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Mac Mini getting too warm
- Thread starter Patth9
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your machine is 7 years old by now and (depending on the total uptime) I well can imagine that some dust has accumulated within the cooling system over the years
What are you doing with it? Is it getting warm just sitting there idling or during heavy duty processing (which would be normal for an i7)
is it just hot to the touch or throttling or even unexpectedly shutting down? (one pc shut down on me over and over again until I discovered the cooling fan had died)
My 2014 Mac mini gets quite warm under normal usage too which may be attributed partly to Apple's obsession with silent systems, so the cooling fan runs at minimum speed ...
What are you doing with it? Is it getting warm just sitting there idling or during heavy duty processing (which would be normal for an i7)
is it just hot to the touch or throttling or even unexpectedly shutting down? (one pc shut down on me over and over again until I discovered the cooling fan had died)
My 2014 Mac mini gets quite warm under normal usage too which may be attributed partly to Apple's obsession with silent systems, so the cooling fan runs at minimum speed ...
Open up the bottom, and point a shop-vac set to blow on it. Continue until most of the dust is gone. If the fan is centrifugal type, where air is sucked into center holes, and accelerated out along curving fins, use air on the fins to drive the thing backwards. That'll loosen crud stuck to leading edge of fan blades near center.
Thank you
ChrisChaval
I normally was leaving it on day and night, but in the last week I started to look under and over which might have jiggled the dust. Do you know, by any chance, if there is a video that I bring up to help me do the cleaning part?
Thinking about it, it isn't as warm sense I turned it upside down, I never even thought about the dust.
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Dear Patth9,
leaving it on 24/7 for 7 years surely explains something .. dust most certainly being the culprit (if not the cooling fan itself)
Honestly, I do not like the idea of using compressed air in that kind of scenario very much because in doing so you would push collected dust even further in an already dust infested system
what you want to do is to get rid of the dust and out of the system, not further into it
from my point of view, taking apart your machine and cleaning the interested parts is the only way to solve of the problem
I took my Mac mini 2009 apart a couple of times to upgrade ram and install a SSD and came across the cooling fan, but the 2012 design is somewhat different and I am not able to provide first-hand experience
my best advice at this point would be to ask help from someone who has opened and cleaned 2012 Mac minis before
at this point I even would recommend replacing the cooling fan / unit after such long working hours, instead of just cleaning it
and while they're at it: let them replace the thermal paste on the cpu too (and install a SSD)
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That is a common problem with most to all Mac Minis as they age. The internal fan is either clogged up with dust, the exhaust port is clogged with dust as well and the fan bearings are starting to fail. You will need to take out the fan and vacuum the whole assembly. Never use compressed air to blow the dust as the fan has bearings and you could blow the dust into the bearings shortening whatever life it has left. Now, if the computer has been used as a server day and night or turned on most of the time, I think it is probably time to replace the fan assembly. You can buy a new aftermarket fan assembly for like $10-12 from Amazon and install it. It is the same fan assembly used from Mid 2010 to Late 2014 Mac Mini and it's pretty easy to install once you watched the Youtube video. If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, find a Mac repair shop and they can do this for you. Fan dying on the Mac Mini is a common problem especially if you have it turned on daily and never shut it off. Once you have a new fan installed or old fan vacuumed and cleaned and the air ducts cleaned, your mini will perform substantially cooler like mine does. I also added an additional laptop cooler for my mini for times that it is acting as a render farm server for my 2 other macs, but this is completely optional. Hope this helps.
You can also install a software called MacsFanControl which allows you to monitor your internal temperatures. With a cleaned or new fan, your internal temperature should drop by 10 to 15 degrees celsius. I added a small laptop cooler fan which adds another 10 degrees in cooling for heavy duty rendering server tasks or with using Protools without the Mini being throttled down in speed.
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My 2005 has been up since 2005, barring power failures, HD replacements and the like, and the fan is still spinning like a champ. It's the 2011 that seems to need periodic blowouts.
Absolutely, do it this way since years. – Using sleep mode also lets you leverage Apple's Power Nap.
Also as a suggestion, after you shut down the mini and after opening the mini, be sure to stick your finger on the fan to hold the fan blades, before "blowing" with compressed air. Spinning your fan at the staggering speed compressed air blows, can cause damage to the fan, whether on or off. Just a thought ........https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=1209233
Sorry for MY long wait. I am sending this link to a friend who might be able to help me out, he lives in the same town. Thanks be to all of your trys, I hope I'm not too late to same my Mac Mini. I used a backup HD and watched it very closely (2 hours) and it never got warm.