Fans Won't Stop
 

My Macbook Pro's fans (late 2008, 5,1 model) are running all the time even with NOTHING open and happening.

I posted in the Apple Community here and haven't gotten much resolved that way.

Here's what I've tried to fix this issue:

1. Checked any CPU intensive processes and found nothing was eating up a lot of my CPU
2. SMR reset
3. bought new battery (Anker)
4. PRAM reset
5. physically removing case and blowing dust out with compressed air.

Despite this my fans are continuously running EVEN with nothing open on my macbook pro.

The Genius Bar guy a couple weeks back didn't have much suggestion for me but thought it might be a bad cell in the battery but, like I said, he was kind of clueless.

Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

1) How did you check for CPU usage? Activity Monitor?

2) You mention the battery - is this MacBook Pro using the battery or is it plugged in (via the power adaptor)?

3) Look in the system logs (using the "Console" application). What do the logs say (e.g. in the first few minutes after a reboot)?

4) Is this Mac connected to anything external? Via USB, Ethernet, Firewire, Airport?
Try disconnecting everything except the power cord and turning off Airport (WiFi).

1) How did you check for CPU usage? Activity Monitor?
Activity Monitor

2) You mention the battery - is this MacBook Pro using the battery or is it plugged in (via the power adaptor)?
Both. Fans run whether plugged in or using just the battery

3) Look in the system logs (using the "Console" application). What do the logs say (e.g. in the first few minutes after a reboot)?
3/12/14 12:16:40.875 PM shutdown[21772]: SHUTDOWN_TIME: 1394644600 875415
3/12/14 12:17:18.000 PM bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1394644638 0
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.appstore" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.authd" sharing output destination "/var/log/system.log" with ASL Module "com.apple.asl".
Output parameters from ASL Module "com.apple.asl" override any specified in ASL Module "com.apple.authd".
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.authd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.bookstore" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.eventmonitor" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.install" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.iokit.power" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.mail" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.MessageTracer" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.performance" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM syslogd[19]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.securityd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Longterm timer threshold: 1000 ms
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Darwin Kernel Version 13.1.0: Thu Jan 16 19:40:37 PST 2014; root:xnu-2422.90.20~2/RELEASE_X86_64
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: vm_page_bootstrap: 1917829 free pages and 97403 wired pages
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: kext submap [0xffffff7f807a6000 - 0xffffff8000000000], kernel text [0xffffff8000200000 - 0xffffff80007a6000]
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: zone leak detection enabled
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: "vm_compressor_mode" is 4
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: standard background quantum is 2500 us
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: mig_table_max_displ = 74
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=1 LocalApicId=1 Enabled
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for TMSafetyNet
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for Sandbox
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Seatbelt sandbox policy (Sandbox)
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for Quarantine
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Quarantine policy (Quarantine)
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: MAC Framework successfully initialized
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: using 16384 buffer headers and 10240 cluster IO buffer headers
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleKeyStore starting (BUILT: Sep 19 2013 22:20:34)
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0x11 Vectors 64:87
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: ACPI: sleep states S3 S4 S5
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: (built 19:46:50 Jan 16 2014) initialization complete
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: pci (build 20:00:24 Jan 16 2014), flags 0x63008, pfm64 (36 cpu) 0xf80000000, 0x80000000
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration begin ]
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: console relocated to 0xf80010000
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration end, bridges 7, devices 19 ]
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: NVEthernet::start - Built Sep 19 2013 22:20:06
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in now active, GUID 002332fffed4da18; max speed s800.
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: mcache: 2 CPU(s), 64 bytes CPU cache line size
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: mbinit: done [64 MB total pool size, (42/21) split]
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 72AC0032-F6D9-39A0-9102-AF7FDCDDBDCB
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib kmod start
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless kmod start
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless load succeeded
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: BTCOEXIST off
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: BRCM tunables:
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: pullmode[1] txringsize[ 256] txsendqsize[1024] reapmin[ 32] reapcount[ 128]
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@B/AppleMCP79AHCI/PRT0@0/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/ST9500423AS Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/MacbookPro-500gb@2
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s2, major 1, minor 2
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Macintosh HD on device root_device
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: Waiting for DSMOS...
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: VM Swap Subsystem is ON
3/12/14 12:17:20.853 PM com.apple.launchd[1]: *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
3/12/14 12:17:20.853 PM com.apple.launchd[1]: *** Shutdown logging is enabled. ***
3/12/14 12:17:54.388 PM distnoted[74]: assertion failed: 13C64: liblaunch.dylib + 25164 [38D1AB2C-A476-385F-8EA8-7AB604CA1F89]: 0x25
3/12/14 12:17:53.301 PM hidd[43]: void __IOHIDPlugInLoadBundles(): Loaded 0 HID plugins
3/12/14 12:17:53.302 PM hidd[43]: Posting 'com.apple.iokit.hid.displayStatus' notifyState=1
3/12/14 12:17:53.382 PM powerd[28]: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "ASMB013�+9".
3/12/14 12:17:54.000 PM kernel[0]: IO80211Controller::dataLinkLayerAttachComplete(): adding AppleEFINVRAM notification
3/12/14 12:17:54.908 PM wdhelper[15]: sandbox cache error 3850
3/12/14 12:17:54.946 PM revisiond[27]: sandbox cache error 11: database disk image is malformed
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDAStartup: Official
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDANV50HAL loaded and registered
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: init
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: probe
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: AGC: 3.4.35, HW version=1.7.3, flags:0, features:4
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: IOBluetoothUSBDFU::probe
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: IOBluetoothUSBDFU::probe ProductID - 0x8213 FirmwareVersion - 0x0207
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: **** [IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport][start] -- completed -- result = TRUE -- 0x1400 ****
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: **** [BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport][start] -- Completed -- 0x1400 ****
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDAStartup: Official
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDANV50HAL loaded and registered
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: start
3/12/14 12:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: [IOBluetoothHCIController][staticBluetoothHCIControllerTransportShowsUp] -- Received Bluetooth Controller register service notification -- 0x1400



