Macbook Air, Windows XP and fan speeds

[fdj900]

Hi mates,

I am currently trying to install Windows XP via Bootcamp on my Macbook Air. Everything worked fine so far, including creating the necessary partition, installing Windows XP (SP2 non-OEM) and the Bootcamp drivers.

Unfortunately, the CPU fan is running all the time at maximum speed (around 6000 rpm) although the CPU itself runs fairly cool. Even with a CPU temperature of 55°C while doing nothing the fan runs at max speed.

I also tried to install Windows XP for a second time and also installed Windows Vista, but the same problems occurs again and again. In Leopard, however, the CPU fan runs normally.

As I am really depressed by this problem, it would highly appreaciated if you could give me some hints and in case you experienced similar problems explain how you resolved such an issue!

Thanks in advance!

 

[aussieinrome]

Hi mates,

I am currently trying to install Windows XP via Bootcamp on my Macbook Air. Everything worked fine so far, including creating the necessary partition, installing Windows XP (SP2 non-OEM) and the Bootcamp drivers.

Unfortunately, the CPU fan is running all the time at maximum speed (around 6000 rpm) although the CPU itself runs fairly cool. Even with a CPU temperature of 55°C while doing nothing the fan runs at max speed.

I also tried to install Windows XP for a second time and also installed Windows Vista, but the same problems occurs again and again. In Leopard, however, the CPU fan runs normally.

As I am really depressed by this problem, it would highly appreaciated if you could give me some hints and in case you experienced similar problems explain how you resolved such an issue!

Thanks in advance!

Did you try to install it with Parallels? I've got Parallels installed but I'm just waiting for my XP Home to arrive in the post. I can let you know how it runs.

 

[fdj900]

Parellels will be my next step, but I would prefer for some specific reasons Bootcamp. Maybe others in the forum have similar problems with the fans under Windows.

 

[aussieinrome]

Parellels will be my next step, but I would prefer for some specific reasons Bootcamp. Maybe others in the forum have similar problems with the fans under Windows.

My friend had the same problem on his Macbook Pro, under Windows XP (via Bootcamp) the fan always ran and the processor got pretty hot too. He sold is Macbook Pro and purchased a Toshiba.

I hope that under the OS X environment XP will work. Not to mention that using Parallels 3 you can now integrate XP in to OS X.

Take a look:
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

Click (See a demo) on the right of the page.

Also look at the videos in this section:
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/screens&demos/

I hope Parallels does what it claims, if so I'll be very happy.

 

[foodcoma]

I'm considering getting a macbook air but xp issue is a concern to me as well. Due to work reasons, I need to be able to run XP on my machine.

If I install parallels and XP on a 1.8/80hdd MBA, how much space would I have left (assuming office has been installed)?

Also, does a 1.6/80hdd MBA with parallels and XP installed work well enough for not too heavy use? It would appear that there may be a fan noise issue for such configuration. I pretty much only use office applications and firefox.

Thanks!

 

[peterlobl]

using xp pro on mba ssd... No prob with fans, have to keep vents underneath open for airflow... Working on certain surfaces, say on top of a blanket, heats it up a bit.
table or lap never a problem

 

[masterpace]

I have a MBA 1.6 HDD. I'm also using CoolBook in OS X to make the laptop a bit cooler. So, I've installed Windows XP through Boot Camp. With default Windows settings/power management, the MBA gets pretty hot quickly when doing basic tasks. I've tried RMClock, a clocking utility similar to CoolBook but for Windows. It simply doesn't work with the MBA: no matter which undervolting or performance settings you put, it seems it's overriden by Windows. Even the developper admits it's not supported on Macs.

Having the fans blowing full speed and the left rest area hot is a thing. Having the laptop badly stuttering every 10 seconds or so because of heat is another. I've tried playing older action games (pre 2004) on the MBA in Boot Camp. I works just fine for the first few minutes: really smooth. As the thing gets really hot, CPU has to throttle down to around 200 MHz for a while so temp can go down too. Basically, it's unplayable and not enjoyable at all. At this point, I'm thinking to get rid of my Boot Camp partition.

Otherwise, under Mac OS X, my critical applications work just fine with the fix.

 

[aussieinrome]

I have a MBA 1.6 HDD. I'm also using CoolBook in OS X to make the laptop a bit cooler. So, I've installed Windows XP through Boot Camp. With default Windows settings/power management, the MBA gets pretty hot quickly when doing basic tasks. I've tried RMClock, a clocking utility similar to CoolBook but for Windows. It simply doesn't work with the MBA: no matter which undervolting or performance settings you put, it seems it's overriden by Windows. Even the developper admits it's not supported on Macs.

