MacBook Pro 15" 2008 fan speed too high

[vespina]

Hi. My last purchase is an used MacBook Pro 2008 2.4 Ghz, 3 GB RAM, 500 HD. My main use consist of text chat (Adium), web browsing (Chrome) and Windows programming (Paralles + Windows Server 2008 with 1 GB RAM).

My ambient temperature es below 30 degrees (celcius) and CPU usage is below 10% most of the time. Main CPU temperature (iStats) is normally between 55 and 65 degrees (celcius).

The problem is that my fans constantly runs between 5500 and 6100 rpms, making my laptop louder than I expect from a Mac.

My system has the last firmware update installed for this model and had resetted the SMC. Also had readed a lot of posts about this subject without luck so far.

Any ideas or suggestions? for what I've readed, the normal fan speed for temperatures below 70 degrees and minimal CPU usage should be around 2000 rpms

TIA

Victor Espina

 

[vespina]

Well, it turned on that the problem was my laptop's plastic cover. I removed it today just to see if it would make any difference and the fan's rpm went all the way down from 6200 to 3000 in less than 5 min!!!

FINALLY I got the quiet Mac I was expecting from day one. Now I'm running at 3200 rpms with 62 degrees celcius, wich is A LOT more reasonable than the 6200 rpms I got yesterday for the same temp.

 

[vespina]

After a while having my MBP sitted on my desktop without the plastic cover, the fans slowly raised to 6200 rpm again, at CPU temp of 65 (celcius).

Honestly, I don't know what to think about this issue.

 

[iforbes]

You might want to clean the fans...remove back cover and remove all dust/debris.

 

[Bill Gates]

Are all the temperature sensors reporting normal temperatures?

 

[GuitarG20]

it could be a sensor issue.

do you have any third party fan speed control software installed on the computer? if you do, make sure that it's not just set to do this.

 

[azure247]

6200rpm at 60C is nowhere near normal. Mine goes to 6000+ rpm when I am at 90C during video editing/processing.

 

[d1mkaz]

Sorry for hijacking this tread, but I have similar if not the same problem.
OS X 10.6.8 with latest updates , MacBook Pro 2.33GHz(MA610LL) , 500Gb 7200RPM HD, 3GB RAM. I have to confess I did not have it from new, but cleaned all dust from fans couple times. I would never try to solve it as the CPU temp does not rise more than 75 at the most, and that is keepin' it safe which is good, but I can hear fans picking up the revs after CPU temp reaches 60 and at 63 they do 5200-5300rpm. I'm not specialist in this but I think the temp can safely be higher (correct me if I'm wrong) I have to say that this is quite loud if you watching movie in the late evening, or listening music at moderate volumes (loudspeakers of course) any time. It makes it almost impossible to listen using active monitors, as it distorts the sound and using headphones is not that convenient all the time.
At the moment I have Safari and iTunes running and it's 5100rpm (cpu 62 degrees). Imagine what's happening when I run Ableton .

I don't run smc fan control or any other fan control soft.
I tried reseting SMC (system management controller)

Also I have to mention that my first MacBook Pro 1.1 2.0Ghz (MA464LL/A*) which is lower characteristics, never had this issue. When running memory consuming apps or a lot's of them the fans of course were noticeable, but never while browsing in-net and listening music, or watching video.

any suggestions on this would be highly appreciated.
thanks for reading

 

[thundersteele]

Is your battery dead by chance? I just noticed that my 2008 MBP became a bit louder (when idle) since the battery said goodbye.

Other than that, I don't have a good idea. Reinstalling the OS might be an option. You could also try to actually install some fan control software.

 

[d1mkaz]

Is your battery dead by chance? I just noticed that my 2008 MBP became a bit louder (when idle) since the battery said goodbye.

Other than that, I don't have a good idea. Reinstalling the OS might be an option. You could also try to actually install some fan control software.

no, the battery health is 83% and I tried some fan control software with no result. But reinstalling OS might be an option, you right.