Noisy fan on MBA 2012

Question

Level 1

8 points

Noisy fan on MBA 2012

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help! I have a 2012 MBAir. (with Intel Core i7). Last week it started to make a loud whirring sound from start up which I presume is the fan. I'm not smart at this stuff so after searching the internet I did an SMC reset, a PRAM reset, removed Adobe, scanned for viruses (none), checked the CPU usage (nothing odd running over 10%) and checked the fan speed (it's running around 2000 rpm) and the temperature isn't hot. I'm not sure if these are connected issues but I installed El Capitan the week prior, things seem to be running a bit slower than usual but nothing terrible.

Weirdly, one night it just stopped and I thought I must have done something right! Two days later it started whirring again while watching a video.

I just wondered if anyone had any gems of advice and might be able to help? It would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Karen

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 28, 2016 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 28, 2016 3:29 PM in response to karen555

A

The first step, and maybe the only one needed, is to get rid of your "anti-virus" software. All such software is worse than useless on a Mac, and it may well be causing the problem. Remove it according to the developer's instructions after backing up all data.

B

If there's no improvement, please see below.

Apps can affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity - Apple Support

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