MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) Fans Flare Up During the Simplest Tasks
My MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) fans flare up during the simplest tasks. This is not a new issue; it has been unusually high ever since I bought it in 2015 or 16. But it feels like it has started happening even more randomly since my Monterey update maybe?
- The fans heat up and start running extremely loud during tasks especially related to watching streaming videos like lives or in 1080p; I always have to bring the quality down. It has been happening at watching normal videos as well (on apps like VLC) since my latest update as well. This sometimes happened before, but now happens almost every time.
- I use Opera for browser. I used Chrome many years ago, but because of the above mentioned overload, I switched to Opera. I used to be able to work on multiple tabs or windows. It starts doing the same thing on random occasions. Some specific sites like Amazon definitely triggers it, I don't know why, but they always do.
- I used to run a drawing tablet with USB connection without any issues. Once I tried running a Cintiq display tablet with a HDMI cable; I started having the fans' issue once again.
- Apps like Photoshop has almost always triggers this even when I'm doing mid-level tasks, even though my RAM should be more than enough to do what I'm doing?
- Happens when I'm writing a post at any site or forum (like right now).
These are just the first examples that come to my mind, there are many other issues. I *know* that fans' working is needed to cool the inside down, but the abnormal heating up and the extremely loud fan running does not sound anywhere "normal" and more like borderline scary, as if it'll shut down at any second to protect itself or worse.
I read many articles about this issue, a lot of them mention 2015 Macs for some reason. I also read about SMC reset, but unfortunately it didn't do much.
Yes, I always use it on a desk to keep the airflow healthy... I use a small stand from Ikea (Brada).
There was a time 2 years ago my battery had swollen up and needed to be replaced. The official service told me that this was "an extremely rare case".
So on the same machine, it's been twice now that an extremely rare case has found me: Swollen Apple battery and extremely problematic fans that start screaming at absolutely everything I do. For an item that had costed this much, this was really frustrating.
I had to replace the battery. Another service (not from Apple anymore) I talked to mentioned it could be related to a Logic board issue, but I didn't try this since there were no guarantees and replacing would cost a lot and I couldn't do that without any guarantees.
I realize I've been using this for this many years, thankfully; but I'm in no position to replace the whole thing right now. If anything, I have never been able to use this in peace, ever. No service or article for years were able to offer me any solutions for years.
Since I feel like this started happening a bit more after Monterey; I wanted to try asking again: I'm just asking to see if anybody would be able to offer any alternatives, any solutions, suggestions, anything here.
Thanks for your time
PS: You might laugh (but I'm desperate), but I have a small desk fan for myself and I tried turning it towards the mac when the fans started losing it once and it looks like it sometimes help the cooling down faster? I don't know, it seemed like it. Should I invest in a cooling fan? But they work from below, and this model's fans aren't below it, so I didn't...
MacBook Pro 15″