Yosemite broke Fan Control

[maximini]

I have a 2011 i5 Mini and used to run Lobotomo's Fan Control (http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html) without any problem in Mavericks. In Yosemite, this no longer works and my Mac runs is now running hot.

Is there any free alternative that works?

 

[keithdimech]

smcFanControl

I have been using smcFanControl for years and still up and running. All you need to do is save a preset or two and then select the best choice when needed. I usually like to create one for Summer and one for Winter ;-) Enjoy

 

[maximini]

I have been using smcFanControl for years and still up and running. All you need to do is save a preset or two and then select the best choice when needed. I usually like to create one for Summer and one for Winter ;-) Enjoy

Thanks for chiming in. I tried it when I first got my Mac but found it not as efficient as Lobotomo's extension. Will give it another try when I finally decide to give Yosemite another try (I downgraded back to Mavericks as everything I need works there).

 

[frank4]

Lobotomo Fan Control was excellent, I used it 3 years. It worked automatically to raise and lower the fan speed depending on the CPU temperature. It seems to be broken with Yosemite. I will search around for a fix.

I think the original developer should have used a more unique name because there are other fan control utilities around with similar names and most people were not aware of Lobotomo's version and that it was was really good.

smcFanControl is not even automatic.

 

[poiihy]

Yosemite broke all fan control apps. Many have been updated. The ones that I know were updated are Temperature Gauge Pro, Macs Fan Control, and iStat menus. FanControl and smcFanControl have not been updated. In smcFanControl the Higher RPM preset (comes with app) is set to ~9000 RPM instead of 4000, and it allowed me to set the fans to the true maximum :O .The true maximum (for my 2009 MBP) is a bit above 7000.

FanControl is completely broken. smcFanControl has the default at ~4000 rather than the correct 2000 so it is partially usable.

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I used FanControl because it reduced my random crashing (that time i had no idea what it was). After i installed Yosemite it broke and i had to uninstall it, and so my crashing problem returned as normal. This set me off to find a fix and I fixed it with MacRumors (that is how I joined ) It was bad RAM.

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The closest to FanControl would be MacsFanControl because it allows you to set a fan to base off a specific sensor.

 

[frank4]

I have now de-installed Lobotomo Fan Control and reset SMC which on a Mini is a shut down and remove power for a few seconds and then restart.

I'm trying out Macs Fan Control and it looks very good. It can be set up to use one of 3 fan control methods:
1: automatic, to use the default Mac fan control. Essentially this disables Macs Fan Control
2: constant RPM value (like smcFanControl)
3: temperature sensor-based fan speed (like Lobotomo Fan Control)

I set it up to run with sensor-based control on my 2011 Mini. 11 temperature sensors were available for selection as the controller. I selected the CPU Diode since the temperature readings looked the same as reported by the iStat Nano widget. I set my reference temperatures to 50C and 80C because that's what I used with Lobotomo Fan Control and it keeps the CPU cooler than the default Mac software. Macs Fan Control starts to increase the fan speed at 50C and raises it to the maximum RPM at 80C.

I have updated this paragraph Nov 20 2014:
I did a test HandBrake run without any third-party fan control and Yosemite seems to work the same as OS X Lion 3 years ago when I did a similar test. Yosemite leaves the fan speed unchanged at 1800rpm as the temperature rises. When the "CPU Core 0" reaches a temperature of about 99C and stays there about 30 seconds (which seems scary) the fan speed will slowly increase to about 3700 and the temperature drops to about 85 for the remainder of the H.B. test. It looks to me like OS X is very reluctant to speed up the fan even when the CPU seems to be far too hot. 100C is the Intel specification for the maximum safe temperature.

With Macs Fan Control and 50/80C settings the CPU stayed at about 75C during the test. I like to prevent the CPU from getting too hot so occasional fast noisy fan speed is a good thing. My friend had a MacBook that got killed after a year from heat from the CPU and graphics chip, and he was always complaining about the fan not properly cooling it.

Macs Fan Control seems to be a good program. The only thing I don't like about it is that it causes too many "Idle Wakeups" per second, usually about 120 but sometimes as high as 500. This causes ReportCrash messages in the OS X Console log with a warning about excessive wakeups. The developer is aware of the issue and it might be fixed in a future release.

 

[maximini]

frank4, I just saw your post and will give Macs Fan Control (from CrystalIdea right?) a try on my 2011 Mini i5 running Yosemite. Thanks!!!

