MacBook Pro Fan Noise

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1

On 13 Feb 2009, at 21:51, Rocky Slaughter wrote:

My question is simply how bad of a problem is fan noise? I’d say
that it’s medium loud.

Yup, sounds about right.

My C2D MacBook Pro (2006 model) fans kick in with anything remotely
processor intensive. For example, retouching in Photoshop; rendering
anything in Final Cut Pro; uploading images to a gallery from Aperture.

It can sound pretty intrusive most of the time, but soon quietens down
once the intensive task is done.

What are you doing that’s firing up the fans?

Heather

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2

Garageband, Aperture, Freeway, Photoshop, and Flash are probably firing up the fans. I don’t open those programs simultaneously.

I know what it sounds like to have the fans go on. This is more of a rattle-y sound, as if the fan were loose or something.

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3

This is more of a rattle-y sound, as if the fan were loose or something.

If that’s the case, then I doubt that the compressed air would help much. There are a couple of software temperature monitors you can run, Google should be able to find those, and you could just try to nurse it through until your project is complete. Follow the usual best practices of a hard surface underneath and nothing blocking the vents. Take breaks if you can and let it sit idle with nothing running (but not sleeping).

But do get it in for service as soon as you have a spare moment. If you have a bad bearing, this will go from annoying to badly broken very quickly. I have a serious independent Mac shop nearby that does component-level repairs and has a loaner/rental program. (They charge accordingly, but when you need it…) See if your local Mac store can help you out that way, if you’ve got something besides a regular Apple store nearby.

You might also see about picking up a new Mini or a used Mac of some stripe, just so you have a spare and can weather this sort of problem without being out of work entirely. For $500 US, you will be able to soldier on until your book is out of the shop. That might be a cheap bit of insurance, depending on your day rate.

Walter

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As always Walter, thanks for your advice.

I got a temperature checker. My hard disks operate between 70-75 C. I did a Google search and found that most operate between 60-65. I recently set the computer on a laptop fan. I’ll try to take more breaks to let it cool. Thanks for all the help.

Do you have any idea what 70-75C means?

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It means that your Mac is not able to cool itself adequately. Most likely that noise means that the fan blade is not able to spin cleanly and so you’re not getting enough air through the ducts to cool the innards. I would take it really easy until you have it looked at by somebody who knows their stuff.

75C is only 167F, most processors can take over 200F but not for long.

Walter

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Sometime around 13/2/09 (at 19:02 -0500) waltd said:

You might also see about picking up a new Mini or a used Mac of some
stripe, just so you have a spare

If you’re running Leopard then definitely make sure your Time
Machine backup is working and current. If you haven’t set that up
then go get yourself an external hard drive and use that - pronto.

If you’re not running Leopard then you’ll have to set up the backup
yourself. Even simply using Disk Utility or Carbon Copy Cloner for a
one-off duplicate is well worth doing.

I’d put this above getting a spare Mac, as you can generally get an
emergency machine if pushed - but you can’t retrieve your work (and
apps, etc.) as easily if you didn’t arrange proper backups.

And BTW, Flash media in browsers is frequent cause of processor load.

k

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On 14 Feb 2009, 11:32 am, thatkeith wrote:

And BTW, Flash media in browsers is frequent cause of processor load.

Which is why I think the ClickToFlash plug in is one of the best things ever. It prevents Flash content from loading unless you specifically click on it.

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70-75c is fine - would recommend that you defrag the HD and recreate using DiskWarrior. The HD is probably spinning overtime. Also I find that having a decent amount of extra space on the HD allows the MBPro to run cooler. So, I swapped out the HD for a 350GB drive. You can do this yourself. Takes about 20 mins.

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One thing, you might want to check out is something like a PodiumPad for your MBP. It really allows plenty of air flow under, as well as putting the laptop at a usable angle to get to the keyboard without wrist pain.
http://roadtools.com/

The fans in these critters are just about the worst part to replace because it is so tucked away. I had to eventually get the one in my Ti PB replaced.

If the fans ends up being replaced, make your the repair shop hunts down and gets the better quality fan than just the normal cheapos that can be bought.

I have the MBP that was made 12 months ago. So far I’ve had to have the optical drive replaced and it has been flakey on FireWire, but now we are all learning it is Seagate that it the culprit on some of these issues. It has the “bad” video card in it as well. Though it has shown the signs known for this bad card, Apple ran a test last month, saying it is good, though it indeed has the card.

Thing is to this post, I have around 20 or more apps all running at once and I rarely ever hear the fan kick in. Photoshop, ImageReady, several web browsers running, QT Pro, iTunes, Freeway/GL, and streaming music all going.

You should invest in a darn good backup, if you don’t have one yet. Something that is really cool and handy and I take everywhere I travel is one of these: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock

I have three 1.5 TB drives and the Voyager in my hotel room at the moment and hopefully will always be backed up. You can put a twice daily SuperDuper! clone on an external drive and even a TimeMachine backup as well. (partition the drive)
The main backup drive I keep in a NewerTech miniStack V3: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2ESMSV3/

A plan like that hopefully keeps my Mac completely backed up and ready just in case of failure, but being on the road, getting it stolen can still be a big problem!

Then if you do have any problem with the MBP, at least with just a FireWire cable and the Voyager, you could go to any Intel Mac and have it become your own Mac by booting up the external.

If it ain’t too late, get the AppleCare!

One more thing, if you are going to defrag a drive these days of Leopard, Intel and GUID partitioning, it is best not to use a software program to do this with. The best way is to move everything from that drive to an empty and and back again. That completely defrags everything and puts everything back together all on one place on your disc.

And your main drive, the one your OS is running with should not really be filled beyond around 80% full or it starts getting “bogged” down in some things. The fuller it becomes, probably the warmer it can become too.

Hope some of this helps.

Robert

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