Macbook fan always on

[sepandee]

First of all, I meant to say macbook fan is always loud/going too fast. Not that it's always on.

Something strange has happened to my laptop. The fan is suddenly on all the time, and relatively loud (maybe not the loudest, but still loud).

I've attached a copy of Activity Monitor. As you can see, nothing unusual. I had even quit Firefox, Entourage, and a host of other programs to see whether one of them is causing the fan to go on a constant rage.

What gives?

 

[Eidorian]

I don't think you're showing All Processes.

 

[guydude193]

Your title made me chuckle.
The MacBook fan is always on. It's just a matter of how much it's revving up.

 

[sepandee]

I don't think you're showing All Processes.

Almost all. The rest can be ignored.

Your title made me chuckle.
The MacBook fan is always on. It's just a matter of how much it's revving up.

Well, maybe I should fix my title. I meant macbook fan is constantly going too fast/too loud.

 

[Eidorian]

Almost all. The rest can be ignored.

If you say so.

Idle is 1800 RPM on older models and 2000 RPM on post Unibody MacBooks. If you can't find any excessive CPU usage, I'd try resetting your PRAM and SMC.

 

[sepandee]

If you say so.

Idle is 1800 RPM on older models and 2000 RPM on post Unibody MacBooks. If you can't find any excessive CPU usage, I'd try resetting your PRAM and SMC.

Mine was above 6000rpm. Only after installing SMCFanControl (which I did just now) did the fan speed finally go down. It's now at 1797rpm and 59 degrees C.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Almost all. The rest can be ignored.

By "all processes" he/she (not sure which party Eidorian falls into ) meant in the drop down menu at the top of activity monitor. In there, you'd see if a widget or a printer spool is hung up and sucking up CPU cycles...

 

[Eidorian]

By "all processes" he/she (not sure which party Eidorian falls into ) meant in the drop down menu at the top of activity monitor. In there, you'd see if a widget or a printer spool is hung up and sucking up CPU cycles...

I still have a feeling they're only showing their own user processes.

 

[MacManiac76]

I still have a feeling they're only showing their own user processes.

I believe you are correct on this. Usually it's some system process(es) that causes the fan(s) to go haywire and will not be visible to the user in Activity Monitor unless All Processes is selected, as stated.

 

[mrmayor92]

this may seem out of the blue but do you have iantivirus downloaded and running? when i had this app installed my fans on my uMBP were always going about 5000 rpm and it was maxing out my cpu... just a thought

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

I still have a feeling they're only showing their own user processes.

Word.

That's why I thought I'd jump in and add some clarification for the OP

 

[sepandee]

By "all processes" he/she (not sure which party Eidorian falls into ) meant in the drop down menu at the top of activity monitor. In there, you'd see if a widget or a printer spool is hung up and sucking up CPU cycles...

I still have a feeling they're only showing their own user processes.

Thanks NewMacbookPlz for clarifying. Sorry, it's been 2 years since I switched to mac but since OS X almost never gives me any trouble, I don't know a lot of things about OS X. With windows, I have to fix everything, so I was forced to learn how it operates. THis is the downside to OS X: it makes a lot of us dumber.

I restarted the computer and so far everything's good. At 60 degrees and 1800rpm. If things go back to the way they were prior to restart, I'll repost a new screenshot of my Activity Monitor.

Thanks guys/girls.

 

[sepandee]

this may seem out of the blue but do you have iantivirus downloaded and running? when i had this app installed my fans on my uMBP were always going about 5000 rpm and it was maxing out my cpu... just a thought

nope. I don't even know the name of a OS X antivirus
With windows, every month I went through a scan and cleaning process that would take 12 hours. Two native scans, two online scans, some scans in safe mode, etc.

 

[Eidorian]

With windows, every month I went through a scan and cleaning process that would take 12 hours. Two native scans, two online scans, some scans in safe mode, etc.

Not sure if serious...

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

With windows, every month I went through a scan and cleaning process that would take 12 hours. Two native scans, two online scans, some scans in safe mode, etc.

Gotta quit surfing those shady porn sites while in Windows...

 

[sepandee]

Not sure if serious...

Gotta quit surfing those shady porn sites while in Windows...

No I'm serious. I'm very picky when it comes to keeping my computer and HD clean. Even now, my desktop icons never exceed 5, and once every month I go through my documents and downloads and anything that's been added to delete whatever's not being used

NewMacbookPlz, you're so right I don't know how to respond! Haha. Touche.

 

[rekhyt]

Mine was above 6000rpm. Only after installing SMCFanControl (which I did just now) did the fan speed finally go down. It's now at 1797rpm and 59 degrees C.

Are Macs supposed to go that high? (I never really noticed because on my old Windows laptop I never really bothered to see the temperature and it was always on my desk. It was only the introduction of SMC Fan Control on my Mac did I start noticing.) Once my MacBook went to 90 degrees C while burning a disk. Crazy stuff.

 

[Cinch]

1st gen MacBook fan ramp up when playing flash video

I notice the same thing on my 1st gen MacBook Core Duo (2GB Ram, 80 GB hard disk, Tiger) when I play youtube videos or most other video clips. Although video podcast and/or quicktime video doesn't produce the same effect.

Cinch

 

[sepandee]

I notice the same thing on my 1st gen MacBook Core Duo (2GB Ram, 80 GB hard disk, Tiger) when I play youtube videos or most other video clips. Although video podcast and/or quicktime video doesn't produce the same effect.

Cinch

That's normal.