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)?
I had the same Issue… thing was that… I had my macbook to boot on 32Bit (I changed it because I needed some program to run)… Did the change (hold 6 and 4 on startup) and voila! sound, heat, everything gone!!!
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
Thank you so much. The fan noise stopped after I pressed Control-Option-Shift. I had tried with the left side but it only worked when I did it on the right side. Thanks.
Many thanks for writing this! I have a new MacBook Air 13” with i7. Suddenly, the fan started being incredibly loud, well above 6000rpm, with no app running. The problem was solved by an SMC reset. So thank you very much again!
-Fl.
SMC reset stopped fan. Before I checked app CPU usage and quit one by one before shutting down MBA.
Chris,
Add me to the chorus of voices here thanking you for this super helpful advice! You saved me a trip to the Genius Bar.
Woohoo! Thanks again!
Chris,
Thank you sooooo much. You saved me :X Right after I held on shift+control+option+power >> released them and then turned on my laptop the fan noise was gone. Thank you for your great help.
This fixed the problem for me too. Sadly, it keeps coming back.
Many thanks Chris, rpm went from 5k to 2k, fantastic!
This proved to be helpful indeed. Thanks a lot
This SMC reset fixed the fan problem with my i7 Macbook Air.
Thanks for the easy solution!
Dan in Florida, I’m glad you MacBook Air i7 is cool again!
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!
Try running Youtube in HTML5 rather then flash. You will see the difference.
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 am not sure if this help but my labtop sound worse than others and what i did was pull-out the battery and just use the AC to the wall sounds Great!
and now i will try your ctrl+alt+shift+command key.
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!
I also get the fan running irrespective of CPU temp or indicated CPU load when connected to a TB display. This is occurs on both Core i7 and Core i5 13″ MBA.
It does not do this when running untethered. The SMC reset made no difference.
JimF,
so do you consider that as normal behavior, or do you also believe, that something is wrong? What is the max rpm your MBA reaches (istats widget)? tks
The SMC reset solved it.
Thx
I just switched from a Lennovo to MabBook Air and this loud fan issue was driving me CRAZY. I installed the AppTamer and it is FANTASTIC. I am a heavy user of the computer for work and it is so quiet now.
Major appreciation for sites like this.
Worked for mw with my 2011 11″ MBA.
Thanks!
Tasman, you might be my new favorite person. I was able to clear an old printer queue which helped immensely. I’ve been watching my CPU and fan speeds speed up with flash, but that resolves itself once I stop doing what I was doing. As long as my fan is under 3000 it doesn’t make audible noise. The one thing that stays high is my memory. Is that just because I have a lot saved? or is it something else?
I also sent my computer back and they replaced the fan and logic board… I’m so frustrated with this! My father’s MBA is about two months older than mine and his NEVER has this issue. It seems totally arbitrary.
worked for me on brand new 13.3 I5 macbook air!!! I was ready to bring it back and I had not even finished set up when the fan jammed on full tilt!!! Silent and sweet now and I can even press near the power cord with out a repeat issue!!! So glad to find this 411!!! As I bought the Macbook out of town and was not looking forward to a repeat trip!
SO quiet now…it worked! This is why I love my Mac…smart, engaged users willing to help out. You are the best!
Thaks a lot. Worked for my MacBook Pro
I was getting loud and high RPM fan noise, trial and error found the culprit–EVERNOTE! I now keep it closed unless I need to look at it, problem solved.
Thanks so much! Thought I was gonna lose my mind. Plus I think it was cutting my battery life in half. What a life saver! XOXO
Many thanks for the SMC tip and the anti flash plug in. I’ve always loathed flash sites (in both senses of the word) and now I can control them
Hi
I have a 13″ MacBook Air i7 (Mid 2011 model), and I use Parallels Desktop quite frequently. I run AutoDesk Revit Architecture and while rendering, I was shocked to see the temperature rise to 94 degrees celsius. In a crazy frenzy, I downloaded a program called smsFanControl, and set the fan so it runs at 6500rpm non-stop. (This is while rendering..it takes about 1hour for each render). The thing is, the fan was already running at max speed, and so the temperature stayed the same.
