MacBook Pro A1502 (Mid 2014) System Fan 0 RPM

[Richard Key]

Hello Everyone,

I am wondering if someone can help me, I have recently purchased a mid 2014 MacBook Pro from eBay for £300, the seller listed the item as refurbished following liquid damage, the MacBook was sold as fully functional with only one fault, the iSight camera didn’t work and cosmetically the screen had suffered from the staingate issue.

I received the MacBook and booted it up everything seemed fine so I shut it down and began work on the screen to remove the anti-glare with Listerine which worked a treat and the screen now looks fantastic if a little reflective

Upon staring to install my usual Apps
I configured iStat Menu’s 5.1 and saw that the system fan was running at 0 RPM which I thought was odd, the temperature was also around 55-60°C which I thought was normal for idle, I turned the MacBook off and removed the bottom to see if the fan was turning and upon starting the laptop the fan burst into life, however, iStat Menu was still showing 0 RPM. I am unable to manually control the fan speed with iStat, I have tired SMC Fan Control, MAC Fan Control and they are all the same. The problem arises when you try to tax the CPU as the fan is just not moving fast enough to cool the CPU effectively and the system isn’t ramping the fan speed up on a temperature increase. I am unsure as to what could be causing the issue and have combed through google trying to find a similar problem but all the fan issues seem to be with the fan running at full RPM.

Any help will be appreciated

Richard.

 

[Richard Key]

Just a quick update on this issue, I have tried the following courses of action to try and resolve this problem so far:

• SMC Reset - Using the following method (Shift + Control + Option + Power Key got 10 Seconds while plugged into the charger) The charge indicator flicked from Green to Amber then back to Green.
• Fan replacement - A new fan was fitted as I thought that the fan itself may not be returning the RPM of its motor.
• Apple Hardware Test - Returned following error codes ‘PPF003’ and ‘NDC001’

I know that the fan is still running upon boot and while using the MacBook, the system runs ok and the CPU isn’t throttling back as if under fault conditions. If I could get the fan to work correctly I would have a fully usable system at the moment I am worried that it will keep overheating when running intensive apps or multitasking.

 

[Richard Key]

Has anybody else ever seen this issue? I imagine it’s a problem that has been caused by the liquid damage, however, it’s odd how I can’t even manually drive the fan via one of the numerous fan control apps for Mac OS.

Any input will be greatly appreciated 🙂

 

[infernoguy]

Reseat the fan connector to the logic board otherwise it’s a bad fan.

 

[Richard Key]

Do you think that the problem would be with the fan itself and not the board? Just seems odd that a brand new fan would be faulty, I would imagine that it would be totally dead?

 

[DeltaMac]

The PPF003 code is reporting some kind of issue with the fan
The NDC001 code is reporting an issue with the camera.

You already know there is a problem with the iSight camera.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the fan.
The fan controller is on the logic board.
I suspect the seller never noticed anything about the fan. It runs, but you now don't seem to have any control over the fan (and neither does the computer), and probably a leftover issue from the liquid damage.
You have a spinning fan, but not one you should trust to cool the system properly.
You COULD simply use external assistance - a "cool-pad" of some kind would be fine. Just not as portable as you might like a laptop to be.

 

[Richard Key]

So for anyone interested here is what I have managed to find out regarding the issue of the fan returning no RPM and not ramping up from the default RPM with an increase of temperature. There seems to be a data line that has some link to the fan control that goes to the iSight camera connector on the logic board, now I know that this is faulty, the MacBook doesn’t even register a camera and this couldn’t be resolved by the seller on eBay although it looks like an attempt to reflow the solder around the connector has been attempted, the other circuit that is connected on this data line is the ambient light which is reading 100% within iStat Menus. I imagine that if the issue with the iSight camera was resolved that we would also resolve the problem with the fan control, however, there is no definitive answer and my eyesight is just not up to the micro-soldering that is required for a logic board repair, neither do I have the correct equipment to complete such a task. The MacBook Pro is working, WiFi, Bluetooth, Sound, USB, Thunderbolt, SD Card Reader, Display are all A OK it’s just this annoying fault with the fan which is causing me hassle, it’s such a basic task and yet so fundamental to the operation of the computer. I also think that had the MacBook been sold to someone who didn’t install iStat that this issue wouldn’t of been picked up and the computer would have just been used. Maybe I am over thinking it I don’t use my MacBooks for anything more than web browsing, YouTube and AutoCAD (2D electrical only) non of the tasks are particularly CPU heavy... I think I am going to try one more idea before sending the MacBook back to see if we can get the temperature of that old intel i5 under control

 

[Richard Key]

So here is the final plan of action for the MacBook Pro, if this doesn’t work it will have to be returned as I will have exhausted all my options for a ‘work around’ and I will be satisfied returning the MacBook Pro for a refund knowing I have done everything I could to make it work. I have purchased a cheap replacement bottom plate from eBay for £12 for the MacBook Pro so that I don’t damage the original one. This one looks in fairly good shape and is cheap enough to be thrown out if this goes horribly wrong. I intend to modify the case around the fan, I will drill some extra ventilation holes where the fans intake point is (Central) the photo attached shows the plan of action. I am not sure what size holes to drill as of yet was thinking around 3-4mm diameter per hole. I have also purchased some fine stainless steel gauze which I intend to bond to the inside of the case, this will act as a dust filter and stop any foreign objects from entering into the MacBook. The gauze is extremely fine and shouldn’t add too much thickness to the base. I intend to bond it to the base with some double sided adhesive tape used in phone screen repairs so it’s incredibly fine.