my macbook air wont click and fans at hugh speed

Question

Level 1

11 points

my macbook air wont click and fans at hugh speed

So I have a MacBook Air I think late 2015, and a few ago days it was working perfect. Yesterday I turned it on and the trackpad would behave a bit funny, but the left click wouldn’t work. The fans were at max speed and the laptop itself was very slow. The laptop wasn’t hot or anything.

I rebooted it and connected a mouse, and for the first few moments the clicking worked but then it ceased even on the mouse. The right click and scrolling with the mouse was working. The right click worked on the trackpad but not the scrolling. Some gestures worked too but not all. So to click also didn’t work.

I rebooted it a few times, at the beginning it seemed that when on logging screen, the fans would not run high, and the clicks would in fact work. Once after writing my password, the fans would run at max speed again and the clicking would cease to respond.

Today I tried again and the clicking on logging screen also doesn’t work, but the fans didn’t kick in at least..

The warranty is well past and I don’t think at the moment I can afford taking it to an Apple store. Is there anything I can do about it?

I did te SMC thingy but it also didn’t help..

Posted on Nov 18, 2017 7:11 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

GermanMTVK Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 21, 2017 4:45 AM in response to John Galt

There is no official apple store in my city, but there are some licensed stores, which I know charge at least 50 euros for a diagnosis.

So what I did is, buy a 15 euros screwdriver kit, open up the Mac, clean it up, and remove the heat sensor that seemed to be faulty (Mac fans running at high speed even though its not hot?)

Replaced the thermal paste, and voilà! Mac's working like a charm. Haven't seen this recommendation anywhere else (replace the thermal paste if you are having issues with high running fans and low speed processing) so I hope someone sees this and does the same!

Only issue I am still having is the trackpad sometimes doing long clicks (holding some items/windows/tabs/whatever it comes across), and for like 5 seconds stops responding to clicks, but until now it happened only twice and since then I haven't had the same issue. Any ideas/tips as for what could be causing it?

Reply

Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

141,144 points

Nov 18, 2017 4:46 PM in response to GermanMTVK

The warranty is well past and I don’t think at the moment I can afford taking it to an Apple store.

An Apple Store might charge a fee for a diagnosis, but they might not. It wouldn't hurt to ask. If it needs repair they will be able to present options for your consideration.

Reply