Noisy fan of Macbook Pro

[MACpod]

Hi, anyone encountered this really annoying sound of the mbp's fan?
There are quite a number over the net showing how to fix this but I wish to hear your side here aswell.

TIA

[ghosthunter]

Hi, anyone encountered this really annoying sound of the mbp's fan?
There are quite a number over the net showing how to fix this but I wish to hear your side here aswell.

TIA

If your mac still have warranty, I suggest to have it serviced.

[ssaloon]

At what rpm ba sya maingay? Kasi yung macbook ko * 3000rpm, tahimik talaga, parang walang fan. Pero when using it intensively, pumapalo sa 6-7k rpm, tsaka ko lang naririnig yung ingay.

[jatcos]

Quick DIY by cleaning ventilation. This is what i did to my HP notebook-being notorious to thermal shutdown. Prior to the recurring shutdown problem, i noticed the fan to be very noisy and running at full-speed.

- Dismantle the fan and heatsink assembly
- check if air outlets are clogged.
- Clean heatsinks using brush with soap and water, remove accumulated dirt.
- after drying up the heatsink, clean the contacts(flat surface) going to the CPU
- repack/add silicone grease to the contacts and re-assemble the heasink/ fan assy.
- power on the unit and test. Your computer should breathe like brand new this time.

hth.

[frenchtower]

I too have MBP but have not yet experienced any annoying fan noise thus far. Mine is 2 yo and my wife's MPB is new.

In your situation, I would do the following:
1. Check if your OS/firmware is updated. In certain cases, this might provide a quick fix. Are you using Leopard or Snow L?
2. MBP is designed with very minimal exhaust vents other than those on the speakers. If you think that those are clogged, try and purchase one of those compressed air cannisters and give it a good burst to clean it out of dirt and dust.
3. I would not recommend you to open up your MBP as it might void your warranty. But if you must, try and see if the fans are working normally. It's possible one is busted and the other is assuming the workload.
4. Get one of those laptop cooling gizmos. It just might do the trick.
5. If your MBP is still within warranty, nothing beats having a Mac Genius troubleshoot it.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have found a solution.

[MACpod]

*ssaloon
-what freeware are you using to check the rpm of your fans?

*frenchtower
-i'm using 10.5.8 (it's the latest upgrade i suppose). my unit is 3yo and it started producing this sound about a year ago. it's actually sporadic. times are the noise gets really loud (when watching youtube) and often times it gets low, but still can hear it.
you see i just think this is one of apple's perennial problem with their notebooks as there are thousands out there whining over this similar situation. good thing yours is fine.
-i'm on the verge of wanting to open the unit, as warranty isn't applicable anymore being 3yo. just that it's alittle scary as this will be the first attempt to do this and i don't want to spoil the unit and end up feeling sorry.

Thanks guys for the responses. will try to search more and see the best option.

[Horsepower]

What videocard is installed in it? If it's the nVidia 8000 series, that's normal. EFI updates command the fan to constantly run to prevent overheating of the GPU because of the underfill issue with some of the affected nVidia 8400/8600 chips. Apple was nice enough to extend warranty of these units to three years for free.

Hopefully, nVidia had fixed that already with the 9000 series GPUs in the current macbooks.

jatcos' recommendation is a good way to maintain your notebook's HSF. Just make sure to use Arctic Silver5 instead of silicone. I bought a 12g tube (cheaper in the US). Locally, think you can get the 3g for about 700-800 pesos I think.

When I get lazy to dismantle the assembly, i just use compressed air to blast away accumulated dust.

It's time to upgrade to Snow Leopard ($25 lang). hehehe

[ssaloon]

*ssaloon
-what freeware are you using to check the rpm of your fans?

I'm using SMC Fancontrol to set my fan speeds. But you can also check the rpm by downloading the Istat Pro widget.