Last night I was putting my macbook to sleep while I was ni the other room, and came back only to hear the fan or hard drive going 100 miles per hour it seemed, so I opened it to see if anything was active and nothing was it was just making a ton of noise. Any one know what it coulda of been? No software update was taking place?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Macbook fan on during sleep mode?
- Thread starter originalcliche
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It seems as if your computer did not go to sleep, and the temperature was high- did you put it in a case after closing the lid?
Did you make sure your computer went to sleep before you left it?
Yeah, it was definitely not asleep, fans and hard drive don't run during sleep. Could be something was going on in the background that was keeping it from sleeping, and that's what was making all the noise. I'd have checked the activity monitor to see what was up.
OK this is going to sound stupid but how do I check the activity monitor?
Also I thought just by closing the lid it would go to sleep automatically? Or do I have to put it in sleep mode first?
Also I thought just by closing the lid it would go to sleep automatically? Or do I have to put it in sleep mode first?
/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app
Or just type Activity Monitor in Spotlight. It should be the first result.
Or just type Activity Monitor in Spotlight. It should be the first result.
Finder>Applications>Utilities>Activity Monitor.
Usually closing the lid should put the computer to sleep, but there can be a software which can override the sleep function when the lid closes.
Edit: Chrisbeebops beat me to it!
Having a similar problem, as soon as i put the macbook to sleep and the LED starts pulsating the fan turns on, seems like it's running on max speed and it only turns off again as soon as i wake the machine.
Nothing software or hackwise is running on it, it's a freshly unboxed macbook with Leopard and all software updates.
I'm really baffled by this. Anybody having a hint?
Nothing software or hackwise is running on it, it's a freshly unboxed macbook with Leopard and all software updates.
I'm really baffled by this. Anybody having a hint?
This may sound very strange, but I would actually like to reproduce this. My MacBook runs very hot sometimes, even with both fans at 6000 RPM, and I would like there to be a way to run the fans while producing very little heat (such as when in sleep mode). Any ideas?
Wait..what?
You want to run the fans while in sleep mode?
If your machine is (legitimately) in sleep mode, the only voltage that is being dished out is to keep the RAM alive, which shouldn't produce any heat.
My mistake if this isn't what you are asking.
No personal experience with this, but do a google search on "fan control in os x" or something like that. You should get a good number of hits for applications that will let you manually control the fan RPM's, which should help it run a bit cooler most of the time. However, if your MB is still burning up with fans @ 6000 RPM... I'd say you are in for a trip to the
store in the near future 
I don't think they will work in sleep though, the only time your fans run in sleep mode is if your CPU is still burning up from whatever you were doing before you shut the lid.
It might be annoying having the fans going all the time (not to mention eating battery), but the MB sure could use to run A LOT cooler, that is for sure.
Hooray for
design, shooting all the hot air out through a little slit in the back instead of out the bottom like every other laptop Excessive fan in Mini
My daughter's G4 Mini was having escalating problems -- it started with excessive fan usage, and progressed to narcolepsy (the Mini would persistently fall asleep).
Yesterday, I opened the Mini up, exposed its innards by removing the mass storage unit (thanks to the walk-throughs on iFixit.com!) and found gobs of dust coating the motherboard, fan, etc.
One thorough blast session with a can of compressed air, hitting every crevice, corner and cranny, and the Mini is back to normal again. Torture-tested it by ripping a DVD using HandBrake, and it performed without problem.
My daughter's G4 Mini was having escalating problems -- it started with excessive fan usage, and progressed to narcolepsy (the Mini would persistently fall asleep).
Yesterday, I opened the Mini up, exposed its innards by removing the mass storage unit (thanks to the walk-throughs on iFixit.com!) and found gobs of dust coating the motherboard, fan, etc.
One thorough blast session with a can of compressed air, hitting every crevice, corner and cranny, and the Mini is back to normal again. Torture-tested it by ripping a DVD using HandBrake, and it performed without problem.
Beating a dead topic here, aren't we?
Anyway, yes, a yearly or so dusting is a very good idea. I recently took my MB apart to try to clean the keys and trackpad, and while in there did a thorough dusting. Didn't help heat much; I still run in the mid-low 60's (°C) all the time. My fans are going most of the time when I am "docked" (plugged into a 1920x1080 monitor), so I have a feeling mine is just trying to cool down my poor little GMA950
, rather than the CPUBeating a dead topic here, aren't we?
A topic ain't dead as long as new people keep reading it. When I did a Google search (mini fan sleep) to solve my daughter's problem, I found numerous posts of people with the same problem, but no solutions. Eventually, I found one post that suggested dust as the culprit, and that seemed logical.
So, once I fixed my daughter's Mini, I decided to revisit the forums I had been to, and post my solution for the benefit future Googlers.
True, the person who had made the original Mini post in this forum was off-topic (and his/her post was over a year old), but if Google pointed me here, others will make their way here as well.
Cheers!
Case in point? Me. I went through exactly what you just said. Googled it and found my way here. Will be dusting out my mac tomorrow.
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents since this is the first thing to come up in a google search about this topic.
This worked for me and its worth a shot for you! It helped my computer run less warm in general but also solved the fan on during sleep mode issue.
Delete any printer queues!
go to system preferences --> print & fax
for each printer, click "open print queue" and see if there is anything on there that is waiting to print or is stopped. DELETE anything on there.
problem solved...! at least for me!
This worked for me and its worth a shot for you! It helped my computer run less warm in general but also solved the fan on during sleep mode issue.
Delete any printer queues!
go to system preferences --> print & fax
for each printer, click "open print queue" and see if there is anything on there that is waiting to print or is stopped. DELETE anything on there.
problem solved...! at least for me!
I knew this would work the second I read it. I use the pdf print function a lot and the other day I accidentally hit "print". After a few restarts my MacBook still didn't go to sleep until I saw this one:
Someone should notify Apple about this but I'm sure they'll say it's a "feature".
Someone should notify Apple about this but I'm sure they'll say it's a "feature".
Thank you! Big smile when I tried this and it worked!
I've been wondering why the fan seemed to keep going all the time, and now I know. Simple but effective.
WOW! It really worked! My problem was that my computer won't sleep when it is plugged in. However, it sleeps on battery just fine. I checked the printer queues and there was an item in progress. Thank you so much! I've been reading the forums for a long time, but I registered just to say thank you!
It worked!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you SO much Stargirl.
I created an account just to thank you, I've been having this problem for a couple months now and it was the freaking printer que...
Just amazing. Thanks.