MacBook Pro - Fans spin up on power on

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro - Fans spin up on power on

Hi,

I got my MBP back the night before last night, it was in for a major repair in which they replaced the Main-board (includes new SDD, RAM, Fans, I/O board, I/O Flex cable as well as the Clamshell Retina display (Complete))

The issue I was having before, after my MBP "burn-out" something inside, which caused them to replace everything, still seams to be happening.

My fans spin-up as soon as you turn the power on.

They also stay on the whole day (and never go off).

I know this is not the standard case with the MBP - as I have confirmed this with the genius at the apple store when I took it in last night - and he told me that it was "not doing it any more" ... and I got home, turned it on... and it was doing it still .... what a waste of a trip to the Apple Store on that one 😟

I wanted to know if other had this issue, and if its perhaps an installed app. I have the widget iStats (which is loaded on the widget screen all the time) ... To check things, and after googling things, I installed smcFan control... in which I am NOT able to tell it "not" to spin the fans, there is no option in the APP that has a minimum speed of 0 (zero) I also installed the "Macs Fan Control.app" - which also does not have the option to make a zero minimum spin speed.

Because the MBP's fans come on immediately when I turn the power ON... and stay on through log-in, and boot up... and the whole day... I struggle to see it as a software issue - unless one app along the way set something in the machine config that tells it to always be on...

During use of the MBP, and when it does get "hot" ... the fans also do not seam to spin up faster to cool it down, knowing that this algorithm may think its not necesary to cool it down when the GPU Diode is cooking at 155 degrees F - the SSD is running over 115 degrees F - the CPU Heatsink is at 126 degrees... and so on... I in this case used smcFan to cool it down by manually increasing the fan-speed (I otherwise do not have either of the fan-speed apps running automatically on boot, the only one is the iStat widget, which as far as I see does not "control" it only "reads" the values)

Is there anything I can check for this.... I really don't want to waste my time again going to the Apple Store to have a genius tell me they are not on, to get back home again to see that they are still on :S

Thanks!

Brad

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), Just had main-board etc replaced.

Posted on Apr 17, 2015 2:23 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 17, 2015 2:26 PM in response to itmachines

Take it back and have them fix it properly. We can't fix it and neither can you.

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Answer 2

itmachines Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2015 2:42 PM in response to Kappy

EDIT: I notice that when using smcFanControl, you can set the "Default" for the fan speed... In this app you can not select a minimum speed of less than 2100 left, and 2000 right... Going into the other app, Macs Fan Control (MFC) it tells you the minimum speed that "can" be used is the same as what I make the minimum with the smcFan app... i.e... If I make the minimum for both fans 4000 in smc, then close it... and open MFC... then MFC tells me that the minimum fan speed is 4000.... This makes me think that smcFanControl is updating a system setting to tell is what the minimum fan speed is... which would make sense that when booting from power off, the fan speed is already set to the minimum. ( I will confirm this by setting it HIGH, and powering off, then powering off again - and will update this thread ONLY if I am wrong in the understanding that on powering ON again, that my fan speed will come on as I power on at the HIGH speed that I set it in smcFanControl!!! Only if I am wrong) ... which would lead me to the question to the Apple geniuses, of "How do I then set my "default" minimum fan-speed back to zero?? ( and I can then un-install the fan-applications, as I only installed them to see if I could control the fan speed to make it zero, which I can't)

I have only a few apps open right now while I type this, and checking activity log, FireFox which seams to be using a LOT of cpu power for me to type into this box (I must be typing blazing fast - not 🙂) ... which makes my GPU Diode to go over 155 degrees F :S)

:END EDIT

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 17, 2015 3:06 PM in response to itmachines

Have you tried a SMC reset?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Ciao.

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Answer 4

itmachines Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2015 3:59 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Hi,

yes, I have tried this. I follow the instructions, but the light on my charger does not "change" ... I have tried it a few times, and it does not change.

I have also confirmed that setting smcFanControl to HIGH, and then rebooting, does NOT make it boot HIGH, it defaults back to low, but its still ON all the time. If I then load smc after the boot, it shoots back up to my set-default of high.

I will continue to monitor temperatures, and make sure that its not getting hot - without using any of the fan apps... but I still think that the system settings are making the fans come on and stay on all day... and as far as I see my doing an SMC reset, it does not change this.

Thanks

Brad

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