I recently purchased a MacBook CD from the Apple refurb store. Ever since the first time I turned it on the fan was running. After downloading the iStat pro widget I can say that is always 1500 rpm's, give or take 3 or 4 rpm's. I've read that these black MacBooks ran hot so I thought it may be normal. But after talking with some MacBook owners, they all seem not to have this problem, so I became concerned. I've reset the PRAM, and reset the PMU as Apple Support advised to no avail, and that's all the advise they had, except take it to an Apple Store Genius. I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue? The fan doesn't bother that much it's not very loud, but I don't want to mistaken this for a true issue I may have. Please lend you input. Thanks!
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Macbook Fan Always Running at 1500 RPMs
- Thread starter docgraham
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My (white) MacBook is almost always running at about 1473 rpm, although I can't actually hear the fan.
I have a June 06 MB and one of the first firmware updates changed the default fan speed from 1000rpm to 1500rpm. It will throttle up when needed, however I wanted to control it on my own. So do download smc_fancontrol.
my MacBook's fan NEVER goes below 1790ish RPM. When I am doing normal tasks (eg. MS Word) it is always around 1790-1810 RPM. Is an this abnormally high normal speed? I've never seen mine go as low as 1500 RPM as long as I've been monitoring its speed...
I have the smc fancontrol, but although the software runs very well in my MB and I never had any problem with that, out there are many opinions saying the smc is a trouble program when you try to uninstall it. Many says that when the program is uninstalled, leave the fans without controller, and apparently, the MB cannot take the control on it then, so fans run at lower speeds between 1000 and 1500 rpm, making (obviously), that the MB raises dramatically (I insist, apparently, based on what they say) it's temperature.
I don't know if that is true or not, but maybe it will be a good idea to discuss that to try get clear the things.
I don't know if that is true or not, but maybe it will be a good idea to discuss that to try get clear the things.
that might be because Word is a PPC app, and the intel macs have to use Rosetta to run it, which adds another process, which may make the chips hot enough for the fans to run harder.
CD MacBooks (like mine) have their fan set to a base speed of 1500rpm
C2D MacBooks (like yours) have their fan set to a base speed of 1800rpm
I use smcFanControl and have it set to 2500rpm. Though it's not really needed, I just use it to keep the laptop cooler. Don't forget that smcFanControl only changes the base/minimum speed. So if you're watching a vid or whatever, and the laptop heats up, Apple's built in control will still work (i.e. will still throttle the fan up) to keep the laptop within limits. You only change the minimum speed, nothing else!
Hope this helps!
Ahhh, that clears it up. I'm a little over-protective of this thing, so I was worried there was something wrong with it that its fans were running higher
. Thanks!Nope... you can control the min and max temperature range too. Although it's impossible to avoid that the temperature raises while you work, you can configure, from the system preferences panel, the range that you want, to activate earlier or later the speed-up of the fans.
In my case, I've configured the smc to work between 40 and 80 degrees celsius. The fan generally speed-up when the temperatures are nearly 50 degrees and never I've seen the computer overheated than that.
Thats a different Fan Control. the basic "smcFanControl" is just a slider for the minimum speed, whilst the one you talk about actually has a Sys.Pref pane for itself etc.
how do you control that in system preferences? i'm having trouble finding it....
System preferences > Complements > Fan control
That's it if you have the same software than me
Hope it helps.
i thought my macbook C2D fan was running too fast as well. as soon as i open up the computer, the fan kicks on at around 1800rpm. (temps could be from 30-40C) i thought something was wrong since i could hear the fan and not sure if the constant humming was normal.
i brought it to the apple store to have them look at it, and they replaced the fan. they told me that everything was running ok. i just got home and turned on the computer and i can hear the fan again. sounds the same as when i brought it in.
using the istat pro widget, i can see that the macbook is at 53 degrees Celcius and fan is 1798 rpm. fan is humming along.
i feel a little bit better knowing my C2D macbook isnt the only one w/this problem, and 1800 is the default? its somewhat annoying to hear that fan running constantly but i guess i dont have a choice.
i brought it to the apple store to have them look at it, and they replaced the fan. they told me that everything was running ok. i just got home and turned on the computer and i can hear the fan again. sounds the same as when i brought it in.
using the istat pro widget, i can see that the macbook is at 53 degrees Celcius and fan is 1798 rpm. fan is humming along.
i feel a little bit better knowing my C2D macbook isnt the only one w/this problem, and 1800 is the default? its somewhat annoying to hear that fan running constantly but i guess i dont have a choice.
i thought my macbook C2D fan was running too fast as well. as soon as i open up the computer, the fan kicks on at around 1800rpm. (temps could be from 30-40C) i thought something was wrong since i could hear the fan and not sure if the constant humming was normal.
i brought it to the apple store to have them look at it, and they replaced the fan. they told me that everything was running ok. i just got home and turned on the computer and i can hear the fan again. sounds the same as when i brought it in.
using the istat pro widget, i can see that the macbook is at 53 degrees Celcius and fan is 1798 rpm. fan is humming along.
i feel a little bit better knowing my C2D macbook isnt the only one w/this problem, and 1800 is the default? its somewhat annoying to hear that fan running constantly but i guess i dont have a choice.
One question, did they replace the fan right on the spot? Because an Apple Genius once told me that they can do that in store (That's what they offered me when I inquired about my fan behavior).
By the way, my C2D MacBook is behaving in exactly the same way as yours. The fan has a minimum speed at 179x RPM, and gets higher when it's needed.
But here's the strange bit, in less than ten occasions only, the fan went completely dead (Zero RPM) for about a minute before running back to 179x RPM.
Those less than ten occasions happened only at idling times obviously.
no, they did not replace right on the spot. i made an appt. with the genius bar last wednesday and described the problem. they then called me on friday night and told me that they had replaced the fan. they also said that they let the computer run for a while after replacing it and did not notice the fan making any weird noises.
so i assume the fan noise at 1800 rpm is normal.
so i assume the fan noise at 1800 rpm is normal.