Topic by Chris 2017-04-03 04:12:10

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Hi all,

I'm having a really strange problem with my 2013 MacBook Air. About 5 or 6 hours ago, the fan cranked up to what sounds like maximum speed. Thinking it was just an issue in my current session, I rebooted the machine. As soon as it turned on and the chime played, the fan whirred up once again. I noticed that the system was extremely sluggish. When I looked in Activity Monitor, it said that kernal_process was using something like 200% of the CPU. Activity Monitor also reported that about 60% of my CPU was in use. I thought that was really odd considering I wasn't doing anything intensive and macOS is usually pretty good at regulating the hardware. I tried to reset the NVRAM and SMC, but that didn't seem to help. Maybe I'm not doing something right? I held control option and shift while the machine was off for about 10 or 20 seconds. I also held those keys down along with power for about 10 or 20 seconds. Still, it did no good.

Having concluded it was something wierd in the software, I decided to do a clean install. When I booted from the install drive I have, the fan immediately kicked into gear. It also took about 2 hours to get the system installed which I found very odd. Now, I'm back at the Setup Assistant and the fan is still running at top speed. What's going on? Is my hardware failing? THe system still seems to be a little sluggish. What else can I do besides take the computer to an Apple Store or contact Apple Support?

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Reply by GrannyCheeseWheel 2017-04-03 05:31:44

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Hi, if I don't say it, someone else will, this belongs in off topic.

Don't know what to do as I've never owned a mac, but after a clean install, and the problem still happens, yeah. I might just have said take a vacuum to the vent ports, if it had any, like not the bottom brush part obviously, the hose, but then you said about kernel process taking 200%. yeah dunno.

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Reply by Chris 2017-04-03 17:14:41

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Sorry for posting this in the wrong area. Well, I'm out of ideas. I'm running a fresh copy of Sierra and the fan is still extremely loud and the system still lags. What else can I do aside from taking this to an Apple store? I tried connecting the power adapter and pressing control option shift and power for up to 10 seconds, but that didn't seem to do anything. Any other ideas? I have no idea why this randomly happened yesterday when I was using the computer. Before that everything was working perfectly.

Grab my Adventure at C: stages Right here.

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Reply by SLJ 2017-04-03 21:40:11

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Hi.
It sounds strange indeed. My first advice was to run a disk repair, but that's done already when you have reinstalled the system, unless your partition is messed up.
Sounds like there is something blocking the fans and they needs to be cleaned. Is the machine being hot at the bottom of the case? If yes, then you need to get the machine to an Apple store ASAP and ask them to clean the fans. If you keep using the computer, you might make some serious damage.

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Reply by Chris 2017-04-03 22:12:02

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The computer isn't hot. It's not even warm. It wasn't hot or warm when I was installing Sierra yesterday. I don't know how the fan could be clogged up. I suppose it's possible, but you'd think the machine would heat up pretty quickly if the fans were blocked. I'm thinking something is messed up with the SMC and I didn't properly reset it. Having no vision, I have no way of seeing if the lights on the adapter and computer change colors.

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Reply by SLJ 2017-04-03 23:07:12

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Here is something quick you can try, but I'm not sure if it helps:
1. Turn off the computer.
2. Hold down the left ctrl, shift and option keys.
3. While holding those keys down, press the power button multiple times. Try like 10 times. The SMC and power supply is being restarted as soon as you press the power button as far as sighted assistance has told me. I don't know if it makes any difference between holding down the power button or just press it multiple times.
4. When you turn on the computer again, try to reset your ram by holding down option, command and the letters P and R. Hold those buttons down until you've heard the start up sound 5 times and release the keys.
I've briefly looked in some forums to see if I could find other solutions to your problem. I found one forum where the issue was the battery which has died or was not working properly. Something which is worth checking. You can check the health of your battery in the "About this Mac" section in the Apple menu.
That's all the suggestions I have so far. I'm sorry that I can't come up with more helpful things to try...