 

[deviant]

why da hell do you even bother, os x is managing fans just right

 

[maximini]

deviant, in my experience, without some form of fan control the mini can get to much higher temperatures than the 65C max I want (as my research showed this to be the temperature beyond which electronics start to seriously degrade)

want no da hell in my mini!

 

[maximini]

frank4, it just works now with MacsFanControl in Yosemite. I would argue it is even better than Fan Control was as it shows the temperature and fan speed in the menu bar. Even better is that with appropriate settings, the fan can stay at system speeds. Really cool

THANK YOU!!!

 

[h9826790]

Someone in the Mac Pro forum made the Fan Control Mac Pro version works in Yosemite.

It's possible to modify the code and make it also works in a mini. Technically, I can make one with the following info.

1) How many fans in the mini.

2) The min and max speed of the fans.

3) The ident of the CPU (e.g. CPU "A", or CPU "0")

And I can tailor made the Lower Threshold and Upper Threshold range for you as well. However, I didn't own a mini, so can't test it. If you really want to try, you may give me the required info, be my beta tester, and we try to work it out together.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

without some form of fan control the mini can get to much higher temperatures than the 65C max I want (as my research showed this to be the temperature beyond which electronics start to seriously degrade)

Right. Ok.

 

[frank4]

With the default OS X cooling my Mini (under heavy load) runs the CPU to 99C for a significant amount of time before the fan starts to speed up. The case can get quite hot, almost too hot to touch. This does not seem like a good situation.

Normally I don't do anything CPU intensive so the default OS X cooling is OK, which equates to doing nothing and leaving the fan steady at 1800rpm, and the case is barely warm.

But the default cooling seems inadequate when doing CPU intensive work. I prefer that the CPU fan speed is increased when necessary, so my computer innards never get near the boiling point of water.

 

[poiihy]

Well at least Apple was nice enough to allow changing of fan speeds. They could've locked it like the CPUs.

 

[Paradoxally]

Well at least Apple was nice enough to allow changing of fan speeds. They could've locked it like the CPUs.

Nope, you can change CPU clock speeds (underclock). However, this is not permanent (non-BIOS, because Macs have EFI) and AFAIK, only works using Windows software.

 

[maximini]

Someone in the Mac Pro forum made the Fan Control Mac Pro version works in Yosemite.

It's possible to modify the code and make it also works in a mini. Technically, I can make one with the following info.

1) How many fans in the mini.

2) The min and max speed of the fans.

3) The ident of the CPU (e.g. CPU "A", or CPU "0")

And I can tailor made the Lower Threshold and Upper Threshold range for you as well. However, I didn't own a mini, so can't test it. If you really want to try, you may give me the required info, be my beta tester, and we try to work it out together.

View attachment 528711

I for one would welcome your customization for the Mini:
1) I think my Mac Mini 5,2 has only one fan.
2) Using Macs Fan Control's About>Copy Technical Info, it looks like my Mini's fan min speed is 1800 rpm and max speed is 5500 rpm (how can I check this via the command line?)
3) Not sure how to identify the CPU: can you help? On my Mini, there is only one (Intel Core i5 2.5 Ghz with 2 cores)

Thank you!

 

[h9826790]

Can you post the screen capture of your Mac Fan control to here please?

Like this one.


Anyway, I've already PM you the source code of the Fan Control for Macmini5,2 version 2.0b7. The apps are also included, please check your inbox.

If possible, please follow the procedure in this link to get me the Mac Mini 5,2 SMC key list. Thanks in advance.

 

[DJEmergency]

It's not "Yosemite broke the fan control apps" it's more like "Developers of fan control apps failed to update their software to work with Yosemite." It's been months that Apple released their OS and it's over a year since they had a beta released.

 

[maximini]

Can you post the screen capture of your Mac Fan control to here please?

Like this one.
View attachment 529056

Anyway, I've already PM you the source code of the Fan Control for Macmini5,2 version 2.0b7. The apps are also included, please check your inbox.

If possible, please follow the procedure in this link to get me the Mac Mini 5,2 SMC key list. Thanks in advance.

I PMed you some of this info (let me know by PM if you did not get it). Thanks!

It's not "Yosemite broke the fan control apps" it's more like "Developers of fan control apps failed to update their software to work with Yosemite." It's been months that Apple released their OS and it's over a year since they had a beta released.

That is true but from an end user perspective it is switching to Yosemite that broke these apps. Anyway, there is a partial solution and as you can see above, we are trying to find a fix for Fan Control. Cheers!