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Macbook Pro Mid 2009 fans staying at 2K RPM...

L

LonezWolf1991

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 2, 2009
28
0
Hello all,
I was stress-testing the CPU today to see if my fans were working as they should and this happened...
Screen%20Shot%202011-08-31%20at%203.10.21%20PM.png

Is there something wrong with the fans? I tried an SMC reset but I'm not sure if it worked since I didn't see any signs of success...
 
You said "...and this happened..." Well what happened? Your subject line says the fans aren't spinning, yet iStat shows them spinning at almost 2K rpms.
 
Sorry for not being clear, I though that when the CPU reaches high temps, the fans are supposed to spin up to higher speeds than 2k RPM
 
I was able to successfully reset the SMC, although after the CPU temp reached 85C, the fans still remained at 2K RPM
 
I have the same problem.. I have to manually adjust the fans, Apple screw us all with Lion
 
LonezWolf1991 said:
Hello all,
I was stress-testing the CPU today to see if my fans were working as they should and this happened...
Image
Is there something wrong with the fans? I tried an SMC reset but I'm not sure if it worked since I didn't see any signs of success...
Click to expand...

If you are concerned about it shutdown the compauter and wait a few minutes before powering it up. The only times that I have seen the fan kick in is when I was watching a video or had my MacBook Pro on my bed where the it did not get the best clearance for ventilation. In these cases, the fans switched to a lower speed within a few minutes after sitting idle. The fans are designed to do what they are doing for you. I would be concerned if the fans did not start running at a higher speed while the CPU, GPU, etc got hotter.

Now the only other possible situation that can cause the fans to start running at a higher speed is if the logic board in the computer is failing. I had this happen with a 2008 24' iMac. I got it back from a repair and when I got it home and plugged it in, the fans starting running at the highest speed. I first thought that the tech forgot to hookup the temp sensor. It turned out that there was a problem with the logic board.

I would shut down the computer and wait 5 minutes and power it back on. If the fans are still running at a high speed it may be time to take it into the Apple store to be looked at.

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monsow said:
I have the same problem.. I have to manually adjust the fans, Apple screw us all with Lion
Click to expand...

Take it into the Apple store and have it looked at. There could be something wrong with the computer. I am running Lion on my 2009 MacBook Pro and the fans run at a normal speed unless I am doing some CPU intensive operation. If you are constantly doing heavy CPU instensive work casuing the CPU to get hot then the fans should kick in to cool the CPU, GPU, etc. I would never adjust the fan speed other then its intended speed. They run at the appropriate speed for a reason. Messing with the fan speed could cause other issues to arise in the long run.



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LonezWolf1991 said:
I was able to successfully reset the SMC, although after the CPU temp reached 85C, the fans still remained at 2K RPM
Click to expand...

When I get home I will have to check the fan speed on my 2009 MacBook Pro.
 
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Had the same problem, apple techs left my temperature sensors unplugged on accident so it would always run even when it was cold... they replaced my logic board that could be failing. good luck
 
If I remember correctly, my Mac's fan would not spin past 2000rpm on some days, until the temps reached 100C+, then they spin up. See what happens when it reaches those temps?
 
Isn't 100C kind of too high for the fans to START going faster? This really has been going on for a few months...I just really started noticing it recently...
 
I have a 17" Early 2009. IIRC, the fans don't immediately spin up when it reaches ~80°C. It will sit there for a short time until the heatsink starts to pick up the heat load (CPU will get to maybe 85°). Then, the fans will stabilize the temp to ~80°C, and won't usually go above 5000rpm average [while the CPU is under load].

My suggestion is to leave the CPU load on a bit longer and see if the fans start to increase speed. I do have some concern that the CPU is showing 95°C, with the heatsink only at 60° - however, my temps show almost the same temp spread. Don't worry about overheating the CPU - if there is a problem with cooling, the CPU's internal sensor will reduce performance or shut it down.

At idle, I show about 60°C (CPU Temp Diode A) with main heatsink at 48°C.
 
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LonezWolf1991 said:
I would really appreciate if you did that Taz Mangus, Thank you.
Click to expand...

I am typing this right now on my 2009 17" MacBook Pro. The right fan 1996-2001 RPM, the left fan 1999-2010 RPM, the CPU 47°C, GPU 39°C, HD 27°F. I just installed 8GB RAM and the MacBook Pro was shut down for about 10 minutes while I installed the RAM. Looking at your stats compared to my stats, everything looks fine. If I place my ear next to the rear of the computer I can hear the fans running. Normally I can't hear the fans running. Since installing Lion I have not noticed any difference in temperature as compared to when I had Snow Leopard installed.
 
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gr8tfly said:
I have a 17" Early 2009. IIRC, the fans don't immediately spin up when it reaches ~80°C. It will sit there for a short time until the heatsink starts to pick up the heat load (CPU will get to maybe 85°). Then, the fans will stabilize the temp to ~80°C, and won't usually go above 5000rpm average [while the CPU is under load].

My suggestion is to leave the CPU load on a bit longer and see if the fans start to increase speed. I do have some concern that the CPU is showing 95°C, with the heatsink only at 60° - however, my temps show almost the same temp spread. Don't worry about overheating the CPU - if there is a problem with cooling, the CPU's internal sensor will reduce performance or shut it down.

At idle, I show about 60°C (CPU Temp Diode A) with main heatsink at 48°C.
Click to expand...

