Constant fan noise on 2017 iMac even at rest

UPDATE--- Possible "fix"

So I went way above and way beyond an Apple Genius... I went to my 18 y.o. son! and I think he may have a solution or fix. There is a program called "Mac Fan Control."I did the SMC thing and it rebooted with the fan going right from the start. I was ready to return the unit, when my son walked by and I told him. Daniel.. get's the credit. This program running on "Based on Ambient" seems to prevent most of the fan noise. I ran the following programs: activity monitor showing "coreservicesd" at 48-94% of CPU as I had a lot of programs running: duplicates application running while Photoshop open, while messenger, keynote, iTunes, Canvas, iPhoto, Excel, Word, and about 2 more. My Ram used was only about 13 GB. On "Auto" mode the fan got up to about 2800 RPM immediately and was VERY loud. On the "Based on Ambient" setting with the 3 preferences checked off, the fan speed kept generally less than 1900RPM and minimally audible. Below 1600 it's barely audible to those trying to hear something you can but not much.

Try this app and I FULLY SUGGEST YOU PAY THE people who made the application THE $14. You would have spent 5 x's that amount in time and frustration and gas to return your iMac. Thanks Daniel for pointing me in the right direction!, love dad PS feel free to pay Daniel too (college $ ) lol

and make these tests too...and still noisy !!!

Mac SMC and PRAM reset

105680 Views | Last Modified: May 16, 2014

SMC RESET

• Shut down the computer.
• Unplug the computer's power cord from both the wall and computer.
• Wait 15 seconds.
• Attach the computers power cable.
• Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.

PRAM RESET

• Shut down the computer.
• Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
• Turn on the computer.
• Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
• Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
• Release the keys.

Wienandy wrote:

I also have a similar problem with a 2017 iMac. Diagnostics show no problems both at home and at the Apple support service provider. Although Apple agreed to a replacement a shipping problem by Apple means I am well past my 14 days to return the machine. Apple Support are now very quiet and I still have a noisy iMac. Any ideas anyone?

Reset the SMC 2-3 times back to back and re-test. Intel iMac SMC and VRAM resets

Hi Everyone..

this issues has plagued me for weeks and i've finally swapped and upgraded my machine.

I'll cut to the chase.

If you want a quiet 2017 imac you need the following

SSD Hard drive (fusion drive was like going back 1998 for me - 7200rpm drilling through my desk)

Maximum Ram no less : 64GB

ANY model will do. It's not about the Processor speed.

Forget fusion drives, forget trying to run it even in idle with 8gb of RAM, the machine runs fan to cope with added processing and file swapping.

Unless its running like a vacuum cleaner.. SSD reset will do nothing.

Cheers

onlyse wrote:

So you popped in 64GB RAM but running a Fusion Drive?

Also what are the specs to your computer?

I have tried 32gb and 16gb with Fusion and exporting Photographs in lightroom was a Disaster (The Fan was SUPER loud).

You almost certainly have other issue, an iMac with 32GB of RAM should run quickly. Please follow the directions below.

Please post an EtreCheck report of your system and we can look for any obvious issues. Please click the link, download and run the app and then post the complete report it produces as your reply to this message.

I have the i7 in my 2017 iMac and a 1TB SSD mines and mine is virtually silent in every day use, you really have to push it to here them rev up. The iMac you have only has one fan the same as the late 2012, it should not be noisier. Make sure nothing is obstructing the intakes at the bottom of the chin and the grill at the back. If its that bad which it should not be, I would suggest contacting Apple directly

Good clarification. Don't go out and spend a fortune if you don't need to. But if you need silent, (like me in a studio) it seems the more ram you stick in, the less the fan spins. I can only theorise why, but it certainly was the case for me even though i dont need 64gb it was worth it for the noise floor payoff. 🙂

No, replaced it with iMac with ssd. Fusion drive was noisiest component by far, also seemed to heat up computer so fan kicked in earlier when rendering. In my humble opinion, fusion drive all round bad.

Nick2Bob wrote:

I originally bought the 2017 iMac with the core i5 3.8 Mghz 2 Tb fusion drive, had no issues worked great for video rendering and editing photos. 3 days in of owning this, I got greedy and I decided to return the iMac to upgrade to the core i7 iMac thinking this will last me much longer and render even faster than i5. The core i7 Mac took 10 days to make because of special order. Long story short, the i7 ran slower, had issues rendering and editing photos, random glitches on screen. I even went ahead and upgraded to 32gb of ram. My 2013 MacBook edited photos better and smoother than the 2017 i7 4.2 mghz imac. Just took it into the Apple store for an appointment I had. Issues could not be fixed, many people agreed this machine has had many issues and not worth purchasing due to all the issues. Even the workers believe apple messed up somewhere with the i7 iMac. I wish mine worked because I have so much work to do and now I’m behind scheduled because I relied on the machine that it would work. And that’s my horror store 😟

Don't put up with it. Simple!

You pay top dollar for a Mac. Make Apple fix it. Do not take any excuses.

Escalate the issue until they fix it or replace it.

Most of these problems are due to (there is no other word for it) the stupid decision to make iMacs too thin and with no vent at the top of the case. This has been a long standing issue and was particularly bad in the white polycarbonate models. Apple never owned up to the problem and persisted with the same bad design, only I believe lately even worse.

You have a warranty. Exercise it and check your consumer rights. Even if you are in the USA, where consumers are mostly at the mercy of corporations, you still have rights. Apply them. If you are in the EEC, Australia or NZ your rights are clearly defined under law. Apple must make good your purchase, replace it or give you your money back.

Peter

I have the same problem with my new Imac: 14 days to give my money back....I return it....My mid 2011 Imac 27 inch still very quiet compare to the Fan noisy of new Imac 2017

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display

Configuration

• 4.2GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz

• 8GB 2400MHz DDR4

• 2TB Fusion Drive

• Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB video memory

I have a brand new, refurbished, 4.2ghz i7 with 2 TB SSD w/ 16G of Ram and yes the fan runs all the time. I have had Apple computers since the Apple 2+ and most have been great. I have to say I am disappointed in this model and to hear so many people have the same issue. Not a good thing for the "top of the line" iMac, excluding the new pro version.

Shame is I just ordered more RAM but may return the computer myself too!

Running Activity monitor shows only a small part of the RAM is being used and even 20% of the CPU is running but the fan is pretty loud. I did not have this with my 2015 model i7. I think I was better off with that one. It did have some occasional fan noise but nothing like this new 2017 version.

@Burgerb: Was watching a short video when the exhaust fan kicked-on and stayed on for a good 15 minutes. Only went off after I quit watching the movie. Makes no sense that a basic movie should trigger exhaust fan. Also, SSD made no difference for me on this configuration: 1TB SSD/4.2/16RAM/i7/580. Was wondering if I should return it. Don't really trust Apple explanations anymore after the whole forced slow down of iPhones: I went to the store at least 4 times and they tried convincing me that the crashing and slow down were from my apps and not the phone battery.

Fusion drive is noisy like a fan.