2006 Mac fan suddenly went on and louder than usual

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2006 Mac fan suddenly went on and louder than usual

Hi everyone,

I don't quite know yet if this is a problem but this is a first for me. My iMac is about 8 years old and, unless maybe when I've popped in a DVD or burned music to a CD, I have never worked my iMac hard enough for the fan to go on. So I was watching TV with my Mac to the side with its screen saver on and all of a sudden I hear the fan go on and it's not alarmingly loud but it's way laouder than I've ever heard it before. And I have never heard it go on in screen saver mode. Ever. Is this a bad sign?

It has been running slow lately on the internet (I thought the slowness was because it was a little too far away from the router) and some programs did open slow. I run "CleanMyMac" periodically, keep my desktop organized and clean of too much junk and don't keep thousands of images on my computer as some people I know do. My screen saver is a short series of personal images of my dog.

A quick check of the HD says: 85.5 GB free out of 159.18 GB

Is my iMac just getting old? I couldn't be happier with it.

My stats:

17-inch, Late 2006

Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics ATI Radeon X1600 128 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)

P.S.

My screen saver is a short series of personal images of my dog. Perhaps I will change it to one of the factory installed screensavers and see if that helps.

imac

Posted on Feb 11, 2014 8:17 AM

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Answer 1

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sterling r

Community Specialist

Feb 13, 2014 2:45 PM in response to chillspike

Hey there chillspike,

It sounds like your computer is slower than normal and your fan is very loud. I recommend the steps outlined in the article named:

OS X Lion: If your Mac runs slowly

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3915

If you find your Mac is running slowly, check any open applications to make sure they’re compatible with your computer. Or you may need to increase your hard disk space or repair your hard disk.

An application you’re using may require more memory than your computer has. To see how much memory your computer has, choose Apple menu > About This Mac. See the documentation that came with the application to find out what it requires. To find out how to increase your computer’s memory, see the documentation that came with it.

Quit any application that isn’t compatible with your computer. For example, an application may require a different processor or graphics card. See the documentation that came with the application to find out what it requires.

To see what processor your computer has, choose Apple menu > About This Mac.

To see what graphics card your computer has, choose Apple menu > About This Mac, click More Info, and then click Displays.

There might not be enough free disk space on your computer’s startup disk. To make disk space available, you can move files to another disk and then delete files you no longer need on the startup disk.Increase disk space

Quit any applications you’re not using.

If none of these suggestions work, you may need to repair your computer’s disk in Disk Utility.Repair a disk

I would also recommend resetting your SMC:

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

And if needed, try performing a Safe Boot, then leave Safe Boot, and test the issue again.

OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.

Be sure your Mac is shut down.

Press the power button.

Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.

Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.

To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

All the very best,

Sterling

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