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MacBook Air i5 fan & Thunderbolt Display

The fan on my new 11" MBAir is almost constantly running while connected to the new Thunderbolt Display even while nothing cpu intense is happening. I've never heard the fan run when not connected. Software is all up to date including the Thunderbolt firmware update. Anyone else with MBA fan issues?

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.1), Thunderbolt Display

Posted on Oct 1, 2011 11:42 AM

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65 replies

Oct 1, 2011 6:25 PM in response to aRock10

I can't exactly help, but your comments are interesting. I bought and returned a Mac book pro and thunderbolt display for basically the same reasons. As shoon as I would do anything, the fans would speed up. I couldn't handle the loud noise and took them back.


Now I am interested in a MBA and thunderbolt display because my current MBA never gets too loud even under a load. But I never thout that the connection to the thunderbolt display might be the problem.


I wish you could test this stuff, but it's simply too loud in the apple store to tell if anything is loud or not.

Oct 2, 2011 11:57 PM in response to xmlsnocat

I seem to be having the same problem on 11" with i7.


The CPU load is 2%-5%, but the CPU temp is 80° C. Fan is constantly on when connected to thunderbolt.

I especially noticed this last night when I lay in bed (not connected to thunderbird), watching YouTube clips, and the fan wasn't noticeable at all. I can't be sure that it's due to the thunderbolt display, but I've been having this issue ever since I replaced my 27" Cinema Display with the 27" Thunderbolt display.

Nov 11, 2011 1:28 PM in response to cbanzhof

Just an update and additional info on this problem.


After experimenting I've found a couple of other things that alleviate the heat/fan noise. In my case, I believe it is caused by operating the MB Air in clamshell mode (lid closed) with the Thunderbolt display attached. If you feel the Thunderbolt connector and surrounding area operating in this mode it is fairly warm. iStat reports approximately 103-107 degrees (f) for the enclosure base which presumably is enough heat to rev the exhaust fans to 6500rpm.


Here is what I did to resolve.


1. Make sure the MB Air is well ventilated. I have placed mine on a elevated laptop stand so that the heat dissapates easier.


2. I leave the lid open just enough (less than an inch) so that the heat can dissapate from the enclosure base more easily. This still allows the MB air to drive the screen output to the thunderbolt display only instead of using mirroring or dual display mode.


Ive been running in this mode for the 2nd day in a row and fans / temp have been normal. Fan speed around 2k RPM and enclosure bases around 97 degrees (f)



Hope this helps. And Apple is listening...

Nov 17, 2011 8:12 AM in response to aRock10

I have the same problem as of today (11/17/11) and confirm that the problem occurs with the MBA open all the time. In fact, it may be worse since in this case, the graphics chip is driving the internal display AND the thunderbolt display. I don't have an external keyboard so it's hard to operate with the laptop closed for comparison. I have a new top of the line MBA 11".


-b

Nov 18, 2011 10:16 AM in response to aRock10

I'm having the same problem. I use an Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad with the MBA when connected with the Tbolt display.


Common problems when the MBA is attached with lid closed:

- On screen movements become choppy or slow significantly (i.e. moving windows around, opening new windows, etc.)

- iTunes video play becomes too choppy to watch

- Fan turns on (a lot)

- Once overheated so much that the MBA automatically shut down and couldn't be rebooted until it cooled.


I took both into the Genius Bar and they asked that I leave the MBA with them so they could run diagnostics. I won't be able to do this until mid-December.


A solution I found is to leave the cover open on the MBA. This allows enough ventiliation to cool it, but is ultimately inferior since closing the MBA was one of the features that attracted me to the Tbolt display.

Nov 18, 2011 11:39 AM in response to aRock10

Not really same issue, but just to report a similar case using i7 1.8Ghz.

I'm using a 13'' MBA with i7 1.8 (2011) and Thundebolt display, docked and lid closed most of the time.

Sometimes I experienced similar problems and that's really annoying, I was tempted to return both to store...

BUT the fan is not running all the time in my case, most of the time it spins about 2000rpm and I can't even heard it.

As soon as I open a streaming video, I mean any kind of it (flash, html5, skype with webcam, etc..), cpu go from 60C to 97C and fan spins at 6000rpm, really noisy.

The strange thing is if I open an HD 1080p video, even from a network share, fan and cpu still seat without even noticing it, no noise at all (...quite same job, play a video and network activity, heavier to decode than a crappy 360p flash clip).

I thought it was something flash related, but it happens same thing with skype or by using youtube in html5 mode.

As final test, I tried download one of these video as .flv, playing it with VLC or Quicktime and again, no noise and no heat.

Since I read there's similar problem with MacBook Pro 13'' (not on 15''), and since they share the same cheap CPU integrated video card, I suspect there's something weird happening while streaming video run on these macs.

As a proof of this, if I simply hide the streaming video by switching browser tab or desktop, the fan and heat disappear, even if video is still running (so decoding it's not the problem, I can hear video audio as well even in background).


This *****, my "old" 2008 15'' macbook pro core duo plays well same videos.

I hope a real fix will come out, upgrading last firmware,etc didn't change anything...

MacBook Air i5 fan & Thunderbolt Display

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