White Macbook fan mysteriously at max

[Yaboze]

My Macbook has been running fine since I installed Snow Leopard. I leave it on, usually in suspend mode often. This morning, I went into my office and I heard the fan blowing. I pressed a key and there was nothing running. It was at the desktop, as I left it. I checked iStat pro and the fan was running over 6000rpm, normall it's 1786rpm or something like that.

I rebooted it and it was fine, but that has never happened before.

I also noticed that after I installed Snow Leopard, it was fast to boot up and shut down. Now it takes longer again, similar to what it was using Leopard, maybe slower. Performance once I am loaded up is fine though.

 

[broken-chaos]

Check Activity Monitor, turn it to "All Processes" mode, and sort by CPU usage. See if there's something making heavy use of the CPU - if it's running hot due to a buggy app, this may be an explanation for both the fan and the slowdown.

 

[Jasoco]

It's about to die. Or something similar.

A couple months ago my fan was going into the 6000's. One day it started buzzing on high. Even when doing normal stuff. Over time it got louder and louder. Then one day it stopped...

At that point it only went around 1500 at normal, and the temperature went up to the late 80's Celsius. If it gets to high close to the 90's the computer now shuts itself off to save itself. Feeling the computer in the top left corner is reallllly hot at this point.

It basically means I cannot do anything processor intensive. Too much PhotoShop, or any YouTube video that uses H.264, or ANYTHING that is H.264, pretty much anything cool, even too much iTunes will push it too hot.

I went to a service shop and he said it might not be the fan anymore. It might be something worse. I have still not decided whether I want to have it fixed up for whatever it costs, or just use it like this until I can afford a new Unibody MBP.

He said it would cost $75 just to look at it. I don't have any idea what it would cost for each option. If it's the fan, it's a cheap fix, but if it's not, it's probably a lot more. Especially if it was the logic board. God, what does a Logic Board replacement cost?

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

It's about to die. Or something similar.

A couple months ago my fan was going into the 6000's. One day it started buzzing on high. Even when doing normal stuff. Over time it got louder and louder. Then one day it stopped...

At that point it only went around 1500 at normal, and the temperature went up to the late 80's Celsius. If it gets to high close to the 90's the computer now shuts itself off to save itself. Feeling the computer in the top left corner is reallllly hot at this point.

It basically means I cannot do anything processor intensive. Too much PhotoShop, or any YouTube video that uses H.264, or ANYTHING that is H.264, pretty much anything cool, even too much iTunes will push it too hot.

I went to a service shop and he said it might not be the fan anymore. It might be something worse. I have still not decided whether I want to have it fixed up for whatever it costs, or just use it like this until I can afford a new Unibody MBP.

He said it would cost $75 just to look at it. I don't have any idea what it would cost for each option. If it's the fan, it's a cheap fix, but if it's not, it's probably a lot more. Especially if it was the logic board. God, what does a Logic Board replacement cost?

The fan about to die isn't the only possibility. What was posted above your post or an SMC reset seems to fix the issue ~90% of the time.

 

[KSBOOM]

It's about to die. Or something similar.

A couple months ago my fan was going into the 6000's. One day it started buzzing on high. Even when doing normal stuff. Over time it got louder and louder. Then one day it stopped...

At that point it only went around 1500 at normal, and the temperature went up to the late 80's Celsius. If it gets to high close to the 90's the computer now shuts itself off to save itself. Feeling the computer in the top left corner is reallllly hot at this point.

It basically means I cannot do anything processor intensive. Too much PhotoShop, or any YouTube video that uses H.264, or ANYTHING that is H.264, pretty much anything cool, even too much iTunes will push it too hot.

I went to a service shop and he said it might not be the fan anymore. It might be something worse. I have still not decided whether I want to have it fixed up for whatever it costs, or just use it like this until I can afford a new Unibody MBP.

He said it would cost $75 just to look at it. I don't have any idea what it would cost for each option. If it's the fan, it's a cheap fix, but if it's not, it's probably a lot more. Especially if it was the logic board. God, what does a Logic Board replacement cost?

Well I had the EXACT same symptoms and I still have Applecare so I took it in. They diagnosed it as a fan malfunction/failure. So I would advise you to get it checked out.I agree it could be a 1000 other things, for example Dust clogging it up, loose connection etc etc but based on what you've said, it sounds like a fan failure to me. Also use iStat pro to monitor your fan rpm's and see if its running or not. This will give you an idea if its the fan or something else altogether.

Also try an SMC reset.

Hope this helps