MBP5,1 damaged fan

[sammygreen]

Hi all,

I have a MacbookPro5,1 (late 2008 unibody) with a defective buzzsaw sounding fan.

At the moment smbus Fan control lists the left fan as 4827 RPMS where as the Right Fan is at 0 RPM. However, air still comes out of the back on right side as if the fan is still working - more so than on the left side. Although the fan control says the right fan is at 0 RPM I can clearly hear it spinning around and forcing air out.

Obviously I have to buy a new fan but at $50 a pop I want to make sure I'm getting the right one. I just want to make sure that FanControl has it right and that it is the right fan that needs replacing and not the left fan.

Thanks!

 

[Queen6]

You may as well just go ahead and replace both, I have just done the very same on my Early 2008 15" MBP 4.1, first fan failed completely about four months ago, second started to quit start of this month. You can choose to do what I did and wait, or just go ahead now.

Mine ran ok on one fan, hotter and louder, never shutdown and I didn't change my usage pattern, if I needed to push the machine I did. As yours is a unibody why not remove the base and have a look, I used iStat and it was correct with the left fan completely failing. At least the unibody is an easier job, the Classic 4.1 was a little stubborn in places to come apart.

If your right fan is out, and your left fan is reporting 4827 then i expect it will fail soon, on my 4.1 once the left fan failed the right fan spent most of it`s time at 5K - 6K until it too slowed to around 4K, at teh end of the day both fans have been exposed to the same environmental conditions.

 

[Junkie2]

Have you cleaned your fans ever?

I just made a thread literally 10 minutes ago about how cleaning my fans fixed a lot of problems - especially since i've never done it before. Since we both have the same macbook pro (late 2008), i'm sure there is a TON of buildup as like mine. I used to have a similar odd sound and that is also gone, although i didnt post about it because it was a small gain in comparison to how much cooler my mac is running.

 

[stevenb]

Noisy fans...

I have an older 17 inch MacBook Pro with noisy fans. It is also getting a bit hot, but nothing too bad. There are probably other places to get them, but I went to iFixit. Prices are ok. They have some pretty good instructions, and check out YouTube for videos. My hard drive is also giving me some fits. So, I ordered two fans, new hard drive, a heat sink and some thermal paste. If you are going to take yours apart, make sure you have all the right tools to start. I am hoping to take it apart this holiday weekend, if time permits, and go through it. Once done, I am hoping for another four years of usage. This is a much cheaper route that buying a new one as money is tight.

 

[Queen6]

Have you cleaned your fans ever?

I just made a thread literally 10 minutes ago about how cleaning my fans fixed a lot of problems - especially since i've never done it before. Since we both have the same macbook pro (late 2008), i'm sure there is a TON of buildup as like mine. I used to have a similar odd sound and that is also gone, although i didnt post about it because it was a small gain in comparison to how much cooler my mac is running.

Sure but the Classic models are tougher to get into, I did blow the dust out from time to time, then again My Early 2008 MBP, has survived the sub tropics, western desserts of China, Middle East, and now the tropics so all in all I am not complaining