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Early 2011 MBP 15" - Minimum Fan Speed is 3600rpm?

A

Ahheck01

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 7, 2006
494
45
Hi all,

I have a 15" Early 2011 MBP, matte high-res display, 128gb SSD, 4GB Ram, 2Ghz i7 on OS X 10.8.2. I installed SMC Fan Controller, and it gives me a fan speed range of 3631 to 6200 rpm. At 3631, it's a high pitched whine that's quite annoying.

Is that really what the minimum is? Any idea what could fix it if not?
 
Ahheck01 said:
Hi all,

I have a 15" Early 2011 MBP, matte high-res display, 128gb SSD, 4GB Ram, 2Ghz i7 on OS X 10.8.2. I installed SMC Fan Controller, and it gives me a fan speed range of 3631 to 6200 rpm. At 3631, it's a high pitched whine that's quite annoying.
Is that really what the minimum is? Any idea what could fix it if not?
Click to expand...
On my late 2011, smcFanControl shows 2 fans, left and right. The minimum speeds are different, left is set to 3,000 right to 2,000. You can set which fan to display, I set it to show the slower of the two, the right side. Also set up 2,500, 3,000, and 3,500 settings, rarely need anything but the 2,500 as this MBP runs very cool, compared with my old 2009 2.53GHz model.

Check your smcFanControl preferences, what is it showing?

I have seen one case, of an older iMac 24" where the app wouldn't work right until I deleted all the preferences and other files, which were scattered all over. Had to use EasyFind to find and delete them. Reinstalling did the job and had completely different settings. If simply setting the preferences doesn't work, try that "nuke and reinstall" method.
 
davidlv said:
On my late 2011, smcFanControl shows 2 fans, left and right. The minimum speeds are different, left is set to 3,000 right to 2,000. You can set which fan to display, I set it to show the slower of the two, the right side. Also set up 2,500, 3,000, and 3,500 settings, rarely need anything but the 2,500 as this MBP runs very cool, compared with my old 2009 2.53GHz model.

Check your smcFanControl preferences, what is it showing?

I have seen one case, of an older iMac 24" where the app wouldn't work right until I deleted all the preferences and other files, which were scattered all over. Had to use EasyFind to find and delete them. Reinstalling did the job and had completely different settings. If simply setting the preferences doesn't work, try that "nuke and reinstall" method.
Click to expand...
Well, like I said in the original post, SMCfancontrol preferences give me a range from 3631 to 6200 rpm.

I deleted every trace of SMCFanControl and rebooted. The fans still 'idle' at a noisy 3600rpm (I have right and left fans too).
 
PurrBall said:
I would reset SMC and check for dust. It's also possible your thermal sensors are malfunctioning.
Click to expand...

I reset SMC to no avail.

That said, I notice the fans don't speed up until the thing is fully booted, as if some software is opening and telling them to speed up.

I can't find any trace of SMCFanControl installed. Any ideas?
 
Ahheck01 said:
I reset SMC to no avail.

That said, I notice the fans don't speed up until the thing is fully booted, as if some software is opening and telling them to speed up.

I can't find any trace of SMCFanControl installed. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Aha! Previous owner had used Fan Control app to set the minimum. Reinstalled it, fixed the min., now good to go.
 
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