MacBook Pro fan question

V

valve1138

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 14, 2003
Messages
11,299
I've got an early '08 MBP. Should both fans be running at the same time? Or do they only both spin up when needed?

The "geniuses" at the local Apple store failed at fixing my MBP grinding fan noise. "We ran it for 16 hours and detected no problems". mmmkay, you guys must be deaf and illiterate. And now I think they failed to reconnect one fan, or broke it, after they cleaned the inside of the laptop.
 
Hmm, I don't hear my fans at all. They only seem to turn on when running my MBP with 9600GT
 
hmm. iStat only indicates one fan running at 2000rpm. I can't remember if both were running prior to bringing it in for repair.
 
For what it's worth, mine defaults the fans to 2000rpm, and then only revs them up when the proc hits 60-70c. I use smcfancontrol to keep them at 3200rpm, as it keeps normal use temps at 48-50c and isn't any more audible than 2000rpm.
 
So both fans are running?

The noise I've got is not normal, it's the grinding fan noise that's fairly common with this model of MacBook Pro.
 
valve1138 said:
So both fans are running?

The noise I've got is not normal, it's the grinding fan noise that's fairly common with this model of MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

Both fans will usually run around 2000rpm just to keep some airflow going and keep everything nice and cool.

As far as the fan noise issue is concerned, if its a common issue your likely to get screwed at the genius bar unless you have applecare, and even then (because fans involve stripping the system to the logic board to replace) they may not help you. It was like the non unibody MBPs that had the issues with the 8600GTs frying and apple continued to deny the issue much less do anything to fix it until nVidia came out and said that basically every 8600GT in every laptop (apple or otherwise) was going to fry way short of its expected lifetime due to shoddy manufacturing. Only then did apple say "It wasn't us, see it was the hardware supplier" and started fixing systems. Until you have a fan actually fail your probably not gonna get it replaced in store though try your luck over the phone as you can usually get taken care of better there.
 
Last edited:
You could always try a third party Apple repair center. They get paid by Apple to do the work, but they aren't as strict sometimes. I use them whenever I am having problems with the Apple store.

Do a search online and read any customer reviews you can find, there are a couple of good ones in the Portland area.
 
C7, I have Applecare.

Felix, thanks for the tip.

I'm going to try sending it into a repair depot after I get home from this vacay.
 
Did you take this in and get it fixed? If so how quick was the turnaround. I've got this lovely grinding noise from the fans on my Late '08 MBP and need to get it fixed. Wasn't sure if its a same day, in-store thing or if it gets sent out. I also actually need to have them look at the screen flashing problem I have too but that is separate.
 
aphex187 said:
Did you take this in and get it fixed? If so how quick was the turnaround. I've got this lovely grinding noise from the fans on my Late '08 MBP and need to get it fixed. Wasn't sure if its a same day, in-store thing or if it gets sent out. I also actually need to have them look at the screen flashing problem I have too but that is separate.
Click to expand...
Is your MBP with 8600GT?
 
Looks like one fan is definitely borked. I'm encoding some video in Final cut and the right fan reads 6000RPM with a CPU temp of about 83c, and the left fan reads 0 rpm.

Hopefully it won't bake the whole damn thing before I'm done.

edit: I opened the lid to hopefully cool it down, the CPU temp is down to about 80.

edit2: looks like the fan is down to about 4800rpm and a cpu temp of 79. yippee :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top