Mac Pro (intake?) Fan noise

[FluJunkie]

Recently, my ~1 year old Mac Pro has been audibly noisier. There's a low, quiet but distinctly mechanical spinning sound that's essentially always audible. Doing a little bit of diagnostic work, I *think* it's the intake fan - spinning all the other fans up doesn't produce much of an audible change in the sound, but spinning the intake fan up makes the sound (which is separate from the usual "fast spinning fan" noise) speed up.

The RPMs aren't unusual though, and the temperatures in the system are well within normal ranges. I've tried opening up the case and blowing dust out, but that doesn't seem to have done much. Any other suggested fixes? Is this something to be actively worried about?

 

[initialsBB]

I'm also interested in anyone's take on this as I have the same problem. If I could reduce the noise of these fans (also all spinning at nominal speeds), then it would be perfectly silent.

 

[asnozz]

I'm also experiencing this. I've been tempted to take it into an apple store..

I've read multiple posts by users of older mac pros saying that they are virtually silent.

 

[derbothaus]

Open up the case and clean it. Dust everywhere especially the heatsinks. They get nasty with dirt. Watch the temps plummet.

 

[MichaelThomas]

I have the exact same problem.

Purchased mine in March 2011 and in January it started making a noticeable spinning noise. It's not unbearable but I'd prefer it if it went back to being silent. Any ideas if it could be related to a recent update around that time?

 

[asnozz]

I have the exact same problem.

Purchased mine in March 2011 and in January it started making a noticeable spinning noise. It's not unbearable but I'd prefer it if it went back to being silent. Any ideas if it could be related to a recent update around that time?

Mine has been like this since I bought it (have tried cleaning it).

hmm.. will have to overcome my laziness and haul the big aluminium block into an apple store (they were next to useless on the phone).

 

[MichaelThomas]

Okay, so to follow up form half an hour ago. I just took an air compressor to the beast.. The dust that came out of it was unbelievable!

So far though.... silence!!! Very happy.

 

[derbothaus]

Okay, so to follow up form half an hour ago. I just took an air compressor to the beast.. The dust that came out of it was unbelievable!

So far though.... silence!!! Very happy.

Awesome. Kind of scary to let it run so long with all that crud huh?

 

[MichaelThomas]

Awesome. Kind of scary to let it run so long with all that crud huh?

Totally. To be honest I never would have thought it could intake so much dust! Deffinitely going to start cleaning it out every 3 months or so.

 

[Flocarino]

I clean mine, every month. I also remove the processors tray and clean the 2 fans/heatsinks as well. I just love to have a dust free clean Mac, even if it's already clean

 

[FluJunkie]

This is *not* a dust problem for me I believe - went and blew out all the fans and the interior as my first attempted "fix" to no avail.

 

[derbothaus]

This is *not* a dust problem for me I believe - went and blew out all the fans and the interior as my first attempted "fix" to no avail.

Then you have a "real" problem. Sounds like you already installed an RPM monitor. So when it gets noisier the RPM's of the booster expansion slot fan do not raise from the defaults but the noise as if they were is present? Is that the issue roughly?

I'd make sure my board and connections were cleaned up.

-PRAM Zap.
-SMC reset on the Motherboard.
-Remove and replace board battery.

Also post the rest of your system specs or at least the CPU - Memory - GPU info. Could jog the memory of someone who has dealt with such an odd issue.

 

[FluJunkie]

This problem is now "resolved". Wondering if perhaps it was just an inadequate dusting, I went in and cleaned out everything again.

Oddly enough, this ended in my GPU fan deciding that no, it doesn't need to spin, and shutting down from overheating.

Opened it up *again*, essentially jiggled the GPU fan about, used SMC Fan Controller to make sure it was spinning now, and the problem has gone away.

 

[faroZ06]

My front fan is noisy, and my temps and fan speeds are all normal. I already tried cleaning it. Could the fan need oiling?