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User profile for user: jefferuk
jefferuk Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

rMBP - fans spin to maximum speed periodically

I recently had two 15" rMBP replaced. The first one had white/dull spots on the screen. This was replaced by another rMBP. This second one lasted a little while and then was replaced by another because of ghosting on the display. With regards to this third unit that I have, every now and again for no apparant reason, the fans will spin-up really loudly to what must be full speed, and then spins down again. It sounds like it's about to take off!


This never happened with my previous rMBP and I when it happens now, I immediately check the activity monitor, and nothing is happening, and there are no spikes in CPU - there is no load. I'm not even doing anything for the fans to spin up.


Any ideas? I've tried to reset the SMC, but I'm not sure that I did it correctly. There's no visual/audible indication after pressing left shift-ctrl-alt-power and then powering on. But anyway, after my SMC reset attempt, half hour later, the fans spun up to life again and then spun down. It's starting to get tiresome. My previous rMBPs were almost always silent unless I'm streaming flash video or something else heavy.


I would say this happens once or twice per session that I'm using the laptop. So it's rare, but regular.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 31, 2012 5:29 AM

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User profile for user: OGELTHORPE
OGELTHORPE
User level: Level 9
57,305 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2012 5:38 AM

Try the SMC reset again. Perform an Apple Hardware test. Install a temperature monitor such as iStat pro to see if there are ant temperature spikes. Opening Activity Monitor is a good idea.


My suspicions are a intermittent temperature sensor or a and intermittent temperature switch. Intermittent problems are very difficult to diagnose.


A trip to the Genius bar may be in order,


Ciao

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User profile for user: OGELTHORPE
OGELTHORPE
User level: Level 9
57,305 points

Dec 31, 2012 5:38 AM in response to jefferuk

Try the SMC reset again. Perform an Apple Hardware test. Install a temperature monitor such as iStat pro to see if there are ant temperature spikes. Opening Activity Monitor is a good idea.


My suspicions are a intermittent temperature sensor or a and intermittent temperature switch. Intermittent problems are very difficult to diagnose.


A trip to the Genius bar may be in order,


Ciao

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User profile for user: jefferuk
jefferuk Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Dec 31, 2012 5:57 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks for the reply.


I'll try a hardware test now. I wasn't aware that it existed before.


I just called Apple as well and they've booked an appointment for me at a Genius Bar. The lady suggested that I wipe all the content off my machine and see if the fan problem persists. I declined to do this, as my previous two rMBP held the same data off the same Time Machine restore, and didn't have this fan problem.


She also said that the only confirmation that the SMC reset has worked is that the machine doesn't power up because the three keys are held. This was the case for me - I had to press power again to start-up.

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User profile for user: bames
bames
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 4, 2013 8:27 AM in response to jefferuk

I have been experiencing the same situation 15" rMBP. Whenever the fans run like this I check iStats Pro which indicates the fans are spinning faster than 5000 rpm and also there is no temperature in the computer over 100F with most temperatures being in the 70s and 80s.


I just completed the SMC reset from apple's website and I did find an indication that the SMC reset worked because the light on the magsafe adapter resets to green and then flips to orange. Although if your battery was full than I guess it would not do anything.


The SMC reset did seem to relieve the problems for now.

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User profile for user: kirillo
kirillo
User level: Level 1
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Jan 4, 2013 9:34 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I have a same problem.

I tried to make SMC reset but problem not resolved.


MacBook Pro retina 15" with Samsung display Mac OS 10.8.2


Sometimes my fans can up to 6k rpm for a few minutes and back to normal after 30-60 seconds.

When i run a Games fans are running adequate to a temperature from 2000 to 3500 rpm but sometimes can up 6k



In desktop mode temperature not very hot so why my fans can up to 6k ?

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User profile for user: ComputerFixer
ComputerFixer
User level: Level 3
735 points

Jan 4, 2013 9:37 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

OGELTHORPE wrote:


Try the SMC reset again. Perform an Apple Hardware test. Install a temperature monitor such as iStat pro to see if there are ant temperature spikes. Opening Activity Monitor is a good idea.


My suspicions are a intermittent temperature sensor or a and intermittent temperature switch. Intermittent problems are very difficult to diagnose.


A trip to the Genius bar may be in order,


Ciao


At the same time, you could diagnose if it is indeed faulty hardware by using a program such SMCFanControll to set the computers preferred fan speed. This would force the fan to try to run at, say, 1800 RPM. If the fan refuses to do so, then you know you are looking at faulty hardware.



SMCFanControll: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

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User profile for user: ComputerFixer
ComputerFixer
User level: Level 3
735 points

Jan 4, 2013 9:50 AM in response to kirillo

I would definately take that to a Genious Bar. The fact that you set the fanspeed to 2000 rpm (and the program is reliable, i use it myself) and you are hearing the fan speed up to 6000 rpm, that means there is a problem between the speed controll and the actuall fan motor. As the last poster said, I think you could have a faulty temperature switch, since the temperature sensor is essentually thrown out of the equation by SMCFC.

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User profile for user: jefferuk
jefferuk Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Feb 11, 2013 1:51 PM in response to PowderNug

Just to update on my original post.


I took my rMBP to the Apple Store and they ran some diagnostics on the machine and found nothing "wrong".


Then the guy went to speak to his manager and his manager said that he had a smiliar case recently and the problem had been reported and escalted back to Apple, and they didn't know why it was happening.


They replaced my laptop with a new one. When I got it home and restored from TimeMachine, it experienced the same problems.


It bothered me so much that I wiped the laptop back to factory settings and started from scratch. Needless to say, it happened again.


To this day it still happens, but not that much, weirdly. It seems to be much better. It used to happen every time I turned the laptop on. But now only happens once in a while.


Still no solution from me I'm afraid.

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rMBP - fans spin to maximum speed periodically

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