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iMac 27" 2011- temperature sensor?

SPNarwhal

SPNarwhal

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,260
156
illinois
so I have a 27" Imac, 2011.
When I got this iMac it already had an SSD installed into the main drive and the previous owner installed a fan control program due to the new Harddrive not being able to do temperature control.

I just opened the iMac up now and was planning on installing a 3.5 disk drive again so I can have the temperature sensor work once again, but there doesn't seem to even be a temperature sensor cable to plug into this..

Doing a little research I found that some models apparently didn't have a sensor and instead had firmware on the drive itself to give the readings? But this isn't a stock Harddrive that I'm installing, so it won't have the firmware.

Any idea what to do here? Is there a place on the board to plug in a temperature cable? I see the cables on eBay (for 2011 iMacs), but mine doesn't have the cable and I doubt the previous owner removed it.

Wondering

1.) is there a place to connect this sensor?
Or
2.) is there a way to put the firmware on the drive?

Also, last but not least
2.5) if I'm able to put the firmware on the Harddrive, would that need to be my boot drive in order to work for the sensor? I was going to use it as a storage drive.
 
SPNarwhal said:
so I have a 27" Imac, 2011.
When I got this iMac it already had an SSD installed into the main drive and the previous owner installed a fan control program due to the new Harddrive not being able to do temperature control.

I just opened the iMac up now and was planning on installing a 3.5 disk drive again so I can have the temperature sensor work once again, but there doesn't seem to even be a temperature sensor cable to plug into this..

Doing a little research I found that some models apparently didn't have a sensor and instead had firmware on the drive itself to give the readings? But this isn't a stock Harddrive that I'm installing, so it won't have the firmware.

Any idea what to do here? Is there a place on the board to plug in a temperature cable? I see the cables on eBay (for 2011 iMacs), but mine doesn't have the cable and I doubt the previous owner removed it.

Wondering

1.) is there a place to connect this sensor?
Or
2.) is there a way to put the firmware on the drive?

Also, last but not least
2.5) if I'm able to put the firmware on the Harddrive, would that need to be my boot drive in order to work for the sensor? I was going to use it as a storage drive.
Click to expand...

Download Macs Fan Control. It's designed for this very issue (aftermarket drives in iMacs). It bypasses the temp sensor and just relies on the SMART sensor, which is perfectly fine. Set the hdd range from 42c to 60c and you'll be set.

https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
 
Hey guys! Thank you for the advice!
I saw that OWC adapter but $40 seems a little steep for it.

Fan controls is what I'm using now but I might just end up using it again.

I have an apple 3.5 drive but it's a Western Digital.

Thing is, there ARE sensor cables for 2011 iMacs with a western digital hdd. I just have no idea where it would even go on the logic board. Does anyone know if there's a port for it? I assume there must be. Somewhere. Right?
[doublepost=1504449179][/doublepost]I suppose another question would be

I keep seeing people mention that if you don't have an apple drive that it won't work. That Apple drives have sensors built in?? Although I thought it was just firmware?

Anyway. I have a 3.5 1Tb WD Apple drive. Not sure if by some miracle that would actually work or not due to being apple. I'm leaning towards no.
 
SPNarwhal said:
Hey guys! Thank you for the advice!
I saw that OWC adapter but $40 seems a little steep for it.

Fan controls is what I'm using now but I might just end up using it again.

I have an apple 3.5 drive but it's a Western Digital.

Thing is, there ARE sensor cables for 2011 iMacs with a western digital hdd. I just have no idea where it would even go on the logic board. Does anyone know if there's a port for it? I assume there must be. Somewhere. Right?
[doublepost=1504449179][/doublepost]I suppose another question would be

I keep seeing people mention that if you don't have an apple drive that it won't work. That Apple drives have sensors built in?? Although I thought it was just firmware?

Anyway. I have a 3.5 1Tb WD Apple drive. Not sure if by some miracle that would actually work or not due to being apple. I'm leaning towards no.
Click to expand...

See my link directly above. Use macs fan control. Its totally free and is made for just this scenario - non apple drive in an imac.
 
I already had fan controls before. I think a portion of my want for self stability is because if I sell this iMac down the line id rather not tell someone it needs additional software to run the fans.

BUT! I installed my 1TB Apple HDD and it is running fine by itself now. Apparently it has the sensor built in? No idea. I'm surprised about it.

However, this Harddrive has two partitions, each 1gb each, but barely any of it is used.

One is named "APconfig" and the other is "APswap"--- any idea what these are? I believe this drive was pulled from a time capsule, so maybe the AP is for AirPort? No idea. Trying to figure out if I need these partitions or not.
 
SPNarwhal said:
One is named "APconfig" and the other is "APswap"--- any idea what these are? I believe this drive was pulled from a time capsule, so maybe the AP is for AirPort? No idea. Trying to figure out if I need these partitions or not.
Click to expand...

APconfig and APswap are files used by the Time Capsule. You only need them if you plan on recovering that data. Also, it is possible that the reason the drive has firmware support is that it was pulled from another Apple product.

Edit: I see that Time Capsules have three partitions, APconfig, APswap and Data. The sparsebundles with backup data go in the Data folder. You don't need any of those partitions.
 
Last edited:
SaSaSushi said:
APconfig and APswap are files used by the Time Capsule. You only need them if you plan on recovering that data. Also, it is possible that the reason the drive has firmware support is that it was pulled from another Apple product.
Click to expand...

Recovering what data? I can access the data via the "Data" folder. Are those two partitions just for AirPort compatibility? I assume if I delete them and re-use this drive for my Time Capsule that it will automatically put those files (APswap/APconfig) back on there. (?)
 
SPNarwhal said:
Recovering what data? I can access the data via the "Data" folder. Are those two partitions just for AirPort compatibility? I assume if I delete them and re-use this drive for my Time Capsule that it will automatically put those files (APswap/APconfig) back on there. (?)
Click to expand...

Whatever data was on the Time Capsule. I think it's probably a safe assumption that the Time Capsule will repartition whatever drive you install.
 
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