MacBook Air Fan Noise With Lion

Same problem here with my MBA. Since installing Lion fan is audible all the time and battery life is substantially lower. Waiting for the Apple fix.

Chrome is known to cause a lot of trouble by just using a lot of processing power, but flash usually takes up a lot too.

Download the Click to Flash extension, which might help you out. My MBA does the same, but only when I start running a lot of programs.

This does not seem to have *anything* to do with flash or CHrome. I dont have either of them installed and the fan noise still is at an incredible level.

This is a Lion problem that needs urgent fixing in a service relase - hopefully very soon.

bbrip

I think the problem is that it's coming from multiple sources. I don't know about Chrome, but Safari seems to make things run hot (perhaps it's a WebKit issue), especially when there is heavy JavaScript action. But even when I'm doing next to nothing, the fan always ends up reaching its top speed (and stays there)...its neutral running state is about 60-65°C and 6200 RPM. My battery has become very sad after Lion.

Yep, my batterie live is only little more than half than what it used to be. No wonder with constant fan at top speed.

This truly is a very serious bug. Looks as if Apple has its own grown-up Windows Vista saga right now. What a mess.

I turned off all energy saving and let it run very slowly through the backup. All backups since then have been much more efficient, and fan usage has been restricted to mainly when i run Flash, as was always the case.

One suggestion was to reformat your Time Machine hard drive as apparently Lion stores data differently.

It is odd that Apple has not commented on the matter. I spoke to Apple support recently and they had no idea it was an issue... anyone else spoken to them?

Well the guys you usually get on the phone at Apple suport are always totally clueless und hopeless. Its a waste of time.

I hope someone (or two) at Apple read these forums !

bbrip

Well - Not sure what's up with some of your models, mine was purchased in 2010 MacAir 11".

4GB Ram - (maxed out as much as possible).

I just upgraded my MacAir to Lion - and I do not see or have any of these problems. No matter if I work for hours sitting on the couch or just leaving it on and letting it copy files to the server - nothing is hot - no fans can be heard ever!

In fact - since I purchased this MacAir 11" - it's quiet as a mouse. It is cold to the touch and I have never felt any heat coming from it.

I just purchased another one - 2011 MacAir - with Lion preloaded - but with faster speed and maxed out specs. I will compare the two once I have a chance to play next week.

Regards

AlaskaCPU

Message was edited by: AlaskaCPU

Mine is a 1st-generation MBA (1.8 GHz and 2GB). Makes sense that the issues would affect the older machines more than the newer ones...

Hi

im also using a MBA 2010, 4GB,2.13 with Lion. I dont have heat issues. But I remember an forumpost which states that CITRIX client makes some issues. Is it possible that similar issues exist with other SW. So it would be interesting to know if anyone using Lion has some SW installed with background services (launchd...).

http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=290934

Or just add a 8GB partition and make a plain Lion install and run the same tests again.

As mentioned no issue with MBA 2010 at all. runs great , im just missing the iluminated keyboard.

Yours

I have the same issue with 2010 MBA Dual Core and my new i7 model. I've upgraded my iMac, MBP 15" & MBP 13" and they have no fan noise issues. Apple support had be take my MBA to the Apple Store and they informed me it was an issue with Citrix VPN software. Having uninstalled this, I still had the same issue. Apple L2 then suggested I do a wipe and reinstall, guess what - same issue. They currently don't have a solution.

I can confirm the fan noise issue with MBP 15". Its really annoying. I have disabled Flash, but it keeps coming. Definitely not a Spotlight issue. I don't have Citrix either. Tried almost all recommendations from the internet, but with no avail. Apple, please send a fix.

It's strange...I've been seeing much better behavior in terms of heat/fan activity in the past week or so, and I really don't know why. I think that the only updates that came through were for printer software. I doubt that could have done anything, but who knows, I guess! Anyone else notice this on their own MBAs?

Ditto! There is no explanation and now I think I look foolish. Thank goodness other people had the same problem or it might look like I made it up!!

Ian

nothing has changed here. Fan still going at full speed nonstop... Really, Really Annoying !!!