Fan at full speed after SSD installation (2nd drive)

[RustyTank]

I installed a second SSD with the dual hard drive kit from iFixit in my new Mac Mini 2011 and everything went smooth, but once I booted the MM the fan runs at full speed with incredible noise. All seems to be working normal besides this. I tried to reset the SMC based on the instructions here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_EN but with no results. I installed the SMC fan control app, but this shows that the temp is 39c and the fan runs at 000rpm.

Anybody any idea? Do I need to take it for repair??? I'm new to the Mac world.

 

[Gav2k]

Sounds like you've knocked the temp sensor cable off the hdd it's just inside by the ram. If you download istat youll see an off reading.

 

[RustyTank]

Sounds like you've knocked the temp sensor cable off the hdd it's just inside by the ram. If you download istat youll see an off reading.

Is this on the original HDD (500gb 5400)? I thought this only had one cable that connects the hdd to the logic board?

Can you be a bit more specific on where I can find this and can I fix this myself? I can not find a temp cable in the MM 2011 teardown shown in iFixit. Only a temp sensor on the logic board.

I just ran the Apple hardware test and it gave the following error message:
4MOT/1/40000002:Exhaust-0. When I google this I only get answers relating to the fan in the MBP and nothing for the Mac Mini.

Do I need to do something with the fimrware of the SSD (Crucial M4 256gb) that may cause this?

 

[lilsoccakid74]

Is this on the original HDD (500gb 5400)? I thought this only had one cable that connects the hdd to the logic board?

Can you be a bit more specific on where I can find this and can I fix this myself? I can not find a temp cable in the MM 2011 teardown shown in iFixit. Only a temp sensor on the logic board.

I just ran the Apple hardware test and it gave the following error message:
4MOT/1/40000002:Exhaust-0. When I google this I only get answers relating to the fan in the MBP and nothing for the Mac Mini.

Do I need to do something with the fimrware of the SSD (Crucial M4 256gb) that may cause this?

I doubt its the SSD. The first thing I would do is open it back up and make sure all your connections were pushed all the way back in (also check ram placement).

 

[RustyTank]

I doubt its the SSD. The first thing I would do is open it back up and make sure all your connections were pushed all the way back in (also check ram placement).

I will try this again when I'm at home, but I'm pretty sure I fit them in tight (twice).

Could it be the problem discussed here:
http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-imacs

I'm aware the article talks about the Imac and not the Mini, but it accurately describes my problem (but not a sollution)!

 

[rw3]

That has to do with custom firmware on the iMac's internal hard drive. The Mac Mini has separate temp sensors that attach to the external HDD housing. That is not the issue that you are having.

You either did not plug in an additional temp sensor when you installed the added SSD or you just don't have everything plugged in all the way.

 

[RustyTank]

You either did not plug in an additional temp sensor when you installed the added SSD or you just don't have everything plugged in all the way.

Hold your horses, what did I miss here??? I connected the addional drive (SSD) with only the sata connector that came with the Ifixit kit. Is there another connector I'm not aware off? To my best knowledge (and based on the various tutorials) both the factory HDD and the SSD only have one connector that connects them from the drive onto the logic board.

 

[rw3]

What model year do you have?

The 2010 models have temp sensors, the 2011 models do not.

 

[RustyTank]

What model year do you have?

The 2010 models have temp sensors, the 2011 models do not.

The Mac Mini 2011 Processor 2,5 GHz Intel Core i5 with 8gb ram and a Crucial M4 SSD added. The ram was added last week without any problems.

I opened it up again (after trying to reset the SMC on 4 different ways). Removed the SSD and checked all the connectors again. I just booted again and the fan is still running on high speed! But now the SSD is out and I'm still within warranty, so I should be able to bring it in for a genius to look at.

 

[rw3]

You should be good to go then...shouldn't be running at full speed.

You have the two SATA connectors for the HDDs/SSDs and then the fan. Those are the only three connections you make on a 2011 model.

 

[lilsoccakid74]

I opened it up again (after trying to reset the SMC on 4 different ways). Removed the SSD and checked all the connectors again. I just booted again and the fan is still running on high speed! But now the SSD is out and I'm still within warranty, so I should be able to bring it in for a genius to look at.

If i had to guess, I think it would be a damaged fan cable (just took mine apart for the first time yesterday, never realized just how fragile everything inside is).

Sounds like a trip to the apple store should solve your problems from this point Don't let this scare you out of the SSD replacement once you get your problem taken care of. A family friend/Apple IT guy told me one piece of advice, which I think was crucial to me..

"Be sure to understand the difference between the cable and the logic board connector, its very easy to confuse them. Set a timer in your head for 90 seconds, if it's being fussy (mine were very hard to remove), get a drink, walk away, go do something fun and try it again when your mind is calm. The slightest bit of frustration can make you use enough force to damage a logic board."

EDIT: If you have not yet taken out the ram, and tried using one stick at a time to test if defective, do it. I just remembered hearing of fan speed issues, and it ended up being a result of a bad ram module.

 

[RustyTank]

If i had to guess, I think it would be a damaged fan cable (just took mine apart for the first time yesterday, never realized just how fragile everything inside is).

