You shouldn't be hearing anything above a barely audible "whisper", and it would be about the loudness of my rMBP when the fan first kicks in at a low speed. I say you're making too much of a big deal over a minuscule amount of idle fan noise.
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Base Retina iMac Fan ALWAYS On
- Thread starter AirCanada22
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You shouldn't be hearing anything above a barely audible "whisper", and it would be about the loudness of my rMBP when the fan first kicks in at a low speed. I say you're making too much of a big deal over a minuscule amount of idle fan noise.
I wouldn't disagree. I have no idea what I should be experiencing and this is far from "loud," but as I said I work in a quiet room and do a lot of reading and writing, so this is a bother. And someone above commented that they have to put their head near the bottom of the iMac to hear the fan. Well, either they have very poor hearing or mine is just different, because at normal working distance from the machine it is audible.
I think you brought this up but it does in fact remind me of an external hard drive. I own three, and it isn't as loud as my loudest but it is about the same as the two quieter ones in sound.
Update: Called Apple support. They had me unplug the machine, wait 30 seconds and re-plug. It was immediately much quieter upon restart. As in, "to hear the fan I have to put my head under the screen" quiet. Not sure if that will last but I'm very happy with this level of noise.
Not only that, but the OP reported an already normal fan speed of around 1200RPM in this post:
That makes zero sense to me, but ok... 1200rpm is 1200rpm. The only thing I can think of is maybe the fan was unbalanced. But if it was running at 1200rpm prior to the plug-pull and it's still running at 1200rpm... then... uh... I fail to understand what could be causing such a racket to you.
Base Retina iMac Fan ALWAYS On
Any chance the fan could have been running faster than it was reporting? SMC glitch?
I'm asking, really - no idea if that's even possible.
Any chance the fan could have been running faster than it was reporting? SMC glitch?
I'm asking, really - no idea if that's even possible.
Is it possible that the fan was running at higher speed (perhaps even max speed) but the sensor only reported 1200 rpm? This seems to make some sense if an SMC reset solved it.
I'm not exactly sure with a Mac but on other systems its not reporting what the fan is running, its reporting what the fan is being told to run. Meaning just because it says 1200 rpm doesn't mean its at 1200 rpm like I mentioned in post #15.
But isn't it still possible that it was running at a higher speed than the 1200 rpm it was being told to run at?
That's exactly the point that is trying to me made, "just because it says 1200 rpm doesn't mean its at 1200 rpm".
Sorry for the confusion, all. I was checking this thread on my phone for the longest time and missed the SMC reset recommendation. I take it that's what unplugging does, essentially?
I assume that the reported fan speed did not match actual fan speed, as it is still listing 1200 RPM but it is much quieter and less intrusive, in the exact same conditions.
I have read in other threads that installing Dropbox has caused some people trouble with Yosemite, and I did that only on the second day, so I'm wondering if that might have caused an issue.
Either way, at its current idle, it is much, much better. Thanks for all your help and suggestions!
I assume that the reported fan speed did not match actual fan speed, as it is still listing 1200 RPM but it is much quieter and less intrusive, in the exact same conditions.
I have read in other threads that installing Dropbox has caused some people trouble with Yosemite, and I did that only on the second day, so I'm wondering if that might have caused an issue.
Either way, at its current idle, it is much, much better. Thanks for all your help and suggestions!
Read the SMC reset instructions in the link and compare it to the instructions given to you by Apple.
Glad it's working for you. FYI I've been running Dropbox since day 1 on my 5K iMac many months ago, and it's not caused any issues (for me, anyway).
are you monitoring the heat? my issue wasn't thermal. it never felt hot and the CPU/GPU temps never got too crazy