4) Is this Mac connected to anything external? Via USB, Ethernet, Firewire, Airport?
Nothing connected.

Try disconnecting everything except the power cord and turning off Airport (WiFi).
Will do and report back

Maybe you can call me Captain Obvious, but are your fans running because the MBPro is hot?

Check the temps with one of the fan control utilities, which should also show you the outputs from the various temp sensors in your MBPro - which would also be a good choice that you COULD use to control the fans, particularly if nothing else helps.
Good choice would be SMCFanControl utility, where you can see all of the temps reported by various sensors, and how each fan responds to the fan control utility.

That same utility will also show if BOTH fans are running at high speed, or just one - and then you can also tell if it's the left, or the right fan.

Have you run your hardware test? It should be on your original restore DVD. OR, if you already had a "genius" test it, then that service diagnostic should report any problems with temp sensors.

MBP is not hot.
Current temp is 121 with fans going at 2100 rpm for both fans (iStat Menus).
I ran a test with Techtool Pro 7 and things turned out fine. test was a couple months ago so maybe I'll run again and report back.
Genius bar guy said everything looked fine after plugging in THEIR hardware test. He was guessing that there might be a bad cell in the battery or something and, as I said in original post, I put in a new battery but problem persists.
Thanks.

Just ran a "SMART check" with TechTool Pro 7 and here's a screenshot of the results.
'Temperature Changes' doesn't look good. Is this related?

I initially got the impression that the fans were running full speed (and hence making a lot of noise).
But it would seem like your fans are running normally.
For example, on my MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch, mid 2012, iStat Menus says the CPU core temperature is about 48 C (which is about 120 F) and the fans are running about 2000 rpm (but I don't hear them).
I think it's normal for the fans to always be running.

Yes, 2100 rpm is just barely over idle (likely around 1800 rpm)
And, the fans should normally always be running.
Are you really having a problem with the fans? Run them up to full speed, using one of the fan control apps to see what a higher speed sounds like.

144 degrees F with fans at 4100 rpm. That normal?
I never noticed the fans going before and it's important that I don't notice them as I do a lot of audio recording with my laptop.
Are they just not as quiet as they used to be?
Is that possible?

