Noisy 2020 Macbook ...
 

[Closed] Noisy 2020 Macbook Air - what else?

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Hey,

I've got a brand new Macbook Air and it's super noisy with the fan. It's caused by the lack of proper heatsinking between the CPU and the fans - so the fans just go crazy under really low load.

There's a few tricks to help it, like removing boost - but has anyone got a 2020 Macbook Pro? Does it do the same thing or is the heatsinking better?

Cheers!

Ricks


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 5:40 pm
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The Pro can be loud with the fan at times (like when video conferencing using Chrome) or when I have multiple applications open but generally it is quiet.


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 5:43 pm
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Older Mac Air and it is quiet as a mouse. Maybe speak to Apple and see if it’s knackered?


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 6:01 pm
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I've got a new MacBook Air and I've not had that issue. It's only under really heavy load that I've noticed the fan at all. The rest of the time it's silent like the fanless Macbook I had previously. Is something running your cpu high in the background?


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 6:05 pm
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My wife has a 2020 MacBook Pro. I don't think I have heard the fan come on at all in the 2 months she has had it.


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 6:15 pm
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Have you run activity monitor to see what apps / processes are keeping the cpu busy?

also how new Is ‘brand new’ do you mean it’s only a day it two old? During the first day or two after first boot (or after big system updates) you can have a lot of activity going on in the background like indexing that can effect performance


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 6:21 pm
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Thanks folks!

It's not a specific issue to this MacBook Air - it's a known design fault with iOS not regulating the Intel chipset properly, and a physical design fault that the heatsink pipes aren't connected to the fan.

So, it gets hot because it maxes out on boost, and then can't displace the hot air.

It'll be fixed in the next iteration when they go back to their own ARM chips, and hopefully connect up the heatsink!

Maybe I'll checkout a teardown of the MacBook Pro to see if they've got a better design....


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 8:52 pm
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My 2019 MacBook Air revs it’s bollocks off on Teams and slack video calls. I’ve put it on a stand to help with the cooling, but it’s a shocker compared to the MacBook it replaced. ☹️


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 10:45 pm
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My 2018 Pro rarely spins up the fans. Only when I do a prolonged bit of number crunching (I use Matlab and R) and I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen in more casual use (web, MS Office etc).

If it’s brand new it might be doing some indexing or downloading etc so it may not be representative of how loud it’ll be under normal use.


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 11:20 pm
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It’s not a specific issue to this MacBook Air – it’s a known design fault with iOS not regulating the Intel chipset properly, and a physical design fault that the heatsink pipes aren’t connected to the fan.

You do know they don't run iOS, don't you?

For reference - 16" MBP here. Fan on occasionally but it's rare and not very loud really. Not sure I quite believe the "design fault" assertion - but if it bothers you, sounds like you should return it.


 
Posted : 15/07/2020 11:31 pm