Mac Mini mid 2010 - Fan issues after SSD installation

[Andrea Filippini]

Hi everyone,
my supplier has recently replaced the HDD of my Mac Mini mid 2010 with SSD.
However he had to configure the app Macs Fan Control to fix fan issues (due to temperature sensor) when the machine is active (remained high noise with starting and turning off). Also power light is no more active.
Has anyone run into the same problem?
Furthermore boot up/launch apps time is longer than my iMac late 2009 despite the speed of the SSD on Mac Mini is a little bit faster (source Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the same OS).
Mac Mini mid 2010 specs:
Intel C2D 2.4 GHz
8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB
Crucial MX500 500 GB

Is it possible a CPU bottleneck?

Any advice would be really appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[weaztek]

When you replace the HDD on some Macs with a new drive that isn't exactly the same as the old model, it throttles (slows down) and the fan ramps up.

In the case of my old iMac I needed to buy an in-line thermal sensor cable from OWC that had a thermostat on it to get the job done. I checked but they just seem to be made for iMacs.

 

[Andrea Filippini]

When you replace the HDD on some Macs with a new drive that isn't exactly the same as the old model, it throttles (slows down) and the fan ramps up.

In the case of my old iMac I needed to buy an in-line thermal sensor cable from OWC that had a thermostat on it to get the job done. I checked but they just seem to be made for iMacs.

Thank you for your reply.
About the slower performance is it a CPU bottleneck, do you think?

 

[chrfr]

Thank you for your reply.
About the slower performance is it a CPU bottleneck, do you think?

The broken power light is an indication they likely damaged the connector on the main board where that cable connects. The infrared remote will also now no longer work. It is quite possible that the computer is throttling its speed if it's not getting correct thermal data for the disk.

 

[weaztek]

About the slower performance is it a CPU bottleneck, do you think?

I'd guess the high fan speed and cpu throttling is a safety measure so as not to overheat. But that's just speculation on my part.

One thing I do now is run geekbench 5 every few months and record the scores in my notes. That way I can watch my machine's performance over time to be sure it isn't screwed up. And shopping for a new machine is actually easier, because I will not upgrade until I can get at least a 2x speed gain (at least in theory).

 

[mdgm]

In the case of my old iMac I needed to buy an in-line thermal sensor cable from OWC that had a thermostat on it to get the job done. I checked but they just seem to be made for iMacs.

The Mac Mini uses a standard 2.5" HDD, so 3rd party drives work fine without the need for purchasing a new sensor. The existing thermal sensors in the 2010 mini are sufficient.

It's possible one of the thermal sensors for the hard drive was broken during the replacement. Removing them from the logic board is a delicate procedure. There are some helpful comments on the iFixit guide as to what to do at that step of the process (a bit late for you now).

It's also possible that the thermal sensor wasn't put correctly on the SSD.

The risk of breaking things has meant that I've chosen to boot my pre-2011 Macs off external FW800 SSDs. Sure an internal SSD would be quicker, but the main thing SSDs do is help with "random" read/write performance and for the even over FW800 SSDs will make a huge difference.