MacBook Air Fan Running Constantly

If I am running resource heavy apps and my processor temp is sitting at 82 deg c will this damage the machine if I use it like this for long periods of time?

Mine was running about that temperature for a while too and I was scared, but it was partly due to my not running the AIR on a solid base, i.e. air was not getting to the slots underneath!

Since then I have installed 'Fan Control', adjusted the controls to turn on sooner, and under heavy loads it now stabilizes at around 62 degrees C.

I just received an appointment myself to go into an Apple store tomorrow. I had a Kerna panic Just a little under 30 minutes ago. I called Tech support and once i was walked through the routine i was put on hold and then once Tech support returned to the phone i was given a Case number. My fan runs high when im just surfing the internet,streaming music. I really like the mba but spending the money i did is not worth the hassle.

Interesting comment on printers. I am having the same fan/heat problems with my new MBA. It may be a read herring, but I checked software logs and found constant checking for printers (Get-Printers client-error-not-found). I haven't yet installed a printer but there seems to have been a lot of activity going on, ever since I brought the machine home from the Apple Store.

Dylan,

I picked up my MBA yesterday from an Apple Store in London and have the same problem. The fan runs constantly, even when the computer is sleeping ⚠. If I down and restart it is quiet for an hour or so. Is iStat Pro a third-party app? Do I need this to discover the fan speed?

(for reference, I have a 1.8/64GB with SSD).

Michael

PK, forget the query on iStat Pro--I see it is a widget which I am downloading. Should have looked before posting!

Later.... this morning, after a night of high-speed fanning, my Air was quiet as a mouse. On general use the fan speed is around 2,500 and is all but silent. I suspect the frenzied activity, heat and high-speed fan I experienced yesterday was down to synching my iDisk (which took forever).

Just now I started to copy 1.5GB of data from the Air to an external HD and I note the fan speed went up to 6,500 and the CPU A temperature from around 40 deg to 80 deg. The problem seems to be related to high levels of activity but, in my case, the fan speed drops after that particular activity.

I note other comments about placing the machine on a soft surface (such as when using it in bed!!) and it is quite clear that the vent holes will get covered unless the computer is on a hard surface.

I got to wondering what improvement could be made by using a notebook stand. I have a spare Podium Pad ( www.roadtools.com) so I put it under the Air while the high-level of activity was going on. After a few minutes the fan speed dropped to 6,100 and the CPU A temperature to 70 deg. So there is a slight improvement and it's probably a good idea to invest in one of these stands. The Podium Pad is an excellent device, although it doesn't have built-in fans. Better results might be obtained, but I'm not sure.

After completing my 1.5GB transfer in 45 minutes I expected the temperatures to drop and the fan speed to drop. It didn't. I noticed continued and unusual activity in the Knox application (I was transferring to a Knox vault on the external HD) so I ejected the HD and waited another 30 minutes. Knox was still churning ("Performing Maintenance"). I saw it was utilising 50% of the CPU. The CPU temperature was still just over 70 deg and the fan was bubbling away at 6,200 rpm. I then quit Knox, ignoring the warning of dire consequences, and within 15 minutes the CPU temperature was down to 45 deg and the fan had dropped to 2,450 rpm.

Could it be that ALL these heat/fan problems are caused by processes going into some sort of loop? I've never experienced it before on my various Macs, so it seems to be something peculiar to the Air and will probably be cured by the next update.

I would recommend anyone experiencing constant high fan speeds to check Activity Monitor and see what is taking up so much processor capacity. I suspect it will be something you don't think is still running.

Michael Evans3 wrote:

Michael
Michael Evans3 wrote:
Dylan,

I picked up my MBA yesterday from an Apple Store in London and have the same problem. The fan runs constantly, even when the computer is sleeping ⚠. If I down and restart it is quiet for an hour or so. Is iStat Pro a third-party app? Do I need this to discover the fan speed?

(for reference, I have a 1.8/64GB with SSD).

