Mac Mini late 2012 and high speed fan noise

[chama98]

Hi all.

Quick question. This has been bugging me for a while so decided to get some expert help from you guys.

Lately my new mac mini fan has been operating at full speed sometimes when the computer wakes from sleep and also while restarting or when holding down command and R for the recovery partition.

This is getting very annoying! I have reset the SMC as per apples instructions and it has got better. I am wondering if my external firewire drive is causing problems.

I will explain my hardware set up.

One UPS which is plugged in and the mini runs off that. USB cable from the UPS is attached to the back of the mini. I have one thunderbolt display, one printer on USB, one EYETV USB dongle, Bose speakers plugged into the USB as well.

The firewire drive goes to sleep after 30 mins have elapsed. I guess if I am not using it, eject it and leave the cable from the back of the drive unplugged until I need it again? trying to unplug it from the mini is a chore as the desk space is small.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks.

 

[paulrbeers]

Hi all.

Quick question. This has been bugging me for a while so decided to get some expert help from you guys.

Lately my new mac mini fan has been operating at full speed sometimes when the computer wakes from sleep and also while restarting or when holding down command and R for the recovery partition.

This is getting very annoying! I have reset the SMC as per apples instructions and it has got better. I am wondering if my external firewire drive is causing problems.

I will explain my hardware set up.

One UPS which is plugged in and the mini runs off that. USB cable from the UPS is attached to the back of the mini. I have one thunderbolt display, one printer on USB, one EYETV USB dongle, Bose speakers plugged into the USB as well.

The firewire drive goes to sleep after 30 mins have elapsed. I guess if I am not using it, eject it and leave the cable from the back of the drive unplugged until I need it again? trying to unplug it from the mini is a chore as the desk space is small.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks.

Have you tried unplugging the Firewire to test your hypothesis? You seem to think the Firewire is causing the problem, so why not validate that? It shouldn't take much. Disconnect, reboot, and if it spins up at start up still with the firewire then that isn't it. I'm pretty sure mine spins up though upon reboot, but then again I haven't rebooted in awhile and I don't let mine sleep because it is a media server.

 

[chama98]

Thanks for the reply.

The drive had been playing up before. Which I had sent away and it was fixed. I also understand that there is a bug between mavericks and firewire hard disks?

incidentally I don't use any fan control software at all.

 

[hwojtek]

I also understand that there is a bug between mavericks and firewire hard disks?

I run a WD firewire hard disk and have not noticed any bugs.
This said, I have just recently traced a faulty temperature sensor in my 2010 Mini (hardware test indicated the ambient temperature sensor to be showing -124 deg Celsius) which caused the fan to run constantly at highest speed. Disconnecting the sensor from the motherboard cured the issue.

 

[chama98]

Thanks.

It is not a faulty temperature cable. I performed a hardware test with Apples own hardware testing software and found no problems.

I will disconnect the external drive and see what happens.

 

[sumo.do]

A couple of options that may or may not work (apart from SMC reset mentioned) that are mentioned in the Apple Technician Guide are:

-Check the seating of the fan cable plug (see my issue below).
-Try known good fan (not easy if you don't have a spare)
-An excessive temp (resulting in a high fan speed) may have resulted from a clogged or dirty fan or dust in the heat sink etc.

Although most of this options result from a fail on the diagnostic test on the fan of which yours ran ok.

Could be a faulty sensor or logic board as well.

I had a fan run on high once because one of the four cables on the fan came out of the socket that attaches to the logic board. The wire came out in a rebuild. I just needed to reseat it (with the assistance of a magnifying glass) and it was ok. Perhaps one of the cables has come loose and is occasionally disconnecting/reconnecting.

 

[chama98]

Thanks for the reply. I installed istat menu and left my mini on all night. The speed I the fan was 1800 which is normal. I only get a fan speed increase when it is either awoken from sleep (sometimes) or when starting up (sometimes)

I don't think it is a faulty cable as I have checked all the cables and nothing seems out I place. I do think it is an intermittent USB problem though.

 

[D.B/KnA]

Hi all.

Quick question. This has been bugging me for a while so decided to get some expert help from you guys.

Lately my new mac mini fan has been operating at full speed sometimes when the computer wakes from sleep and also while restarting or when holding down command and R for the recovery partition.

This is getting very annoying! I have reset the SMC as per apples instructions and it has got better. I am wondering if my external firewire drive is causing problems.

I will explain my hardware set up.

One UPS which is plugged in and the mini runs off that. USB cable from the UPS is attached to the back of the mini. I have one thunderbolt display, one printer on USB, one EYETV USB dongle, Bose speakers plugged into the USB as well.

The firewire drive goes to sleep after 30 mins have elapsed. I guess if I am not using it, eject it and leave the cable from the back of the drive unplugged until I need it again? trying to unplug it from the mini is a chore as the desk space is small.

Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks.

hey I had this problem once before when i opens the mac mini up the fan was only touching the contact point where the fan actually connects you will (maybe ) needs to checks this out. (Because we are only human and even the experts get it wrong).

 

[D.B/KnA]

hey I had this problem once before when i opens the mac mini up the fan was only touching the contact point where the fan actually connects you will (maybe ) needs to checks this out. (Because we are only human and even the experts get it wrong).

This time though its a faulty connector its self which is where the fan and the mother board come together i would have to replace the whole mother board.