The Fans and the Furious

Macintosh software/hardware discussion and troubleshooting

Moderator: James Steele

Post Reply
sndmarks
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Los Angeles

The Fans and the Furious

Post by sndmarks »

Hi all,

Main machine is a cheese grater MacPro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and upgraded to 8x3.33. I did the upgrade several years ago and everything has been working perfectly since.

....until this morning.

Boot up the machine this morning and, all of a sudden, the fans (booster fans specifically) are running like crazy at 5200+rpm despite both CPUs reading 90-95degrees. I've tried resetting PRAM and SMC but it hasn't made any difference.

I DID notice some weirdness yesterday with the machine while copying a project off to the archive drive. It kept erring out and telling me such-and-such a file had unreadable data. Transferring that file individually worked just fine. Chalked it up to a disk issue and plan to replace that disk this weekend or next week.

In the meantime, the fans have started going crazy and won't stop.

The nation's knowledge runs far deeper than my own. Any suggestions? Help!
MacPro Nehalem 8core (2x3.33ghz, 64gb RAM, 10.11, Radeon 5770, NVIDIA GT120), DP 9.12
User avatar
FMiguelez
Posts: 8266
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Body: Narco-México Soul/Heart: NYC

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by FMiguelez »

I could never resolve the same issue with my iMac.

Its fans sometimes go nuts, out of the blue, even while sleeping, into a fan craze fest.

Sometimes reseting the PRAM or the other setting (forgot its name) work, but usually not.
And this problem seems to be "by seasons". It hasn't done it in a while... No apparent pattern to chase.

Might be a faulty heat sensor.
Mac Mini Server i7 2.66 GHs/16 GB RAM / OSX 10.14 / DP 9.52
Tascam DM-24, MOTU Track 16, all Spectrasonics' stuff,
Vienna Instruments SUPER PACKAGE, Waves Mercury, slaved iMac and Mac Minis running VEP 7, etc.

---------------------------

"In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth." ― Richard Feynman
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 15132
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by mikehalloran »

Most likely cause: The heat sinks on these are known to clog up with dust. Look between the fins.

The NV RAM battery can be too old. 5 years is the normal replacement interval. A bad battery is far worse than no battery. Use the common CR2032.

You could have a bad sensor or other issues but the above are common.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
User avatar
HCMarkus
Posts: 9712
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:01 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Rancho Bohemia, California
Contact:

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by HCMarkus »

sndmarks wrote:Hi all,

Main machine is a cheese grater MacPro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and upgraded to 8x3.33. I did the upgrade several years ago and everything has been working perfectly since.

....until this morning.

Boot up the machine this morning and, all of a sudden, the fans (booster fans specifically) are running like crazy at 5200+rpm despite both CPUs reading 90-95degrees. I've tried resetting PRAM and SMC but it hasn't made any difference.

I DID notice some weirdness yesterday with the machine while copying a project off to the archive drive. It kept erring out and telling me such-and-such a file had unreadable data. Transferring that file individually worked just fine. Chalked it up to a disk issue and plan to replace that disk this weekend or next week.

In the meantime, the fans have started going crazy and won't stop.

The nation's knowledge runs far deeper than my own. Any suggestions? Help!
Could be the seating of one of the CPUs.
User avatar
MIDI Life Crisis
Posts: 26254
Joined: Wed May 18, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Contact:

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

2013 Mac Pro 32GB RAM

OSX 10.14.6; DP 10; Track 16; Finale 26, iPad Pro, et al

MIDI LIFE CRISIS
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 15132
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by mikehalloran »

If the CPU is properly seated, the heat sink clear and the NV RAM battery not too low.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
User avatar
cuttime
Posts: 4291
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by cuttime »

Been there on an iMac; it was a loose sensor cable on the motherboard that needed to be taped down with some antistatic tape. I tried all of the fan control utilities and none of them worked for me.
828x MacOS 13.6.5 M1 Studio Max 1TB 64G DP11.31
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 15132
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by mikehalloran »

cuttime wrote:... I tried all of the fan control utilities and none of them worked for me.
Yes, avoid those. If overheating is the problem, turning the fans down can destroy your Mac.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
frankf
Posts: 1132
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: The Fans and the Furious

Post by frankf »

I second Mike. Clean out the dust. It cured a similar issue for me.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Frank Ferrucci
http://www.ferruccimusic.com
Mac Pro 6,1 64gb RAM DP9.52 OSX 10.12.6 MIO 2882d & ULN2d Firewire Audio Interfaces, MOTU MTP-AV USB
Post Reply