[MAC PRO] how to deal with the sudden fan noise?

[Divian BE]

Hello,

At work I'm using a mac pro (3months old now). I was working with the older model (powerpc) before and was very happy with it. However the intel based cpu would fullfill more needs for the internal-used-windows written- programs.

The intel-mac is under my open desk, just where the earlier one was 1 year ago, doing the same and exact things...

Two months ago the mac pro seemed to act strange. Ventilator (fan) seemed to spin like hell. Thought it was just because of heavy use (CS3 stuff). After a while it began more frequently and out of the blue. The wind it produces isn't even warm.

I contacted the firm from which I bought, where they told me to do some tests while booting the MAC install disk. There I did a full system check without any "errors". I did all the updates as well as the one to be known to resolve fan issues. Still without a chance.
I emailed the log (which they asked), and the told me to reset the MTU or something. (disconnecting everything for few minutes, restarting with only keyboard + mouse). Didn't resolved anything...

The only thing to let it stop: shut down and restart (only a cold boot works, restarting doesn't let the fans stop otherwise). Remark that the heavy fan noise, is even heavier than the ones on the tests. It keeps making noise till I put it off. Mac os X can be closed down normally. It once must have remained to blow for like 10 minutes. People were going crazy around me because of the noise.

It happens time to time. I had a week > 2 times a day, fans started spinning. Today it happened after 30 minutes when I booted the mac (last time before was a week ago). It looks very strange to me.

Today I contacted the firm again. Friday evening I'm bringing it in. If it is a hardware problem it will fall in guarantue, otherwise (software problem), It's paytime :S. So far for the service...

Is there anyway to look to know for sure it's not software related?
But then again I can't think of a program I used in the first 30 minutes today which caused the fans to spin... (suitcase, mail, iCal, firefox, safari, parallels,neo-office,... looks all very common to me)

Are there any known things to be aware of or to keep in mind.
thanks in advance!

ps: I'm still a mac-dummy. I'm considering buying a mac for home as well to learn more about the machine. Any help for learning more (error reports, general ideas, tutorials,...) is well appreciated.
I will keep an eye on this helpfull site as well! TOP!
ps2: Not sure if this is related to MAC pro or mac basic fora. Since I don't call myself an expert I posted in here. Sorry if I thought wrong...

As of today my roots refer to "windows", my future will embrace mac.

 

[joegomolski]

[MAC PRO] how to deal with the sudden fan noise?

Hi Divian,

I understand your problem. The fans do come on and wind up louder when your Mac Pro is doing heavy duty processing. You're correct about that.

And you're also correct that the fans should not always be running at high speed.

Several things come to mind.

1) Check that there is good air circulation all around the Mac Pro. I'm not an expert but I believe the Mac Pro processor will run hotter that the G5 processor.

2) Download a program called Fan Control, this will give you greater control over the fans, and you'll know what's happening, more better. It's freeware.

3) I know of no software that could be responsible for this fan behavior.

4) It definitely sounds like a hardware problem.

5) Have you contacted Apple Tech Support? 800.275.2273 They can be quite helpful at times. Or is there an Apple Retail Store near you? I've used that option with good results.

6) Have you, or are you planning to purchase an AppleCare policy from Apple? Basically it extends your hardware warranty to 3 years. When I've needed the longer warranty, the policy has more than paid for it's cost. Google AppleCare. There are places on the web where you can buy this for less dollars than Apple charges.

Welcome to the Mac Club, I was PC for almost 18 years. Around the year 2000 I switched to Macs and was sorry I hadn't done so earlier.

 

[Divian BE]

Well, today it didn't make any noise.
Still not knowing what happened, tomorrow, it's going to the store.

And yes I'm going to an official dealer...

The applecare, not really thought about it. It looks pricey to me... Never needed any service towards this with pc's, should I with mac?

 

[topgunn]

The applecare, not really thought about it. It looks pricey to me... Never needed any service towards this with pc's, should I with mac?

In the PC world, I never by extended warranties for two reasons. 1) The support I have received is generally second rate and is not worth much of anything to me and 2) the parts for PCs (notebooks and laptops) are more often than not generic and/or can be found on eBay for a reasonable price.

Both of these reasons do not apply to Macs. The service I have received from Apple has (almost) always been top-notch. Also, the replacement parts are (almost) never off-the-shelf parts nor can they be found on eBay for a reasonable price. Thus the $100 extra I spent on my iMac is well worth it, in my opinion.

Also, when I own a PC, I expect to spend more time working with it to do what I want. I know that I have to be more careful opening random attachments and to make sure I keep my virus/adware/spyware protection up to date. I know that I will have to deal with the occasional corrupted dll or driver file that takes time out of my day.

I spend more on a Mac so I don't have to concern myself with these things, warranties included.