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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / December 2005Mac Mini fan on full speed and won't turn off?
I have a 1.25GHz Mini which I upgraded with 1 GB of RAM, DVD burner, and 100 GB hard drive. It has been running solid 24-hours-a-day for the past several months with this configuration and the fan has barely ever turned on (I only use the machine for light email and web browsing...nothing else. No image editing, movie editing, encoding, etc.). I am running Tiger 10.4.3 with all applicable software updates. I came home from work today and the fan was running at full speed (this little fan was running so fast that it was noisier than my full-tower P4 PC with 4 80mm fans). I thought that maybe some process had started up while I was at work, like a maintenance script or something, and that the process had overheated my baby. But I checked and there was nothing running except the usual background stuff and the processor was barely being touched. I felt the air being blown out the back of the mini and it was pretty cool, so I knew that it wasn't trying to blow off any heat. So I shut OS X down. The whole system powered off, but the fan kept running at full speed! The only way I was able to get the fan to stop was to physically unplug the Mini from the power brick. I let it sit for a few hours unplugged. As soon as I plug it back in, the fan goes right back to screaming. The system works fine. It boots. No errors. The air coming out the back is cool. It just seems like whatever thermal controller the fan uses has blown. I have to leave the Mini unplugged now because the fan noise is really really loud. Anyone ever run across this before? Is this a physical hardware problem that can only be solved with a full motherboard swap? My Mini is out of warranty so I know Apple won't touch it. I ordered a regular 3-pin rheostat fan controller today to give me some manual control over the fan, but I hate to have to resort to that. Does anyone know of an actual fix for this? > I have a 1.25GHz Mini which I upgraded with 1 GB of RAM, DVD burner, > and 100 GB hard drive. It has been running solid 24-hours-a-day for [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > uses has blown. I have to leave the Mini unplugged now because the fan > noise is really really loud. While something may be physically wrong with your mini, it might be something transient. To first see if a temperature sensor is confused I'd try running "Temperature Monitor": <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994> I don't know how well it works with a mini but if you see any sensor showing really high readings even when the machine is cool, that might be it. The software is free so it's worth a shot. Even if the readings are wrong, it might be something other than hardware. I think I recall reading that the PMU (Power Management Unit) has something to do with the fan control. But I'd try reseting the PRAM first, <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238> then if that doesn't help, try resetting the PMU: <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300574> I can't offer anything beyond that except to say that if it continues, you might ask over in the Apple Mac mini forum: <http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=158>  SignatureBrian Hughes usenet at hughesvideo dot com >From what I've read, the Minis don't have temp sensors on the CPU so Temperature Monitor 3.2 can't give an accurate CPU temp. The Minis only have SMART temp sensors for the hard drive. As for resetting the PRAM and PMU, I'll give those a try when I get home. Thanks for the advice. In article <invalid.email-8997F1.00032128122005@nnrp-virt.nntp.sonic.net>, > > I have a 1.25GHz Mini which I upgraded with 1 GB of RAM, DVD burner, > > and 100 GB hard drive. It has been running solid 24-hours-a-day for [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > I'd try running "Temperature Monitor": > <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994> There are no sensors in a Mini. Hardware Monitor is free and may pick up a sensor in your hard drive but thats it. > I don't know how well it works with a mini but if you see any sensor > showing really high readings even when the machine is cool, that might [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > you might ask over in the Apple Mac mini forum: > <http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=158> In article <no_email-0DFCB8.16195129122005@news.lga.highwinds-media.com>, > In article > <invalid.email-8997F1.00032128122005@nnrp-virt.nntp.sonic.net>, [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > There are no sensors in a Mini. Hardware Monitor is free and may pick > up a sensor in your hard drive but thats it. Yeah, I wasn't sure about that, it was a shot in the dark. I don't own a mini, just a new Quad G5 which has 29 sensors! I bought Hardware Monitor, I wanted to see all the sensors. Hardware Monitor was US$ 8.80 while Temperature Monitor is free, but limited to temperature sensors. It's amazing how much power the G5 cores pull at full load. Running all 4 cores at 100%, HW was showing over 40 Amps at 1.33 Volts for each core. That totals over 200 Watts for just the cores. Then you've got 7 fans and 2 radiator pumps running, as well as everything else. I'm going to have to hook an ammeter to my input line and see how much power I'm drawing. SignatureBrian Hughes usenet at hughesvideo dot com > My Mini > is out of warranty so I know Apple won't touch it. Your Mini shouldn't be out of warranty unless you've modified the motherboard. It comes with a 1 year warranty and they were introduced less than a year ago. Legally (I believe) Apple can't deny a warranty claim if you've upgrade the RAM, HD and optical drives. But they don't have to cover anything if they've caused the problem and the warranty doesn't cover replacement parts. Greg B. SignatureActual e-mail address is gbuchner and I'm located at mn.rr.com |
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