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Fans Spinning Up Randomly

Hello -


Have a 2015 Macbook Pro 15" Retina where the fans spin up randomly ... at times where there is not much load on the system at all. And they (the fans) spin up to what seems like, to me at least, full power. Sounds like it's jet ready to take off.


The times I've noticed this occurring:


- Downloading and installing updates

- During data transfers (USB to USB, TB to USB, SD to USB/TB ... transfer in both directions)

- Utilizing Google Chrome (not all the time, but on some pages with some active content, mainly video ad's)

- After quitting Premiere Pro with a TB device still attached. But the funny thing is, when I'm using PPro, (basic edits, importing) the fans don't spin up ... until I do rendering of course. So to get the fans to spin back down to normal ... I'll restart the computer (fans still spinning full speed during this restart process), log back in, make sure everything is done loading and then eject the TB device. After that, that's when the fans spin back down to normal.


I had a 2012 Retina MBP !5" (the first Retina version) and it never did this with the exception of rendering video. But it did have other major issues.


Was wondering ... is anybody else experiencing this?


Maybe this is normal?! (Doesn't seem like it to me, but maybe it is?!)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 2.8ghz/16gb RAM/512gb SSD/ATI R9

Posted on Aug 30, 2015 7:33 PM

Reply
7 replies

Aug 30, 2015 8:12 PM in response to Shaluda

Your Mac uses measured temperatures inside the case at several points to control the fans in a feedback loop. Sometimes the fans will be late turning on because the increased temperature takes a while to flow through to the sensors.


It sounds quite normal to me as well.


low level action of the fans is controlled by the System Management Controller, which also manages clock generation, power, charging, low-level keyboard input, and a few other miscellaneous things. If it is not working correctly, an SMC Reset can sometimes set it straight:


Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support


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Fans Spinning Up Randomly

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