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2018 macbook pro fan always running

M

macbookpro201808

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2018
4
0
My newly bought (1 week ago) 2018 15-inch base model (with 32GB ram and 512GB ssd) mbp's fan is constantly running, even the temperature shows only 36ºC.

The data shown by intel power gadget and fan control app is below. It's taken when I do nothing and my room temperature is around 20ºC (winter in Australia).

I could hear quiet but definitely audible fan sound. And I could feel air flow in the back vent. The system is already with 10.13.6.

I'm wondering is it normal to have fan always running at this low but still 1/3 max speed at around 2000RPM? To me 36ºC seems a pretty low temperature so why apple want spinning the fan and wear it uncessarily? Thanks.

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You must be new with MacBooks... There never was a MacBook Pro with temporarily passive cooling...
the minimum is ~2000RPM, it will never stop the cpu fan
 
macbookpro201808 said:
why apple want spinning the fan and wear it uncessarily?
Click to expand...

Why do you think running the fan will wear it out? I don't think I've ever had a CPU fan give out on my laptop and extremely rarely on my Desktops which get excessive fan use. The last fan I had die was like 2003 or something...

I doubt the fan will die from being used...
 
This is normal for all MBP models since at least 2008 (Mosy likely farther back). The only models to completely shut off the fans are the MB models.
 
Frieg said:
You must be new with MacBooks... There never was a MacBook Pro with temporarily passive cooling...
the minimum is ~2000RPM, it will never stop the cpu fan
Click to expand...

Actually this an upgrade to my old late 2013 13 inch mbp. I never noticed the fan sound under similar situation. Does that mean this new MBP has a louder fan?
[doublepost=1534814366][/doublepost]
LogicalApex said:
Why do you think running the fan will wear it out? I don't think I've ever had a CPU fan give out on my laptop and extremely rarely on my Desktops which get excessive fan use. The last fan I had die was like 2003 or something...

I doubt the fan will die from being used...
Click to expand...

My reasoning is air flow in and out the fan and body will bring dust inside which eventually will cause mechanical problems. The time to failure is of course depending on the cleanness of environment.
 
macbookpro201808 said:
Actually this an upgrade to my old late 2013 13 inch mbp. I never noticed the fan sound under similar situation. Does that mean this new MBP has a louder fan?
[doublepost=1534814366][/doublepost]

My reasoning is air flow in and out the fan and body will bring dust inside which eventually will cause mechanical problems. The time to failure is of course depending on the cleanness of environment.
Click to expand...

Use a DataVac weekly to blow dust out of your computer. Should keep it clean and requires like 1 or 2 minutes work.
 
2000rpm is minimum speed for 15" macbooks, 13" models do apparently run with fan at zero when cool enough though.
 
Yes, that's normal. 15" MBP's fans are always on. These modern CPUs run hot, and fans are needed. At 2k, the fan noise is not noticable.
 
macbookpro201808 said:
My reasoning is air flow in and out the fan and body will bring dust inside which eventually will cause mechanical problems. The time to failure is of course depending on the cleanness of environment.
Click to expand...

I am sure you would prefer a CPU kept at reasonable temperatures. A damaged CPU is a way bigger issue. I've had MacBooks for over 10 years and none of my laptops had issues with their fans, I doubt you would encounter fan problems. Just reading from the forums it's EXTREMELY RARE that fans wear out and die. You would most likely have issues with your keyboard, screen, battery more than anything else.
 
macbookpro201808 said:
My reasoning is air flow in and out the fan and body will bring dust inside which eventually will cause mechanical problems.
Click to expand...
I would be more concerned about burning out the components. The fans are on for a reason.

I opened up my 2012 rMBP recently and after 6 years of usage, i saw little issues with dust build up. Yes there was some in the fans, but nothing that would have caused problems.
 
my 2006 17" mbp fan wore out after 4 years, but i have not had another one fail, all of them run at 2000 RPM minimum
 
Interesting discussion that I want to resume. I just received my MacBook Pro 15 (2018) 2.2 Ghz i7 and it is a beautiful machine. I just have one problem. The fan noise. And in this case I don't talk about the noise of the fans when doing demanding work, which I usually don't. My problem is the fan noise when doing nothing at all, or like writing a pages document. The computer is cool, Macs fan control showing around 30 degrees and both fans running around 2000 rpm, the left one slightly more than the right.

If I sit in a relatively silent room writing, I can constantly hear the fan noise, and when I shut down the computer I really feel an annoying sound went away. Is this really "normal"?

