Well, God invented firmware fixes for situations like these…
Per Geek.com, a number of complaints has emanated from owners of Apple’s 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro regarding overactive fans. The issue has been noted in our forums and is the subject of a lengthy thread in Apple’s discussion forums. From one report:
“My first instance of runaway fans was under the lightest of conditions, having only one browser open only a few tabs and a cool computer. The fact it was cold is what is so alarming. Out of nowhere the fans spun up to a roar, stayed there for a few minutes, then decelerated back down to idle. Every so often this happens, usually daily, and it’s horribly annoying on a high quality well engineered computer.
From the list of reports flowing in, users suspect that Apple’s recent shift to using SanDisk solid-state drives in the Retina MacBook Pro may have something to do with the issue, although it is likely a software issue rather than a hardware one.”
Apple support staff have offered mixed responses to the issue, with some customers receiving replacement machines while others have been assured that the behavior is normal. If the issue is indeed a software one as is suspected, Apple should be able to fix it relatively easily with an update pushed out to owners of the affected machines, but it is unclear whether Apple is working on a fix at this time.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and if you’ve seen this issue on your end, please let us know in the comments.
One reply on “Some 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina users report fan issues, SanDisk SSDs could be part of problem”
I have one of the 15″ MacBook Pro retina laptops that has this problem.
It’s particularly annoying, since the fans will suddenly (seemingly for no reason) spin up to full roar and run at that speed for between two and five minutes. Then they decelerate back to idle. I’ve run every hardware and software test that I can think of, as a long time Mac user, and I’m stumped. The only thing that comes to mind is somehow a signal is being sent to spin up the fans which is unrelated to anything I’m doing at the time.
Apple say’s it’s normal, it’s clearly not. Some people calling in get the response that they’ve never heard about it. And others have posted on Apple’s community forum to report the problem. I’ve called, emailed, and posted on that forum.
Not much left except to wait out Apple’s famous habit of going silent… and not even having the courtesy to tell us they are working on it. Whether they are or not is just another frustrating aspect.
I paid over three thousand dollars for this MBPr and haven’t had a day out of the 23 that I’ve owned it where this workflow interrupting problem doesn’t occur. It literally began within moments after booting it for the first time, right out of the box.