What causes the fan to come on?

[Bakari45]

I’m not sure if this question has been asked before, but what causes the fan to come on? Seems like it comes mostly when I’m playing videos, bur right now I’m only running Safari and a few other low level apps. So just wondering.

 

[miles01110]

More intensive tasks = increased CPU load = increased power draw = increased heat = fans required to cool the CPU.

 

[GGJstudios]

To be exact, the fans are always on. It's just that as temps are sustained at a higher level with more intensive demands on the system, the fans spin faster than normal.

 

[torbjoern]

I’m not sure if this question has been asked before, but what causes the fan to come on? Seems like it comes mostly when I’m playing videos, bur right now I’m only running Safari and a few other low level apps. So just wondering.

Might be the flash player that hogs your resources. Have you installed ClickToFlash?

 

[Bakari45]

Might be the flash player that hogs your resources. Have you installed ClickToFlash?

No I haven’t, but I‘m going to look into it, because the fan is pretty loud right now. Started getting louder when I signed in on emusic.com and sampled some music.

 

[entatlrg]

The fan on my 13" MBA roars up pretty good the moment I run win7 via VM Fusion ... kinda loud but MBA's aren't optimized to run window's either ...

Thought about trying coolbook but my opinion is if the fans are spinning up that fast they do so for a reason ... to keep the components within a safe temp.

 

[cleric]

Heat.

 

[iRun26.2]

Safari may seem harmless, but if you are looking at a FLASH based advertisements, you power will go up (and so the fans will turn on)

 

[Penooker]

Heat.

Electricity.