If I compare with the MacBook Pro 13, 2017 no Touch Bar, this is totally silent when writing the same pages document...
 
Frieg said:
You must be new with MacBooks... There never was a MacBook Pro with temporarily passive cooling...
the minimum is ~2000RPM, it will never stop the cpu fan
Click to expand...
the 2018 13" has a temporarily passive cooling. In fact, mine barely ever runs fans when doing menial stuff.
(Idling at 35 degrees, 0 RPM)

henrikh said:
If I sit in a relatively silent room writing, I can constantly hear the fan noise, and when I shut down the computer I really feel an annoying sound went away. Is this really "normal"?

If I compare with the MacBook Pro 13, 2017 no Touch Bar, this is totally silent when writing the same pages document...
Click to expand...
You can hear it in a very quiet room yes, but it's hard to say whether yours is normal or not. Could you record it?

The 2018 13" runs passively when not under load, and when under light load runs at 1300rpm. I don't know whether the 2017 can run passively, but I'm sure it's not louder than the touchbar model, since it only has a single fan.
 
Interesting. It seems like the 13" is a better option if I want a silent computer for my writing. The problem is that I really love the 15" screen. When deciding for the 15" model I thought that the 2000 rpm fans was not really audible from normal working distance, but that is not the case with my machine. Any experiences from other 15" owners?

I have owned two MacBook Pros 15" before (no Touch Bar models) and never experienced these "problems".
 
Well... I had the i9/560X, and compared to the 2012 15" i thought it was louder under load, and the fans ramped up way more aggressively than on the 2012. When not under load it felt the same as the 2012.

Are you sure it's not coil whine you're hearing?

Also, when i dropped my old 15" once, one of the fans got "dislodged" and made an annoying noise. Opening it up and popping it back in fixed it tho. Might be that something like that happened to yours when shipping?

I don't think 15" at 2000rpm idling should be so noisy to be annoying.
 
Ploki said:
Well... I had the i9/560X, and compared to the 2012 15" i thought it was louder under load, and the fans ramped up way more aggressively than on the 2012. When not under load it felt the same as the 2012.

Are you sure it's not coil whine you're hearing?

Also, when i dropped my old 15" once, one of the fans got "dislodged" and made an annoying noise. Opening it up and popping it back in fixed it tho. Might be that something like that happened to yours when shipping?

I don't think 15" at 2000rpm idling should be so noisy to be annoying.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! I am pretty sure I am hearing the fans, its like a low but definitely noticeable "windy" noise. I will probably use my 14 days return option to try another 15", I don't want to give up the 15" model too easily :)
 
henrikh said:
Thanks for the reply! I am pretty sure I am hearing the fans, its like a low but definitely noticeable "windy" noise. I will probably use my 14 days return option to try another 15", I don't want to give up the 15" model too easily :)
Click to expand...

Hey can you make a quick update about the 15" model and the fans? I am experiencing the same "issue" and want to know if its present on all 15" MacBook pros? Thanks
 
maflynn said:
Yes, that's normal. 15" MBP's fans are always on. These modern CPUs run hot, and fans are needed. At 2k, the fan noise is not noticable.
Click to expand...

Yeah 2-3k is the perfect balance for me.

Also this happens the same on every single Windows machine due to these 14nm CPUs being REALLY HOT
 
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Ploki said:
Well... I had the i9/560X, and compared to the 2012 15" i thought it was louder under load, and the fans ramped up way more aggressively than on the 2012. When not under load it felt the same as the 2012.

Are you sure it's not coil whine you're hearing?

Also, when i dropped my old 15" once, one of the fans got "dislodged" and made an annoying noise. Opening it up and popping it back in fixed it tho. Might be that something like that happened to yours when shipping?

I don't think 15" at 2000rpm idling should be so noisy to be annoying.
Click to expand...

Hey can you make a quick update about the 15" model and the fans? I am experiencing the same "issue" as Henrikh and want to know if its present on all 15" MacBook pros? My fans run at around 2000rpm but in a very quiet room, I can faintly hear the fans running. Is this something I should be worried about? Or is it expected on all 15inch MacBooks. Thanks
 
I have owned a 2016 and a 2017 13" MBP and, as mentioned earlier, the fan was frequently off.

Both these were dual core MBPs. I would be interested to know whether the 2018 and 2019 quad core 13" MBPs behave similarly, or are they more like 15" MBPs which are all quad core for many years.
 
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