2010 Mac mini 2.4 Fast Fan w/ no drives?

[jamesf3]

My 2010 Mac Mini 2.4 now starts up with the high speed fan. Immediately upon power-on the fan begins its high speed run, no pause whatever. It does boot and run ok.

I've tried SMC and NVRAM resets several times with no success.

The thermal sensors look attached ok. The logic board ports and cables ends look fine. The heat sink sensors looks good from the little I can see.

So I removed the HD and ODD completely, including unplugging the power and sensor wires. Surprisingly, there is no change in behavior. As soon as I press the power button the fan takes off at high speed, even with no drives installed.

Is it required to have an internal drive installed for the fan to run normal?
Where else can I look to resolve? (A software solution will not work for me).
Thanks. Jim

 

[GGJstudios]

My 2010 Mac Mini 2.4 now starts up with the high speed fan. Immediately upon power-on the fan begins its high speed run, no pause whatever. It does boot and run ok.

I've tried SMC and NVRAM resets several times with no success.

The thermal sensors look attached ok. The logic board ports and cables ends look fine. The heat sink sensors looks good from the little I can see.

So I removed the HD and ODD completely, including unplugging the power and sensor wires. Surprisingly, there is no change in behavior. As soon as I press the power button the fan takes off at high speed, even with no drives installed.

Is it required to have an internal drive installed for the fan to run normal?
Where else can I look to resolve? (A software solution will not work for me).
Thanks. Jim

PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with fan issues, so resetting it will not help. Only SMC affects such issues. If you tried resetting the SMC, I would try it again. If that doesn't help, it definitely sounds like it could be a hardware issue. You may consider letting Apple check it out, to diagnose the problem. Then you can determine if you want to pay them to fix it, or fix it yourself.

 

[jamesf3]

OK, I'll try SMC reset again and then take it to Apple, which I never think of for no-warranty products.
Thanks much for the suggestions.

 

[jamesf3]

Almost forgot: Should the fan run at normal speed with NO internal drives attached, neither flex nor sensor cables?

 

[GGJstudios]

Almost forgot: Should the fan run at normal speed with NO internal drives attached, neither flex nor sensor cables?

Yes, the fan should always be running when your Mac is on. The drive configuration is irrelevant, as the primary sources of heat that need to be cooled are the CPU and GPU on the logic board.