2011 Macbook Pro Fan noise?

i tried to empty battery. i run an application that consumes all cpu cores at %100. at the last few minutes cpu was %100 but there is no fan noise. i should down cpu frequency. is there any silence mode? sometimes i dont want to use full power of my machine, i just want silence. is there any possibility?

I have a new macbook pro 2011 13" please download this app from this link http://download.cnet.com/smcFanControl/3000-18487_4-102230.html

its called "smcFanControl" you can basically customize your own fan speed according to what you are doing such as light browising or heavy gaming hope i solved all your problems and by the way the app is free 🙂

There is an additional way to reduce the heat inside a MacBook.

That is to remove the Internal Hard Drive and replace it with a modest-sized SSD that generates only 2/3 or less of the Heat of a hard drive..

I did this to my son's MacBook to improve his speed. He reported that it was a little faster, but he did not care. It was now much COOLER and has longer Battery life.

I just purchased my first ever macbook pro 13" i5 8g ram 2.4 GHz. So It's quite a powerful machine for a such a small machine that it is. I went with a macbook 'cause my sister had one and I enjoyed the operating system as well as better display quality.

Well before my mac purchase, I purchased an HP Envy 14. That machine was loud. The fan went up even when I was doing the bare minimum (i.e browsing the internet). It did go up when I played League of Legends, but I had my settings for that game on high so I wasn't surprised by that.

With this new mac, I don't have any fan problems. I can hear my fan when I put my ear close to the keyboard, but that's normal. A computer that's TOTAL silent should mean that it's off. I haven't had the chance of doing any intensive programming and/or gaming. Well, I ran SketchUp and AutoCad and did not notice an increase of fan speed. I run Spotify alot, and my fan still remains the same. I need to play a game to see if this machine really revs up.

Although, the bottom of the mac, close to the vent, gets really hot. I like the look of the mac, but I think putting the vent on bottom of the machine and also pinned closed to the screen 'causes it to choke up abit and thus heat up.

Well, not really. I just bought a new 13" MBP. The fan IS louder than my last two MBP's. On the the first two, you had to put your ear right next to the computer in a quiet room to hear any fan noise at all. This new one? I can hear it with no problem with me standing up while it's on my desk. I always run iStat and the temps are exactly the same and the fan speeds are exactly the same as the old ones.

I put this side by side with my daughter's MBP. You can hear a fan running. If you turn her MBP off and leave mine on, you still hear a fan running. If you reverse the process and leave hers on and turn mine of, the room goes quiet.

Of course all of that is with the desktop open and no apps running. Previously, the only time I ever heard the fan run on my old MBP's was when I watching a video, iChatting, emptying the trash can, or any other processor intensive task. I'm not too happy about it.

My iMac is the real workhorse where I do all of my video editing and website work. The only noise you ever hear out of that machine is when you wake it up and the hard drive starts up. But even once that's running, you never really hear it at all. And that is sitting on a hard wood desk in a small alcove where the sound (if any) would resonate.

If I had not had two MBP's before this one, I would think this one is silent compared to pretty much anything Dell or HP ever puts out.

It's most likely because I converted from HP. Like you said about HP and Dell, would run louder. I did, however, did some gaming and did hear the fan rev up big time. But that is expected of all laptops during intensive programing/gaming or else your laptop will die of overheat.

However, the most prominent of sound is not coming from my fan that is running mostly 2000 rpm. It is the harddrive, to me, that has been louder than the fan. It is not noticeable when there is noise/sound/music in the background. In a quiet room, however, you can hear the up and down "whirs" and a faint click of the harddrive. Not too sure if this is normal or not. But I would like to think it's normal. Did you notice that on your macbook as well?

I'm having the exact same issue.

I've purchased my MBP (13" i5 8g) 3 weeks ago. Directly noticed the fan noise it produced, which I compared to my 2009 MBP. 2009 MBP did not produce the noise compared to my new 2011 MBP.

The fan immediately kicks in when booting my MBP and produces a humming noise on 200rpm.

I called tech support and they made me do a SMC reset, but didn't help. So Apple sent me a new MBP yesterday to replace the first one. Exact same problem. This annoys me alot.

What both MBP's had in common, was that during the initial installation they complete froze on me 2 times. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but my MBP never froze before.

@mpamatmat, yes my hard drive makes a clicking sound as well. This sound comes on every 20-30s or so.

I will be calling Apple again, hoping they will find me a better solution than sending me a new and noisy MBP again.

i reset smc to may i7 mbp 2.3 ghz. then it is better now but not as silence as my old laptops.when i have cpu load i works at 6000 rpm. smc reset effected to slow down speed. then i bought my imac 27'' 3.4 ghz i7. it is perfect. i can use it at full cpu load and fan speed is at 1000 rpm. its big aluminium body is hot but there is no noise.

last night i changed ram of my mbp. i noticed that; when bottom cover is removed, it's fun works at 3800 rpm at full load. cpu temp is 80 C.when i close cover then it runs at 6000 rpm and cpu temp is 90 C.

maybe it would useful to have some holes on bottom cover :-)

now think; laptop is a mobile device i should not expect performance. it can have i7 processor but it is for emergency situations.if you need cpu power when you are mobile you except fan noise.

for performance buy imac...

ok, I brought my 2nd macbook to the Apple store and had it checked out by the technicians. The fan noise was not normal and they will be replacing the fan.

