Heat and Fan noise on new 2011 Air?

2011 Macbook Air 13" Core i7 256GB here...

Add me to the list of users frustrated with heat/fan noise. Fan went to 6000rpm as I was transferring my old data from time machine backup and stayed on entire time. The CPU usage below 50% entire time.

It calmed down a little afterwards, but whenever I open Parallels = fan noise. Playing Civilization IV (old game) = fan noise. Browsing web pages with some moderate Flash content = fan noise. 50% or less CPU utilization entire time. 6000+ rpm. Really, Apple?..

Ditto everything everyone has said here about the fan behavior. I just bought a new MBA 13" i7/4GB/256SSD.

Spins up loud, trails off; sometimes with reason, sometimes spontaneously. More people talking about it here:

http://t-gaap.com/2011/8/10/macbook-air-fans-whirl-with-os-x-lion

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194717?start=30&tstart=0

Really sad part is: this was my first Macbook EVER, and I bought it because my old Vaio (which I loved) had a fan that drove me nuts. Everyone's Macbooks have always seemed so sexy and so quiet. The ones in the store have always seemed quiet.

The Universe is clearly laughing at me.

So...I just sent it back. Kinda wondering if there might be a fix now that I see it is so widespread...

*sigh*

I've come to the conclusion after spending more time with my MacBook Air 2011 11" i7 that we just need to not think about it. As I have been monitoring temperatures, the temperature on the die itself has not gone above the boiling point for WATER. The fan is a normal part of CPU cooling and the i7-i5 processors are powerful. I think we should just get over it, unless we actually burn ourselves or the CPU melts we aren't going to have an issue, and the CPU has checks that will shut it off if it reaches that point anyways.

Since I have taken this perspective I have found that it doesn't really matter at all and I am enjoying my Air. I think we just need to trust the engineers on this one. Part of the design of these small laptops is the aluminum unibody IS a heat sink. The fact that it is getting warm means it is working.

In the end, the fan is spinning up more because the thing is more powerful. If you want it to make less heat and use less power, get a refurbished or used Core 2 Duo because it runs slower and won't be as hot. But who wants that? We want speed and power.

Ever since the most recent Snow Leopard Safari update , the fan omn my 2010 Macbook Air runs constantly when doing anything with Safari. This was never a problem before. Previosuly the fan only came on when doing heavy duty number crunching.

What gives? I suspect it is Safari not Lion

David

We want speed and power.

No, I want quiet. 🙂

Compared to my slower PC laptop I had before, this is what I LOVE about my MBA 13 (late 2010)...

Sly

Yes, I have the Macbook air 2011 (1,7g 128G), when I wacth youtube or play flash game, the noise from fan.

I bought this computer is to light, strong and quiet. but now........

I just bought this beatifull macbook air 11 inch some 4 month ago. And I dont understand this discussion. I have heard the fan maybe 2 or 3 times, but admitted I had several things going on which was intensive processes and those times are also the only ones where my mac got warm. So there is none of these problems with my mac. Definetly not in youtube nor with flash games. Very strange.

And by the way: I LOVE MY MACBOOK AIR. Admittely this is my first mac since i converted from Macatheist to Mac-I-Believe-I-Will, but i have found myself now: litteraly in the air in MAC-HEAVEN 🙂

They are amazing...

Sly

FAN NOISE SOLVED

I followed the instructions on this posting. Specifically the instruction for adding the plugin that disables flash and viola! the fan noise dropped by half.

Hope this helps.

http://maccrazy.com/macbook-air-heat-fan-noise

I had the same problem Mac late 2010, 2.13 Intel core duo 4GB RAM 2

Lion was installed as update.

as result:

CPU on 80 °C and to keep it between 70 and 80 °C fan had to work on 6500 RPM.
I used Istat.
repaired permissions, no result, reset the SMC and so on... no results.
lately reading also other posts, I started to disable 1 by 1 the start up items.
the antivirus Sophos + the time machine auto back up -on off was quite successful
now I have a 4000 RPM = quite decent as noise level and CPU at 40-47 °C.
had nothing to do with the flash or browsing, mai land so on.
Spotlight, yess is pushing the temp up, but is not running 24/7
Check your startup items, the answer can be there
Maybe helps
Good luck!
Lucian

I had the same problem Mac late 2010, 2.13 Intel core duo 4GB RAM 2

Lion was installed as update.

as result:

CPU on 80 °C and to keep it between 70 and 80 °C fan had to work on 6500 RPM.
I used Istat.
repaired permissions, no result, reset the SMC and so on... no results.
lately reading also other posts, I started to disable 1 by 1 the start up items.
the antivirus Sophos + the time machine auto back up -on off was quite successful
now I have a 4000 RPM = quite decent as noise level and CPU at 40-47 °C.
had nothing to do with the flash or browsing.
Spotlight, yess is pushing the temp up, but is not running 24/7
Check your startup items, the answer can be there
Maybe helps
Good luck!
Lucian

rcalderoni wrote:

50-60 C marks? Wow, my 2011 MBA 11" is up around 85-91 C and the only app I am running currently is the WoW Launcher, all it's doing is downloading files! This is crazy.

I have the same problem. Just received my first mac yesterday (MBA 2011 i5 13.3'').

I started listening the fan noise with 2 things:

1) Windows 7: Windows Update process.

2) OS X: Diablo III Beta Download (Same WoW Launcher technology i guess).

...

Which EFI Firmware do you have? Mine is 2.2

Which SSD brand do you have? Mine is the crappy Toshiba 😟

I have i7 1.8 256gb 2011 MBA. Once the fan starts running it will not stop, and it runs when the CPU is not taxed at all (94% idle right now and the fans are going crazy) and there is no runaway process. The funny thing is the machine is not physcially hot, its barely warm.

What levels of RAM use are high? I am less familiar with how to understand that (real vs virtual memory)

I have fuond that the only was to stop the fans is put the machine to sleep, and it may come out of sleep without the fans running, and will be fine for a few hours. Or have to so an SMC reset or PRAM reset, but that only stops it for a bit, and it starts again.

When the latest version of the MBA came out, my MBA (late 2010) was only six months old and I wanted the faster processor and backlit keyboard. I've read so many posts about the heat and fan noise on the mid-2011 Macbook Air. I've used my MBA running OSX SL every day for the last year and it has been perfect. While I think OSX Lion has a lot to do with the problems, I'm SO glad I didn't buy this most recent version.

Apple needs to fix this quickly (it's only been 6 months)...

Sly