My 2011 iMac has always been noisy. It was ordered with an SSD both for noise and response reasons.
A few days ago I discovered software to monitor and control iMac fan speeds. All my fans were at correct idle speed - around 1200 rpm. I tested each fan by raising the speed of each of the 3 fans and I realized it's the HDD fan that is making a weird noise.
It's been that way from day one but getting even noisier as time goes by. I'm sure that fan is defective. It simply should not make the loud noise that it does at any RPM. I would love to switch that fan off as an SSD should not require active cooling.
However I read that fan also cools the GPU. Is that correct?
Would Apple accept my argument that this was a defective fan even while within it's warranty period?
As an aside I don't think I'll ever buy an All in One computer again. The complexity of fixing a single component failure is just too much. Even on a Mac Mini I could comfortably replace the fan myself. On this iMac I shudder at the thought of ever opening it.
Anyway, my first step to try to rectify the issue myself I used SSD fan control to run that fan at maximum speed for a while to see if it "smooths out" the fan noise. I just set it back to auto fan speed and the noise has reduced. However that fan makes the machine sound like a machine with a HDD (without audible clicking).
Perhaps the level of noise from that fan would be acceptable to someone used to and expecting HDD platter noise. But for an SSD equipped machine the noise unacceptable IMHO. I ruled out the other two fans. They are both inaudible at idle and even when their speeds are doubled.
A few days ago I discovered software to monitor and control iMac fan speeds. All my fans were at correct idle speed - around 1200 rpm. I tested each fan by raising the speed of each of the 3 fans and I realized it's the HDD fan that is making a weird noise.
It's been that way from day one but getting even noisier as time goes by. I'm sure that fan is defective. It simply should not make the loud noise that it does at any RPM. I would love to switch that fan off as an SSD should not require active cooling.
However I read that fan also cools the GPU. Is that correct?
Would Apple accept my argument that this was a defective fan even while within it's warranty period?
As an aside I don't think I'll ever buy an All in One computer again. The complexity of fixing a single component failure is just too much. Even on a Mac Mini I could comfortably replace the fan myself. On this iMac I shudder at the thought of ever opening it.
Anyway, my first step to try to rectify the issue myself I used SSD fan control to run that fan at maximum speed for a while to see if it "smooths out" the fan noise. I just set it back to auto fan speed and the noise has reduced. However that fan makes the machine sound like a machine with a HDD (without audible clicking).
Perhaps the level of noise from that fan would be acceptable to someone used to and expecting HDD platter noise. But for an SSD equipped machine the noise unacceptable IMHO. I ruled out the other two fans. They are both inaudible at idle and even when their speeds are doubled.
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