Too loud!

[adri]

Everytime I play a simple game, the fan gets soooo noisy. Even something simple like checking myspace with a song on it. How can I stop this?!

[TheCustomer99]

I think there's a program called FanControl that'll let you set the RPMs that your fan spins at.

[DigitalN.]

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049 here is a simple program I like to use.

[NPuter]

smcFanControl only sets the minimum rpm for the fans, therefore it is only usefull for raising the speed of the fans. If the system wants the fans to run faster, smcFanControl can do noting about it.

[nZa]

Laptops make tons of heat.

Fans cool them off.

If you turn the fans off, your Macbook will die.

If you don't want loud fans, get a desktop with liquid cooling.

[DigitalN.]

Laptops make tons of heat.

Fans cool them off.

If you turn the fans off, your Macbook will die.

If you don't want loud fans, get a desktop with liquid cooling.

agreed on that point. but in reality the macbook is not that loud when you have the fans turned on, just turn up the music!

[siavash]

agreed on that point. but in reality the macbook is not that loud when you have the fans turned on, just turn up the music!

Wrong.

I've looked into this for a while, and it is in fact listed as a defect on several websites that look into mac defects.

It's bad to the point that when I'm using it in class and the fan randomly decides to kick up, I get a ton of odd stares from people around me

[DigitalN.]

then try dusting out your computer, and setting the minimum fan speed to 3000 or so RPM with that program before you say it is Apple's fault. (not saying it isn't, but maybe it is just dusty or something like that)

[siavash]

Believe me dude I've done enough research by now to know it's a problem with the macbook. Besides, the fans have been loud essentially since day one that I bought it, so it really can't be attributed to dust...

[Henvan20]

Not to bash or anything, since im also a "newbie" here i guess.

If its so obvious that its a problem with the macbook, take it in to the apple store. End of story?

The other guys have been very helpful, the least you could do is say thanks. But hey, not wanting to start a fight or anything. Just saying.

[walkerj]

Um, my Dell D600 fan can get pretty dang loud too. Usually when I'm doing something like running a webcam that fan will spin up and well, not exactly howl, but it certainly gets cranked up.

My Macbook can get pretty loud at times. However the vast majority of the time it's about as silent as any computer. Same with my Mac Mini. Things that will get either of them spinning up include:

*) YouTube for some reason

*) Photoshop CS3

*) iCal insists on launching this thing called SyncServer, which will monopolize the CPU(s) and get it spinning

*) Parallels

*) Ad laden sites (newspapers are the biggest offenders, probably because of flash)

*) This program which I briefly installed to see if I could use my Macbook to access my employer's VPN (CheckPoint SecurClient)

*) Rendering video (obviously)

*) The iTunes album art screen saver

*) Dashboard (probably the weather radar widget)

All of these, with the exception of that VPN software which I promptly uninstalled and abandoned the idea of using my Mac on the corporate network, are transient and the fan will quickly quiet down. There was one time my Mac Mini had it's fan going full blast for a long time but I didn't notice it for a couple of days. It's connected to our HDTV as a Media Server and I don't really pay too much attention to it unless I'm going to use it to play a movie, so when I finally realized that it was doing that it was because software update had launched and was waiting for me to acknowledge it, and apparently that was somehow CPU intensive.

Anyway, bottom line is that laptop components get hot, that's why they have fans, and sometimes they get a bit loud. Still not as bad as the computer I built for my wife pre-Mac that had both chassis and CPU fan going like a jet engine 24/7.

[NPuter]

*) YouTube for some reason

Same here...
YouTube uses flash video ".flv" which may be whats causing the system to heat up