I accidentally broke one of the two thermal sensors attached to the original hard drive on my Mac mini (2010 model). This happened when upgrading to an solid state drive. Now the fan runs at full speed and never slows down. I assume it's because it constantly thinks it's overheating. Can I simply remove the broken thermal sensor, so that it relies on just the one intact sensor?
You can get the senor replaced or use an app like Mac Fan Control to manually control fan speed. For more info see:
http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mid-2010-mac-mini-with-broken-hdd-thermal-se nsor.1670547/
For a broken sensor, on out range temp is sensed and for safety the fan runs at full speed.
"Can I simply remove the broken thermal sensor, so that it relies on just the one intact sensor?"
No, your best bet is to get a replacement sensor.
http://www.applecomponents.com/items/076-1369_hard-drive-thermal-temp-sensor-hdd
http://www.thebookyard.com/product.php?cPath=96_257&products_id=7044
For this exact situation I am using SSD Fan Control 2.12 on my 2010 Mini. It's free. The 2.13 didn't work properly for me. I just keep the fan rpms up at 2k, about +200. The normal is around 1800.
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/
That said, it's pretty easy to replace the sensor. Just be careful removing the logic board connector. Pry up gently from behind, where the attached wire is.
Thanks, everyone! Appreciate the links to replacement parts for the thermal sensor, and links to fan controls to mitigate the issue otherwise.
I ended up disconnecting the broken thermal sensor from the logic board, and using the following software to control the fan:
http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
(I'm running Windows 10 via Bootcamp on this Mac.)
It's a tad noisier on average than it used to be before all this happened, but the fan spends most of its time around the 2000-2500 RPM range, so it's a fair solution for now.
Can I remove a broken thermal sensor from the Mac mini?
