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Blackbook: VERY loud, fast fan!

aaquib

aaquib

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 11, 2007
1,496
1
Toronto, Canada
I bought a used Macbook yesterday. It was working great under Tiger yesterday and even Leopard today, but just about 2 minutes ago, the fans have been super loud and going extremely fast. I only have Finder, Mail, Safari, and iTunes open. No disc inside. Plugged in I have the Magsafe, my iPhone, an external HDD, and speakers. Any idea why this is happening?
 
Maybe restart it? Happened to mine a couple times, but mine's 2 yrs old with most of the memory taken up cuz I was too lazy to delete stuff...
 
My first guess? You just reinstalled - so Spotlight is re-indexing the drive, and this uses up system utilities and generates more heat than when the computer is idle.

Obviously make sure it's not on a carpet / blanket or other insulating surface that will be obstructing air flow or keeping heat in.

Open up your Activity Monitor and see how much CPU is being used.

If it's well used - check that the fan is clear of dust / debris. Blow compressed air into the intake / exhaust ports. Not many people truly understand how poorly an dusty heatsink transfers heat compared to one that is clean. (the fan will have spin faster to achieve the same level of heat transfer) Not to mention, blocked fans start to cavitate, and spin faster just because there is no air to move. Laptops tend to have VERY small fans, so be careful not to over-spin the fan when blowing into the fan port. (use quick short bursts to prevent it from over spinning / breaking)
 
Ok, so it just stopped about 30 seconds ago. I was freaking out, it was unbearably loud. About 70% of the processor is idle, and the MB is on a desk. I really hope it was just spotlight and that never happens again. It was much louder than when I put a disc in the drive.
 
aaquib said:
Ok, so it just stopped about 30 seconds ago. I was freaking out, it was unbearably loud. About 70% of the processor is idle, and the MB is on a desk. I really hope it was just spotlight and that never happens again. It was much louder than when I put a disc in the drive.
Click to expand...

It sounds like spotlight was indexing then. It typically happens on a new install.

Still happening every time you tax the cpu moderately? Blow out the dust.

It could also be the new os is harder on your cpu than Tiger was. I'm not sure how much more hardware intensive Leopard is compared to Tiger.

For the record, I like Tiger a LOT better. But my applications no longer support it. :(
 
This is really starting to piss me off. It's happened about 5 times today and right now it's hard to hear what's going on in The Office because the notebook is SO LOUD. Is a repair required?
 
The fans will rev up any time there is an increased load. They are temperature controlled, so they will ramp up when needed.

I'd suggest trying SMC fan control - and moving up the minimum speed a bit. It'll always be a little louder - but it will run continuously - preventing the buildup of heat - and will not cycle as loudly as it does right now.

Otherwise - ? I dunno.
 
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