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mec31 · Apr 28, 2007, 08:59 AM

I bought a 2.0 GHz Core2 Macbook when they shipped. The machine has exceeded my wildest expectations. One pleasing surprise was the almost complete silence of the unit. The fan was completely off for probably 90% of the time.

Something has changed over the past week or two. And yes, I have done all of the updates, including the battery update and the recent macos update.

Now the fan runs 100% of the time. That's not surprising, as the cores are both wound up--one stays at about 60% and the other at 80%. This is all the time, even after a reboot. I wonder what's going on.

Any suggestions?

mduell · Apr 28, 2007, 09:21 AM

What process is keeping the cores at 60-80% usage?

mec31 · Apr 28, 2007, 10:25 AM

Um, not sure how to determine what processes are running...

abbaZaba · Apr 28, 2007, 10:34 AM

open up Activity Monitor and sort the processes by CPU%

seems as if you have a process that gets launched and eats up CPU for some reason

amazing · Apr 28, 2007, 11:16 AM

In the Activity Monitor, make sure you have "all processes" selected in the top of the window drop-down menu.

Have you done a few restarts? Fixed Permissions? Last resort: reset the SMU:

Resetting MacBook and MacBook Pro System Management Controller (SMC)

mec31 · Apr 28, 2007, 11:22 AM

Yes, I had restarted numerous times over the period this has been happening. It had also stayed pegged overnight.

I am interested in what you mean by 'permissions'; that's a new one on me.

I think I may have uncovered the problem though. It seems to be Google Desktop, which I installed in the last week or two. I would think that a week is enough for it to catch up on whatever it is indexing. There must be some problem with it getting stuck or something. It does have a number of options though, so perhaps I can play around with those and see if the background cpu usage is affected.

Thanks for the other tips!

fesdds · Apr 28, 2007, 01:43 PM

You can go to Disk Utility and Verify/Repair disk Permissions for your HD. I have heard it recommended that you do this before and after an update.

amazing · Apr 28, 2007, 05:19 PM

Repairing permissions isn't all that necessary, but it does sometimes solve some very bizarre problems. Doesn't take but a minute, worth a try. Resetting your SMC as per the apple support doc above is a more likely remedy.

Report back if it doesn't work.

drot · Apr 28, 2007, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by mec31

Yes, I had restarted numerous times over the period this has been happening. It had also stayed pegged overnight.

I am interested in what you mean by 'permissions'; that's a new one on me.

I think I may have uncovered the problem though. It seems to be Google Desktop, which I installed in the last week or two. I would think that a week is enough for it to catch up on whatever it is indexing. There must be some problem with it getting stuck or something. It does have a number of options though, so perhaps I can play around with those and see if the background cpu usage is affected.

Thanks for the other tips!

If you installed Google Desktop then it's probably just indexing your harddrive in the background. Like spotlight, google desktop indexes your harddrive when it's first installed so searching will be faster. Depending on how full your hard drive is it will probally take couple of hours to finish. After its done every thing should be back to normal. Give it some more time so finish and then see...
If nothing changes after a couple of days then try the other suggestions.

Wiskedjak · Apr 28, 2007, 10:17 PM

Isn't the fan supposed to be on most of the time ... albeit at a low rpm?

TheoCryst · Apr 29, 2007, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Isn't the fan supposed to be on most of the time ... albeit at a low rpm?

Yes, but it shouldn't be audible unless your CPU is under considerable load.

I for one wholeheartedly believe that Google Desktop is causing this issue while it indexes your hard drive. Just leave your computer on (and awake!) overnight, and the problem should subside.

frdmfghtr · Apr 29, 2007, 11:58 PM

Originally Posted by mec31

Yes, I had restarted numerous times over the period this has been happening. It had also stayed pegged overnight.

I am interested in what you mean by 'permissions'; that's a new one on me.

I think I may have uncovered the problem though. It seems to be Google Desktop, which I installed in the last week or two. I would think that a week is enough for it to catch up on whatever it is indexing. There must be some problem with it getting stuck or something. It does have a number of options though, so perhaps I can play around with those and see if the background cpu usage is affected.

Thanks for the other tips!

(1) Was Google Desktop the process that was eating up the processor cycles?

(2) "Fixing disk permissions" is done in Disk Utility; it verifies/repairs the permissions that various users and groups are allowed for the various system files.

Read more here: About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature

analogue SPRINKLES · Apr 30, 2007, 12:40 PM

On Macfix it people are reporting the battery update creates constant fan usage for some.

Zap your PRAM and see if that helps.

Wiskedjak · Apr 30, 2007, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

On Macfix it people are reporting the battery update creates constant fan usage for some.

Zap your PRAM and see if that helps.

bugger ... I just installed that