Michael

Guess allot of people do not or did not know it yet (Its not available via our software update on the mba's).I had contacted Tech support on March 10th and was given a work order number.Before i took it in to be checked out i happen to come across the update.I still took it in to have it looked at.There was an SMC update for the mba on march 10,2008 ill post link here:The SMC Update fine tunes the speed and operation of the internal fan.

This update is recommended for all MacBook Air systems. The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the process.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookairsmcupdate10.html

Thanks for this information. I will download the update, although I have to say that for the past two days my Air has been silent and I have not noticed the fan at all.

As a matter of general interest, I had not paid much attention to fan speeds until getting the MBA and reading all the forum comments. So I decided to check my MacBook and discovered that even when the computer is idle and doing nothing in particular the fan is running at over 6,000 and the CPU temperature is 75deg. The MB is hooked up to an external screen and I've been in the habit of leaving it closed on the desk. Opening the lid results in a lower CPU temperature, but the fan still runs at 4,500 rpm (compared with the typical 2,500 on the MB Air). I suppose all this is logical, but maybe we've been worrying a bit too much about the fan speed and noise. When the fan on the MBA is running at 6,500 rpm it does seem more noticeable than the same speed on the MacBook, but this is probably because the machine is so quiet in general.

Ged, you have just saved me a call to apple. Much appreciated!

Have a good easter!

I have the same problem

My MBA 1.6/80 will hover around 6200RPM 99% of the time under, just under light browsing activity. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner and is very annoying and embarassing. CPU activity is mostly 80-90% Idle and all temps are around 50 degrees Celsius. Annoying!!

SMC update does nothing, my installer says it already came pre-installed.

My Air is now two weeks old and the fan situation has settled down satisfactorily. In normal use the fan is inaudible and is running at 2,500 rpm with a CPU temperature of 48 degrees Celsius. It seems the main trigger for higher speeds/temperatures is intensive processor activity (of course....), particularly when transferring large chunks of data. Yesterday I set up my Air to run Time Machine on my new Time Capsule. The backup, even of 20GB, too ages and the fan was whirring constantly. As soon as the backup finished, the fan dropped back to idling speed. Are you running anything intensive that might cause the prolonged high-speed fan.

As I said in my last posting, my MacBook (as opposed to MacBook Air) exhibits the same symptoms, although the idling fan speed is higher at 3,500 and the CPU temperature at 66 deg. I had not noticed this until i started playing with the Air because the MacBook is generally more noisy (it has HDD drive for a start, while the Air as SSD).

I would give it a bit more time before worrying too much.

That update that i posted did nothing for my mac air. Come to find out that our devices are being shipped with the update already applied. Also i had to send my first one back because of a heat sink failure(Due to the noise from the fan ). I would like to let others know that when i received my mac air i installed 2 programs and 10 tracks (songs) and 5 pictures of my son for editing.
The programs installed were iStat and Flock web browser. The songs i added were going to be background tracks that were going to be edited in Garage Band, Now this being said leads me to this :
1. I would let the mac air sit on the desk and it would max out at 6507 and some times higher. This was due to a heat sink failure causing the fans to run extremely high and noisy as if the processor was being strained or stressed out too much.

I was sent a replacement and it is working much better but i was told to keep an eye on the situation and if it happens then i will get another replacement. The way i see it is 3 strikes with a bad lemon then Apple will have to respect the bad lemon law (This only applies to major hardware problems). After the 4th major problem then the consumer is entitled to an exchange of merchandise for the same value or a refund....

Now most on this forum has enabled their system to have the Apple Care Warranty. If you do not have it i suggest you get one! So if it does blunder to 3 returns for major hardware problematic fans or other hardware related problems, then you will be entitled to take advantage of the Lemon Law.
Regards

Thank you so much you just solved my problem!
My fans have been going for 2 days straight on my macbook, I thought I was just unlucky and after 2 years it was starting to play up, but sure enough it was trying to print something I thought I had cancelled 2 days ago!
What a relief, such a stupid problem.