Airport extreme suddenly overheating over and over

Question

Level 1

17 points

Airport extreme suddenly overheating over and over

Hi!

Question

I have the latest version of Apple Extreme (tower) and it has been working without problems for over a year (when i bought it). Suddenly today, it has startet spinning the internal fans and blinking amber with an error message saying "the unit is about to overheat", or something like that. The fans spin and the amber light blinking for 10-20 seconds, when it turns green and the fan goes silent. A minute or so later, the process repeats itself. Sometimes this happens 3-4 times a minute. Unnecessary to say, this is very annoying as the tower is sitting right next to the TV in the living room and is quite loud. Its been going on like this for a few hours now. The ambient room temperature is 23-34 degrees celsius (75 F). The unit is cool to the touch. When the fans spin, the air exiting from the bottom is also cool, just a few degrees higher than the room air. I have not changed any settings in the last 6 months.

Things I've tried

restarting the router
unplugging the AC cable for a few minutes
latest firmware already installed

Question

Why is this suddenly happening?
What can I do to fix this?

Posted on May 28, 2018 10:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 28, 2018 2:53 PM in response to Anterialis

There is one solution mentioned in the list of many many posts..

Turn off file sharing.

I gave some details here.

Re: why is my airport extreme overheating?

But go to the end of the thread and you will find a lot of users had success with simply turning off file sharing.

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Answer 2

May 28, 2018 11:35 AM in response to Anterialis

One possibility.....experienced by any number of users who have had an AirPort in operation for 12-18 months or more...... is that the internal fan has become clogged with dust, so it's cooling efficiency is reduced and the temperature of the internal power supply electronics begins to rise. If you place your hand on the top of the unit, it is unlikely that you will notice any temperature change, since the electronics are buried inside the AirPort, and the high speed fan tends to cool things down.....until the process starts all over again.

If you have AppleCare in effect on one of your Macs, the AirPort Extreme might still be covered for replacement up to 3 years from its purchase date even though the device is past the usual one year warranty. The "rules" are complicated, so you'll need to get with Apple for details if you think the AirPort might be covered.

If....like me....you do not have a Mac that is currently covered by AppleCare, and you are a do-it-yourself type person with small electronic repairs, you can open up the AirPort Extreme, pull the fan out and clean it out with compressed air. Better yet, replace the fan since the motor bearings tend to get noisy after a few years as well.

The following link provides some information about how to disassemble the AirPort Extreme. Frankly, this is not easy.....in my opinion.....and you will need to be very careful if you decide to try this, since there are delicate connectors and cables that can be easily damaged when the components are removed from the case.

AirPort Extreme A1521 Teardown - iFixit

A source for the fan replacement might be: Fan For Apple Airport Extreme A1521 Cooling Fan$22.90eBayFree shipping, no tax

There is also another possibility mentioned by some users that the internal temperature sensor does not work correctly due to a software problem. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there is really no way to address this other than try resetting the AirPort back to factory default settings and then set it up again.

If you have not already tried resetting the AirPort back to factory default settings and then set it up again, that might be worth a try.

Personally, I have not seen this issue. Perhaps one of the users who has actually experienced this can provide more details.

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Answer 3

Anterialis Author

Level 1

17 points

May 28, 2018 12:18 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you very much for your detailed response. Your theory about the fan getting clogged by dust might be correct. I will keep this in mind and approach that if the problem doesn't resolve. But I do find it interesting that this never before was a problem; I don't think the fans spun before.. And today, for 10 seconds 2-3 times a minutes... I've now tried unplugging it and putting it in a 5 degree celcius (40 F) room to cool it down. Almost immediately (2-3 minutes) after turning it on, the fans started and the same error message appeared... Weird, it feels like something is wrong with the temperature sensor..

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Answer 4

May 28, 2018 12:28 PM in response to Anterialis

I don't think the fans spun before

The fan is operating at all times when the AirPort is powered on. Normally, you won't hear it.

The fan will speed up.....and will be audible.....when the temperature sensor thinks that the electronics are moving above the normal operating temperature range.

The fan is not turning off after it cools things down internally, it just returns to its normal slow and very quiet operation mode.

However, the fan will also "screech" if the motor bearing lubrication dries out, or dust is interfering with operation of the fan motor. The screech is constant when this occurs.

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