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Mercuric Oxide

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
277
26
NYC
PS. The behavior of the week 10 MBA sounds to me just like the week 1 MBA. Loud. I've come to the conclusion that's just the way they are designed.

No, The week 1 MBA would have it's fans go full blast, with no trade off. The CPU temp wouldn't go down and one core would still shut down despite the fans running.

Week 10 is still loud, but you're actually getting something for dealing with the "loudness" - a working machine.

If the machine went to 6200 rpm while writing a text file or browsing online, then sure, I'd be upset. But high def videos on a <1 in. enclosure with an integrated graphics chipset, that's a feat within itself.

Either way, if you're watching a video, you shouldn't be able to hear the fans. If you're doing a non-video intensive task, the fans should only bother you (to the extent that you regret your purchase) if you are in an empty room devoid of sound.

Given the size of the MBA, the fans have to be smaller, and not only work harder because they're smaller, but also because of the limited airflow. We can't have everything, and a machine as thin as the air simply won't operate under intensive loads with the fans staying at a whisper quiet 2500 rpm. It's just not possible with today's technology for handling heat.
 

khosna

macrumors member
Feb 13, 2008
41
0
I have a week 1 MBA with none of these problems (knocking on wood). I guess I got lucky with a good build.
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
Drives me crazy. Neeeeeed silence. Fans break my concentration. Birth defect I guess. The MBA world is divided into those who hate fans and therefore are frustrated with the otherwise perfect MBA, and those who don't care who don't see why we are fussing and that the MBA is perfect.
I can't think of any model of Apple notebook that would pass the video tests mentioned in this thread without having the fans running at an audible level. :confused:
 

bcaslis

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2008
2,184
237
No, The week 1 MBA would have it's fans go full blast, with no trade off. The CPU temp wouldn't go down and one core would still shut down despite the fans running.

Week 10 is still loud, but you're actually getting something for dealing with the "loudness" - a working machine.

If the machine went to 6200 rpm while writing a text file or browsing online, then sure, I'd be upset. But high def videos on a <1 in. enclosure with an integrated graphics chipset, that's a feat within itself.

Either way, if you're watching a video, you shouldn't be able to hear the fans. If you're doing a non-video intensive task, the fans should only bother you (to the extent that you regret your purchase) if you are in an empty room devoid of sound.

Given the size of the MBA, the fans have to be smaller, and not only work harder because they're smaller, but also because of the limited airflow. We can't have everything, and a machine as thin as the air simply won't operate under intensive loads with the fans staying at a whisper quiet 2500 rpm. It's just not possible with today's technology for handling heat.

Agree 100% with this.
 

mtk75

macrumors newbie
Feb 15, 2008
29
0
kick yourself in the balls, say you got injured and need to go home.

:eek: You must be highly flexible... I'd have a very hard time kicking myself in the balls. :p (I also have no need to go home sick today... :D )

-Matt
 

duffyanneal

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2008
683
143
ATL
I can't think of any model of Apple notebook that would pass the video tests mentioned in this thread without having the fans running at an audible level. :confused:

I just watched about 15 minutes of 1080p video on my new MBP. It didn't break a sweat. Well it did get to 54 C, but the fans were still running at 2000 RPM. :D
 

rich a

macrumors newbie
Feb 13, 2008
9
0
Hm, anyone really happy with their Air? Seems like a flawed product if the fan needs to go run like crazy for medium tasks. Thin is good, but it needs to be silent too..

I have to be honest. I absolutely love this product. I really only use it for basic functions like taking notes at school, web surfing, music and some videos and the fan hovers around 2500rpm about 90% of the time. The only time the machine heats up is when I'm laying in bed with the MBA on my chest (prob because I'm covering some of the vents that way) - then the fan shoots up to like 6000rpm.
 

spyz88

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
169
14
well yesterday I called Apple and they told me to go back to the Apple store to exchange my week 1 MBA (with stuttering problems and 183 degree cores) for one of these famous week 10 builds.

I have to say that right out of the box after setting it up the first time the fans were pinned at 6200 rpm's and 180 degrees. I looked at activity monitor and it said finder was using 1,001MB worth of memory. Let me say that at that point I did not install any programs or nothing like that.

I also noticed in activity monitor that when I mounted an image a program named something to the effect of "imagemounter" was also pinning the fans and raising the core temp. The only difference that I see with this week 10 build is that the fans actually bring the tempature down to a normal level once it heats up.

When I was at the final step of calibrating the battery I was playing a DVD with the external SuperDrive and it stayed at a cool 122 degrees with 2499 rpm's on the fans.

And finally can someone with a MBA PLEASE go to hulu.com and tell me if the full screen video causes your MBA to stutter and heat up like crazy? I'm not sure if they use flash or h264 but it just MURDERS my core temp and fan speed. Thanks!
 

