MacBook Air 2.0 Fan Noise While Idling

[journeyman21]

I picked up a 1.86, 128 SSD MacBook Air last Sunday and have run into an issue with the fan. At first, the computer was near silent as I've experienced with every Apple laptop I've used. However, while reinstalling OS X to trim the printer drivers and language translations the fans kicked on to full bore. After restoring my system with Time Machine, the fans now make a rattling/vibrating noise from the time I start the machine, or wake from sleep.

Since I didn't notice this at first, I'm guessing that I am experiencing an unfortunate defect with my machine. I was hoping to gauge those of you who have purchased this machine to see if this was an isolated case or if this is normal for the Air.

Also, the noise is not extremely loud, and isn't noticeable with a bit of ambient noise in the room like the TV or music. When it is just me and the computer it is quite distracting. Thanks for the help.

 

[r6girl]

The fans on my new Air (also 1.86/128) have been pretty damn quiet. I did a clean install of Leopard immediately and it was silent through the whole process. It's a world of difference from the racket my BlackBook makes when playing video. No rattling or anything whatsoever. Try taking it to a Genius Bar and see what they say...

 

[miikkis]

r6girl : Can you give any specific details of fan speed/temp. example running iTunes, Safari, mail and maybe youtube at the same time? I don't wanna upgrade my 1.0 version to 2.0 (then go to mb or mbp) if it's still keeping the fans at 6500rpm all the time with those few little programs...

 

[Cynicalone]

Sitting here with Mail, Firefox, iTunes open the fan is at 2500 rpm. Now when streaming HD from my iMac or watching video's online it does from time to time get up to 6200 rpm. It's very quite I hardly ever hear it.

After a couple of hours of HD video streaming the temp will climb into the upper 40º Celsius range. A significant improvement over the first generation.

 

[miikkis]

Sitting here with Mail, Firefox, iTunes open the fan is at 2500 rpm. Now when streaming HD from my iMac or watching video's online it does from time to time get up to 6200 rpm. It's very quite I hardly ever hear it.

After a couple of hours of HD video streaming the temp will climb into the upper 40º Celsius range. A significant improvement over the first generation.

Wow, that sounds huge improvement! I just enter to youtube page and my air temp is at 60c, iTouch commercial is too much for this little one... Playing one music video raises the temp. 5-10c from that and fan (or fans, don't know how many there is?) goes to 6500rpm...
What about external screen, how well new air can handle that? This one just can't, or it can if you don't run anything on the external screen... Can you example play movie on external and surf on internet with smaller screen? Or is it kicking the fan/s to max.?

By the way, thanks for fast reply! I'm really fighting with this one, I love the size of mba but can't stand the fan noise... Luckily apple is going to replace this one so I will get the rev. b version. BUT after rev. a disappointment I'm not sure if should take mba or mb... mbp is too big to carry around. Not too impressed about mb screen/size, but at least it would be totally silent... hmmm, choices choices...

 

[Cynicalone]

Just tried watching a couple of commercials on Youtube, with Mail and Firefox open. The temp does climb into the 60º Celsius range, but the video played with no problems. The fan stayed at 2500 rpm's the whole time.

I don't have an external display to test the new Air on. I would love to hear some feedback myself on the Air using the new 24" LED Display.

EDIT: After I got back home this afternoon I opened up 3 YouTube videos at the same time. Left Mail, Firefox, and iTunes open too. I got the temps into the 70º Celsius range, and the fan kicked on and eventually climbed up to 6200 RPM. But the Air never had any problem playing the videos. I think under normal use the heat problems are fixed. The fan is whisper quite even at high rpms. Apple has built a beautiful machine with the new Air.

 

[Ironic]

My New MBA is dead quiet! No Fan or Hard drive noise (SSD)

 

[r6girl]

r6girl : Can you give any specific details of fan speed/temp. example running iTunes, Safari, mail and maybe youtube at the same time? I don't wanna upgrade my 1.0 version to 2.0 (then go to mb or mbp) if it's still keeping the fans at 6500rpm all the time with those few little programs...

How about a different example? I ran HandBrake (with Mail, GarageSale, and Text Edit open in the background, but not being used) last night to rip a DVD and the fans were running at 6200 RPM and both processor cores were running at 99% and I could barely hear the fans. I had to put my head a couple of inches away from the Air to tell they were even running. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember the processor temps, though.

It took just a hair over 2 hours to finish the rip of a 1 hour and 40 minute movie using the iPod/iPhone preset. That used to take 4+ hours on my 12" PowerBook G4 - I used to just leave it to it overnight and it would hum like a little jet engine the whole time.

 

[Scott6666]

the fans were running at 6200 RPM and both processor cores were running at 99% and I could barely hear the fans. I had to put my head a couple of inches away from the Air to tell they were even running.

That's very encouraging. With Rev A I though the fans at 6200 were very noticeable.

It's also good that the fans seem only to kick in on things like encoding and HD video watching.

 

[drevil]

I too have done the custom install of OSX. no fan issues whatsoever,in fact I messed up and had to do it back to back and had no fan issues. mine is week 45.

 

[iPhonePhan]

My New MBA is dead quiet! No Fan or Hard drive noise (SSD)

Same here! Even when it is on, I don't notice