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Attempt to "Jump Start" my Macbook's fan

C

Christification

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2011
9
0
Ok, so recently I made a post about my macbook's fan struggling to start even at high temperatures. I was told that the best course of action was to buy a new fan and when I have the money available then I shall, of course, be doing that.

However, whilst editing some HD video recently (among other tasks) I noticed that my macbook's fan began to spin at 6200 rpm for the first time in months, and was able to sustain this. I thought "great, it's working again" but after shutting down and restarting my laptop the next day I discovered that It had once again shut down.

I did a little research on the matter and discovered a possible cause of this was a CPU demanding "Runaway Process", or one that is persistant after the program using it has been shut down.

My question is, as a short term solution until I can buy another fan, could it be possible to force a runaway process? And if so, what processes are likely to cause this? I did hear someone suggest running a photoshop script for example, but I barely know anything about those and my attempts to understand them have been in vain.

Like I said it would only be a short term solution but I really would like to get my mac back up to scratch as soon as possible.
 
Christification said:
My question is, as a short term solution until I can buy another fan, could it be possible to force a runaway process?
Click to expand...
This is no solution. The runaway process makes MORE heat and as a result isn't helping anything and also uses up your computer's processing resources causing a performance penalty in everything else.
Does smcFanControl not work for you? If your fan will run at full speed, you can set it with that.
 
chrfr said:
This is no solution. The runaway process makes MORE heat and as a result isn't helping anything and also uses up your computer's processing resources causing a performance penalty in everything else.
Does smcFanControl not work for you? If your fan will run at full speed, you can set it with that.
Click to expand...

Agreed - if the fan will run at 6200rpm then why change the fan ?

If the fan works in Windows then why change the fan ?

Download and run SMC fan control as already suggested but set the minimum as 2500rpm or something.....

A replacement fan is probably less than $10 but I don't think it will solve your problem.
 
Thank you for your replies, I have, however, found that the fan being on increased my performance, even with the runaway process in the background. (Not a small change either, i'm talking 60fps up from 4fps on starcraft 2) I already use SMC fan control and have found that it makes absolutely no difference to the rate at which the fan spins.

However, I have noticed that occasionally my fan manages to maintain a speed of around 1200rpm, although a strange clicking noise is heard from within the macbook itself. My theory currently is that the fan is capable of working, but it takes A LOT to make it happen. Right now, for example, SMC fan control is reporting an internal temperature of 106 degrees Celsius of 221 Degrees Fahrenheit but a fan speed of 000rpm. However if I load up a youtube video at 720p for a while it seems to be able to hit 1200rpm with the mentioned noise.

However if what you are suggesting is true, could it be something faulty with the mac's power management? after all, if it's capable of hitting 6200 under certain circumstances then surely it should be able to remain at that rate somehow?
 
Christification said:
Right now, for example, SMC fan control is reporting an internal temperature of 106 degrees Celsius of 221 Degrees Fahrenheit but a fan speed of 000rpm. However if I load up a youtube video at 720p for a while it seems to be able to hit 1200rpm with the mentioned noise.

However if what you are suggesting is true, could it be something faulty with the mac's power management? after all, if it's capable of hitting 6200 under certain circumstances then surely it should be able to remain at that rate somehow?
Click to expand...

!!!! You should not be anywhere near those temps - the MacBook should shut down around 100-105C to protect itself.....

sounds as if the temp reporting system is faulty rather than the fan. A temp of 106C is insane - I hope it it is not sitting on your lap.

Have you downloaded the iStat Pro widget to see what the other temps are inside the MacBook ??
 
Ok i've just downloaded istat pro and its telling me that the 109 degree C is coming from my CPU, and the next highest being Heatsink B at 89 degrees C. right now its set up on an external fan surface that i'm borrowing until my internal fan works again. However it's not very good as the macbook is still just as hot!

Perhaps the fact it's reached this temperature also explains why the fan's won't turn on? I read that SMC dosen't overwrite your mac's standard heat detection software so possibly it's not turning on cause the macbook has no idea how hot it really is? AlthoughSMC is reporting occasional spikes where the RPM hits around 600 and turns off right away again. I can occasionally hear these little noises when this happens, like the fan is starting but then instantly stopping.

Is there any way to fix the heat detection software? Although if it dosent fix the fan then all it would do is make my Macbook crash :/
 
It's most likely that your fan is broken or clogged with debris. Have you cleaned it? smcFanControl lets you set a minimum fan speed. What happens if you set that to something like 3000rpm or so? The fan should be audible at that speed.
 
I've tried every combination of fan speed on the smcfancontrol possible, and it has no effect. The minimum setting is 2000rpm but the fan won't even reach that. It's currently sprung into life at 1200rpm and is making a weird grinding noise as it goes. I also just did AppleHardwareTest to see if the fan is faulty and it gave me the message Error: 4MOT/1/40000002: Exaust -440. Exaust is the name of my fan (shown in SMC) so does this mean that I will, in fact, have to replace the fan? If it's merely a case of cleaning it, how would I go about doing that properly? like whats the best way?
 
The grinding noise does probably means that the fan is dying...

There could be something catching on the blades but sounds more like the bearings are shot..

This is a white Unibody MacBook ?

Check the instructions on ifixit.com and change the fan !!!
 
Christification said:
I also just did AppleHardwareTest to see if the fan is faulty and it gave me the message Error: 4MOT/1/40000002: Exaust -440. Exaust is the name of my fan (shown in SMC) so does this mean that I will, in fact, have to replace the fan? If it's merely a case of cleaning it, how would I go about doing that properly? like whats the best way?
Click to expand...
Open the computer up and blow air into the fan.
 
Fixed!

Just replaced the fan today and the macbook is now running as normal. Thanks to everyone for your help!
 
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