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MacBook Fans Run Non-Stop

x86

x86

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 25, 2006
166
0
Dearborn, MI
Hello All,

My brand new MacBook is working great, has no physical defects and doesn't make any strange noises, but the fans run non-stop at %100 speed. Even after being shut off for a while reaching room temperature, the fans still power on full speed with the computer. I installed the CoreDuoTemp application and found out that my temperature idles around 30C, not nearly high enough to justify the use of the fans. I'm going to give Apple a call in a couple hours, but if anyone has any suggestions, I open for some fresh ideas.

So far I have tried the following:
Repaired Disk Permisions.
Reset the PRAM.
Reset the NRAM (Power off, remove battery, hold power button).

Thanks!
 
idles at 30? the fan must be running non-stop in order for it to be that cool... id say there's a hardware problem and you should get it checked out. but once the fans stop running non-stop expect those temps to skyrocket
 
Obviously you have a fan problem, and it's not temperature related--the REASON it's idling at 30C is because the fans are always on, not vice versa.

Most likely hardware (or perhaps some sort of firmware corruption), although if you don't want to bring it into Apple yet you could try completely reinstalling the OS, just to be sure. That's not likely to help, though.

Me, I actually wish I could turn my fans on nonstop, since I'm always using the thing plugged in and I don't care about noise, so I'd trade for the cooler case when I'm not going portable.
 
Take it back to where you purchased. This means that one of the temperature sensors has been disconnected from the mainboard, and the system defaults to full fan speed.

That's what it sounds like to me, similar to what happened to the one person who wrote about the MacBook heat issues on MacDevCenter.com
 
iGary said:
I thought this was going to be about some school sale stampede on Mac Books.
Click to expand...

LOL!

I did call Apple and they were not able to help. They recommended that I take the computer into the retail store to have it looked at. Which sucks, because I'm going to be too busy during the next two weekends to take it out there (40 minute drive). I guess if I can get my ass out of bed in the morning (I work afternoons) I can take care of this sooner. But anyway, thanks for the input!
 
x86 said:
LOL!

I did call Apple and they were not able to help. They recommended that I take the computer into the retail store to have it looked at. Which sucks, because I'm going to be too busy during the next two weekends to take it out there (40 minute drive). I guess if I can get my ass out of bed in the morning (I work afternoons) I can take care of this sooner. But anyway, thanks for the input!
Click to expand...



That's so annoying, they always just say "take it to a mac dealer...."

lazy
 
quigleybc said:
That's so annoying, they always just say "take it to a mac dealer...."

lazy
Click to expand...

You have to be persistent when you're still under the 90 days and they will send you the box, etc...you just have to "talk them into it".
 
quigleybc said:
That's so annoying, they always just say "take it to a mac dealer...."

lazy
Click to expand...
It's either that, or stick it in a box and ship it back to them for a few days, right? Not like they can fix it over it phone? :)
 
I'm hoping that they will just give me a new one so I don't have to wait weeks for the repairs. If they do and I still have problems, I'm going for a full refund. I don't want to have to go through several MacBooks before "finding" a good one, that and my trusty 867MHZ PowerBook is still running strong.
 
My fan has started running a lot... like 90% of the time, very loudly. The macbook is about a year old and I don't remember it being so loud and so consent.
It starts with just a few web browsers open. I thought it might be because the hard drive is getting full?

I wanted to sell this soon for one of the new MBP but if there is a problem I would like to know beforehand.
 
sarah3585 said:
It starts with just a few web browsers open. I thought it might be because the hard drive is getting full?
Click to expand...
The fan runs when components in the computer get hot. The hard drive being full shouldn't cause that.

If you have web browsers open to pages that have Flash content, that usually causes the CPU to be used a lot, which generates heat, which causes the fans to run.

If you want to verify that, try installed a Dashboard Widget called 'iStat nano'. It will show you a graph of how busy your CPU is. When you fan comes on, you should see that the CPU is being used a lot.
 
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