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Fans keep rev'ing up for a few seconds every 15 seconds on 13" rMPB

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
16,173
17,099
i rebooted, reset SMC, still happening

glad I'm still under warranty and going to bring it in tomorrow, but any insight to this?
 
so I took it into Genius Bar,

they did a SMC reset by pulling the internal battery, and diagnostics

everything came back fine, but it started acting up again not even doing anything aside form one page of safari,

uninstalled istat menu, same thing
same with google chrome

also got the excess dust and stuff out, and wasn't caked in anything too bad he said.


--

Trying no iCloud on El Cap but I imagine it doesn't make any difference

Also trying macOS Sierra partition, as I think I've had it do it on this too but need to be sure

what would you do?

back to Genius Bar? just live with it?

I do have warranty until July 2017
 
Go back if the fans keep revving up for no reason.

Maybe run heat checking software to see how hot the processor/graphics/memory is running.
 
so its started doing it again, but whats odd is that powering down and back up stops it

does it on el cap and sierra partitions,

SMC reset, i just reset it again, seems to happen every other week

i wonder if its software- what would you do at this point? just ask for a new fan/logic board ?

still under warranty, i just wonder what the heck is going on if diagnostics say everything is fine, including the fans operability
 
Maybe a temp sensor somewhere is failing and intermittently sending erroneous readings.

BTW, anyone know if having multiple OS versions cause some issues between firmware and OS?
 
jerryk said:
Maybe a temp sensor somewhere is failing and intermittently sending erroneous readings.

BTW, anyone know if having multiple OS versions cause some issues between firmware and OS?
Click to expand...

Yeah if that's the case I dunno how I'm gonna prove something as intermittent as every other week or so is the problem
 
When the fans kick in, does your Activity Monitor show any sudden changes in activity, such as CPU, or memory?
Do the fans follow increases in actual temps reported by any of various utilities that you could use to show those reported temps?
Do the temps then drop, and the fans slow down?
Or, the fans seem to be unrelated to any temp changes?

And, the fan utility might even report that the fans are at zero, even though running at speed, which might indicate a faulty fan, or a bad sensor.
 
thadoggfather said:
so its started doing it again, but whats odd is that powering down and back up stops it

does it on el cap and sierra partitions,

SMC reset, i just reset it again, seems to happen every other week

i wonder if its software- what would you do at this point? just ask for a new fan/logic board ?

still under warranty, i just wonder what the heck is going on if diagnostics say everything is fine, including the fans operability
Click to expand...
I would take it back in.
 
DeltaMac said:
When the fans kick in, does your Activity Monitor show any sudden changes in activity, such as CPU, or memory?
Do the fans follow increases in actual temps reported by any of various utilities that you could use to show those reported temps?
Do the temps then drop, and the fans slow down?
Or, the fans seem to be unrelated to any temp changes?

And, the fan utility might even report that the fans are at zero, even though running at speed, which might indicate a faulty fan, or a bad sensor.
Click to expand...

Not doing anything intensive the laptop is cool to the touch. No flash either that's for chrome and seldom do I use it.

It just Revs up and down. People mistake what I'm describing as fans kicking up and the machine blisteringly got. That's not the case here though. It's like idle to a slight now after the Genius Bar appointment faint vroom and then back to idle. And then vroom. Power down forced and start up again and then it's gone.
 
The outside or case temperature is not at issue (and wouldn't affect the fan anyway)
Also, not asking about what you are doing at the time.
I just question if your Mac (without any input from you) is doing anything to make the fans kick up.
The Activity Monitor will tell you part of that.
The other is a temp sensor utility that shows you both fan speed, and temps reported by the various sensors.
Is there a spike in the temps reported at the same time that the fans kick up?
Or, nothing significant?

When the fans do kick up, do they only slightly speed up (say to 2500 rpm), or full speed (most would be 5 to 6000 rpm, more or less)
 
DeltaMac said:
The outside or case temperature is not at issue (and wouldn't affect the fan anyway)
Also, not asking about what you are doing at the time.
I just question if your Mac (without any input from you) is doing anything to make the fans kick up.
The Activity Monitor will tell you part of that.
The other is a temp sensor utility that shows you both fan speed, and temps reported by the various sensors.
Is there a spike in the temps reported at the same time that the fans kick up?
Or, nothing significant?

When the fans do kick up, do they only slightly speed up (say to 2500 rpm), or full speed (most would be 5 to 6000 rpm, more or less)
Click to expand...

i mean I'm always web browsing, so I'm never not doing ANYTHING and just staring at a desktop idly for hours waiting for it to happen, but always doing casual tasks and flash free too,

In regards to your last question, slightly speed up


it honestly at this point sounds EXACTLY like this video, when this guy opens his laptop

just a faint vroom, it did it just a bit ago too a few rotations and then went away,

it used to be a much louder and longer drawn out "vroooom" cycle, but that was before bringing to genius bar, diagnostics pass with flying colors included sensors and all, fan specific stuff he said, and pulled the battery and re-inserted it

i think its time for a new fan/logic board, eventually.

about to go out of state for thanksgiving so ill deal with it later this month/next,

so odd, and the times its kept going, powering down holding power button and booting up again, temporarily resolves it. the only culprit would be iStat menus, but uninstalled, rebooted, and it still does the vroom at a random time,

I only have photoshop and spotify, and Skype and chrome. and office,

but in all instances, none of those apps have been open or for the most part, i haven't noticed with those apps also not open ,its largely JUST stock apps open, clean El Cap partition and install,

And clean Sierra, with a few apps but not running, does it too.

ugh, something definitely needs to be done here. this is a pita.
 
