Hello all. My mac's battery is running low quickly so I took advice from another thread and downloaded Macs Fan Control from Crystalidea. Now that I have it, I'm not sure what to do with it. Does it automatically control the fan? And how do I know what the numbers mean? Thanks
Built-in Hardware runs your Mac's fans on maximum as a Fail-Safe. The System Management Controller reads internal temperatures at a number of places inside the Mac and adjusts the fan speeds downward to a reasonable level, several times a second. Each fan has an RPM output, so that its speed can be adjusted until it reaches a target RPM to provide a predictable amount of cooling.
Macs fan control allow you to look at the reported temperatures, and if you wish, run the fans FASTER than the default speeds. You can not run them slower because that could cause heat damage.
I think you should go back to the place where you saw that recommendation and ask the people who recommended it.
To make certain the System Management Controller SMC is doing the best job it can, an SMC reset is often recommended.
How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support
Take careful note of which side of the keyboard the noted keys are on. The keys with the same labels, but on the other side, are not "wired in" in a will not do the job.
Hi
Maybe we should look into what is draining the power and why is you Mac getting hot so the cooling fan runs.
Using Fan control would not do any of that.
Open your Activity Monitor, click on Energy to see who is using the power.
So it is not the CPU heating up your Mac.
SMC Fan reset should do the trick then.
Pay attention to the MagSafe charger light, it has to briefly flier so you know your reset worked.
Kernel should not be so high, means it is busy with something.
Switch the Tab to CPU, type Dropbox in the search window to see it running.
If you find it Kill it if not press Option+Command+Esc
in the new window called Force Quit , Quit Dropbox.
The Google Chrome Helper (multiple) are normal and part of you using Chrome browser.
Thanks. So it sounds like I don't need to do this. I posted here because the thread was from 2016 and I assumed not being monitored or watched anymore. I will do the SMC reset as you've recommended. Oddly, I can't remove the Macs Fan Control and there is no uninstall option.
You didn’t say anything about it being high. A super-high CPU usage for kernel_task is an indicator of a hardware problem. For example, I recently experienced this on my 2017 MacBookPro. The cause was a cheap, 3rd party USB-C dongle that had failed.
It would be nice if Apple would just put up a dialog when this happens.
Somebody earlier in the thread had asked me to check Energy and report on what was high. It was kernel and chrome. Although I don't know what constitutes high. Kernel was just top of the list. Although I might have checked the wrong this- I looked at CPU I think. Honestly can't remember now. In either case, it seems back to normal. Although battery doesn't last longer than about 2-3 hours which seems low.
The biggest is kernel, chrome helper (not sure what that is), chrome and dropbox although I don't know how to not have dropbox running. Seems to be in the background
836 mb does that make sense? 7.9% of CPU. Doesn't seem high.
Thanks I'll try it although I'm not sure how it works but I'll look for that light
SMC rest can be tricky, the way to know if it worked is by looking at the charger light briefly changing.
836 mb does that make sense? 7.9% of CPU. Doesn't seem high.
That’s normal.
Can you explain exactly what is happening? How much CPU is kernel_task taking? If it is 400% or so, then you have some kind of hardware problem. Fan control software is only going to make the problem worse.
Kernel task is now low; wonder what caused it to be so high. Although the battery doesn't last long. I'll just keep machine plugged in. SMC seems to tricky for somebody who doesn't really know what she's doing. Thanks for the help, everyone
What to do with Macs Fan Control
