So, I bought a Mac Mini Server (Late 2011) almost 3 years ago, after laying dormant for almost 2 years, my mother in law used it for a couple of months (she's a graphics editor but lack Mac experience), After which it returned to me. Impressed with it's performance (Lightroom mainly) I decided to make it my primary Lightroom station (I'm an amateur photographer).
At some point in the last few weeks, it started to overheat badly, triggering the fail-safe and shutting down. I started troubleshooting and figured out it's not turning on the fan in time, i.e. it cracks it up only after crossing 85C but at that point, it's not cooling down fast enough. So I downloaded a small utility and cranked it up all the way, noisy but working, or so I thought.
Even with the fan cracked up to 5500RPM from the moment the system boots up, it runs idle at around 50C but under load would overheat and shutdown.
BTW, by the moment the system finishes booting up, the CPU is already at 75C (!).
Naturally using it in an air-conditioned room helps (up to a point), but my study isn't air-conditioned. Regardless, I don't think it's suppose to overheat like that.
Regarding the hardware, last week I cracked it open and applied new thermal paste, didn't effect it this way or another.
Right after I bought it, I opened it up and tinkered with it, ended up tearing the fan connector from the mobo. Luckily a friend's father is a medical equipment engineer and was able to fix it and attach the new fan I bought (supposedly an upgraded model).
Does this make sense?
Should I get a different fan and test it?
Throw the Mac in the trash and get another?
A cooling mod perhaps?
At some point in the last few weeks, it started to overheat badly, triggering the fail-safe and shutting down. I started troubleshooting and figured out it's not turning on the fan in time, i.e. it cracks it up only after crossing 85C but at that point, it's not cooling down fast enough. So I downloaded a small utility and cranked it up all the way, noisy but working, or so I thought.
Even with the fan cracked up to 5500RPM from the moment the system boots up, it runs idle at around 50C but under load would overheat and shutdown.
BTW, by the moment the system finishes booting up, the CPU is already at 75C (!).
Naturally using it in an air-conditioned room helps (up to a point), but my study isn't air-conditioned. Regardless, I don't think it's suppose to overheat like that.
Regarding the hardware, last week I cracked it open and applied new thermal paste, didn't effect it this way or another.
Right after I bought it, I opened it up and tinkered with it, ended up tearing the fan connector from the mobo. Luckily a friend's father is a medical equipment engineer and was able to fix it and attach the new fan I bought (supposedly an upgraded model).
Does this make sense?
Should I get a different fan and test it?
Throw the Mac in the trash and get another?
A cooling mod perhaps?