Last edited:
Yes, how about downloading and trying the app that I asked about, which will tell you precise temps, and also show you how fast your fan is actually running (so you don't have to give hazy guesses like "long drawn out vroooom cycle", etc. You can see exact speeds, and the exact temps that are reported

If you really need help, you can download one of those apps here.
or here is another app that does the same thing for you.

If the fan is running, and not making excessive mechanical noise, then it is doing what it should be doing (responding to either temps, or high current draw), and replacing a fan should give you a newer fan that should operate exactly in the same way. Nothing wrong with the fan, but something is causing your fan to run contrary to what you expect, and it's not the fan's fault.

Finally, if the fan cycles up and down occasionally, that's part of its job, and if nothing else is happening, then you could choose to ignore it, too :D

(the video that you linked has a slight click at the end, but otherwise doesn't offer much noise other than hearing air blow (faintly). What else should your fan do?
 
so across the board, rMBP fans make that slight vroom on and off at times?

you have to hear whats in the youtube video, at 5 seconds, its a whirling noise/ otherwise you wouldn't know what I'm referring to here because the noise thats happening when he opens the lid and hears the fan is the noise I'm experiencing, but not just while opening the machine at random times,

im not sure what running temp and fan sensors does , i had istat menu and only ever saw it rev up slightly here and there,

but temperatures i don't actively monitor, it was cool to the touch sufficed to say. i dont think if i saw the temps go up like 1 degree and fans rev up and down slightly would indicate anything,
 
Last edited:
You are correct, of course. 1 degree up would not cause a fan to kick up.
But I am also guessing that you have already tried to watch the temps, just to see if there is any correlation between the fan, and higher temps. And of course, I am sure that you realize that you can't tell the temperature by touch, particularly for a temp spike that may only last long enough for the fan to kick up. The fan kicks up, with more cooling air, and the temp drops right back down, followed by the fan slowing to idle.
I'm sure that you have already checked all that.

Have you tried the built-in Diagnostics test, taking a few of minutes to run that test at the time the fan gets annoying?
 
DeltaMac said:
You are correct, of course. 1 degree up would not cause a fan to kick up.
But I am also guessing that you have already tried to watch the temps, just to see if there is any correlation between the fan, and higher temps. And of course, I am sure that you realize that you can't tell the temperature by touch, particularly for a temp spike that may only last long enough for the fan to kick up. The fan kicks up, with more cooling air, and the temp drops right back down, followed by the fan slowing to idle.
I'm sure that you have already checked all that.

Have you tried the built-in Diagnostics test, taking a few of minutes to run that test at the time the fan gets annoying?
Click to expand...

well i took it in.

showed the genius a video of mine vrooming, and he said nearly all but one or two instances where it pulses like that it is software doing it, and to look at activity monitor, and some background process can be causing a temporary spike to have something ramp up and then back down super quick, seems suspect for me though given the rest.. but it could be hardware.

I still don't think this is the problem, ran diags again, passed with flying colors

sent off to depot, he put in notes he would recommend replacing the logic board and fan, after I kept insisting they can stress test my machine and do whatever they want but nearly two clean partitions of el cap and sierra with office, PS, iSTat (installed and uninstalled, same thing), spotify and Skype, nearly none of which were running, still does it on both os'es, and it isn't ramping up to sustained speeds

BUT it is at the depot's discretion what to repair, i kept insisting ill be pissed if I'm without the machine for a week and they say everything is working perfectly (i think thats why he put what he recommended in the notes), i don't care what part needs replacing but something needs to be because I'm tired of going to the store (in a nice way)

we'll see :)

glad I have two laptops, using my 12" rMB for travels and daily driver again for a bit
 
Got it back,

logic board and heat sink replaced, the depot they sent it off to said it was running unusually hot in stress tests-- something weird at play, maybe SMC controller who knows

hopefully its gone now woo,

the fan wasn't defective supposedly
 
OK i need some advice here,

Literally had the machine back one day, and realized backlit keyboard no longer worked after repair

they replaced top case/battery, and said it was still failing so sent it off to depot yet AGAIN, for a 2nd logic board replacement

backlit keyboard works again

BUT i just heard a faint whir of the fan revving up and down, and I literally have nothing installed but Photoshop, iSTat, MS office, Spotify, Twitter, Chrome

whenever it happens, chrome is not open its on safari doing casual browsing. same with photoshop, not doing photoshop work..
nothing else is open

what the heck,

WHY did they think to replace logic board and heatsink, but not fan? is it possible my fan is defective or is this for sure software? i can't rule it out, i feel like I've tried to isolate it and clean installed with very staple applications, nothing niche.

What would you do at this point? I have warranty until July, but virtually everything except SSD, screen, and fan (and ac adapter) are replaced, and effectively a new machine.

but i don't want more downtime without a computer, this has been literally 2 weeks without my machine, and a lot of replacing crap,

and i fear it going kaput as soon as my warranty ends,
 
Can you try killing the applications one at a time, waiting a while in between and see if the fan shut/slow down? I would start with Outlook if you have that running. It connects looking for mail, etc. on a periodic basis.
 
jerryk said:
Can you try killing the applications one at a time, waiting a while in between and see if the fan shut/slow down? I would start with Outlook if you have that running. It connects looking for mail, etc. on a periodic basis.
Click to expand...

I don't use any mail apps apple or ms. Just webmail gmail.

I literally just have safari and like 3 tabs no flash running nothing heavy duty when it lets out a little sigh sometimes.

I just am scratching my head why they would go through the process of replacing everything but the fan even if it's intermittent.
 
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