Macbook Pro Fan Issues

[davidamiod]

Hello,

I have a 2009 Macbook Pro with a Nvidia card in it. I'm running a 18.3 linuxmint and I am having a large number of fan issues.

My laptop is getting into the 80 and 90 degree Celsius before the fan half way kicks in.

I found an item in the "Software Manager" called the 'macfanctld' that is advertised as a fan control daemon for Macbooks. I have used this daemon on my 2010 Macbook pro and my temperature issues were solved with an aggressive fan.

On my 2009 however, every time I restart, I have to reinstall the daemon through the software manager or it does not seem to work.

On the 2009 I tried to see if maybe something was up so I tried services --status-all and on start up the macfanctld has a [ + ] beside it in lieu of a [ - ] so I am kinda at a loss to figure out how to fix this so that my fan works properly, any suggestions?

Sadly I am too poor these days to give up on this laptop as the 2010 in my gf's for her degree and this one on mine as I work on mine degree...

Thank You
David

[powerwagon75]

Have you modified the settings in your /etc/macfanctl.conf file?

A quick web search shows people have used it successfully on Macs as early as 2006. Currently using it on a early 2010 Macbook, and just did some monitoring.

Macbook_shot.jpeg

Do you have lm-sensors and Psensor installed? I was letting some videos play, and watching fan speed-vs-temperatures. The "temp-avg-ceiling" seems to be the main driving force behind the fan speed for this test anyway, as speed was following the CPU Core 0/1 temperatures, and keeping it right around the 65C ceiling. Installing the two aforementioned items are helpful in monitoring/tuning the fan for your personal preference and checking how efficient macfanctld is working.

You didn't say, but have you made an entry in Menu -->Preferences --> Startup Applications to add it? I had to add this to get it to run at boot up time. (not sure how that worked on your 2010 MBP, as I believe autostart at boot is not part of the install process for it.)

MacFan_in_StUp.jpg

(I'm also guessing you're running Mint main edition)

[davidamiod]

Hey thanks for the reply,

So I have have been web searching as well and I suppose the most upsetting thing here is that the daemon works on my 2010 but not my 2009 MBP.

So I do have lm-sensors and psensor installed. By having these installed and using the surviv.io game I am able to get a good idea of when macfanctld is working. It seems rather night and day thought for when it is working and throttling fan against temperature or just not.

I did a bunch of rainbows around on the 2009 MBP in the last hour to try to fix this fan so I am just doing a reinstall of Linuxmint 18.3 Cinnamon 64-bit to get a clean install again, once that is done in another 5 minutes or so I will try to directly add the daemon to the startup applications list under a five second delay. I had tried this earlier but it did not work.

The issue I have is I think the daemon is "running" when I restart, but won't touch the fan speed unless I reinstall macfanctld... it is weird. I have done an OS reinstalled before but the issue seems to persist.

On my 2010 MBP the macfanctld is not on the startup applications menu but starts up and controls fan on each restart.

[davidamiod]

So clean install of the OS on the 2009 MBP with lm-sensor, psensor, and macfanctld. On startup I am hitting 90 degrees C and a fan speed of ~3500. Our config files for macfanctld are the same as it the one on my MBP 2010. I dont' get how to move this fan. I installed macfanctld and it took control of the fan, then I added the macfanctld to the startup application. On restart the does not spool up under heavy load and temps >100c. If I reinstall macfanctld from the software manager, it jumps in and helps with the fans. This is driving me nuts.

[powerwagon75]

I don't suppose you're dual-booting it, are you? Mac has a application similar in function as well, as the stock configuration just wasn't that great. If dual booting, could try Macs Fan Control...may be a hardware issue? Just a thought in the off-chance you still had OSX on it. Sorry, you've got me stumped at the moment. It almost seems the macfanctld just isn't working at all, as Apple, I believe has something built in to the firmware to ramp fan up if temps get over 70C..but I'm not for certain on that. Not understanding why it would need the second reinstall to start working correctly.

[davidamiod]

Sadly, am not dual-booting. It seems to only work from the time I install it until I shutdown. On restart even it it shows at as [ + ] in services --status-all, it only starts to play with the fan after I reinstall it until I restart again.

[powerwagon75]

Try one of these in Terminal next time you get to the point it seems it don't want to run:

/etc/init.d/macfanctld restart

/etc/init.d/macfanctld force-reload

[davidamiod]

So I tried a bunch of stuff, if instead of a reinstall through the software manager when macfanctld does not control the fan on restart, I terminal /etc/init.d/macfanctld restart and the fan starts up after I am prompted for a root password.

If I add /etc/init.d/macfanctld restart or /etc/init.d/macfanctld start to the Startup Applications menu I am prompted for the password as if I terminal those lines, but after I enter the password macfanctld does not change fan speeds.


Edit - Correction if I add /etc/init.d/macfanctld restart to Startup Applications, it asked for a password and then the fans work. If I add /etc/init.d/macfanctld start to the Startup Applications, it asked for a password and then does not effect fan speed against temperature.

[powerwagon75]

I suspect "start" doesn't affect it, since it has already attempted to start, but for some reason is stalling, and somewhat explains why restart would work.

To try and dig out a little more info, the next time you can get it to the point where it should be controlling fan speed, but is not, type this in terminal and post your results: /ect/init.d/macfanctld status

Also, I stand corrected on my previous comment about putting it in the startup applications to get it to work. Just turned it off in startup and rebooted, and it was automatically started, correctly. Ran the status command, and got the results below:

(tested fan control with video playback--it is controlling at desired temperature)

Code: Select all

xxxx@xxxx-MacBookPro ~ $ /etc/init.d/macfanctld status
● macfanctld.service - LSB: Apple MacBook (Pro) fan control daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/macfanctld; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2018-05-21 20:41:49 CDT; 1min 10s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 899 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/macfanctld start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/macfanctld.service
           └─1038 /usr/sbin/macfanctld

May 21 20:41:47 xxxx-MacBookPro systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Apple MacBook (Pro....
May 21 20:41:48 xxxx-MacBookPro macfanctld[899]:  * Starting Apple MacBook (...d
May 21 20:41:49 xxxx-MacBookPro macfanctld[899]:    ...done.
May 21 20:41:49 xxxx-MacBookPro systemd[1]: Started LSB: Apple MacBook (Pro)....
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

[davidamiod]

Hello,

I would like to thank you for working with me on this one.

The only road block I have it that the laptop is being used pretty heavily during the week as the gf is trying to get a MBA in <4 years. I won't have any new information on this situation until Saturday.

Thank You