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Terrible Fan Noise on New MacBook!

D

daechi

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 10, 2007
31
0
Is this FAN NOISE for real?!

I just bought a new macbook and whenever I do anything cpu intensive this crazy fan noise kicks in. I actually get self-conscious and can't concentrate on my work.

I'm assuming Apple has poorly designed this fan system. Should I return the macbook?

I gotta say after a lifetime of buying mac computers I am disappointed they will sell something like this.
 
Quicktime - 40

Firefox - 90-100

Are those percentages?

And why do I have to constantly worry about how much cpu I'm using before these monster fans start kicking in... This is crazy. I'm starting to migrate from power pc's, a 17" powerbook and the G4 desktop, to intel based computers. Now I am very leery of the new mac lines if this is the new fan system for them. I might return this macbook and buy my first pc laptop.

I'm actually pretty sad about this whole thing but those fans are just too loud and distracting. I think it's terrible that Apple is losing focus of their most loyal customers which are the ones using their computers.

Thanks for replying so quickly. I hope there is a simple firmware solution to this...
 
Close all applications and just let the laptop sit there.

It can more then likely attribute FireFox to Flash and/or Java.

I don't know if you're watching anything in Quicktime.
 
Firefox and Flash.

Is this a known issue?

Why would a Flash file eat so much of the cpu?
 
Is there a fix in the works?

I do flash work in the office off a pc and a ppc powerbook, but a lot of this overflows to my house. I can't have this macbook humming like this all the time just PLAYING a flash video file.

It's just weird because I've never heard any fan noise on a powerbook.
 
daechi said:
Is there a fix in the works?

I do flash work in the office off a pc and a ppc powerbook, but a lot of this overflows to my house. I can't have this macbook humming like this all the time just PLAYING a flash video file.

It's just weird because I've never heard any fan noise on a powerbook.
Click to expand...
I'll point you here.

I've noticed that PowerBooks rarely spin up their fans even under load.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/349375/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/335962/
 
I think it's normal, whn I play 3D games on my MB the fans go in nutsode asell. Watching vids & running Logic etc..keeps it super quiet however. Only when I go into 3D stuff or render a big video the fns get louder. Only when gaming they get very loud.
 
Thats the difference between intel and powerpc

This fan thing that you start to see with the new intel based Macs is because of the inherent architecture of the computer.
Intel based chips (CISC- Complex instruction set computing) are traditionally known to be more heat emitting compared to their RISC (reduced instruction set computing) based counterparts (powerpc chips). (you can get more info from wiki if you want to do more digging on the reasons).

So the fan sound is something that you will see with any intel based computer. They need more cooking mechanism, your idea to buy a PC will not be of great help. I have been a PC for 15years and they sound the same when it comes to fan.

I just own a macbook (less than a week, migrating from PC after 15yrs of using) and not surprised with the fan!
 
In my office alone I got two pc laptops, three pc desktops, one power pc powerbook, one power pc desktop and this macbook is the only one acting like a hovercraft.

I'm sorry, but this thing is flat out poorly designed. Fans should not be making this much noise playing a Flash video or a quicktime. I shouldn't have to monitor my cpu usage paranoid that the FANS are going to kick it. It's absurd. It's actually making me anxious listening to it.
 
I can sympathise. I've got an old Fujitsu Laptop that has an overactive fan and not just when it's under load either. Just web browsing will do it. Even doing nothing makes it cycle for a few seconds every few seconds. Gets VERY distracting.

Considering how quick the fans are to come on it makes me wonder if there is adequate cooling measures between the fan and the chip, that is the conductive pad or paste isn't working as it should.

Can other Macbook owners confirm this is reproducible? The Macbook Pro I had for a week could start its fans under load, but they were hardly what I called noisy.
 
Just to be clear here, is this a problem on a few bad apples or is this across the board with Apple intel based laptops?

I need to know if this is something I just have to accept with this macbook before considering other options.
 
daechi said:
Just to be clear here, is this a problem on a few bad apples or is this across the board with Apple intel based laptops?

I need to know if this is something I just have to accept with this macbook before considering other options.
Click to expand...

Some folks claim the thermal paste is poorly applied at the factory on some units and cleaning and reapplying fixes the problem, however, I'm not opening my case and messing with the CPU to check. You can search the forum for thermal paste or something and find a few threads.

