Macbook Fan/heat issue?

[Spree]

Hi all,

For a while now my Macbook (mid 07 model, I believe, running 1.6.2)'s fan has been very noisy and the machine growing very hot after a short amount of time. SMCfancontrol right now says my computer's at 60 degrees Celcius and the fan is going at approx. 3000-3300 rpm. Nothing's hogging my CPU and it's not a print queue issue. Right now all I have running is Firefox with a few tabs, activity monitor, and some small toolbar apps (Quicksilver, Scrobblepod, Caffiene, wifi). I've looked everywhere and I can't figure out the issue (or if this is normal) on my own. I also tried Fan Control, to no avail, and set the preferences back to default. Also tried a SMC reset, which seemed to do nothing. When idle it seems to run at about 2500 rpm. Is this normal?

Here's a iStat screenshot, too.

Update -- after some normal usage SMCfancontrol reads 63 degrees C and 6000rpm.

 

[vant]

Try using Safari instead of FireFox. Test it for an hour and see what the idle/use temps are.

 

[tdevers]

I've also had an issue with heat/high fan speed. Seems that web browsing with Safari creates a temp of 70C and using any type of flash spikes to 90C. Fan is normally at a constant 6200 dropping rarely to 4xxx.

Screensavers make it go absolutely crazy[using supplied SL screensavers].

 

[Spree]

Been giving Safari a try for the past hour-ish, temp is still around 60 celsius. The fan speed seems to have gone down a little, but not significantly.

Also, interestingly, the fan hits its loudest around 3000rpm, then quiets down whenever it feels like it.

 

[vant]

Because it does not sound like a software issue, I recommend opening your laptop and checking for dust buildups. If it is still in warranty, Apple can do this for you. You might have to even go as far as replacing the thermal paste/compound as yours might have failed. There are many threads on this, and it is not too difficult if you can take apart things and put them together again.

 

[Spree]

Thanks, I'll look into that. I've been out of warranty for a while, unfortunately, but I live with three very hairy animals... probably not helping anything. Thanks again!