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A Bad Idea...

I

indierthanthou

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2007
91
0
This fan thing is driving me nuts. It runs constantly, no matter whether I'm running photoshop or textedit. It goes on as soon as I turn the laptop on (12" pb 1.33) and doesn't shut off until I turn the computer off or put it to sleep. Resetting the pram doesnt work, nor does g4fancontrol or anything else I've tried.

I am considering snipping the wire to the fan, and putting a small switch in place, routing it so I can get at it somehow (probably a small hole next to the power switch, or on the palm rest, it will be a tiny switch) and turning the fan on when it is hot. I know this is a bad idea, but how bad of a result could I have?
 
My biggest worry is just completely destroying the computer...but then I could justify picking up an mbp....so maybe it wouldnt be TOO bad, though I would hate to see a (mostly) perfectly good computer go to waste. This fan noise is driving me up a wall, though! I can't even carry on a phone conversation while using it because its so loud
 
try listening to music (with headphones) while doing your work to drown out the sound of the fans.
 
I thought there were Terminal commands for Fan Speed. Investigate before modifying hardware that Apple put in place conscientiously.
 
It sounds like the thermometers aren't attached.

When the computer can't detect thermometers, it goes into better-safe-than-sorry mode and kicks the fans into top gear. Thus, snapping the wire would do nothing.

Have you opened it up before? You might not have reconnected the thermometer cables correctly :)
 
I have opened it up before, but it has been doing this since i bought it from a friend. istat pro shows temps for everything.
 
indierthanthou said:
This fan thing is driving me nuts. It runs constantly, no matter whether I'm running photoshop or textedit. It goes on as soon as I turn the laptop on (12" pb 1.33) and doesn't shut off until I turn the computer off or put it to sleep. Resetting the pram doesnt work, nor does g4fancontrol or anything else I've tried.

I am considering snipping the wire to the fan, and putting a small switch in place, routing it so I can get at it somehow (probably a small hole next to the power switch, or on the palm rest, it will be a tiny switch) and turning the fan on when it is hot. I know this is a bad idea, but how bad of a result could I have?
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you should try to investigate the source of the problem, rather than just treat the symptom.

Try to see why the fan is running that fast- any particular applications running? Are the vents packed with dirt? Are the fan blades clean? How is the ambient temperature?
 
Some of things to try out:

Open Activity Monitor, List All Processes, Sort by % CPU
See if anything is taking major amount of CPU cycles.

Check startup items for anything you didn't install (google it before you get rid of it).

Make new user account and see if it happens there.

Back up and reinstall OS. (I think someone installed something they shouldn't have)
 
If you know what you're doing with wires and switches, then your task shouldn't be too challenging. But before doing that, you have to remember that setting the switch to "Off" could easily overheat your computer very fast because the fans are no longer spinning at all. And if the fans are constantly running, there might be a reason, so turning off all the fans could seriously damage your computer or even cause a fire.
 
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