Mhaddy

macrumors 6502
Oct 26, 2005
445
1
Canada
I've got a week 10 MBA and have not experienced any problems. The fans shoot up to 6100/6200 rpm when watching YouTube fullscreen for ~10 minutes, or during Spotlight indexing, or other very intensive tasks, but minutes after whatever task is finished, the temps and fan speeds drop. I don't see this out of the ordinary, considering the <1" enclosure, integrated graphics chip, etc. that somebody else mentioned.

I'll check Hulu later today and report back.
 

spyz88

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
169
14
Well now on the first calibration of my 10 series I plugged it in at 9:30AM EST and its now 4:28PM EST and its still an amber light. This is getting a little ridiculous.
 

bcaslis

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2008
2,184
237
Well now on the first calibration of my 10 series I plugged it in at 9:30AM EST and its now 4:28PM EST and its still an amber light. This is getting a little ridiculous.

The first couple of charges can take a long time. After that it should get much better, but it still takes about 4 hours total to charge an almost empty battery (2 hours to get 75%, then 2 more trickle charging the rest.
 

teek

macrumors member
Feb 12, 2008
88
0
Norway
Week 7 no probs.

Also week 7, i think.. serial is W88078C****

Fan is nuts, kbd backlight is nuts, screen ligth is nuts. MBA is nuts. Still, im holding on to this baby. I really need to return it and get a new one.
 

spyz88

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
169
14
Well I called Apple back and they exchanged it for a new Penryn MBP 2.4/2GB/200GB and its having no problems with the video at all. Fans stayed at 2500 rpm's the whole time. It also charged very quick :) Sorry MBA I loved you but maybe rev 2...
 

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
My MBA has been completely behaving itself now. I'm running Vista Business in Fusion along with OSX and no lag or temp rising over 70deg. Remember people, the machine is SUPPOSE to get hot because the casing itself, primarily the bottom, is a giant heatsink. Look at the pix posted by iFixit and other sites, you'll see why the casing gets hot. For why your processor gets insanely hot, well, either you have a problem with the configuration (software) or the thermal paste problem (hardware). Oh btw, the heatsink does NOT actually touch the processor, there is about 0.2-0.8mm gap more or less. This is where the thermal paste come in to help.

And for the youtube or any flash vid complaints... happens on any mac, just bigger macbook(pro) doesn't have that much fan problems since they have better cooling.
 

spyz88

macrumors regular
Jan 29, 2008
169
14
My MBA has been completely behaving itself now. I'm running Vista Business in Fusion along with OSX and no lag or temp rising over 70deg. Remember people, the machine is SUPPOSE to get hot because the casing itself, primarily the bottom, is a giant heatsink. Look at the pix posted by iFixit and other sites, you'll see why the casing gets hot. For why your processor gets insanely hot, well, either you have a problem with the configuration (software) or the thermal paste problem (hardware). Oh btw, the heatsink does NOT actually touch the processor, there is about 0.2-0.8mm gap more or less. This is where the thermal paste come in to help.

And for the youtube or any flash vid complaints... happens on any mac, just bigger macbook(pro) doesn't have that much fan problems since they have better cooling.
The new MBP handled streaming HD video with no problem.
 

pughchrism

macrumors member
Mar 9, 2007
53
0
week 11

i picked up a week 11 mba yesterday. fit and finish are perfect! when reading on this forum and not watching video i see about 52C.

however, watching lost on hd fullscreen has probs: mild periodic stuttering and big core heat. goes up to 80 and finally cools to 70 to mid/upper 60's. simultaneously opened a macrumors forum window and my 2nd core began to shutdown - on for a sec, off for half a sec. i then changed to normal setting with lost and the core stabilized again. all of this was carried out on a flat wooden surface.

it would be useful if some of you others performed the same test. you can find the lost series on abc.com

in addition, i ran it down to 18 min power. plugged it in at ~12am and it was still amber at 6am. i'm not sure when it turned green.

sorry, i moved this to a new thread "p/u week 11"
 

AreanFSL

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2007
257
56
Picked up my week 10 today. :) Wow the presentation when you open the MBA is truly exciting!
I'll report back with my fan/heat experience.. Just remember I came from a MBP 2.0 Core Duo where i'm able to cook eggs after some heavy use! ;)
 

j62lee

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2004
33
54
Also week 7, i think.. serial is W88078C****

Fan is nuts, kbd backlight is nuts, screen ligth is nuts. MBA is nuts. Still, im holding on to this baby. I really need to return it and get a new one.

I just picked up a week 7 build as well.. no problems right now *touch wood*, but it's not even a day old and I haven't had much chance to play with it.
 
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