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Macbook Air Possible Fan Noise?

D

DuganRun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2012
21
0
Nottingham, England.
Today my 2014 Macbook Air has started making a strange noise around the vent area near my 'esc' key.
It sounds like the noise you'd get from a CD player, an electrical pulsing sound almost, maybe slightly mechanical also but it doesn't sound like dirt or something is causing the noise as I've experienced this before with an earlier Macbook Air.
Any ideas?
 
Newtons Apple said:
It might be you fan. I have not heard mine from the time I did the original set up. Does it do it all the time of only after you have used it for awhile?
Click to expand...

It happens most of the time and not because the macbook's hot, actually I've never heard the fan before and it seems to run very cool when operating.

Earlier I put my macbook to sleep for a few seconds and on waking it up the noise was gone but since returned, I'm not sure where the fan's located though I do suspect it may be the fan.
 
I had something similar with a 2011 MA. After half a year or so the noise disappeared. I have always assumed that it was some piece of dirt or similar which was stuck in the fan. The same MA is still in use, very intensively by our student son, and still functions fine. I would check the temp of the CPU if the sound is audible. If the temp is fine than no real worries, otherwise bring it in for repairs.
Just my experience...
 
Last edited:
DuganRun said:
Today my 2014 Macbook Air has started making a strange noise around the vent area near my 'esc' key.
It sounds like the noise you'd get from a CD player, an electrical pulsing sound almost, maybe slightly mechanical also but it doesn't sound like dirt or something is causing the noise as I've experienced this before with an earlier Macbook Air.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Yup, that's where the fan is. Sounds like something has caused it to become unbalanced. If you have the right screwdriver you should be able to pop off the bottom of the case very easily and the problem might be obvious. Maybe blow on the fan with some compressed air to clean it?
 
Thanks people, I have the relevant tools so I'll take a look, it's only been used a few times so I was doubtful it's had enough use to take on any foreign objects but I suppose anything's possible.
 
Anything packed this tightly all it needs is a loose screw for the blades to start rubbing, or cause a heat shield to start vibrating
 
The back comes off very easily if you have the right screwdriver.

Just make sure to push it in firmly, as the screw holes are really small, and if the screwdriver slides out even a little you will strip the screw driver head.

Once you get it open, blow out the fan with compressed air.
 
Just had this problem last week. Made a ticking noise whenever I moved the laptop. Took it to apple, "Genius" opened it up, gave it back to me and said it was a bad fan bearing. Intermittent noise became permanent once he touched it. I'm under AppleCare, so they ordered a new fan and replaced it 24 hrs after receiving the part. No more noise.

IIRC the part was $17 and labor was ~$50. There's a walk-through on ifixit.com. I read that greasing the bearing may also cure the problem.
 
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