After reading that you had never seen a temperature of greater than 50 degrees Celsius on a MBA, should I be concerned about my Mac? I tried removing the keyboard protector that I have on, and after testing it thoroughly, I found that it does not have an impact at all on the temperature, occasionally the temperature would rise by about 1 degrees.
Do you have any suggestions for other ways to keep the Air cool, as conventional cooling pads don’t work on Macs?
Thanks a lot in advance
Saif
When I play Minecraft ( a java game ) it makes a lot of noise.
Is there anything to stop the noise ( it is very hard to look through all of your writing because it takes too much time, sorry!) Please tell me something to get rid of the noise!
wait what worked?
Wow! Thank you! Hope it lasts! Had no clue what was going on– I’m not a gamer and don’t have a lot of intensive apps running
yes, it worked. thank you very much!
I use external monitor, KB, and mouse. Sometimes it sound much and sometime it does not. Sometime i see it does not understand the external monitor correctly. For 2nd problem when I touch the mac keyboard then it accepts both monitor at the same time. the 2nd problem can be solved by plugin mouse and keyboard first then monitor.
I recently bought a, MBA 13″ i7. I recently noticed that the fan was getting really, really loud. Considering that this thing is still new, I wasn’t willing to fork over more money to fix a broken fan. So I did what everyone does, when they don’t want to go to a doctor–I went to Google.
When I stumbled upon your article, the first suggestion “running too many apps” made me laugh (and roll my eyes), but I checked my apps to see what was running anyways. I was shocked to discover that 12 different apps were running, including photoshop (with 1/2 dozen projects in progress) and games I had started, paused and forgotten. I started shutting programs down and my Mac started getting quieter and quieter.
Yeah! The problem has been solved!
But now that everything is back and healthy again I have stumbled upon a new problem. There is positively nothing to do when all the apps have been shut down.
Thank you so much for the awesome article. It sure saved me a pretty penny.
Jinju,
Thanks for sharing your story – it great to know that particular tip helped you.
-Taz.
Have used this twice and it works well. I clocked 6519rpm (!!!) beforehand! Back down to the 2900s after SMC reset. Cheers
If you are having this problem and are using a Thunderbolt Display, Apple released a Thunderbolt firmware update (1.1) that addresses the fan noise issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1453
Update–I blamed Evernote unfairly. The culprit was the new version of Google Chrome. Switched to Firefox and no issues.
41ºC is not hot for a computer. You say that’s the hottest it got but that’s pretty cool for the bottom of a lap top.
I have a 13″ MBA i7 replaced a 15″ MBP. Currently I’m running TWO applications: Chrome and Apple Mail. Seems that my fan has decided to kick in and is now running at 6067 rpm and climbing. CPU temp is 76 degrees Celcius and flipping back it tells me that the CPU is 99% idle.
Yes, your fix works to stop it temporarily but every three/four days it happens again. What is going on??!? Should I be calling AppleCare? Should I take this back? I’ve only had it for a little over a month!
I have MBA 13″ … press: Control-Shift-Option and on the top right of the keyboard, the power key at the same time. and problem resolved .
THX … THX … THX … THX … THX … THX …
interesting article, but its frustrating to see the continued spread of ignorance about flash. Yes, some stuff written in flash is poorly done, but most major applications that use flash are no worse than any other app. I personally have written flash apps that are both very sophisticated and use little if any CPU. http://www.northeastmagic.com/as3examples/
Blame bad programmers and discourage people from visiting poorly coded sites, sure, but flash is no more to blame than any other technology, and in fact, to provide the same functionality, nothing is as efficient of an animation engine that provides discreetly addressable animated art objects and sound tracks than flash. The flash hating is just as stupid as telling people to stop using electricity because a few bad electricians are out there.
A few bad electricians?
MBA 11, i5 2012 here. Seems it helped! Thank you very much , great tip.
Was having CPU temp around 160 degrees Fahrenheit and fan speed around 5000 RPM. Manually put the MBA to sleep. When I woke it, CPU temp is ~120 degrees Fahrenheit and fan speed is around 2000 RPM.
Hello Chris, thanks a lot for your advice. It accurately helped a great deal.
Thank you so much. You were right with this procedure. My MBA11.6 now works without that funny fan noise and temperature feeling on keyboard has gone down.
thanks that simple ‘control option shift’ worked – i downloaded your widjet and was at 6000 rpm and now a healthy 2000rmp. cheers – no loud, hot puter now:)
Thanx Tasman, my MBA fan was very loud and it was not charging. The fan was running at full speed the moment I turn on the computer even before the OS kicks in. Now it is all quiet again. Greatly appreciated.
Hi, and thanks for the solution, which worked perfectly to quiet my otherwise problem-free MBA.
Shift-control-option worked perfectly! Thank you so much. I love my Air again!!
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SMC reset fixed the noisy fan! Thanks for the tip.
Hi, thanks a lot for this helpful information, recently I bought a Macbook Air 13″ and this amazing tips are great, after this Macbook Air I had a Macbook Pro 2006 I never heard his fan to loud like the Macbook Air, so I afraid about it and think my Macbook Air was crazy or had some problems, but with this information calm me, really thanks and I’ll share with other that have this problems.
Best regards.
I was getting ready to call my computer expert @ $100/hour when I found your info on fan noise and heat. Now, my macbook air is silently happy, and, thanks to you and Chris, I saved a lot of frustration and money!
Sincerely,
Mimi
Mimi, you are so welcome!
Hey thank you so much, i was so scared i broke my MacBook.
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i did that too, it will work for a while then fan noise keeps on coming back. what option can you suggest. i called apple last time he suggested me to the same thing plus i think shift + ctrl+option + if i remeber it right the letter r or t in the keyboard on your one hand and hld the p and shutdown altogether., it works too, but the fan noise comes back again after watching video.
I reset my energy saver preferences to defaults for both the battery and the power adapter and that fixed the problem right away. Hope this can help someone.
Thanks Matt!
::MY PROBLEM SOLVED:: “Hidden Apps Using Large CPU %”
I had all the same symptoms as listed in the article. However, after following some of the recommended solutions, my fan was still working hard, which in turn, drained my battery very quickly.
PROBLEM:
I had hidden apps running in the background using upwards of 90% of my CPU usage. These running apps are hidden and do not show when pressing “cmd + tab”.
SOLUTION:
- Do a spotlight search (cmd + spacebar)
- Search for the pre-loaded (native) Apple app “Activity Monitor”
- Look down the column of “% CPU” and seek out any apps that are using a high volume and close accordingly.
- Subsequently, you will see a drop in fan speed (and in turn, fan noises) within a matter of minutes.
Thank u so much Chris! Although mine is a MacBook Pro, ur trick worked!!
no more noisy fan for me!!
thanks for sharing the love
thanks, this trick worked for me and my macbook air is now quiet again! I was worried I had broken it after only a couple months ownership
For the person who started the chat thread on this and all those who have also added some really constructive support, thank you!!! I recently purchased an i7 Mac Air. I really love it but this was becoming a big issue shortly after buying the device. The SMC reboot, adding the plugin to block Adobe flash and SMC fan control have together fixed my problem. I now have an acceptable battery life and a very cool running machine again. All while using Parallels XP running, SAP Client, word, excel and Powerpoint loaded as a test. The basic machine is excellent, I have no doubt Apple will keep patching software updates to fine tune this little 11″ i& hot rod.
My own findings:
SMC Fan Control: helps with a cool user friendly indicator on the top menu bar to tell how the PC is running, no different to the gauges on your car, its great!! no risk to the Machine with this, well designed and cold never comprise the PC’s integrity
Click to plugin: This has for sure stopped making the web browser with all the junk out there that advertisers want to annoy you with.
SMC Reboot: No doubt about it, the machine was confused about something and it all has calmed down. I was using the sleep mode after a heavy download via bluetooth. I am certain there was some residual memory buffering / CPU issues that the machine could not break out of. The blower dryer and memory got stuck in serious stress mode!
thankyou, happy Mac Booker!
Glad it helped Ken!
OMG it seems to be working! You rock! thanks for that. I hope it lasts~
Another win! Thanks Saya.
Thank you so much Chris !!!!!
thanks so much. this fixed my problem. I can hear myself think now and hoping my battery charge issue will be fixed also.
Why isn’t aren’t the geniuses in Cupertino fixing this issue is the real question?
Thanks! i went to see a Mac technician and he didn’t know what was going on and I just did what you recommended and the problem stopped!! Thanks so much!
Another win! I’m glad Maria!
Thanks a million. It fixed my 2012 Pro 13 fan problem.
That’s fantastic Vu Vo!
Thank you very much for the most useful post of the month! My CPU temperature was around 70′C and the fan RPM was around 5000, but after the SMC reset the temperature of the CPU dropped to 40′C and RPM of the fan is about 1900. A huge change! Will share to all of my MBA friends. THX
Tasytrn, glad to help!
-Tas.
My fan was going crazy too and the issue was that a process called AGAdminService was using up to 100% CPU. I found out in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3191543?start=0&tstart=0 that this is a Citrix service. I did have Citrix installed but uninstalled it a while ago, so no idea why it was still there. I ran the following command in Terminal
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.citrix.agadminservice.plist
which solved my issue immediately. Peace and quiet at last …
Kai,
Thanks for taking the time to write up your solution to Citrix using 100% CPU.
I’m sure it will be of help to people.
Thanks,
-Tas.
wow that really worked my battery now has 8 hours left and only 63 % charged!
Excellent Dante!
Thanks for really interesting and helpful postings! I wonder if I may pose a question to you too? My MacBook Pro (2.66 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HD, OSX Lion 10.7.4) started to be very hot and noisy (fan) immediately after I installed the Microsoft Office for Mac Service Pack 2 (14.2) update specifically whenever I ran Outlook, despite no problem with Outlook prior to this. The CPU activity showed that Outlook was using approx. 90% of CPU. After 5 days I removed MS Office completely and reinstalled it without updating to SP2 and everything was fine again. Then some days later, when the fix was released for SP2 (14.2.1), I again installed it, and then the problem of excessive noise and overheating has resumed. Then, to my dismay, my MBP stopped working altogether – Apple Support advised me to return it to the dealer, who found that a cable to the hard-disk was burned out — they replaced it within a day and I got my MBP back intact. I tried your suggestion for a SMC reset, but the CPU hyperactivity, the overheating, and the noisy fan persist whenever I try to run Outlook (not otherwise). I would be so grateful for any help — can you advise me?
Hi Ian,
I’ve put some suggestions for you in a new article: Mac Outlook High CPU Usage.
-Tas.
Hi Tasman,
… and now I begin to think the best option is probably, as you suggest, to switch to Apple Mail and get used to it! I will try a little longer, if you think of any other possible solutions, but otherwise give up on Outlook.
Many, many thanks for your amazingly thoughtful and detailed reply, full of helpful suggestions! I showed your posting to our university IT people and they were highly impressed too.
In fact I had already updated to 14.2.2 (and it didn’t make any difference), and had earlier tried uninstalling “Office for Mac 2011″ then reinstalling without SP2 (which worked until I waited for the 14.2.2 “fix” and I tried afresh!). In reply to your questions: I acquired this MacBook Pro almost 2 years ago, and I upgraded to Lion, and I did have Office 2008 previously. My email account is a standard Exchange one for this university (most people use PCs, not Mac). Today, I tried your various suggested fixes, lastly creating a completely new user account … but the computer immediately had high CPU use, started overheating and getting noisy … so I’m back to square one
Many thanks again, Ian
Hi Taz,
Will the SMC reset work on my macbook pro? The fan makes a really loud noise and CPU temp jumps to 88 even when I only have 2 apps open – mac mail and chrome. I’m guessing it’s the shockwave flash that’s causing this. Help?
Kathy,
The SMC reset may help. Try it first.
If still no joy, write me again.
-Tas.