I get a very similar result, same model exactly or almost. I just bought a used: MacBook Pro, mid 2012, i7 2.3GHz, 15" high resolution (non retina). From a reputable reseller, 90 day warranty. Had it two weeks before I bothered to try a usb thumb drive, now it will get sent back because one of the USB ports doesn't work; I consistently get a message like "cannot enumerate …" on that port while the other usb port works no problem at all. Don't know if it will be repaired or I will get a refund. So meanwhile, do I need to check everything I can and stress it and test it and test it before I send it back? It passes hardware diagnostics, that seems limited. During that test, I hear the fan speed up for a tenth a second or so, wow, what extensive testing!
SO WHAT IS the normal temperature - fan speed relationship? Does Apple have specs, or is that essentially reverse engineered user experience? What if there is a defect in apple's fan control code?
I installed iStat, and the fans come on right after booting, at 2000 rpm, and they stay there until (I start up 3 or more CPU intensive programs and) the CPU temperature is nearly 200 F then the fans (left and right) slowly increase up to 3400 then equilibrium near 210F. If I use iStat to set fan speed to 6000, the cpu temperature drops about 20 degrees F. One thing I do not know is if ~6200 rpm is the max fan speed for my model.
If the default temperatures and fan speeds are normal, and I get the machine back, I am considering installing smcFanControl or whatever, what I may want to do is set fan speed to 2000 minimum, if any temperature is above 120F or so then 4000 rpm, and 6200 rpm or whatever the max rpm is if any temperature is above 160F. The noise doesn't bother me compared to accelerated aging at higher temperatures. I would want hysteresis (e.g. if fan speed is max, don't drop fan speed until temperature is below 150F) but I bet that is too complicated for smcFanControl.
Maybe I'll try resetting the SMC a few more times; is there a way to know if the keystroking successfully resets the SMC? Can I hold the shift control option keys down while pressing and letting go of the power button? It is impossible to press and release all 4 keys exactly at the same time, maybe within a millisecond of each other, but not exactly at the same time. I may even try downloading and force re-install the latest smc code and other firmware if I can.