At 45ºC my 17" mid-2008 MBP runs both its fans at 2000 in a cool room, rarely more than 2100 on my lap. 144ºF is 62ºC, substantially warmer, so 4100 is probably not out of line.

So, the fans vary? 2100, then later 4100?

And, your Activity Monitor, on All Processes, shows no high CPU on any process or app?

Don't know off-hand, but you seem now to be talking about a different situation - where your Mac is considerably hotter than it was before.
Note that the fans will continue at a higher rpm for a while until the temperature reduces, so maybe you reported it at an interim stage.

It is indeed quite possible for the fans to get noisier with age.
On my previous MacBook Pro, one of the fans became very noisy and was replaced under warranty.

It is also possible for them to get both noisier and less effective if they are full of dust. If you've been operating in a dusty environment they might need cleaning.

The late-2008 MBP model allows you to choose (System Prefs > Energy Saver) between "higher performance" and "better battery life"--a setting that in fact determines whether the MBP uses its lower performance NVIDIA GeForce 9400M or higher performance NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor. (You have both in that MBP. You can use either one while on the battery or the power adapter. Apple's "better battery life" language is somewhat misleading in this case since the setting applies regardless of power source.)

Unless you need the higher performance graphics of the 9600M, use the better battery life option. Might help with the heat/fan situation.

I opened case and dusted fans (and inside) completely clean.


It's been on 'battery saver' pretty much the entire time I've had it.

Could my fans be on the way out? It's very annoying because I can hear them almost constantly and I'm NOT the best of hearing. I do voiceover work and this is my recording computer so I can't have fans whirring all the time.
Should I replace them?

I saw this suggestion on another forum on this matter:

Your fan is running because your CPU heatsinks are dirty. Spend $100 and have a Mac expert clean out the inside of the machine. You'll be amazed...

Anyone try this? did it work?
I REALLY need to do something about the fan noise (audio recorder) and am up against it.
Thanks
PS current readings are 143º with both fans running at 3800 rpm

Quite possible.
Only way to tell for sure is to take the Mac in to an Apple Store for diagnosis.

I find no mac laptop after Pismo suitable for audio recording in the same room with the microphone. So if you can step away from your MBP. I hope you have a proper mic - not just the built-in tiny capsule. If you don't you may want to get one - some good low noise somewhat directional(not really shotgun) would be good.
To see if the heat will cause fans to run fast you may try to put icepack under the back/bottom. It will make the intake much cooler and may reduce the fan speed. I have been using an external large fan from desktop computer running from USB (5V). At 5V instead of 12V a good quality fan will run almost soundless. I lift up the MBP a bit and blow the fan from the back of the screen. I have been able to record audio OK this way.

Directional but not shotgun pickup patterns are generally cardioid. And I would recommend using a cardioid pickup pattern with close-micing for most small-room recordings.

If you are picking up fan noise from your laptop in the same room, you can always use the trick of leaving it in another room but having a super-long keyboard, mouse, and external monitor cable, with an external monitor of course. But what exactly is being recorded, and in what kind of room, with what recording chain? More detail might help us give you better advice.

Trevor

On another forum someone suggested...

backup the machine, ERASE and RESTORE the OS to factory new. You'll be BLOWN AWAY how much quicker it will be (and probably quieter, too).

If I did this would I lose any apps and files or does this process JUST replace the system files and OSX?

Erasing means that at that point you have nothing on the hard drive. "Restoring the OS" is unclear, but in the context (seeing a quicker computer) probably means installing the OS from original discs or from the Cloud. At that point you'll have none of your apps or files. As you restore apps and files from a backup, things get closer and closer to how they are today.

In short, I think that the advice you got on another forum is from someone who had a problem that they did not know how to fix, and so used the nuke and pave approach. This may work sometimes, but it is terrible advice for most people. It involves tons and tons of work and only fixes things indirectly.

And considering that it's frequently the case that audio gear used with computers needs specialized drivers, it's especially bad general advice for people using their computers for recording.

Trevor