Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
I've started folding on my MBP (sig) recently, and I left it going while I was at work yesterday. When I came back, I was greeted by this horrible noise that comes from the right side of my keyboard, like something is messing with the fan. Also, I downloaded a temperature monitoring app (creatively named "Temperature Monitor") that registers my "CPU A Temperature Diode" at 80 degrees Celsius. Should I be concerned? I don't want to ruin my laptop, it still has to get me through college (and I haven't even started yet!).
 

JDN

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2006
520
0
Lund Sweden {London England}
I started folding today too ... got a couple of glitches but nothing major.

My temp monitor says CPU A = 77 C and my fans are funning at 3000+ RPM ... yet it is surprisingly quiet. In fact, it's pretty much silent. Is his bad?
 

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
Yeah, I think I'm going to take a look under the hood once I mow the yard :( . I'm hoping that maybe it's just dust or a loose cord....
 

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
What app/widget do you use that gives you your fans' speeds? I'd like to have it! Anyway, I took a look at my fans, and there was a little dust, but nothing that would've impacted performance or made noise. The fan itself looked fine, and I can hardly hear it anymore, but when I let my computer start folding again, the temperature of my CPUs spiked to 80 degrees Celsius within a minute before I paused it. Immediately after pausing the temperature began to drop, five or so minutes later the temperature has dropped to around 50 degrees Celsius. However, during all of this, I never once heard my fans kick in :eek: , not even quietly as they did before this incident! So.... any ideas on why my fans aren't kicking in when my CPUs hit 80 degrees?

Edit: Well, I've just run another trial to see how much hotter the cores would get, but my fans kicked in a bit at 82 degrees or so. They're keeping it stable at 80 degrees now, but that right fan is still making noise! Not as much as before I opened the case, but definately audible and annoying.

Any ideas now?
 

JDN

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2006
520
0
Lund Sweden {London England}
What app/widget do you use that gives you your fans' speeds? I'd like to have it! Anyway, I took a look at my fans, and there was a little dust, but nothing that would've impacted performance or made noise. The fan itself looked fine, and I can hardly hear it anymore, but when I let my computer start folding again, the temperature of my CPUs spiked to 80 degrees Celsius within a minute before I paused it. Immediately after pausing the temperature began to drop, five or so minutes later the temperature has dropped to around 50 degrees Celsius. However, during all of this, I never once heard my fans kick in :eek: , not even quietly as they did before this incident! So.... any ideas on why my fans aren't kicking in when my CPUs hit 80 degrees?

I have iStat Pro for the dashboard, it monitors everything, CPU, memory, temps, fan speeds, netowrk, HD's etc etc

I also just installed SMC fan control. I am currently running my fans at 3500RPM and they are barely audible. Then again, i am always listening to music at my laptop so i wouldn't matter either way. I tried putting the fans up to full, 6000RPM ... thats loud, but im not sure very good for the fans over a long period.
 

taylorwilsdon

macrumors 68000
Nov 16, 2006
1,868
12
New York City
Leave the folding to the guys who run farms of quad xeons 24x7. The amount you accomplish using a laptop, especially not 24x7 with nothing else, is so minimal that its not worth the trouble at all. For the same price as the electricity you're wasting, you could just donate that to a research firm and actually accomplish something.
 

mattcube64

macrumors 65816
May 21, 2006
1,297
115
Missouri
Leave the folding to the guys who run farms of quad xeons 24x7. The amount you accomplish using a laptop, especially not 24x7 with nothing else, is so minimal that its not worth the trouble at all. For the same price as the electricity you're wasting, you could just donate that to a research firm and actually accomplish something.

Or just use a PS3. :rolleyes:

After all the hype of the cell, when I started folding with my PS3 yesterday, it was barely working any faster than my Macbook.
 

Nar1117

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2006
313
5
what the hell is folding

Its like SETI@HOME, but with studying the way that certain proteins fold. The way that the protein molecule folds directly impacts how well (if at all) it works in a cell.