Okay, I tried letting it sit there, and it looks like 2 minutes after reaching 100C, the fans go up to 3.5K and keep the CPU at 100C until I close /dev/null terminal. Is this normal or are they not working as they should?
 
LonezWolf1991 said:
Okay, I tried letting it sit there, and it looks like 2 minutes after reaching 100C, the fans go up to 3.5K and keep the CPU at 100C until I close /dev/null terminal. Is this normal or are they not working as they should?
Click to expand...

It sounds like they're working OK. I wouldn't think it should stabilize at 100ºC, however, a couple of things might contribute to that:

Is the MBP sitting on a hard surface? Soft surfaces can block airflow across the bottom of the case, or even block the back exhaust area.

Are you operating in a high ambient temperature environment?

What is your test application? Is it saturating both cores? My high duty example was during a Handbrake video conversion - high duty cycle yes, but not a continuous or saturated level. If you are maxing out both CPUs, that could explain a higher CPU core temp.

Btw: What is the heatsink temp when it's at 100ºC? Also, (unless I missed it) is your MBP a 15" or 17"? I don't have any data comparing the two, but offhand I believe the 17" should run cooler because of the larger case (it acts as a heatsink, too).
 
gr8tfly said:
It sounds like they're working OK. I wouldn't think it should stabilize at 100ºC, however, a couple of things might contribute to that:

Is the MBP sitting on a hard surface? Soft surfaces can block airflow across the bottom of the case, or even block the back exhaust area.

Are you operating in a high ambient temperature environment?

What is your test application? Is it saturating both cores? My high duty example was during a Handbrake video conversion - high duty cycle yes, but not a continuous or saturated level. If you are maxing out both CPUs, that could explain a higher CPU core temp.

Btw: What is the heatsink temp when it's at 100ºC? Also, (unless I missed it) is your MBP a 15" or 17"? I don't have any data comparing the two, but offhand I believe the 17" should run cooler because of the larger case (it acts as a heatsink, too).
Click to expand...

The laptop is the 17 inch model sitting on my wooden desk which is close to my AC keeping the outside temp at around 70F. I was using the "yes > /dev/null" on two terminals to max out both cores. The heatsink temperature was at 60C when the fans kicked in if I remember correctly.
 
I might try that test on mine, but IMO, yours is probably working fine. You can try Handbrake, and see if your temps are more in line mine and other's.

Since the temp differential between the core and heatsink are essentially the same as mine (and other's), I would think the application of heatsink compound on yours is fine (if that was a concern).
 
gr8tfly said:
I might try that test on mine, but IMO, yours is probably working fine. You can try Handbrake, and see if your temps are more in line mine and other's.

Since the temp differential between the core and heatsink are essentially the same as mine (and other's), I would think the application of heatsink compound on yours is fine (if that was a concern).
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for clarifying everything. I was concerned at first but I guess it's running fine. Thank you once again.
 
LonezWolf1991 said:
Thank you so much for clarifying everything. I was concerned at first but I guess it's running fine. Thank you once again.
Click to expand...

Compared to my fan speeds and temps, your laptop appears to run abnormal. My fans kick up to 3k when my cpu temps hit 55-65 C and about 4k at 65-70c and 5k around ~70 and peaks at 6k at 80C and beyond. I have i7 2.3 17"
 
shardey said:
Compared to my fan speeds and temps, your laptop appears to run abnormal. My fans kick up to 3k when my cpu temps hit 55-65 C and about 4k at 65-70c and 5k around ~70 and peaks at 6k at 80C and beyond. I have i7 2.3 17"
Click to expand...

Yours is an entirely different machine - different chipset, different CPU. Also, how long does it linger at those temps? If I start a high CPU load, which quickly raises the core temp, the fans lag for a considerable period of time. I imagine this profile is to keep noise levels down, as the system doesn't know if the load is temporary. If so, the heatsink(s) can handle some of the temporary heat load, and the fans don't need to spin up to a high speed.

According to some of my notes (back in 2009), where I load both the CPU and GPU with 2 instances of G-Force visualizer plus the iTunes visualizer, the CPU and GPU temps climb fairly quickly to 88ºC, but it takes about 5 minutes before the fans start to increase speed from 2000 rpm.

So, as they say, YMMV. :)
 
Don't do stress testing on a cold notebook. I once tried it with my GPU. It is the nature of the Fans to kick in with quite a delay.
The general idea behind is to not make them annoying when you get high utilization for a short time, temps can rise really quickly but it would be annoying any unnecessary to ramp up fans every time there are such notebooks on the market.
IMO this delay should go down to 0 once you hit 90 or 95C then it wouldn't be any problem. Thing is it doesn't any thus stress testing stuff heats it up too quickly and that really shouldn't be done, although there are usually enough CPU intern safe guards that prevent any serious damage.
In normal workload the fans ramp up quite slowly and it works perfectly well. Just set istat to show you fan speed and CPU temp all the time on the menu bar and you will see how it works.
 
LonezWolf1991 said:
Okay, I tried letting it sit there, and it looks like 2 minutes after reaching 100C, the fans go up to 3.5K and keep the CPU at 100C until I close /dev/null terminal. Is this normal or are they not working as they should?
Click to expand...

That is not normal.

With my 2011, the CPU gets up to 80 before the fans go over 2k RPM. At 85, they're around 3K. As it stays there or goes up, the fans kick up to 6k.

Your machine should never reach over 95C.

Take it back and tell them you have overheating problems.
 
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