Hopefully with a completely different fan, because I think the ones they used in the 2011 line is faulty.

so far no one shared a solution. if you find a permanent solution please share it.

I posted above that I had fan noise with my new late 2011 MBP. After a call to Tech Support and a trip to the Apple Genius Bar, they agreed that the noise was a little too loud and offered to replace the fan. I was not too happy as the machine was two weeks old. I decided to think it over. I'm not fond of have a brand new piece of equipment already getting replacement parts.

While I was deciding what I wanted Apple to do, a few days later I popped a CD into the drive. The computer was vibrating off of the table. I took out the CD and reinserted it. Same thing. I tried another and another. All vibrated the computer something fierce. OK, now I'm really unhappy. Another trip back to the Genius Bar. Again Apple offered to replace the fan and now also the defective CD/DVD drive. No. Now I want the computer replaced. Apple would not do that as I bought the machine from Amazon and not Apple. They would have no problem honoring their guarantee, but would not replace the machine.

With Amazon you have 30 days to return a computer if you don't want it. I just wanted it replaced. I called Amazon and they sent a replacement overnight. They also sent me a return address label and sent UPS to my house to pick up the defective unit. How can you beat that?

So now I have a new MBP. Guess what? NO FAN NOISE. I set up the machine, popped in one of the vibrating CD's and the drive was smooth. It did make a strange noise when I inserted the disc. It is still making the same weird noise when I insert a disc but other than that seems to work fine. After software installations and updates I was good to go. Then a firmware update popped up. OK, let it install the update. I read the details of the update and it was basically geared towards the early 2011 MBP's. The other new late-2011 MBP that I got first didn't require that this update be installed so I was a little curious as to why this machine required it. Maybe the first one already had that update installed and this one did not. Who knows?

After the update I now have a fan noise. ***??? I am a certified PC Tech. I own Macs for my personal use but I fix PC's. I can never understand how a firmware update that does not change fan speeds (1995 avg. fan speed both before and after the update) can change the amount of noise that a fan would make. That's why I didn't understand why people were claiming SMC resets was making a difference. The fan noise is a mechanical noise created either by the fan motor or by the air being moved by the fan. Software (firmware) cannot change the physical attributes of the mechanics. It can't. But somehow I now have a fan still spinning at the same speed making noise. I don't get it. I hate to call Amazon again. They are great but it's not their fault. I know they will take of me but why should they have to. Apple needs to step up to the plate here and say (We have a mechanical defect and we will repair it.) But Apple will let it get swept under the rug just like they did with the iPhone 4 antenna problem.

Give National Tech Support a chance to look into this and/or fix it. Ask to be escalated beyond the first-level "fire-fighters" to a specialist. Tell them the whole story and see if they can do anything for you. Be businesslike and cordial, but persistent. Apple wnats you to be a happy customer. People who are screaming and threatening to sue will never be a happy customer.

I won't leave my MacBook at the apple store over night. I am a technition so all I do Is buy a new macbook and take the fan out of the new one and put it in place of the broken one. Put the broken fan in the new laptop and send it back where it came from. (return it) I won't pay $1500 to be told to wait. I don't think so apple.

glad that i am not alone. sigh. i am usually running ms word, web-browser (quite many tabs), Skype, preview (many pdf, yes), calendar, and sometimes excel….o.k. i am using quite several programs at the same time. BUT are these too much for these fancy brand new mac book pro with intel core i7???? i have barely had such a problem with my old macbook (the one with white plastic cover that i purchased in 2008). once the fan kicks in, it sounds like the computer will explode out soon. so, i close either firefox/ safari or preview, then, the noise is gone and rpm goes back to normal… can't believe that this is 2011 macbook pro.

apple should do something to handle this issue. otherwise, it's a matter of time for them to lose a market.

So I got my macbook back and guess what? No change at all!

They told me the fan noise wasn't normal so they replaced the fan. When I got home and turned on my macbook and the fan made the exact same noise as with the old fan. I couldn't believe it!

In the repair status they said: "we replaced the fan of your macbook and we tested the machine. Your macbook is running normally at this point" I wonder how they tested this...

I am really starting to question if they replaced the fan at all...

So if it's not the fan, what is it? Could it be the new hard disk, which has different aerodynamics and therefore the "wind" blows differently past the disk? The noise really comes from the bottomright, where the disk is located. Maybe different insulation in this series? I am out of ideas and don't know what to do next...

When my macbook was in de shop, I used my 5-yr old Windows machine and this one makes less noise (when idle) than my macbook (when idle)...who would've thought?

What hard disk do you guys have in your macbook? And what disk do others have, who don't have this noisy problem?