Shorting the temperature sensor cable (Not a possibility on 2011 iMacs) this tricks the iMac into thinking the drives temperature is very low, hence slow fan speed.īoth these fixes are less then perfect and leave the drive in a dangerous situation with no protection from overheating.Īnother option people try is other Fan Control software.
Using smcFanControl and the terminal to set a MAX speed for the fan and writing scripts to start this after every sleep/restart.Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) will have a temporary effect, but again the fan will speed up.įixes people have used in the past included:
If you replace your drive, your iMac will initially seem fine, but soon the fan will begin to speed up to full speed. This is due to Apple replacing the external Hard Drive temperature sensor with a proprietary firmware and using the drives internal sensor. Replacement drives do not contain the firmware to deliver temperature data on the temperature sensor cable. When the iMac does not receive a good signal from the hard drive it puts the fan at full speed to protect the drive. Since the late 2009 iMacs came out, replacing the hard drive has caused the internal Hard Drive Fan to start running at around 6000RPM. Hi, likely the new Drive doesn't have the Termal sensor.