Macbook Air Late 2010 Fan Issue

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Level 1

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Macbook Air Late 2010 Fan Issue

Hey guys! I currently have a Macbook Air Late 2010 and the fan is super loud even when I am doing no activity whatsoever. I turn on my computer and the fan turns on after about 5 minutes. It gets crazy hot when I'm just surfing the web without watching videos nor visiting sites with flash resulting in my battery life only lasting one hour. I reformatted my computer last week and its currently running OS X 10.8.5. I tried a SMC reset and PRAM and neither have helped. Please help ):

Laptop Specs:

Processor 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

256 GB Storage

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Late 2010

Posted on Jul 27, 2014 10:30 PM

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Answer 1

Cunnla

Level 6

8,263 points

Jul 27, 2014 11:36 PM in response to Joshua Hsueh

It could be your battery. Check it out in System Profiler/Power and see the cycle count and if the battery condition is reported as normal. If not you may need a new battery.

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Answer 2

Joshua Hsueh Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2014 1:11 AM in response to Cunnla

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5468

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 750

Condition: Normal

The design capacity is 6700 mAh but now my max is 5468 which is only 82% of the original capacity. Even if it says Normal, would it fix the problem if I were to get my battery replaced?

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Answer 3

Cunnla

Level 6

8,263 points

Jul 28, 2014 4:27 AM in response to Joshua Hsueh

Your cycle count is quite high. There's nothing wrong with that per se, as you probably use your computer quite a lot. I also have a late 2010 MBA -- with the same specs as yours -- and its cycle count is around 400 and max capacity about 90 percent of original. But I haven't been using it much since I got a Macbook Pro about 10 months ago. I cannot tell you replacing the battery will fix the problem but I read somewhere that up to 1,000 cycles is normal for the MBA. If you are not planning to buy a new computer It is worth while to change the battery. The Apple shop will do it for a reasonable charge.

If you do not have it already, try Coconut Battery which will give you the battery temperature and much more. It is free and can be obtained here:

http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

A temperature above 60C is probably something to be worried about.

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Answer 4

Joshua Hsueh Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2014 5:45 AM in response to Cunnla

Thanks for the quick response. I'm planning on building a desktop pc soon and handing this Macbook over to my younger sister so I'll probably take it in the Apple store and have one of the Genius Bar technicians diagnose it and replace the battery if needed. Really appreciate the feedback. Have a good one mate!

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