Cheers,
 
neilspartacus said:
This fan thing that you start to see with the new intel based Macs is because of the inherent architecture of the computer.
Intel based chips (CISC- Complex instruction set computing) are traditionally known to be more heat emitting compared to their RISC (reduced instruction set computing) based counterparts (powerpc chips). (you can get more info from wiki if you want to do more digging on the reasons).
Click to expand...

This is utter twaddle start to finish.

1. Core2Duos are not pure CISC chips. In fact their cores are more or less RISC.
2. PPCs are not pure RISC chips either, being considerably more complex.
3. This RISC v CISC meme should have died years ago. It has not been relevant for a very long time and it is disappointing to see it dredged up in this millennium like Holy Writ.
4. Core2Duos are pretty efficient chips - certainly more than the supposedly 'RISC' G5s they supplanted.
5. As linked elsewhere in this thread, the fault lies with OS X or the Flash implementation in it. Watch Flash videos under Windows or Linux on the very same CPUs and your browser will not sweat.
 
I have no had this problem when going to sites that use flash or watching YouTube videos. The MacBook I have is only a few months old, but it's a mid-2007 model.
 
My fans barely get above 5000 rpm (I use iStat Pro, a widget) even under 100% load from both CPUs (I run Folding@home here). Normally, if I have one core running at 100% and the other core not running anything, my cpu temp hovers only around 65 deg C and the fans only at 4000 rpm which is barely audiuble.

So far, I never had the fans kick in even with 50+ tabs in firefox, all of them having some type of flash ad running.
 
Im not interested on IF a fan should be running, but rather 'should it be clicking'

Hi All -

New silver macbook (2.4 ghz) owner and google led me to this thread as just now, while watching h.264 encoded video (via flash on vimeo) the fans spun up (first time since i got it yesterday) and its a pretty bad sound.

I actually dont think its as loud as my 2.4 ghz Macbook Pro (early 2008), but rather it has a sort of clicking to it.

Enough that I asked Google for guidance.

I'm reaching out to see if OTHER late 08 mb owners hear this same noise or if there is a problem i should take up at apple store.
Anyone else that own one have the same experience?

thanks

john
 
Well Flash playback is enough to cause CPU havok on OS X. I've read some other users mentioning a clicking sound in their new Macbook fans.
 
Ugh!

No point resurrecting an 11 month old thread when your computer is not even in the same generation as the thread starter's.

If you want accounts from users of the same model+generation as you do, a good first step is to look through the MacBook (NOT PRO) section and read recent posts and to create your own thread if no one has anything similar.
 
daechi said:
Quicktime - 40

Firefox - 90-100

Are those percentages?

And why do I have to constantly worry about how much cpu I'm using before these monster fans start kicking in... This is crazy. I'm starting to migrate from power pc's, a 17" powerbook and the G4 desktop, to intel based computers. Now I am very leery of the new mac lines if this is the new fan system for them. I might return this macbook and buy my first pc laptop.

I'm actually pretty sad about this whole thing but those fans are just too loud and distracting. I think it's terrible that Apple is losing focus of their most loyal customers which are the ones using their computers.

Thanks for replying so quickly. I hope there is a simple firmware solution to this...
Click to expand...

That not normal. I do know Firefox uses about 3 times the cpu usage of safari, but this seems not normal. Do you have the latest flash player? 10? that should help with cpu utilization.
 
LedCop said:
Ugh!

No point resurrecting an 11 month old thread when your computer is not even in the same generation as the thread starter's.

If you want accounts from users of the same model+generation as you do, a good first step is to look through the MacBook (NOT PRO) section and read recent posts and to create your own thread if no one has anything similar.
Click to expand...

LoL, and here I was thinking this whole thread was about the new machines. Apparently this is a problem that has been ongoing...as this thread proves.
 
MowingDevil said:
LoL, and here I was thinking this whole thread was about the new machines. Apparently this is a problem that has been ongoing...as this thread proves.
Click to expand...

Haha. Same here; well, at least for a while. And that's not helpful to interested buyers of the new machines or to those who already have one. Compound that by posting in the MacBook Pro section and it's less likely help will be given and received.
 
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