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Reply by Chris 2017-04-03 23:58:38

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Under System Information>power, it says the battery condition is also normal. It also says normal when I hold option and click the trackpad on the battery icon. I tried resetting the NVRAM and letting the machine chime 5 times, but that did no good. I'm going to see if I can get a sighted person to help me reset the SMC and see if the colors change. Failing that, I guess I'll call Apple and/or take the machine to a store. I just hope htey don't charge an arm and leg. Is there any way to do an accessible hardware test using VoiceOver? I could also try that and see if anything comes up.

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Reply by SLJ 2017-04-04 22:11:10

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The only inaccessible thing is the hardware test. But out from my experiences, the hardware test is crap and giving incorrect results. So I think the last option is to take the computer to an Apple store...

Best regards SLJ.
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Reply by Dark 2017-04-04 23:04:38

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Moderation!

Sorry for not getting to this one earlier but I'm afraid people are indeed correct, this question isn't game related so I am moving this topic to the offtopic room.

Hope you get your problem sorted Chris.

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Reply by angel_diva22 2017-04-05 04:03:20

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Chris,

Did you ever get your fan issue fixed? If not, my advice. I would take it to an Apple Store, even though the battery may say it is normal, it may not have failed yet. It probably is failing… Though. So I would quickly take it to an apple store, before any more nasty surprises come your way. Hope this gets resolved soon. big_smile

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Reply by Chris 2017-04-07 10:27:42 (edited by Chris 2017-04-07 10:31:26)

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I'm pretty sure the issue was the battery. After doing more research online, I found a few posts that support the idea of a dying battery. With this knowledge, I went and bought a battery off Ebay. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase screwdrivers thinking my dad had all the correct ones since he spent most of his life as a mechanic. Of course Apple has to use some weird nonstandard screwdriver. My dad got pretty mad about that. I swear, Apple is the king of proprietary technology. Anyway, we're hopefully going to acquire the appropriate screwdrivers and get this done. Hopefully this solves the fan and CPU issues. I'm sure as hell not taking this to an Apple store and paying something around $130 to have someone do the same work we could do for about $90 less. This machine isn't under warranty anymore so it might even be more than $130. Silly silly Apple not wanting people to tamper with their machines. I generally like Apple hardware and software, but this proprietary crap gets a little irritating at times.

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Reply by SLJ 2017-04-07 13:34:10

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You need the right screwdrivers, otherwise you'll brake the screws.
The battery should be quite easy to change in the 2013 models and older. I'll recommend your dad to watch a video on Youtube on how it's done to make sure he don't mess it up. That is, if he is sighted. smile Trust me, you will regret you even have thought about doing it yourself if you mess up the Apple hardware or brake anything.
Yes, I agree that it's crazy to pay that much in an Apple store if you can do it on your own.
Apple is like the newer cars. Make it so you can't fix it on your own.

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Reply by serrebi 2017-04-07 16:50:10 (edited by serrebi 2017-04-07 16:57:54)

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As a quick fix: Try Max Fan control...
https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
It will take some tinkering to do much of anything(I'm using custom temp values,  on CPU Core 2, fans start raising from 54F, hopefully no more than 65F.)(I have read that most mac laptop's work nice  around 65F, and you don't really want it going past 70-75 or so so keep that in mind.). I burned through two SSD's before I started out using this thing, myself. Also, for some unexplainable reason I can only get this thing to work in Windows, Bootcamp. Anyways if money's an issue and you hope for a software fix, this may be it: Assuming none of your fans are broken. Makes my fans run a lot more than they would using automatic mobo settings. Maybe you could also adjust some UEFI values instead of using this,  but that would require having sited help around. I've opened up my machine, and used compressed air on it , but still the overheating issue. Honestly I think more noise is less of an issue than a computer that constantly recks the SSD, or whatever, and max fan control has made this SSD last longer than 6 months so in my not having Applecare book it fixed it for me. Your increased fan noise issue could be something else though, since you didn't use software to modify fanspeeds and such. If in doubt, and you don't want the increased noise, and you don't have comparable sited help around, take it to an Apple store.

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Reply by Chris 2017-04-10 18:41:00

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I successfully replaced the battery with a little help from my dad. The computer works normally now. The battery was reaching the end of its useful life.

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