Hey team- long time, no chat.
Anyhow, I've been bumping my head against the same issue that a lot of users (but not all, apparently) have been having: a noisy fan on a 2019 iMac 27". The full story, if you want to comment on or have advice, is below. But first, here are the general specs on the device:
The main two questions I have are:
1) What is the default fan speed on this device?
2) (acknowledging that load can really make this variable) what is the acceptable operating temperatures on this device.
I ask these questions, because I have been unable to get any clear answers from Apple themselves.
So here's the long story (and it is a doozy): I've been having a dastardly noisy fan on this thing for quite a while. The default fan speed appears to be sitting at about 1723rpm and, when the room is quite (we have a kind of open plan on the first floor), the fan is clearly audible from 25 feet away. This is the lowest speed it goes and, frankly, I've had my head in A LOT of PC cases in the past 30 years, and it's got the whine that says "I ain't doin' so well," you know?
On top of that, using fan and temperature apps, I've found that the typical "resting" temp of my system is about 100f (38c), but that the fans don't really spool up until the temp hits 140f (60c). This becomes important in a moment. (note, the temps are based on the CPU proximity sensor and, while that may not be an accurate reading, it IS consistent across three apps [Macs Fan Control, SMC fan control, Magican]).
Whether or not those two are factors, my iMac gets really very laggy when the temps are that high, and under what I consider to be normal operating load (Photoshop 2020 open and running, 2-3 browser windows, each of which may have 10 or so tabs open). I often get the beach ball when attempting to open files, or switch between apps. Sometimes just 2-4 seconds, but sometimes upwards of 10-15 seconds, during which everything just waits.
I've been putting up with it until I finally decided to upgrade to Big Sur in December 2020. However, Big Sur kept failing, and I had to keep recovering back to Mojave. As the device is still under Apple Care, I spoke to Apple, they had me do the usual tricks which I had already done (reset NVRAM, reset SMC, etc. etc.) and still no joy. Finally they had me drop it off at the store.
Two days later I get i back with Big Sur installed. The stated that they ran diagnostics and all hardware checked out, but were cagey or redirected my questions about the fan status. Their one (possible) explanation was that the RAM chips (2x4GB which came with the unit, 2x32GB installed by me) was "misconfigured/in the wrong place" so they reseated the RAM in the "correct configuration." However, when I checked each chip was still in the same place.
Since the Big Sur update, my heat and fan problems haven't gone away, and have potentially gotten worse. Last week the temperature reached 155f (68f) and all of my apps began freezing in cascade, eventually resulting ini the mouse just disappearing and the keyboard not functioning. I waited to see if anything would recover, but had to force a manual reboot after about 5 minutes.
Three or four days later the same happened again, although this time the device rebooted itself after 3 minutes of being frozen.
I called up Apple again, they had me run a diagnostic which came up A-OK, then had me update to 11.2. This lowered my base operating temperature to about 90f (32c), and let's me perform basic functions without getting too hot. But once I fire up the apps I use (as listed above) the temp starts climbing again.
Apple had me bring it back, but diagnostics still found nothing. No clear answer to my questions above, and they excuse AGAIN that they "put the RAM in the proper configuration." The one interesting point is that they DIDN'T put the stock RAM back in, only the 2x32GB sticks I put in after purchasing. Hmmm...
Anyhow, I'm stuck with a computer that is noisy and, whether or not Apple things this is "too hot" tends to get super laggy at 140f and up.
Anyhow, I've been bumping my head against the same issue that a lot of users (but not all, apparently) have been having: a noisy fan on a 2019 iMac 27". The full story, if you want to comment on or have advice, is below. But first, here are the general specs on the device:
The main two questions I have are:
1) What is the default fan speed on this device?
2) (acknowledging that load can really make this variable) what is the acceptable operating temperatures on this device.
I ask these questions, because I have been unable to get any clear answers from Apple themselves.
So here's the long story (and it is a doozy): I've been having a dastardly noisy fan on this thing for quite a while. The default fan speed appears to be sitting at about 1723rpm and, when the room is quite (we have a kind of open plan on the first floor), the fan is clearly audible from 25 feet away. This is the lowest speed it goes and, frankly, I've had my head in A LOT of PC cases in the past 30 years, and it's got the whine that says "I ain't doin' so well," you know?
On top of that, using fan and temperature apps, I've found that the typical "resting" temp of my system is about 100f (38c), but that the fans don't really spool up until the temp hits 140f (60c). This becomes important in a moment. (note, the temps are based on the CPU proximity sensor and, while that may not be an accurate reading, it IS consistent across three apps [Macs Fan Control, SMC fan control, Magican]).
Whether or not those two are factors, my iMac gets really very laggy when the temps are that high, and under what I consider to be normal operating load (Photoshop 2020 open and running, 2-3 browser windows, each of which may have 10 or so tabs open). I often get the beach ball when attempting to open files, or switch between apps. Sometimes just 2-4 seconds, but sometimes upwards of 10-15 seconds, during which everything just waits.
I've been putting up with it until I finally decided to upgrade to Big Sur in December 2020. However, Big Sur kept failing, and I had to keep recovering back to Mojave. As the device is still under Apple Care, I spoke to Apple, they had me do the usual tricks which I had already done (reset NVRAM, reset SMC, etc. etc.) and still no joy. Finally they had me drop it off at the store.
Two days later I get i back with Big Sur installed. The stated that they ran diagnostics and all hardware checked out, but were cagey or redirected my questions about the fan status. Their one (possible) explanation was that the RAM chips (2x4GB which came with the unit, 2x32GB installed by me) was "misconfigured/in the wrong place" so they reseated the RAM in the "correct configuration." However, when I checked each chip was still in the same place.
Since the Big Sur update, my heat and fan problems haven't gone away, and have potentially gotten worse. Last week the temperature reached 155f (68f) and all of my apps began freezing in cascade, eventually resulting ini the mouse just disappearing and the keyboard not functioning. I waited to see if anything would recover, but had to force a manual reboot after about 5 minutes.
Three or four days later the same happened again, although this time the device rebooted itself after 3 minutes of being frozen.
I called up Apple again, they had me run a diagnostic which came up A-OK, then had me update to 11.2. This lowered my base operating temperature to about 90f (32c), and let's me perform basic functions without getting too hot. But once I fire up the apps I use (as listed above) the temp starts climbing again.
Apple had me bring it back, but diagnostics still found nothing. No clear answer to my questions above, and they excuse AGAIN that they "put the RAM in the proper configuration." The one interesting point is that they DIDN'T put the stock RAM back in, only the 2x32GB sticks I put in after purchasing. Hmmm...
Anyhow, I'm stuck with a computer that is noisy and, whether or not Apple things this is "too hot" tends to get super laggy at 140f and up.
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