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Intel Mini and noisy fan
- Thread starter cosmic
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cosmic said:Just got an intel mini and after I had new memory installed, the fan is constantly running full blast and noisy. Is this standard?
It's not standard, and there is a way to reset what they call the SMC which may fix the fan problem.
Sources:
MacFixIt
Apple
It asks you to unplug everything, wait 10 seconds, then hold down the power button while plugging in the power cord to the mini. Then you can hook up everything and turn it on normally. It might take a couple tries to get it to work, but it seemed to help me. (I have a Duo, by the way, with 1 gig ram and a 100 gig HD).
The funny thing is, that even with that reset, the fan still seems to come on randomly. I can just be surfing the net in Safari with no other programs open and the fan will spin up for a minute or so, then go back down to normal levels. It's really strange and I'm wondering if it's an OS issue dealing with the new Intel chips. Anyone have any additional info?
I hope this helps you at least get it from running full blast.
darkunagi said:The funny thing is, that even with that reset, the fan still seems to come on randomly. I can just be surfing the net in Safari with no other programs open and the fan will spin up for a minute or so, then go back down to normal levels. It's really strange and I'm wondering if it's an OS issue dealing with the new Intel chips. Anyone have any additional info?
My ibook does that aswell. I dont think it is a problem, the computer sometimes gets warm after prolonged use, and engages the fan for a few minutes just to cool down a bit. I dont think its anything to worry about.
Shamus said:
Thanks, Shamus!
Before I bought the new Mini, I owned the same iBook as you. The fan did come on during prolonged use or heavy programs being run, but it seems like the Mini's is running more often and randomly. I could just be paranoid, but wanted to see if anyone else was having similar problems with the Intel Mini. darkunagi said:The funny thing is, that even with that reset, the fan still seems to come on randomly. I can just be surfing the net in Safari with no other programs open and the fan will spin up for a minute or so, then go back down to normal levels. It's really strange and I'm wondering if it's an OS issue dealing with the new Intel chips. Anyone have any additional info?
I hope this helps you at least get it from running full blast.
from my experience, this could be due to certain animated web pages/elements that can ramp up the proc usage and speed up the fans.... even a bunch of forum emoticons animated in the background seemed to cause just that....
cosmic said:Just got an intel mini and after I had new memory installed, the fan is constantly running full blast and noisy. Is this standard?
Who did the install for you? There is a 2-pin micro connector at the front of the logic board, labelled J6400 (between the battery holder and the power LED). It connects the flylad for the fan/hdd temperature sesor to the logic board.
You need to unplug this connector in order to lift off the internal frame to get to the RAM sockets, and you need to plug it back in again after the internal frame is re-fitted after the RAM upgrade
. Whoever did the install is probably used to PowerPC Mac minis and overlooked this last step.With the temperature sensor unplugged, the PMU will think that the sensor is reading 'very hot' and constantly run the fan at full speed.
Edit: TemperatureMonitor 3.4 doesn't understand Mac mini (Intel) temperature sensors.
Yes, it does. Well, it may not necessarily 'work', but that's how you do the reset.designed said: