There’s been a number of complaints in forums about MacBook Air heat problems and fan noise or fan running constantly. What causes these heat issues? What’s the fix? Does it affect the i5 model as well as the more powerful i7?
This article addresses fan noise and heat issues with the current MacBook Air 2011 / 2012 models, released mid-July 2011.
Here’s a video a Mac Crazy user sent in of watching video online with his MacBook Air i5 13 inch. The fan is loud!
(Thanks to Rajulun for sharing this view with Mac Crazy – you are a star!)
MacBook Air Fan Noise
First, lets start with a bit of background of why the MacBook Air get hot and why it has a fan. The MacBook Air has one fan inside it, at least in the late-2010 & mid-2011 models. The fan’s job is to keep the MacBook Air’s chips from overheating by pushing hot air out the exhaust port. The exhaust port is behind the keyword, at the screen hinge.
The MacBook Air fan runs constantly by design. The fan runs at or above a minimum speed while the MacBook Air is running. On my late-2010 MacBook Air 11 inch, the minimum speed is 2000 revolutions per minute (rpm).
At this minimum fan speed, during use, the fan can’t be heard by most people. If you put one ear to the keyboard, you can hear the fan. Some people, in a very quiet room, with very sensitive hearing, may be able to hear the fan at the minimum speed.
When the MacBook Air is busy it generates more heat. The fan then runs faster to keep the Mac cool. At higher speeds, you can easily hear the fan.
This is a normal cause of fan noise on the MacBook Air – MacBook Air is busy, fans are keeping it cool. Fan noise is like sweating – it’s a response to strenuous activity.
Examples of activities that make the MacBook Air busier are:
- running many apps,
- using web sites with animation (Flash) or video,
- playing games,
- playing or editing video, particularly HD video
The room temperature will affect how fast the fan will need to run to keep the MacBook Air cool. In a hotter room, the fan will need to run faster.
The highest fan speed on my late-2010 MacBook Air is 6500 rpm. You can check your MacBook Air’s fan speed with the free iStat Pro dashboard widget. iStat Pro will also measure the internal temperatures of your MacBook Air.
If you have constant fan noise, and your MacBook Air is not doing heavier activities, your Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) may be confused. You can fix this with a SMC reset.
MacBook Air Too Hot
The hottest temperature on the bottom of the case I’ve seen quoted is 105F / 41C (AnandTech). This benchmark was running Half Life 2 Episode 2, which works both the main processor and the graphics processor – both of which generate heat. Both processors are on the same silicon chip in the new MacBook Air.
(If you have a higher MacBook Air 2012 / 2011 bottom case temperature, please take a screenshot and leave a comment below.)
If your MacBook Air is getting too hot, there are some possible fixes below.
Heat and Fan Noise: Just the MacBook Air i7, or MacBook Air i5 As Well?
The fan noise and heat issues are affecting the i5 MacBook Air as well. Complaints of the MacBook Air heating up, overheating and fan noise are not restricted to the Intel Core i7 MacBook Air. I’ve had a reader send in a video of his MacBook Air i5 with a loud fan.
MacBook Air Heat Issues and Fan Noise Causes
There are at least several possible causes for the MacBook Air high heat and noisy fan:
- Software functions that consistently use CPU are being used, e.g. video encoding, finding faces in iPhoto.
- Apps or other software running in the background is consistently consuming CPU.
- Adobe Flash, the technology used to deliver some animated ads in web pages and most web video is consistently using CPU. This is a specific, common case of the cause above.
- Software runs at startup that is not compatible with Mac OS X Lion. The software keeps trying to run and keeps falling over causing load on the CPU.
- The MacBook Air’s System Management Controller (SMC), responsible for controlling the fans, has become confused.
Cause #1: Software that Consistently Uses Processor
Software that is performing an activity that consistently uses can cause the MacBook Air to get very hot and the fans to run loudly. A few examples of heavy software are:
- Video export, encoding or format conversion (transcoding). For example, Handbrake for converting videos for display on iPhone or Apple TV.
- Importing photos to iPhoto or performing recognition of faces in your photo library.
- Playing some HD video. How much processor video playback uses depends on many factors, including video resolution (720p, 1080i, 1080p), frame rate, detail in video (bit rate), how sophisticated the encoding is (e.g. high profile), the video player used to play back the video, and how the video player is configured! Generally 720p is fine, 1080p is fine if it’s a lower bitrate Quicktime H.264 movie playing back in Quicktime, and other 1080i or 1080p (high bitrate or non-Quicktime format, e.g. MKV or AVI) will get the MacBook Air hot and fans will run.
- Playing web video. Web video uses Flash, and Flash video playback is less optimised than Quicktime. I’ve noticed that occasionally a web videos use several times more CPU than another at the same resolution. I suspect that is because some web videos uses formats that Flash is optimised for (probably H.264), and others use formats that aren’t optimised in Flash (probably non-H.264 Flash video ‘FLV’). I haven’t confirmed this.
- 3D rendering (e.g. Cinebench).
- Video editing and effects (e.g. Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, After Effects).
- Exporting a music track (mixdown), from a multi-track music project.
- Playing 3D games (e.g. Portal, Half Life).
- Running benchmarks.
If you are doing sustained processor intensive work expect it to get warm or hot and for the fan to become audible or noisy. Using either the main processor (CPU) or graphics processor (GPU) generates heat.
In these cases that MacBook Air is usually performing normally. Some of the heat is dispersed to the case, so the case feels hot. The fan speeds up pull cool are in and push hot air out of the MacBook Air.
Cause #2: Software in the Background Consistently Consuming CPU
Every application running in the background uses power and heats up the MacBook Air. If you use less battery, your MacBook Air gets less hot. If it gets less hot, it doesn’t have to use the fan. And on the way, you might double your battery life.
You can see how much power each app is drawing, use the free software coconutBattery. To help cool down your laptop, quit background apps or pause them using the 3rd party software App Tamer.
Note that it’s not just apps running in the background that consumes power. Other background services (often called daemons) can also consume power. Mostly these are pretty efficient, but for power users, it’s worth checking.
See my article “MacBook Air Battery Life” for more info on reducing power usage and making your Mac cooler and quieter.
Cause #3: Adobe Flash Consistently Using the Processor
Flash is software that can be installed as a plugin to most web browsers, such as Safari, FireFox & Opera. Google’s Chrome browser includes Flash. Flash is mainly used to include animated and video ads in web pages, to deliver web video and provide games in webpages. Flash is not uncommon for charting. It’s also often used for entires sites for big product launches, like Hollywood movies.
Flash tends to use a lot of CPU. Most people who use Flash aren’t professional programmers, they’re usually creatives. One poorly written banner ad can swallow an entire core of your MacBook Air’s processor.
While the latest versions of Flash do some hardware acceleration for video playback, Flash still uses considerably more CPU to play video than native video players like Quicktime X.
Consider if a Flash banner ads is not visible: it’s in other browser tab, your web browser is in the background while you’re in another app (e.g. Word), or the banner is in part of the webpage that isn’t showing in the browser window. The Flash portions of webpages continue to run and consume your processor and battery even when you can’t see them.
Flash’s heavy use of CPU was running of the reasons Apple doesn’t include Flash on the iPhone or iPad, and why Flash doesn’t come preinstalled on the MacBook Air.
To minimize Flash’s grip on your processor, you have a few alternatives:
- Use one browser window at a time. Quit your browser when you’re not using it.
- Use the free software ClickToPlugin for Safari. It stops Flash automatically running; it requires you the click a Flash part of a webpage to make it run – which sometimes you do (e.g. a YouTube video).
- Deinstall Flash.
- Deinstall Flash. Use Safari without Flash. When you really need Flash, use Google Chrome instead of Safari. Chrome includes Flash built in.
- Use FlashFrozen ($0.99) to automatically stop Flash running in the background.
Some of these techniques can be combined. For example ClickToPlugin plus FlashFrozen.
If you watch video on websites that also have animated ads beside the video (instead of in the video), you’re getting the double penalty of Flash video plus Flash ads at the same time. ClickToPlugin might be a good option here. You can just click on the main video to enable it, and leave the ads disabled, giving you the best chance of the MacBook Air staying cool and quiet.
See “MacBook Air Battery Life 2011” for more background.
Flash seems to be the most common cause of the MacBook Air overheating and fan running fast.
Cause #4: Software Incompatible with Lion
Some software doesn’t work with Lion. If it contains software that runs in the background and restarts automatically, the software can start over and over again.
I’ve seen one case of this, when someone migrated five years of accumulated software from their old Mac to their new MacBook Air using Apple Migration Assistant. The person was very technical and fixed the broken software themselves. This may have been old HP printing software, but I haven’t confirmed this.
For the technically inclined, there wasn’t much CPU usage, but with the process continually respawning the was a high run queue for the CPU.
I’ve seen serveral cases where people an overheating MacBook Air and noisy fans ran the free Onyx utility and that fixed performance issues. Write a comment if you’d like more specifics. In none of these cases has anyone reported the root cause of the problem, but for now I’ll include these cases here.
Cause #5: System Management Confused / Needs Reset
Thanks so much to Chris posting a comment about this:
I was experiencing a similar problem on my new MBA 13″ with i7 (loud fan with nothing running), along with some other odd issues related to battery and power. System preferences (energy saver) claimed my battery was charged at 0% (though I knew that was not the case), and I couldn’t add the battery status to the menu bar (I would click that option, the menubar with reconfigure as if to accommodate the new icon, but then it would disappear). Furthermore, when plugged in to AC, I got no lights (green or orange) on the MagSafe adapter. The support page at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 suggested that weird battery/power issues may be solved by an SMC reset, which I did. The fans have now stopped and the other symptoms that I mentioned have also gone away. Perhaps this can help with others.
So Chris’s MacBook Air symptoms were:
- Loud fan with no apps running.
- Battery showing 0% charged in Energy Saver in System Preferences.
- Can’t add battery status to the menu bar.
- Status LED on MagSafe power connector not lighting up when plugged in.
You may not have all these symptoms.
SMC reset instructions for a MacBook Air are:
- Shutdown your MacBook Air (go to the Apple menu and choose “Shut Down…”).
- Make sure your MacBook Air has external power. Connect the power adaptor, if it isn’t already.
- Using the Air’s built-in keyboard (not a plug in keyboard or bluetooth keyboard), of the left hand side of the keyboard press Control-Shift-Option and on the top right of the keyboard, the power key at the same time.
- Release all the keys at the same time.
- Press the power key to start the computer.
If this fixes your issue, consider replying to Chris’s comment below with a thank you for him.
MacBook Air Fan Noise and Heat Issues Fixed?
Did this help fix your MacBook Air fan running too fast / being too loud, of being very hot? Drop me a comment and let me know what you did, and how it worked for you. Your comment, like Chris’s, may really help others, as we’re still learning which are the most common causes, and what are the best solutions.
If this article helped, please clicking +1 or Like or even better link to this page from your blog or website. It helps people find this page ahead of older, less useful webpages. (MacWorld has 41 million links – help us catch up!) Thanks for visiting!
I was bit afraid of head and noise to I got 13″ i5 and everything is fine. Recommended.
Sorry, dunno why so many typos. “I was afraid of heat and noise, so I got i5.”
Thanks Dear Apple! Really appreciate hearing that from a strong Mac user.
I’m experiencing this exact problem! My fan is extremely noisy eventough i’m not really doing anything on my machine. My old Macbook Air (model before the newest 2011 MBA) was just fine, but my new i5 is noisy as hell – even with no CPU usage? What’s going on?
Stefan,
For an explanation, see my article “MacBook Air Battery Life”.
-Taz.
I’m having this problem too. Sometimes the CPU temp goes high, and the fan kicks in at maximum speed, although there is nothing running (99-100% idle in iStat). When this happens, I simply put it to sleep and wake it, and the problem goes away.
Maybe it’s related to bad graphics driver (since both the GPU and CPU share the same package)?
Hi Tasman!
Thanks for the writeup and the article. I experience good battery life as far as i can tell. But then, when it’s really quiet I can hear the Air’s fan slightly. It’s running on constant speed and it does not depend on the work I do. F.i. you can also hear it right after a longer period of sleep and it stays like that when not doing something demanding.
Still even if it’s only noticeable when the surrounding is very calm, I want to know if you can approve it’s normal.
Thx, Alex
Alex,
Thanks for your question.
I will investigate for you!
Cheers,
-Taz.
Alex,
I’ve added a section “MacBook Air Fan Noise” at the top of the article to answer your question.
Let me know whether that satisfies you.
-Taz.
Hi Tasman,
… definitely! (got your e-mail).
I’m now convinced my fan is in proper condition. As you described it can be heard just slightly in a fully silent environment. What more, that some low “tickling” noises can also be heard near the keyboard, this is due to interference noise from the electronics as I found somewhere on the internet. So, no mechanical problems, everything seems in tolerance and I don’t want to miss my MBA! Btw, I’m using smcFanControl to monitor my fan and temperature, it’s a very lightweight program compared to iStats. And also free. Cheers!
Taz –
I’ve had the noise problem a couple of times and the control+shift+option+power procedure has resolved it both times. Thanks for this site and your suggestions. A great resource for sure.
Peace, Steve
I was experiencing a similar problem on my new MBA 13″ with i7 (loud fan with nothing running), along with some other odd issues related to battery and power. System preferences (energy saver) claimed my battery was charged at 0% (though I knew that was not the case), and I couldn’t add the battery status to the menu bar (I would click that option, the menubar with reconfigure as if to accommodate the new icon, but then it would disappear). Furthermore, when plugged in to AC, I got no lights (green or orange) on the MagSafe adapter. The support page at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 suggested that weird battery/power issues may be solved by an SMC reset, which I did. The fans have now stopped and the other symptoms that I mentioned have also gone away. Perhaps this can help with others.
Chris,
Thank you so much for sharing this – I think it will helpful for many people.
-Taz.
Seems to have fixed it. MBA 2011 with i5 processor. Let’s see how long it lasts.
Yay! A win! Excellent KG!
I just bought a MacBook Air 13″ and couldn’t figure out why the fans were so LOUD! I had outlook and chrome open with two web pages! I re-set, let the power die, but it was always getting loud after about 5 min. This solved the issue straight away, I will keep this filed away if it happens again. Thanks for posting!!
SMC reset seems to have calmed the fan, which was running loudly despite low CPU usage in Activity Monitor. Thanks!
Glad to hear that Joe!
Thanks for letting us know the SMC reset worked for you.
Thank you so much Chris. It’s very helpful.
Chris – Many thanks for the post. My MBA is now running quietly.
You are genius! Thank you so much for the super key combination solution.
I just got my MPB 15 and the fans were running as if they are trying to make a super jet to fly and it was annoying as everyone on my office floor were like, is this your new Apple mac or Mainframe
Now, it is more peaceful out here!!
Thanks a lot chris. I also had the same problem of battery not charging and fan making a lot of noise.
The SMC reset helped.
THANKS Chris! The noise was really concerning me and that fixed it right up.
Thank you! SMC Reset has helped.
Wow, now my MacBook Air is really quiet. Thanks
I had a similar issue and apple “genius” were no help. This was driving me crazy….and this SMC reset did the trick. Thank you!!!!
Thank you Chris! Your comment helped a lot!
Worked for me. Thanks so much for helping me to solve an annoying problem.
Huzzah!
Went from 6492rpm down to 1992rpm with an SMC reset.
An eery silence replaces the mini hairdryer I was surfing the net with.
Thanks!
I just bought my MBA 2 days ago and noticed that loud fan noise too even I’m not using any app or other programs. I was already disappointed the fact that I’m only using it for just 2 days. After doing the SMC reset, voila! It was fixed! Thanks Chris for this workaround and Tasman for this helpful article.
Seems to work on my MBA 2011 i5.
Thanks
Vincent
Hey Taz,
I just instaled FlashFrozen on my Macbook air and it works great. I was thinking of instaling ClickToPlugin next. My question is; do you have this program and how does it work for you?
I’ve tried all of the above w/o success.
Stu,
Could you give a bit of background on your problem?
11 or 13 inch MacAir? i5 or i7? Fan noise or heat problem? What apps are you running when you get the problem? Using the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder how much CPU usage is shown when you get the problem. If you open the Terminal app and run the command “uptime”, what are the results (it will show the run queue on the CPU, which will help catch rarer issues).
Thanks!
Taz
Sorry for not closing the loop on this.
My issue turned out to be related to a bug in some prerelease software I was running as part of a developer program. Once I tracked that down I removed the offending SW, fell back to a released version, and all is well.
Stu
Thanks for letting us know Stu!
Thanks a lot. I solved the issue simply. I closed Tweetdeck and the noise went away!! ufff…now my MBA is lovely again!
tnx!
damian
Excellent Damian! Glad this solved your MacBook Air fan noise problem.
If you’re having problem with new MBA (july 2011) and you’ve installed Plex media player, uninstall it. I’ve solved my problem that way. Media server consumes more than 100% of CPU (100,7% to be specific). fan speed was constantly around 6500 rpm, after unistall 1900 rpm.
Regards,
Nebojsa
Nebojsa, thanks for sharing this.
For me the issue has been that the CPU temp has been around 80°C even though the CPU load has been around 3-5%.
It started after the latest software update that contained both firmware upgrades and Thunderbolt Display firmware (which I also use).
I have just reset SMC, and so far it seems to have done the trick.
I have a MacBook Air 11″ 2011 model i5 Processor. My MacBook Air’s fan starts being noisy after maybe about one hour of use so I want to know if this is normal… I don’t use many apps or programs and i use something called AdBlock that blocks out ads so i don’t think i use much of the flash thing….
I too had this problem on my new Macbook Air 13 and I fixed it by resetting the SMC (although I found the instructions elsewhere). Also I downloaded stat pro which gives a lot of useful info. My fan was running at 4000 revs, now after the fix it runs at 2000 and the systems are much cooler!
Cheers
Another Satisfied customer:-) Thanks for the article. I had the same irritation, and this worked a treat.
Epic win Grant! Thanks for letting us know. You’re the first commenter from South Africa – awesome!
I went out and spent $1300+ on a 2011 MacBook Air 4GB i5.
Guess what…
I cant even watch ONE youtube video without the gd fan kicking in. Tried resetting and so on but still…fan comes on like I am doing a video render. Gotta be kidding me..
Is this a joke?
I miss my old PC!
Fantastic and easy fix!!!! Thanks so much.
Thank you for the tip. This worked perfectly on my MBA 2011 13″ i7.
Before the SMC reset the temperature was at least 70C, which caused the fan to be quite noisy at above 4000 RPMs, despite the CPU utilization being very close to zero. After the SMC reset the temperature dropped to 50C – 60C and the fan is back down to silent 2000 RPMs.
Btw. I use smcFanControl to monitor temperature and RPMs.
Thanks again!
Thanks Chris. Your fix worked perfectly!
s
Sub: THOROUGHLY HARRASED AND REQUEST FOR REPLACEMENT OF MAC BOOK AIR IMMEDIATELY
Please Note My Name is Kapil Chadha, Vice President (Aditya Birla Group) and have more than 5 gadgets of Apple namely (Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, Iphone-4, I-pad, I-Pod) and many others.
Recently, on 20th August, 2011 , I purchased the Macbook Air from (Receipt No. 4602, Vendor: Imagine Store, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India) and since the time of purchase the Macbook Air HAS been a GREAT PROBLEM and None the Centres in NEW DELHI, INDIA, NCR REgion are capable of giving the SErvice and as such the I have not been able to USE THE machine properly.
Centre Visited for Resolving the Issues:
a. UC Infosystems Pvt. Ltd., Naraina, New Delhi (Reason given: Downloading Speed: Very Slow and there is no alternative to download O/S LION)
b. MAC clinic Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (IRRESPONSIBLE AND MISBEHAVIOR) from ONE of the staff and as such commented that WE ARE USELESS CUSTOMER and keep on PESTORING for issues: This is Inspite of submitting the macihne on 10th october, 2011 and enquired on 20th october, 2011.
IF this is the attitude of the APPLE then I think I have made a MISTAKE in buying all APPLE products and spending huge amount of money.
At some Point of time we thought of Introducing / Replacing all the Laptop/Desktop of our Group Company with Apple approximate work stations i.e. 5000.
BUT Now, due such gross MISBEHAVIOUR and UNPROFESSIONAL approach from your INDIAN counterpart I am forced to Re-think as my personal experience for the last 2 months has been dismal.
Least of all NO one from Apple India has contacted for Solution, it is us who are forced to call repeateadly and keep on chasing for help.
Please take note of above.
rgds
Kapil Chadha
Vice President
Ultratech Cement Limited
(Aditya Birla Group)
New Delhi
India
Ph: 00 91 11 4357 3203
Ph: 00 91 11 2331 5003
Mobile: 9911517444
email: kapil.chadha@adityabirla.com
Kapil,
I’ve sorry to hear you’ve had issues with your MacBook Air.
I understand it can be extremely upsetting when:
What exactly are the issues you are having with your Mac Book Air? Is your MBA responding slowly, getting hot, or the fan running all the time? Or it is something else?
-Taz.
i decided to buy macbook air 11″ i5 model but want to sure…….is it able to run autocad software perfectly???
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the detailed post, but unfortunately nothing worked in my case so far…
I have an MBA 11″ (late 2010) with the following problem: the fan (and most likely the processor) is still running when the computer goes on sleep mode. If I close the lid, or put it on sleep via the “power menu”, the fan will keep running, and my MBA will still be warm (not burning hot, just normally warm), even after hours (which seems to indicate that the processor is still running as well).
I sent the computer for service (it is still on warranty), they changed the logic board (mother board), but it came back with the same problem (!), which makes me think it must be software related… However my problem occurs even when all applications are shut down…
Any thought on that problem?
Also, I had one question regarding the reset of the SMC: I tried it out, but how can I be sure that it actually happened? I mean, basically there was nothing displayed, or the led on the magsafe did not do anything specific, so I don’t know if I didn’t do it right (thus if I should have noticed something happening) or if it is just the way it is… Anyone who did the operation could help on that?
Thank you for your help
!
I had constant problems with heating with a 2009 Air (13″). Because of SSD failure after a year, I got myself a 2010 Air 11″. I NEVER had any problems with that, and remember only 2-3 times I could hear the fan, when in super high load.
A few weeks ago I finally fed up with the small screen and decided to upgrade to the new 13″ (i5). Unfortunately, the heating problem is back.
This is especially evident when watching movies. The fan runs very fast and is very loud. I never had this problem with the 11″ on similar usage. CPU is burning at 75-78C and fan yells at 5500-6300 RPM.
Obviously, I’m quiet surprised and disappointed :-/
Thanks. The SMC reset fixed my noisy MBA 13 (2011)!
I have a new Mac Air, 11 inch- i5. When I’m about 15-20 min into watching a movie the fan starts and I can hear it and so can neighbouring people. I bought the MBA because I thought it would be different from my old PC, which did the same thing… I’m kind of regretting spending all this money :S
Is there a fix for my problem?? Please help .
If your talking about Netflix then no. Silverlight is a video hog and not well optimized.
Hi,
so: if the fan is the temperature is 55, the fan speed is 1800 and the fan be clearly heard with a loud ticking sound, which didn’t happen before, is this a mechanical problem? What to do in this case?
Fausto,
I assume your temperature is in degrees celsius, and is measured from the sensor on the bottom of the MacBook Air case. i.e. Your MacBook Air is hot to touch. I’ll also assume you have a mid-2011 model MacBook Air.
55 C is the highest case temperature I’ve seen reported for a MacBook Air 2011, yet your fan speed is relatively low. (It should be able to clear 6000 rpm.)
The “loud ticking sound” is probably not good. The only component besides the fan that I think of that would be making a sound is the speakers, and that’s fairly unlikely. (In older Macs, a failing hard drive could make a ticking sound, but the MacBook Air has flash storage – no moving parts.)
It sounds like your fan’s bearing may have failed, and it can’t spin up to high speeds.
I’d pop into a friendly Apple dealer, and ask if a technician can have a quick listen to it.
If you have a new MacBook Air, the repair will be covered by warranty.
Let me know what you find out.
-Taz.
I sold my 2011 Macbook Air and the issue went away.
I don’t really care about the fan noise but the heat is definitely worrying. My new 2011 mba i5 gets up to 100 -105 degrees celsius while dvd authoring in windows 7 and only using about 50% of the cpu!
In osx my fans stay at around 2000rpm until it gets up to 90c when they go a little faster to get it down to 80 when doing general web browsing and email. It seems the fans kick in too late and so in Lion I use smc fan control to keep them at 4000rpm all the time to keep it at a reasonable temperature. I have yet to find a fan control for windows 7 though.
Guess Ill have to get a cooling pad if I want to do intensive tasks, or replace my macbook air with a windows laptop. Who’d of thought a £1000+ laptop would only have a stable temp while doing simple tasks!
Silverlight like flash is a video hog. a 1080p video in quicktime does not even push the video card but even a 480p MS Silverlight and the fan is blasting. CPU usage is mostly about 10 percent but the video is a whole different matter. Netflix is one of those sights where any video will hog the video card and crack up the fan to keep the i5 in my case from over heating.
I actually figured out by reading the manual that if you are foolish enough to install a keyboard cover to try and protect the keyboard from dirt and dust you are in trouble. The gaps in the keyboard keys are integral to cooling the macbook air. If you leave those keys covered with plastic, no air gets in and the device will struggle with heat.
It is pretty irritating that companies are selling keyboard covers specifically for the macbook air that should not be sold.
James,
This is an absolutely awesome tip! Thanks for sharing it.
I had a silicon keyboard cover myself on my last white MacBook to keyboard clean.
I’ve always wondered why Apple leave an exaggerated gap around their keys for both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. (Their wired and wireless keyboards are the same style.)
The keys are literally above the key holes. The gap is big enough for some stuff to get in.
Now it makes sense – heat / hot air can escape through the gaps. Brilliant!
Thanks James!
-Taz.
I was going to share the exact same tip! Due to overheating I lost the GDD on my MacBook Air 1st gen. Every time I see someone using those plastic cover I tell them how bad it is for the computer!
My 2011 MBA does this when I play video from sites like fxnetworks.com for any length of time. It approaches 200 degrees fahrenheit and the fan goes crazy. It does the same thing if I run After Effects on it. I would have just bought the MBP for less money if I had known about this issue. None of the solutions in this thread helped. Apple needs to resolve it though. I’m considering taking it back when the new ones come out early next year and demanding a replacement.
MBA was overheating. Computer locked up with screen blacked out and fan still running continuously. I couldn’t get screen to turn on. Reset solution worked. Thanks. Thank goodness I found this using my iPad.
Aunbearkeley,
Glad this helped!
-Taz.
Used your SMC reset method for interrupting fan noise on previously roaring 13″ i5 (late Summer 2011) MBA; worked great. Thanks!
i did the ctrl+shift+option shut down and it worked for me, thanks mate!
I have a new mid 2011 MBA i7 SDD 13″. After a few months(since a few days) i have the following problem: fan speed goes immediately to 6500 upon starting the MBA. Temp is OK at 36°C.
There should be no special software running in background. SMC reset does not help, even though tried repetitively and correctly (color of charging light changed).
any good ideas? thanks.
marc
Marc,
For comparison to your situation: I’m writing this reply on a completely new MacBook Air 11 inch 1.6GHz i5 with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The only software I’ve installed is Flash. In Activity Monitor, I’ve got 2.65GB of memory free. I’ve just got Safari running, with three tabs open – one tab on Gmail, and two with WordPress (website management). Gmail and WordPress have a fair bit of JavaScript code that they download into the web browser. In Activity Monitor, my % User CPU is 0.25%, % System CPU is 0.25%, and % Idle CPU is 99.5%.
The most relevant stat in what you said is your % System CPU being at 80%. System CPU is the time your CPU is busy executing system calls in the Mac operating system. If your Mac Air is consistently staying with that high System CPU usage, that means your CPU is almost completely busy doing something, and the fan is needed to stop the CPU from getting hot.
The big question here is what is your MacAir actually doing to eat all that CPU? It sounds like when you startup, there’s some software, maybe a background process, that’s very busy. Luckily, we can find out what software process in guzzling all this CPU. Start the Activity Monitor app, which is in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. It shows a list of processes. There’s a column that says “% CPU”. By clicking that column heading, ensure that column is sorted by descending CPU used (i.e. biggest % CPU number at the top). Is there a process (or processes) consuming a lot of CPU? (e.g. 80%) What’s the process name?
Let us know what you find Marc.
-Taz.
btw: mac activity control says 15% inactive, 5% user, 80% system (too much???)
2 Gigs of memory free.
Hi Taz, thank you for your long comment: funny thing is: no special processes consuming the cpu???? prices with most CPU load is the activity monitor constantly with less than 5%…
and: my wife used it and after surfing slowly around the internet, everything went smooth, no cpu load, o fan noise…after closing the MBA and opening it again: same sh**t ,-)
can there be any programs consuming cpu load or system activity without raising temp and without being shown in activity monitor?
best whishes
marc
more information that may be relevant: MBA is already very slow during booting (despite SSD)…any processes that load very early? or maybe hardware defect?
Thanks
Marc
Marc,
Can I confirm: At the time the fan is running loudly, the % System CPU is above 80%, and – at the same time – there is no process taking above 5% CPU. (That is Activity Monitor.)
If so, and given you’ve correctly applied an SMC reset, perhaps try running the Onyx utility:
I don’t know why, but Onyx seems to clear some people’s issues with battery life and slow shutdown, so there’s a possibility it will work for your case.
Let me know what you find Marc.
-Taz.
Update: Took my MBA to the MacStore: Checked it up: several hardware errors in special apple test software…MBA is currently under repair: exchange of IO Board and Logic Board did not cure the Problem…Will keep you updated.
Just good that I still have my old MBA ,-)
Thanks
Marc
Thanks for keeping us updated Marc! It will be helpful to others with the same problem.
OK… changing the display module finally fixed the problem…got my MBA back and now everything is fine again…It seemed to had something to do with the isight cam: when they connected it the fan went up again…i don’t know why this should make sense…but display change solved the prob.
marc
Wow, thanks for the fix to a problem that was making me extremely dislike my new MacBook Air 13″. Whenever I played Netflix the fan drowned out most of the sound. When I closed Netflix it stopped. I followed your instructions for the simple reset and I am a happy Netflix watcher again. I really had nothing else running of any significance.
Jan,
I’m glad an SMC reset of your MacBook Air stopped the fan noise while watching Netflix. Awesome!
-Taz.
I have the MacBook Air 11″ 2011 model with i7 Processor. I thought the fan was running a little fast and loud and so I found your info via google search. I first installed Flash Frozen but that didn’t seem to change much. I have a friend who has the 13 inch and was experiencing the same and she went so far as to send it back and get a replacement. I couldn’t stand the idea of being without what I think is a great notebook and so I tried the SMC reset you suggested and it calmed the fan to at most a whisper. Thank-you!
Buchet, I’m glad we’ve had another win! Fantastic!
New 13″ air… VERY hot and noisy fan… 2hrs max battery. SMC Reset you suggested seemed to do the trick Thx.
Excellent! Thanks for letting us know Ian.
Hi Chris
Thanks. Your solution of Ctrl-Shift-Option and Power at the same time works!!! Simple and elegant solution. Thanks a million.
Thank you Chris. Your SMC reset tip did if for me. I had the problem on a new MBA 13 i7 out of the box. The fan ran at full speed as soon as it was connected to the charger, and no program running.
Have a great 2012.
Greetings from Norway
Craso
Hello,
I’ve had the sound problem a couple of times and the control+shift+option+power procedure has resolved it, but now the sound is turn off, when I turn bluetooth on the sound is turn on but not working.
now I don’t no what to do.
thanks.
Thanks Chris. The SMC reset worked for me. In addition to the fan running constantly and at top speed, the keyboard was not illuminated and the illumination keys had no effect. After the reset. Everything is back to normal.
Thanks Chris. The SMC reset worked for me. Macbook air I7
life is better now…
Thanks again
Resetting the SMC solved the loud and constant fan noise on my 2011 MBA 13″ i5. You’re a genius. Thanks!
Thanks Chris, I was having issues with fan noise on mid 2011 MacBook Air, but only when connected to Thunderbolt display. SMC reset has fixed this. Just one thing to add: It didn’t work the first time. Some additional Googling suggested waiting 5 seconds between steps 4 and 5. That did the job.
1. Shutdown your MacBook Air (go to the Apple menu and choose “Shut Down…”).
2. Make sure your MacBook Air has external power. Connect the power adaptor, if it isn’t already.
3. Using the Air’s built-in keyboard (not a plug in keyboard or bluetooth keyboard), of the left hand side of the keyboard press Control-Shift-Option and on the top right of the keyboard, the power key at the same time.
4. Release all the keys at the same time.
5. Press the power key to start the computer.
Thank you! Resetting the SMC worked! I am forever grateful to people such as yourself for sharing your technical proficiency. Especially when I think back to 1997 and my first iMac, purchased while living in the southeast, where only a handful of people were proficient; one, to be exact.
I used your advice for resetting the SMC and it solved the problem. I, too, am grateful to those of you sharing your knowledge so that others can solve their problems successfully. Thank you so much.
chris
i have a macbook air 2011, 13 inch model and i bought it 6 weeks ago.,,
now problem is that magsafe works only one time a day…and for limited time,,every day it works for few hours and then stops working and will not works till next day, i tried your above solution but that doesn’t work for me.
please suggest a solution because i live too far from apple care center.
Thanks a lot, the reset worked perfectly. Does any one know why the SMC error appear?
Hello,
I have Mac Book Air 13″. Yesterday i tried to import video and audio files from my iphone 4s to my mac book air 13″ .. after that my mac book is very very slow (you can say it is almost dead) and FAN is very very noisy ….
Thank you!!! The reset quieted my MacBook Air’s fan. Maybe it will also help the sluggishness I’ve seen lately.
Rebout SMC reset did the job! Running from 6450rpm to normal 2000rpm. It’s so silent now. Thanks
Hi – I haven’t read the other comments however i found that there was a process running flat out. I found it by installing stat (as recommended by this site) and then was able to close it using ‘Activity Monitor’ The program was KeisWifi (or something like that – Which was software for my samsung phone which didn’t work anyway). As soon as i killed that app the fan speed dropped from 5700rpm to just under 2000rpm.
Many thanks. This helped my computer too. It is ok now.
This is a great article! I have been encountering issues with iPhoto and Flash, and now I know how to address the problem. Thanks for the tips! BTW, I love iStat!
thanks a million. I thought ” O no” when I heard the fan as loud as a office air con. Fixed just like you said.
Cheers again
dear chris:
i was having the same problem with my mac air, and i got the problem solved with you tip. thanks once again.
suren
amazing it works! (the smc reset thing). 2 wks old 2011 Air (13″). fan was spinning like crazy omitting jet engine sound
smc reset and it’s silent as a cat on the prowl. thx!
Having huge issues. My CPU temp is at 191 F and that is just with no Flash, 4 Safari tabs open.
Hi I just purchased my macbook 13′ and it runs on i5 and i was importing photos on iphoto around 4000. When suddenly the there was a loud noise and I got freaked out.
I was recommended to buy the mac.
It worked! Thanks so much for the SMC tip.
Hey, just a thanks. I have an Old Macbook Pro 17″ (Dual Intel). The fan started roaring like a jet tonight for the first time ever. Terrified me. Your trick worked and I have no idea why.
Thanks so much!
I’m facing the problem with loud fan (6500rpm) only when I connect my MBA 13″ i5 to my Thunderbolt Display. Is that normal and does somebody experience the same problem? Thank you!