Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

MacBook Pro Retina Fan Issues

Hi,


I bought a macBook Pro Retina just under a month ago, and have been experiencing some issues with the fan speeds.


I can be just browsing the web or checking emails or playing music through iTunes, and the fans will spin up to full speed for a minute or so, and then return to normal.


I have reset the SMC, the PRAM and repaired the Disk and Disk Permissions, with no luck, I've also tried a full format and reinstall with no luck either.


I have seen that others have been experiencing similar issues, and wanted to get some advice on where I can go from here.

Attached below is a Screen Grab of my temps and fan speeds. The fans were at normal speed for a few minutes, then went up to a high speed, back down and then back up again, and kept repeating.


User uploaded file


Thanks in advance,


James.

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 12:25 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 6:42 PM

Your screen grab is not visible. Please reattach.

772 replies

Feb 27, 2013 2:31 AM in response to jeffrosun

I heard someone else suggesting that it could be this which is why on all 4 of my systems I never had a torrent client installed.


In fact on all 4 of my systems I never installed anything. I wanted to rule out ever thinking it was something another programme was doing also proven in activity monitor. All that was done was a fresh setup every time. So only default mac apps running.

Feb 27, 2013 3:02 AM in response to peppie55

Interesteing peppie55.


When I did my little tests I found that it wouldn't happen at a regular time. It was very random. When pulling 34GB worth of files it would sometimes only do the first fan cycle at 8GB in sometimes 500MB sometimes 3GB. Was very random. But no matter what across the whole 34GB transfer over a 30 min period it would activate the fans at least 3 times no matter how cool the entier system was.


There were also the other times when I was doing nothing on my system and it would think it was a good idea to cool down. So although my test always recreated the fans to spin up it would still do it when it felt like it for no reason.

Feb 27, 2013 3:16 AM in response to peppie55

I can't say that I can do that test as I have no apple lossless files. I also no longer have the system as I opted for getting my money refunded onto a gift card and I will puchase one again when I think apple have got their act together.


Either way I owned a 2012 rMBP for 13 days wihtout once ever hearing the fan inadvertantly come on when I was using it fully as a proper laptop everyday. I did use itunes a fair bit but was never apple lossless. Wish I never exchanged now.

Feb 27, 2013 4:50 AM in response to jamezmbp

I experience the same issue with mine which was replaced by a brand new when my battery died: the fans will spin up to reach their top speed for about a minute and then go back to their standard speed.


I've noticed it happens when I open a new tab in google chrome, sometimes it's just completely random.


Both temperatures and cpu/disk/memory usage are very low when this happens.

Feb 27, 2013 5:41 AM in response to peppie55

The thing which I noticed is that on my late 2012 model. It does the random spikes every so often. Also when I use handbrake to burn a dvd to my harddrive the fans go crazy then but I would expect that but not the random spikes.


The 2013 model does it more than ever and like people are finding when copying files.


I am in touch with Apple and will let you know what they tell me. I just dont want to keep returning them I want a working laptop 😟

Feb 27, 2013 7:07 AM in response to Craig 2013

I have just spoken to one of the senior mac support advisors and she is saying that because of the build this is normal. This is supposed to be how the machine behaves because of the retina and how small the laptop is it is designed like this. I dont realy believe this but that is their stance on it.


I was told I either return it for a refund or just put up with it. Sorry guys this is all I now know and I have to make the decision what to do.

Feb 27, 2013 8:04 AM in response to Craig 2013

I'm sorry this is not normal at all. If apple is taking that stance then why on the 2012 edition the problem is not present in all of them pretty much. Also isn't this version meant to be a refinement. If so can someone from apple explain how the fans kicking randomly on full more often under the same workload is an improvement over the previous edition.

MacBook Pro Retina Fan Issues

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.