Fan runs wild from Arabesque screensaver

Odd that Apple would release such a screensaver as a standard option when it's clear it doesn't behave, even on a new, top-of-the-line Mac. I guess a "heater" also increases wear and tear and reduces the life of the machine, which of course is good for Apple, but not customers.

Hello Kurt and OT....

Thanks very much for your responses. Here's some additional information about my experience and the report you asked for.

I did upgrade as you recommended macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

I closed all background programs, such as Dropbox, killed Chrome, etc.

The problem persists, and I made a video of it. https://youtu.be/ho0Ou0MdJqU

start - state of computer, open programs, Intel Power Gadget views

0:31 - started screensaver

1:31 - notice the touchbar light goes out, and this is when things start to rev up

2:12 - louder

2:47 - even louder

3:30 - full on loud

4:36 - I take screensaver off, and you can see the stats from Intel Power Gadget were off the charts

over the next 1.5 minutes you can hear the fan start to die down to normal

One interesting note is, the first time I tried this today (the PC had been powered off) it took a full 4-5 minutes for the fan to start blowing once in screensaver mode. On the second and subsequent attempts the timing mirrors the video.

I haven't tried many of the other screensavers, but "Flurry" and "Message" worked fine. I guess the simple answer is to just not use the "Arabesque". That's not much of a solution though and given that I'm sure it's CPU intensive, but geez this is a pretty high-end processor.

Here is the report you requested, which I ran right after I concluded the video.

-------------

EtreCheck version: 4.3.6 (4D041)

Report generated: 2018-07-26 19:30:56

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 2:30

Performance: Excellent

Problem: Other problem

Description:

Machine fires up when in screensaver mode

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software installed that could be adware and should be reviewed.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Abnormal shutdown - Your machine shut down abnormally.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro14,2

1 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-7567U) CPU: 2-core

16 RAM - Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB LPDDR3 2133 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB LPDDR3 2133 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 15

Video Information:

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD AP0512J 500.28 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x4 NVM Express

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB

disk0s2 499.96 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 499.96 GB (270.36 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 499.96 GB (22 MB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 499.96 GB (519 MB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 499.96 GB (1.07 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 499.96 GB (227.82 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 499.96 GB (227.82 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface en7: USB 10/100/1000 LAN

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en6: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Quota: 45.74 GB available

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

System Load: 1.42 (1 min ago) 1.84 (5 min ago) 2.62 (15 min ago)

Security:

System Status

Gatekeeper Mac App Store and identified developers

System Integrity Protection Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/bigsql.pg10.plist

Executable: /usr/bin/python ~/PostgreSQL/pg10/run-pgctl.py

Details: Domain name invalid - possibly adware

32-bit Applications:

3 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Extensions

[Loaded] EnergyDriver.kext (2.0 - SDK 10.13)

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 170 Apple tasks

[Running] 116 Apple tasks

[Other] One Apple task

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 39 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 170 Apple tasks

[Running] 126 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-07-16)

Launch Daemons:

[Loaded] com.microsoft.OneDriveUpdaterDaemon.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-05-22)

[Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-07-16)

[Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-05-13)

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-07-19)

[Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-05-22)

[Running] bigsql.pg10.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-07-04)

User Login Items:

Google Chrome Application (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-06-28)

(/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

iTunesHelper Application (Apple - installed 2018-07-11)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Dropbox Application (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-07-15)

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

Internet Plug-ins:

QuickTime Plugin: (installed 2018-07-26)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count) Source % of CPU Location

kernel_task Apple 15

WindowServer Apple 7

sandboxd Apple 0

postgres: stats collector process ? 0

mds_stores Apple 0

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count) Source RAM usage Location

kernel_task Apple 1.14 GB

mdworker (24) Apple 776 MB

MTLCompilerService (10) Apple 225 MB

mds_stores Apple 212 MB

Activity Monitor Apple 135 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process Source Input Output Location

biometrickitd Apple 17 KB 105 KB

mDNSResponder Apple 51 KB 15 KB

apsd Apple 10 KB 12 KB

cloudd Apple 7 KB 2 KB

assistantd Apple 5 KB 4 KB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count) Source Energy (0-100) Location

WindowServer Apple 5

sysmond Apple 0

nsurlsessiond (2) Apple 0

cloudphotosd Apple 0

airportd Apple 0

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM 11.17 GB

Free RAM 4.39 GB

Used RAM 4.83 GB

Cached files 6.78 GB

Swap Used 0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name Version Install Date

iTunes 12.8 2018-07-11

Microsoft AutoUpdate 4.1.18070503 2018-07-16

Microsoft Outlook for Mac 16.15.18070902 2018-07-16

Microsoft OneNote for Mac 16.15.18070902 2018-07-16

Microsoft Excel for Mac 16.15.18070902 2018-07-16

Microsoft Word for Mac 16.15.18070902 2018-07-16

Gatekeeper Configuration Data 148 2018-07-19

Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 16.15.18070902 2018-07-19

Intel® Power Gadget 3.0.3 2018-07-23

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-07-26 19:10:28 Last Shutdown Cause: -128 - Unknown

2018-07-25 11:28:31 Dropbox.app CPU

/Applications/Dropbox.app

End of report

Thanks for checking.

I did a bit more Googling around, and it seems this particular screensaver has been a major offender for 10 YEARS+

Screen Saver Makes Fan Go Fast? | MacRumors Forums

I will chalk it up to Apple simply not caring to fully QA their products.

Obvious now.

But many Google searches didn't reveal the issue. I thought I might help someone else.