tested it by opening 6 tabs of youtube videos and played them all at the same time. Using iStat, i watched if my fan speed would go any higher and it stayed at 2000RPM. On my previous MacBook my fans would be kicking at this rate.

I'm not complaining that the fans are quiet. I'm just worried that if this isn't normal my CPU can die quickly from too much heat?

Is this normal for the Pros? Thanks in advance.

P.S. My MacBook was the late Aluminum 2008 version and My pro is also the Unibody, both ran with 4GB of DDR3 ram.
 
spinnerlys said:
And what is the temperature you have seen in iStat? Celsius or Fahrenheit, or even Kelvin?
Click to expand...

Celsius.

I just tested it again by opening a bunch of applications and videos. 5 different videos on youtube, a movie on vlc, adobe applications opened, etc.
Opened activity monitor and the most cpu being used was on firefox and my temp went from 56 degrees to 70 and my fan speed stayed idle at 1964rpm to 2000rpm. Should I get this checked?
 
itsxtian said:
Celsius.

I just tested it again by opening a bunch of applications and videos. 5 different videos on youtube, a movie on vlc, adobe applications opened, etc.
Opened activity monitor and the most cpu being used was on firefox and my temp went from 56 degrees to 70 and my fan speed stayed idle at 1964rpm to 2000rpm. Should I get this checked?
Click to expand...

No need, but you could try an SMC reset and see, if that changes anything.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

70°C is not hot for that CPU, they can take more than 100°C and they will shut down, if too hot, to protect themselves.
 
Your laptop is fine. They'll stay at 2000 for awhile before moving up, especially if you're only reaching 70*C. I would just uninstall iStat because it's causing unnecessary worry.
 
I just tried it on my MBP. Similar specs as OP, late 2008, 4GB, 2.4GHz, 500GB 5400rpm, 15".


When browsing MR, the CPU temp was 55 degrees Celsius.
Browsing MR the left fan was going 1998rpm.
Browsing MR the right fan was going 1997rpm.

After opening 6 HD YouTube videos and 1 HD QuickTime, my CPU got to 89 degrees Celsius but the fans still stayed at 1996-2000rpm.

Normal?
 
cambookpro said:
I just tried it on my MBP. Similar specs as OP, late 2008, 4GB, 2.4GHz, 500GB 5400rpm, 15".


When browsing MR, the CPU temp was 55 degrees Celsius.
Browsing MR the left fan was going 1998rpm.
Browsing MR the right fan was going 1997rpm.

After opening 6 HD YouTube videos and 1 HD QuickTime, my CPU got to 89 degrees Celsius but the fans still stayed at 1996-2000rpm.

Normal?
Click to expand...
Yes. My guess is that you're only looking at the immediate effects of opening all of those videos.

However, the fans are designed to move up in RPMs under two conditions:
a) the temperature is drastic enough to warrant a higher fan speed and;
b) the temperature remains constant or increases over a prolonged amount of time.

Again, smcFanContol and iStat do more harm than good. More so psychologically than actually physically taxing.
 
I think it`s normal, mine have never gone above 2000rpm regardless of what I`m doing.
Highest temp was about 85degrees running handbrake, still didn`t increase the fan speed.

I wouldn`t worry tbh.
 
pellets007 said:
Yes. My guess is that you're only looking at the immediate effects of opening all of those videos.

However, the fans are designed to move up in RPMs under two conditions:
a) the temperature is drastic enough to warrant a higher fan speed and;
b) the temperature remains constant or increases over a prolonged amount of time.

Again, smcFanContol and iStat do more harm than good. More so psychologically than actually physically taxing.
Click to expand...

How can iStat do harm? I never seen the usabality of smcFanControl but iStat just reads data.

2000 RPM is the normal standby state for the fans, regardless about the task.
 
Same here...most of the times at 2000rpm, even at 70C. I love it! (compared to my HP pavilion I had, which ran hotter&louder all the time)

Here's what I did:
Installed smcFanControl. It's located at the menu bar and you can see RPMs and the temperature of the processor. When I see processor go to 70C, I turn up the fans to "higher RPM" (which is 4000rpm) to get the temperature back down to cca 50C. It takes 2 clicks.

iStat are not as handy and take up a lot of space (visually).
 
qawes said:
How can iStat do harm? I never seen the usabality of smcFanControl but iStat just reads data.

2000 RPM is the normal standby state for the fans, regardless about the task.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Data that doesn't really need to be read in many cases. It comes at least once a day here that someone thinks that their MacBook is overheating or the fans aren't working. I didn't mean harm the computer, hence the statement "more so psychologically than actually physically taxing."
 
pellets007 said:
Exactly. Data that doesn't really need to be read in many cases. It comes at least once a day here that someone thinks that their MacBook is overheating or the fans aren't working. I didn't mean harm the computer, hence the statement "more so psychologically than actually physically taxing."
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the ease of mind.
Pellets007, I know what you mean about psychological harm. I've been obsessed with fan speed since I had my first issues with loud fan noise on my 1.83ghz MacBook. It's just became second nature to see my temp and fan speed on my menu bar ever since.

Thanks for all the help and running tests yourselves folks! Much appreciated.
 
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