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MacBook Air 2011 fan won't stop after watching a video

The fan on my 2011 MacBook Air 13" ramps up significantly (6496 rpms) as soon as I watch a video. (I have it hooked to a Thunderbolt display.) The problem is, even after closing the tab that the video is on, and/or closing the browser, the fan doesn't stop. The temperature of the CPU goes back down to about 54 degrees, but the fan is still cranking. The only way to stop it is to sleep or shutdown the computer. If I sleep it, I can immediately wake it and the fan will be operating around 2100 rpms. I've reset the SMC. Help.

MBP 15, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Nov 11, 2012 8:13 PM

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15 replies

Nov 12, 2012 4:18 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks, but this seems more like a software issue to me. Everything else is fine and I can duplicate the problem pretty easily. I'm hoping someone else has the same issue and Apple will figure it out and release an update. It happens anytime I play a Flash video. The fan maxes out, but then won't come down to normal. I would expect it to come down after a few minutes.

Nov 12, 2012 4:35 PM in response to htmanning

Then reinstall OS X:


Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.


Obviously, everything is not fine but you don't wish to have it repaired. You believe it's not normal, but since it doesn't affect most all products, then it's not something Apple needs to fix.

Nov 12, 2012 8:28 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the suggestion. I might have to reinstall.


Here's why I think it's a software issue. Whenever I run Parallels (Windows XP) the fan immediately maxes out. However, shortly after I either pause Parallels, or exit out, the fan returns to normal. It's only acting this way after viewing a Flash video. So, I guess Flash Video could ramp up CPU usage to the point where the fan has to stay longer after exiting, but it's staying up there until I sleep the computer. It also doesn't always do this if I'm running the laptop only. It seems to happen when I'm connected to the TB display.


Reinstalling the OS might help, but it seems like a bug that has to do with Flash videos on the Air. I'll try it on my 2011 MBA 11" and see what happens.

Nov 17, 2012 1:03 PM in response to ekals2000

My fan issue is specific to Flash videos. Kappy doesn't think so, but he's wrong. I can play/stream HTML 5 videos, or QuickTime videos and it's perfectly fine. The minute I load a Flash video the fan goes full blast which is fine. The problem is after closing the video, and closing the browser, the fan does not come down even after 30 or 45 minutes. I can run other programs that cause the fan to crank, but as soon as they are shut down the fan comes down to normal. It only behaves this way with Flash for some reason. I've now duplicated the issue on 2 MBA's. Oh well.

May 21, 2013 9:46 AM in response to htmanning

Kroterix - I have the same problem. I find that every time I view a video in Safari my MacBook Air starts to run hot and the fan is flying high - because flash player does not end when the video ends. I found this temp solution (I killed, Flash Player and the fan stopped almost immediately) below, BUT, there needs to be a permanent fix. Also, I tested using Firefox and the problem does not occur.


AmyD99


Oct 18, 2012 10:28 AM



My Macbook pro's fan runs constantly while I am using it. It is draining the battery power and I am not sure what to do.

MacBook Pro



This solved my question by Kappy on Oct 18, 2012 10:32 AM


User uploaded file

Well, the fans always run all the time, so you need to be a bit more specific about the issue. Try installing a utility such as iStat Menus 3.26 and then report what you find for the fan speed and for temperatures.


Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

See the answer in context


Apr 5, 2016 8:30 AM in response to maremure

Thank you! My fan was ripping for days and I thought it was VmWare Fusions as well. When I launched the activity monitor I found out that Spotify was running over 100% of my CPU %. I did not even have it open but it was running in the background. I killed the application and immediately my fan shut down. I will keep an eye on this activity monitor, now that I know about it...

MacBook Air 2011 fan won't stop after watching a video

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