Having the fans blowing full speed and the left rest area hot is a thing. Having the laptop badly stuttering every 10 seconds or so because of heat is another. I've tried playing older action games (pre 2004) on the MBA in Boot Camp. I works just fine for the first few minutes: really smooth. As the thing gets really hot, CPU has to throttle down to around 200 MHz for a while so temp can go down too. Basically, it's unplayable and not enjoyable at all. At this point, I'm thinking to get rid of my Boot Camp partition.

Otherwise, under Mac OS X, my critical applications work just fine with the fix.

Have you tried running windows with Parallels?

 

[masterpace]

I haven't. I've heard that Parallels is less than ideal for running games, even older ones, especially that the graphics chipset in the MBA (X3100) is really basic.

 

[aussieinrome]

I haven't. I've heard that Parallels is less than ideal for running games, even older ones, especially that the graphics chipset in the MBA (X3100) is really basic.

Take a look at the video demos, particularly the first one.
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/screens&demos/

The games perform the same as under xp. So they claim anyway.

 

[aristobrat]

If I install parallels and XP on a 1.8/80hdd MBA, how much space would I have left (assuming office has been installed)?

I just did a fresh copy of an XP virtual machine in Parallels. After XP was installed and updated, the size of the virtual disk was 2.9GB. Obviously that will grow as you install more programs.

Also, does a 1.6/80hdd MBA with parallels and XP installed work well enough for not too heavy use? It would appear that there may be a fan noise issue for such configuration. I pretty much only use office applications and firefox.Thanks!

Honestly, unless you need Microsoft Access, I'd consider running Office and Firefox natively on the Mac, not in a Windows virtual machine. I use my Parallels XP virtual machine for light work (connecting back to my office's VPN) and it does fine, no fan noise But none of what I do really uses the CPU enough to generate heat that causes the fans to come on.

 

[rjphoto]

Thermal Paste

Check out the post on the Theremal Pase issue with MBA.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/471266/

Fan speed is greatly reduced.

 

[foodcoma]

I just did a fresh copy of an XP virtual machine in Parallels. After XP was installed and updated, the size of the virtual disk was 2.9GB. Obviously that will grow as you install more programs.


Honestly, unless you need Microsoft Access, I'd consider running Office and Firefox natively on the Mac, not in a Windows virtual machine. I use my Parallels XP virtual machine for light work (connecting back to my office's VPN) and it does fine, no fan noise But none of what I do really uses the CPU enough to generate heat that causes the fans to come on.

So, I suppose there'll be about 60GB of space left after installing parallels, XP, and office?

I need to install XP because I'm constantly on the road and don't want to run the risk of not being able to open or read any documents that my clients send me (they all run windows). Furthermore, I'm very used to the shortcuts on powerpoint and excel on a pc, and am having a difficult time adjusting to using the mac version (takes me a much longer time to do the same thing).

If you haven't already guessed, I'm thinking about getting the MBA mostly because of aesthetics... Will probably only use OSX for stuff like browsing, emails, and writing word documents.

 

[aussieinrome]

So, I suppose there'll be about 60GB of space left after installing parallels, XP, and office?

I need to install XP because I'm constantly on the road and don't want to run the risk of not being able to open or read any documents that my clients send me (they all run windows). Furthermore, I'm very used to the shortcuts on powerpoint and excel on a pc, and am having a difficult time adjusting to using the mac version (takes me a much longer time to do the same thing).

If you haven't already guessed, I'm thinking about getting the MBA mostly because of aesthetics... Will probably only use OSX for stuff like browsing, emails, and writing word documents.

After I installed XP Home, all the 91 updates... WTF, ie7 media player 10 and 3D Studio Max. My disk image came to almost exactly 2GB.

 

[foodcoma]

shortcuts

On a separate issue, are all the short cuts in XP while running parallels (including office applications) the same as a pc?

 

[TheMadBrewer]

When my MBA was new, running VM Fusion for more than a short time would peg the fan. After one of the firmware updates, this problem went away and I have not had any problems since.

Unfortunately I can't tell you which update -- I use Fusion so rarely. There was one piece of windows only software that I thought I needed to run, but Microsoft Remote Desktop Client and the LogMeIn Firefox client work so well that I rarely need to use it (I just connect to a windows server and run it there)