Fans in Unibody Macbook Pro

It's probably worth running the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test to check for a hardware problem. You could also post some temperatures and fan speeds so that others can see if the fan speeds seem appropriate for the temperatures.

Good luck!

Hi Evan.

I've used SMC Fan Control on my late 2008 MBP for a few months now without any problems. I do use it very sparingly - Only on very taxing tasks like 3D rendering and some Adobe CS4 work. I always restart my system to return to the Apple defaults when done. If you need to use it on the Windows side in Bootcamp set it up on the OS X side and then do a soft restart into Windows and it will maintain the higher fans speeds you set up on the Mac side. When you shut down and start back up everything will return back to the default Apple settings. The developer of the software states that it is designed "not to " interfere with the Apple native settings on cranking the fans up higher if an application requires it and you can not turn down your fans below the minimal settings by Apple.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
M.

Hey,

This is more directed toward marconiusrex:

I've been trying to figure this out about smcfancontrol: It says it won't interfere with the apple defaults and it will let them override the SMC fan control settings when needed. However, if you are running smcfancontrol and it is set at "default" of 2000 rpm, the Apple settings do not seem to take over when the MBP is heated up. I.e. i set the fan speed at 2000 rpm, then I did what I could to tax the computer and raised it to about 75 - 80ºC. And the fans did not speed up. *Is this supposed to occur?* When does SMCfancontrol give back control of the fans to apple's settings?

When/how do you, marconiusrex, get the fans to re-assume control under Apple's default settings? Does restarting the computer allow the fans to once again be controlled by Apple's default settings? Or does this require a shut down and reboot? Or does it require a smc reset?

I have the same problem. My macbook pro goes to 83°C but my fans don't pass over 2005 rpm...


Please help me!

Have you tried resetting the MBP's SMC? I use smcFanControl and I recommend it highly provided your fans work as expected in the first place.

If your fans are not spinning up as the temps increase then there's something wrong. smcFanControl masks that because you are manually adjusting the fan speed.

If resetting the SMC doesn't work, give applecare a call.

btw, I was having the same issue when my MBP was new, but after resetting the SMC, all was well with the fans

some problem for my macbook pro. fans did not speed up and cpu reaches >95°C

I had the same problem on 2 15" UMBPs. Swapped finally for a 17". Still have the problem. Left on it's own the temps get to 90C and above before the fans move off idle (2000 or so). I installed a program called Fan Control. It has a preference pane, and you can set upper and lower limits for speed and temp. Now when my temps get to 50C the fans start to speed up. A little more noise a little sooner, but much cooler temperatures. It seems to me that Apple designed these things with low fan noise as the most important characteristic. Many here feel since it's designed this way that it's fine to run all day at 95C, that the "problem" is all in our heads. I don't agree. Try Fan Control.

John B.

SMC reset is usually the first thing to try when the computer is running too warm and the fans don't seem to be working correctly.

My new (1 week old) unibody macbook pro fans are constantly running around 2000rpm. Is this normal or should they be off sometimes?

Yes, that's normal, and no, they should never be off.

Both fans in my 15" UMBP (early 2009) run at 2000 rpm and temperature is between 38C (idle, with no apps running) to 46C while browsing the internet and running 1 VM with Parallels

logicito wrote:
Both fans in my 15" UMBP (early 2009) run at 2000 rpm and temperature is between 38C (idle, with no apps running) to 46C while browsing the internet and running 1 VM with Parallels

Mine too, but they started getting up on heavier tasks and fans didn't speed up and temps started hitting 68-69 etc. So I downloaded and now run SMfan. I have it set at 4000. However what happens is in intensive work, the fans might pop up to 3200 to 3800, in normal internet browse, word processing etc. the fans run around 2000, maybe slightly above. There's no fan noise or anything at 3800. I think it's fine and it seems to be self adjusting as it should based on load/heat.

Message was edited by: Barry Fisher

Hi - sorry, just noticed your question back to me. I was not monitoring the post.

According to the developer of SMC fancontrol is it supposed to be designed so that it does not in anyway interfere with the native fan controls on the MBP. It is not supposed to let you turn the fans down lower than what is deemed safe by the apple fan control or stop the fans from ramping up to higer RPMs when the native fan control says it's time to ramp up.

I did a little test on my notebook this evening. I ran SMC fan control and arbitrarily set the fans to run at 2600rmp (about 600 rpm higher than where they generally hover at the lowest end of the spectrum) I then started up a program called Maxwell render which is about the most taxing thing I have on my machine. Maxwell will take the temp from 112f to 200plus f in a matter of minutes. I observed that the SMC fancontrol held the fans at 2600 rpm until the temperature started to get up to around 190 f, then the laptop fan controls took over and ramped up to 2800...then to 3000 rpm to keep the temps from going up higher. So, at least in my case, the SMC fan control developers claims appear to be true.

I don't use SMC fan control very often. I generally only use it when I have the notebook on my lap and want to control the heat developed on the upper left underside of the machine. After using it I always shut down completely so that the MBP fan controls defaults can be restored. Note that just restarting will not restore the MBP native fan controls.

Sorry for such a late reply. Hopefully you were able to get this info from some other poster or another source in a more timely way.

Best,

M.