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MacBook Pro 17' - How long will the fans last?

AlexMaximus

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 15, 2006
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Just a short question for MacBook Pro 17' owners of all sorts:

Did you ever noticed a wear and tear on the fans over the years you had your notebook? How long do you think the fans will last?

So far I do not have a problem with mine, however when I replaced my HD and Ram, I noticed a dust build up inside the fans.

Did anybody ever lost functionality of a cooling fan through dust or age ??

Are there any signs before a cooling fan dies, any danger killing the machine because of a failing fan?

Thanks a lot !!
 
In general, the fans last a long time. They are meant to deal with heavy cooling loads, as there is limited space inside the computer. I use iStat pro to monitor my computer, and it also happens to tell you fan speed, so you can install that (it's a dashboard widget), and check periodically that they are running properly. There really isn't much danger if one fails, as the computer will just shut itself down if it gets too hot.
 
One of my fans stopped working on my 2010 MBP.
I called apple and my nearby store replaced the fan.
I've had several apple laptops, never had any issues with fans with the exception of my 2010 MBP.

There have been very few mentions of dying fans on the forum tho.
 
fans

Just out of curiosity. What are the fans max. temps?

On the quad core i7, I have they are far more responsive to tempreture than the Core 2 Duo mac..
 
Tech198 said:
I know.... This was not what I was asking....
Click to expand...

Are you asking how much they reduce temps? or what temps do they kick in? Could you rephrase your question and we can try to offer a better answer for ya?

As for the fans starting to die, noise is the biggest giveaway.
 
systole said:
Are you asking how much they reduce temps? or what temps do they kick in? Could you rephrase your question and we can try to offer a better answer for ya?

As for the fans starting to die, noise is the biggest giveaway.
Click to expand...

ah ok..

I'm asking what the speed (rpm's) the fans run at ?

eg. on the macbook 13' inch (unibody) max was 6200rpm...

What is it on macbook pro?
 
I've had this mid-2010 MBP i5 17" since Jan and the fans literally never exceeded 2000rpm. The most CPU intensive I've done was Adobe Il, Ps, and Id at the same time + encoding in Handbrake.
 
Krafty said:
I've had this mid-2010 MBP i5 17" since Jan and the fans literally never exceeded 2000rpm. The most CPU intensive I've done was Adobe Il, Ps, and Id at the same time + encoding in Handbrake.
Click to expand...

I realize that you may think this, but I'm going to have to tell you you're wrong. Even if you watch a youtube video, they'll go up to 2400 or more depending on if it is HD or anything. Also if you are encoding in Handbrake, they have to go up, they just do. They idle at 2000...just typing here on MacRumors they're at 1996-2005 RPM.
 
The fans are surprisingly resilient. I have a new 17" 2011 mbp, but on my original 2006 15" one, which has seen daily use for 5 years, I've only had trouble with the fans twice (at about 2.5 years in). The fans were caked with dust and were making a clicking sound, so I cleaned them off with compressed air. I also disassembled them, put WD-40 on the axles, reassembled the fans, and have been running them hard for the next 2.5 years since then.

You generally won't find that the fans completely fail (as they are based on electromagnets), but with a little work you can probably fix any troublesome fan, at least in my experience. So, really, don't worry about the fans; you likely won't have any complete failure on them and they are generally pretty easy to maintain and keep clean.
 
shstiger2009 said:
I realize that you may think this, but I'm going to have to tell you you're wrong. Even if you watch a youtube video, they'll go up to 2400 or more depending on if it is HD or anything. Also if you are encoding in Handbrake, they have to go up, they just do. They idle at 2000...just typing here on MacRumors they're at 1996-2005 RPM.
Click to expand...

Yea, Handbrake has caused my CPU to jump to around 90 degrees, and the fans eventually get up to around 6000rpm, you must have been running handbrake at a very low priority if you managed to use all that stuff while encoding. Thought I've found only Adobe AE really ramps up my fans, most of my work in PS or AI generally keeps them around 3000-4000 with full GPU acceleration, and I don't tend to notice them.
 
shstiger2009 said:
I realize that you may think this, but I'm going to have to tell you you're wrong.
Click to expand...
54ce12.gif



Okay then...
 
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