An example of a protein unfolding would be when you fry an egg. The egg white is essentially all protein, and the heat from the frying pan causes the protein to unfold. This is called denaturation.

Im not exactly sure what this study is trying to accomplish, but its essentially sending bits of data to be processed to computers that download the software.
 

aussie.damo

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2006
187
0
Melbourne
Keeping it cool...

If you do want to continue folding on your notebook, or feel that the builtin fan control thresholds are inadequate, i'd recommend Fan Control:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137

It's a bit more configurabe than the smcFanControl as it allows you to set a minimum fan speed and maximum temperature before it kicks it up.

Damo
 

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
Okay, I can control my fan speed now, but the noise is still a problem! I think I'll pick up some compressed air tomorrow and try to blow through the fans some to see if that'll fix it, but I'm open to other suggestions!
 

e12a

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2006
1,881
0
where do i find this folding software?

I dont believe in SETI, so is there any medical folding app? I think there's one regarding cancer research.

Who says to leave the Xeon computers to do folding? The whole purpose of folding is to basically get as much processing power as possible. I'll use it while i'm on my school's power grid. I might as well use my computer for something while i'm asleep.

edit:nvm found the link on the OP's sig.
 

2fives

macrumors regular
Nov 7, 2006
158
0
Surrey BC
I wouldn't unnecessarily tax my $2000 MBP with 70 degree temps folding. Save it for a junk P4 system you throw together that you can leave running 24/7
 

JDN

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2006
520
0
Lund Sweden {London England}
I wouldn't unnecessarily tax my $2000 MBP with 70 degree temps folding. Save it for a junk P4 system you throw together that you can leave running 24/7

Surely the MBP being a decent laptop can handle it fine. It's not like it's being used to do anything it was not designed too. I guess only the test of time will tell.
 

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
Okay, let's stop arguing about whether or not MBPs should fold and see if anyone can figure out why my fan is making a weird noise.

And by the way, I do fold on my old Celeron machine, it just takes it nine days to finish one GROMACS core.
 

JDN

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2006
520
0
Lund Sweden {London England}
Okay, let's stop arguing about whether or not MBPs should fold and see if anyone can figure out why my fan is making a weird noise.

And by the way, I do fold on my old Celeron machine, it just takes it nine days to finish one GROMACS core.

What kind of weird noise? Is it possible the actual fan is very slightly lose in it's housing? It could be resonating or something. I put my fans up all the way to 6000RPM just to see and it sounded totally normal. It sounded like a fan spinning very fast, but nothing out of the ordinary.
 

regre7

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2006
292
0
Atlanta, GA
It almost sounds like something is hitting the fan as it spins, but I'm not sure. I know the fan assembly is securely screwed into the frame (I looked at it yesterday), so I don't think that's it. I think I'm going to try some compressed air, then after that I'll just call AppleCare (still under warranty!).
 

Vegeta-san

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2006
432
0
Or just use a PS3. :rolleyes:

After all the hype of the cell, when I started folding with my PS3 yesterday, it was barely working any faster than my Macbook.

Hahahah! What the hell are you talking about? I have a Core2Duo MBP 2.33 Ghz that is getting TROUNCED by my PS3 right now at folding. You're not serious, are you? Go to this website: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats , and check out the number of Windows PC's and Intel Macs and PS3's folding and how many teraflops they are computing. For Windows PC, this came out to 152 teraflops between 160,118 computers. For Intel Macs, this comes out to 9 teraflops between 2,856 computers. For PS3's, this came out to 668 teraflops between 27,260 machines!!! When you do the math using those numbers, the PS3's are 26 times faster than the Windows machines (any and all including old PC's) at F@H. So, a better comparison of PS3's would be to Intel Macs as they are all modern speeds as they were just released last year. Even comparing those two, the PS3 is 8 times faster than all Intel Mac's at F@H. Jesus Christ......PS3 is a MONSTER.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.