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For the last two days my MBP fans have been going off like crazy despite no changes.

W

wineandcarbs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 2, 2008
904
137
For the last two days my MBP fans have been going off like crazy despite no changes in the type of usage or where I am using it. It doesn't matter what surface I"m using it on or if I'm using it on something vented. I'm doing pretty basic stuff - browsing the web, Office suite, etc. It's only been like this the past two days. Could this be a fan issue? Is it something I should take it to the Genius Bar for? The MBP is almost a year old and it's only the past two days the fans have been going off like crazy.

TIA!
 
beyondthesmile said:
For the last two days my MBP fans have been going off like crazy despite no changes in the type of usage or where I am using it. It doesn't matter what surface I"m using it on or if I'm using it on something vented. I'm doing pretty basic stuff - browsing the web, Office suite, etc. It's only been like this the past two days. Could this be a fan issue? Is it something I should take it to the Genius Bar for? The MBP is almost a year old and it's only the past two days the fans have been going off like crazy.

TIA!
Click to expand...
Install iStat Pro to get accurate readings of your temps and fan speeds, among other things.

If you have increased CPU/GPU temps, launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, you can check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:
attachment.php
(not indexing)
attachment.php
(indexing) (pulsing dot)​
When it's indexing, you may also see increased CPU and RAM usage by the mds and mdworker processes in Activity Monitor.

If you find your fans spinning up without increased heat, try resetting the SMC.
 
GGJstudios said:
Install iStat Pro to get accurate readings of your temps and fan speeds.

If you have increased temps, launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

If you find your fans spinning up without increased heat, try resetting the SMC.
Click to expand...

I'll do this right now, thank you! The bottom of the laptop does seem to be heating up - yesterday it seemed hotter than it usually runs. I'll install iStat Pro and report back. Thanks for the quick response!
 
Not sure why you would ignore the most important part of GGJstudios post:

If you have increased CPU/GPU temps, launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.
 
thundersteele said:
Not sure why you would ignore the most important part of GGJstudios post:

If you have increased CPU/GPU temps, launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.
Click to expand...

I wasn't ignoring...I was just starting with iStat first. Maybe I misread but I thought he meant look at iStat and note the temperature and then launch the Activity Monitor to see what was going on.

I was actually just about to reply, though, that after downloading iStat the fans wound down? Weird coincidence I guess? They were nonstop all last night and all morning today.

Thanks guys!
 
beyondthesmile said:
I wasn't ignoring...I was just starting with iStat first. Maybe I misread but I thought he meant look at iStat and note the temperature and then launch the Activity Monitor to see what was going on.

I was actually just about to reply, though, that after downloading iStat the fans wound down? Weird coincidence I guess? They were nonstop all last night and all morning today.
Click to expand...
It's fine to start with iStat Pro. I mentioned it first because it's possible your temps and fans speed are normal and they're just making noise at that speed. It's better to start with accurate data. If they spin up again, refer to my post and report back here.
 
Def check Activity Monitor as advised. One common thing I hear from people is this issue and they check it and see MdsWorker and one other or something like that is the front running process(es) and using 20%+ of the total CPU power. IIRC what that means is that the drive is reindexing for some reason or another. If you ran any sort of program such as Onyx or another that is a cleaning program, this will cause the drive to automatically reindex. Reindexing can take a long time on some machines, and can take multiple hours if you are on battery power.
 
beyondthesmile said:
I wasn't ignoring...I was just starting with iStat first. Maybe I misread but I thought he meant look at iStat and note the temperature and then launch the Activity Monitor to see what was going on.
Click to expand...

It's fine, don't worry. I would be more interested in identifying the cause of the higher temperature, and less about getting accurate readings, but both is important in the end.

I'm glad it went away :)
 
Thanks so much guys! If the fans start up again or the computer starts heating up again I'll be sure to check back here to look at the numbers and try to identify the cause of the temperature increases. Thanks for being so helpful - this forum is great :)
 
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