MacBook fan exhaust always high

For a while now, the fan exhaust on my macbook has been constantly rising past 6,000rpm when I'm simply watching a YouTube video or even just listening to iTunes alone.

I've of course googled this problem and found that many others with this problem solve it by taking a look at Activity Monitor and end a process they didn't realize was using much of the CPU. When I tried this I found that Activity Monitor was actually taking up the most power as it was the only application open and it was only using 0.5-1.0% of the CPU.

Also when I try to watch a video on YouTube or any other site for that matter, the macbook heats up instantly, the fan reaches it's max, and the computer itself becomes very glitchy (mouse pointer skipping all over, delayed actions, etc.)

As you can imagine this has been extremely frustrating, as it hinders what I can and can't do, from basically surfing the web to watching a video online. Any and all help is extremely appreciated; I just can't figure this one out!

LouderIsBetter said:

For a while now, the fan exhaust on my macbook has been constantly rising past 6,000rpm when I'm simply watching a YouTube video or even just listening to iTunes alone.

Also when I try to watch a video on YouTube or any other site for that matter, the macbook heats up instantly, the fan reaches it's max, and the computer itself becomes very glitchy (mouse pointer skipping all over, delayed actions, etc.)

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There's nothing "simple" about watching a You-Tube video! Watching You-Tube videos is actually a high demand activity.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

There's nothing "simple" about watching a You-Tube video! Watching You-Tube videos is actually a high demand activity.

- Nick

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I know, but that's just one thing. It also reacts the same way when I'm just on the internet. As in, Safari is the only application running and the only window I have opened is this single Mac-Forums page. Those are the types of things that lead me to believe something isn't right.

How old is the machine? Sometimes dust builds up in the exhaust vents and on the fan blades themselves, making them less efficient. The easiest fix is to give the vents a quick shot of compressed air to clear them.

Additionally, you may want to open Activity Monitor during the periods of high fan RPMs and sort the process list by CPU. That can usually give you some insight into what is making things heat up enough to warrant running the fans full-out.

cwa107 said:

How old is the machine? Sometimes dust builds up in the exhaust vents and on the fan blades themselves, making them less efficient. The easiest fix is to give the vents a quick shot of compressed air to clear them.

Additionally, you may want to open Activity Monitor during the periods of high fan RPMs and sort the process list by CPU. That can usually give you some insight into what is making things heat up enough to warrant running the fans full-out.

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I actually didn't think of that, I bought this in January of '07 so it IS three and a half years old.

I just feel that something like that wouldn't so greatly affect my system the way it does. When I have any video playing, nothing else opened or running, after a few seconds it starts skipping, and not just the video, my actual system. For example, like I said, my mouse pointer is delayed and skips all over, the sound gets distorted often, and the video proceeds as it skips very evenly and consistently, about two times a second.

LouderIsBetter said:

I actually didn't think of that, I bought this in January of '07 so it IS three and a half years old.

I just feel that something like that wouldn't so greatly affect my system the way it does. When I have any video playing, nothing else opened or running, after a few seconds it starts skipping, and not just the video, my actual system. For example, like I said, my mouse pointer is delayed and skips all over, the sound gets distorted often, and the video proceeds as it skips very evenly and consistently, about two times a second.

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Make sure Flash is up-to-date too. Flash is a huge hog of system resources. The newest version is supposed to be a little lighter, but this is exactly the reason that Apple is so vehemently opposed to a Flash implementation on the iPhone.

I just want to add that the fans run full-out almost constantly. Only when I have nothing opened or running, and after leaving it alone for about 10 minutes, will it start to calm down.

Also the skipping and delayed actions (such as dashboard being very choppy as it fades in and out) only happen when a video is running. I suspected that my video card can't handle it, but they're usually little standard definition, three-minute long videos, nothing too long or HD.

LouderIsBetter said:

I just want to add that the fans run full-out almost constantly. Only when I have nothing opened or running, and after leaving it alone for about 10 minutes, will it start to calm down.

Also the skipping and delayed actions (such as dashboard being very choppy as it fades in and out) only happen when a video is running. I suspected that my video card can't handle it, but they're usually little standard definition, three-minute long videos, nothing too long or HD.

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It's still Flash. So, update it, clean the fans out, check Activity Monitor and get back to us on whether that helped.