Macbook Fan Noise (low cpu usage)

[cdmac20]

My white macbook (around 3.5 years old, version 10.5.8, 2.2 GHz, 4 GB) has been rather noisy for quite some time. I never really noticed it until I went to college, took a CS class, and brought my computer to class (which was so loud enough to get awkward glances, but not loud enough to be disruptive).

I've been recently looking into fan noises and such, but all of the problems have been simply due to overheating caused by high CPU usage. I do overheat my computer often, due to programs such as handbrake, but when I use a program like that I expect my fans to be running high. However, when I start up my computer after an evening of having it off, it goes straight into noise-mode.

Attached is a picture I took, showing my activity monitor and my little smcFanControl panel in the upper corner. As you can see, barely any percentage is being used, yet within the first 10 minutes my computer heats up to 66 C and the fans run high. And my min speed for my fan is 1800 RPM, so I'm not forcing it to overwork.

Edit: I cleaned my fan (which was pretty dirty) but the fan still runs at a minimum of 4000 RPM, even with 95% of my computer idle and the temperature at around 55 C. I restarted the SMC, and that didn't work either.

 

[GGJstudios]

You don't need to clean your fan. Reset the SMC. 66C isn't that hot. Also, install iStat Pro to track your actual fan speed, among other things.

 

[cdmac20]

You don't need to clean your fan. Reset the SMC. 66C isn't that hot. Also, install iStat Pro to track your actual fan speed, among other things.

Thanks for the tip, but it didn't work. I reset the SMC a while back actually, but I tried again a few minutes ago and to no avail. The second my computer stopped starting up and started running, the fan went straight to full speed.

I installed istat, which is pretty awesome by the way, and it's currently telling me that my CPU is only 60 C but the fans are at around 4500-5000 RPM. It hasn't gone below 4300 once, even when leaving it idle (it got down to 55 C at 4300). Any other suggestions, or is it all simply the fan?

 

[GGJstudios]

Any other suggestions, or is it all simply the fan?

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

 

[cdmac20]

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

Around 11 items are between 0%- 5%, but most of them are below 1%. Apart from that, it's all 0%.

 

[Skarunan]

this works:

I got the SMC Fan Control then i found an interesting video on youtube saying to punch your macbook above the f6 and f7 keys. Punch hard but not to hard and punch for about 10- 15 times and then your should hear the fan sound, then go to SMC Fan Control and make it maximum until around 40C and then you can change it don't let it go over about 60C or your computer will expirience unexpected shutdowns.

 

[dcorban]

Wow, when did 66C become "not that hot". Over 60C on desktops systems is enough to cause a BSOD in Windows. I always aimed for 40-50C.