Sounds like a trip to the apple store should solve your problems from this point Don't let this scare you out of the SSD replacement once you get your problem taken care of. A family friend/Apple IT guy told me one piece of advice, which I think was crucial to me..

"Be sure to understand the difference between the cable and the logic board connector, its very easy to confuse them. Set a timer in your head for 90 seconds, if it's being fussy (mine were very hard to remove), get a drink, walk away, go do something fun and try it again when your mind is calm. The slightest bit of frustration can make you use enough force to damage a logic board."

EDIT: If you have not yet taken out the ram, and tried using one stick at a time to test if defective, do it. I just remembered hearing of fan speed issues, and it ended up being a result of a bad ram module.

Went to the store and they ran some Apple magic tests, which showed that the fan was not spinning while it was spinning like hell. They'll first try it with à new fan, but it will most likely be à new logic board (under waranty).

Still don't know what went wrong, did I destroy the fan cable or knock off a temp sensor?

 

[lilsoccakid74]

Went to the store and they ran some Apple magic tests, which showed that the fan was not spinning while it was spinning like hell. They'll first try it with à new fan, but it will most likely be à new logic board (under waranty).

Still don't know what went wrong, did I destroy the fan cable or knock off a temp sensor?

Sounds like one of the sensors connected to the logic board may have been broken.

 

[RustyTank]

Back in business

Yesterday I picked up my MM from the store. They replaced the logicboard (under waranty).

Last night I tried to install (again) the 2nd drive. I was planning to squeeze it in without removing the logicboard completely, but I found it easier to just remove it and use the gommets and all. Now everything worked as expected. Did a fresh install with the internet recovery and was up and running in less than 60minutes from opening up till up and running with fresh install of Lion.

Last question, do I need to enable trim on my SSD (Crucial M4 256gb)?

 

[Chippy99]

Yesterday I picked up my MM from the store. They replaced the logicboard (under waranty).

Last night I tried to install (again) the 2nd drive. I was planning to squeeze it in without removing the logicboard completely, but I found it easier to just remove it and use the gommets and all. Now everything worked as expected. Did a fresh install with the internet recovery and was up and running in less than 60minutes from opening up till up and running with fresh install of Lion.

Last question, do I need to enable trim on my SSD (Crucial M4 256gb)?

Yes, for optimal performance you do. There's people who say it's not necessary with Sandforce-based drives, but that's not what Sandforce say, so I am more inclined to believe them!

 

[Cmd-the-World]

Yes, for optimal performance you do. There's people who say it's not necessary with Sandforce-based drives, but that's not what Sandforce say, so I am more inclined to believe them!

The Crucial M4 is not based on SandForce.

The M4's Garbage Collection isn't the fastest of the lot it takes some time before it starts working. However having said that I personally wouldn't enable trim. There are more problems and hassles with trim enabled then the potential slow down with it disabled. I personally have an M4 in my mac mini as the only drive (i.e. as a boot drive) and I haven't felt the need to activate trim

 

[Chippy99]

The Crucial M4 is not based on SandForce.

The M4's Garbage Collection isn't the fastest of the lot it takes some time before it starts working. However having said that I personally wouldn't enable trim. There are more problems and hassles with trim enabled then the potential slow down with it disabled. I personally have an M4 in my mac mini as the only drive (i.e. as a boot drive) and I haven't felt the need to activate trim

There are more problems and hassles with trim enabled - Like what exactly???

I am keen to understand if there is any substance to this, because I suspect there is not and it's all rumour and nonsense originated from the fact that Apple don't support it on anything other than their own drives.

This article:

http://blog.macsales.com/11051-to-trim-or-not-to-trim-owc-has-the-answer

is widely cited, and yet is full of misinformation and complete nonsense. I suspect OWC merely wished to boost their sales by implying Trim doesn't matter, when in reality it does.

 

[JDThird]

I'm late to the party but in case anyone else finds this in a google search...

I had a 2011 quad core i7 15" MBP and I had put a crucial 256GB SATA III SSD in it over a year ago. I then replaced it with a 500GB SATA III. I enabled trim (not with the GUI tool but just via the commands in terminal) and while it reported trim enabled, I had problems booting it about 70% of the time. I'd boot, it would start, show the apple, then the point where it would normally change the background and display the logon prompt after the spinning point in the middle of the screen, it would just freeze. Happened about 75% of the time. New drive, didn't do it. Enabled trim, started happening. Disable trim, never happened again.

So while it's certainly not consistent behavior for all the trim users out there with non apple-provided SSD's, it was consistent enough on mine to make me realize that I could either have a computer that would turn on every time, or not...

I've since moved to a new 2012 Retina display MBP, and put a 500GB spinning drive back in my "old" 2011 15" MBP and passed it to my mom, who is having no boot problems at all now...

So YMMV but for me, trim caused issues. PRAM reset, etc, made no difference. On my new 500 GB drive I tried to restore from time machine, locked up. Thought maybe it had something to do with some software installed, so I did a brand new clean install of Lion on it, worked fine, and when I enabled Trim before installing any apps, i started having boot issues again.