I just received a new Thunderbolt display yesterday. I plugged it into my new MBA and tried to use it in clamshell mode. The fan turns on after a couple of minutes and stays on constantly, very annyoing. Before I was using a 24 inch display with an early 2010 MBP (both models are 13 inch) and never had such issues. Any ideas?
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Thunderbolt Display on MBA 2011 fan issue
- Thread starter sportherz
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go the magnet route described here in the 2nd post: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1231643/
Can the MBA handle the thunderbolt display smoothly? e.g Launchpad, Mission Control, ...
Can the MBA handle the thunderbolt display smoothly? e.g Launchpad, Mission Control, ...
if you have the MBA internal display off and the lid open, the fans won't go as high.
Install this widget to see the rpm of the fan: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/20364/istat-pro
2000rpm is standard and totally silent and also how it should be if you are only browsing non-flash sites.
First impression: got the same problem as Sportherz! (UPDATE: have the problem the other way around, reposted to https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13383534/ , thanks enigma2k)
Was bragging online about all the advantages but while writing I noticed / heard the display has a fan and it was loud!
Didn't expect this. I thought the MBA fan would do all the work. But it is still silent.
Right now I am running Spotify, Photoshop, Safari, Screenflow and iMovie. The MBA (2011) doesn't care, the temp is fine:
Two hours after I unpacked the screen, the fan relaxed a little and the noise is becoming less annoying.
Btw, the sound of the screen is quite good... and I love that I can charge my notebook while I work with one cable.
Was bragging online about all the advantages but while writing I noticed / heard the display has a fan and it was loud!
Didn't expect this. I thought the MBA fan would do all the work. But it is still silent.
Right now I am running Spotify, Photoshop, Safari, Screenflow and iMovie. The MBA (2011) doesn't care, the temp is fine:
Two hours after I unpacked the screen, the fan relaxed a little and the noise is becoming less annoying.
Btw, the sound of the screen is quite good... and I love that I can charge my notebook while I work with one cable.
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I don't have one yet, I wanted to see first if there are any issues in combination with the MBA. (stuttering)
So your MBA fan is silent but you can hear the fan in the display? I don't think this is normal... sounds pretty strange and probably not the issue the topic opener has...
Yes you're right, should have made a new posting out of this. Will do now. Eh, just did. https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13383534/
Can someone post a link to the utility posted, I've been looking for something just like that, TIA.
I'm seeing similar fan behaviour from the MBA i7 when in closed clamshell versus undocked and open mode.
The fan spins up faster when the CPU is loaded.
Transcoding with CPU at 100% pushes it up to 6500rpm (as reported by iStat) where it is annoying by I can live with it. As the rpms/cpu temperature goes down it becomes less annoying.
Playing 1080p video puts it at about 2500rpm which has a very slight fan noise.
The fan spins up faster when the CPU is loaded.
Transcoding with CPU at 100% pushes it up to 6500rpm (as reported by iStat) where it is annoying by I can live with it. As the rpms/cpu temperature goes down it becomes less annoying.
Playing 1080p video puts it at about 2500rpm which has a very slight fan noise.
update on fan
Since the issues I was reporting didn't go away, I called tech support. After doing a reset on fan control and other stuff ( I believe the key combination was alt, ctrl, p,r, while booting) the fan was off and remained off for the reminder of the day. However, the MBA stayed notably hot.
Today I have it connected to an older 24inch cinema display. and the temperature is much lower. Downloaded also the app and it shows that the fan is running at 1999rpm. Unbelieveable at that speed it is really quiet.
Will check again next week when I return to the TB display
Since the issues I was reporting didn't go away, I called tech support. After doing a reset on fan control and other stuff ( I believe the key combination was alt, ctrl, p,r, while booting) the fan was off and remained off for the reminder of the day. However, the MBA stayed notably hot.
Today I have it connected to an older 24inch cinema display. and the temperature is much lower. Downloaded also the app and it shows that the fan is running at 1999rpm. Unbelieveable at that speed it is really quiet.
Will check again next week when I return to the TB display
I've been having the same issue. Fans are constantly at 6500 rpm. Looks like I have to return the display if I don't want my MBA to die a premature death.
I have a similar issue (MBA i7 13" + Thunderbolt display).
Whenever playing 720p video with VLC the fans kick in very quickly at full speed, even though the temps don't seem that high. Which is strange because I thought H264 videos were hardware-accelerated!
When I'm not playing videos the fans are mostly running at 2K RPM (not audible), except when using some CPU intensive tasks like Super Duper or the first 30 seconds of launching Chrome (!).
Whenever playing 720p video with VLC the fans kick in very quickly at full speed, even though the temps don't seem that high. Which is strange because I thought H264 videos were hardware-accelerated!
When I'm not playing videos the fans are mostly running at 2K RPM (not audible), except when using some CPU intensive tasks like Super Duper or the first 30 seconds of launching Chrome (!).
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I too have lots of fan noise. 
I've tried this and it's much better at idling, but very noise with any semi-productive task.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
Not sure if I'm going to keep this display. Might just use my dell monitor which offers no fan noise and hold out for a new iMac or next TBD version.
I've tried this and it's much better at idling, but very noise with any semi-productive task. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
Not sure if I'm going to keep this display. Might just use my dell monitor which offers no fan noise and hold out for a new iMac or next TBD version.