Macbook Repair: Fan Noise

Recently I had a sudden problem with the fan in my 13" Macbook. It had been running fine all morning, but when I left the room and came back, it was suddenly roaring loudly. Fearing that my fan had died, I shut down the computer and let it sit before rebooting it once more. The problem persisted, and I called apple care.

By this time I had looked at the readings given by iStat Pro and noted that when the fan was making the noise I was hearing, the program reported that the fan was running at 0rpm. The tech support operator had me do a PRAM reset, and once this failed to resolve the problem, he booked an appointment for me the next day at the local Apple store.

I went in and was greeted by a genius who wasn't the world's most personable...person. He assumed I was ignorant and tried to tell me that since he could hear nothing happening at that time, that there was no problem with the computer. I showed him this video I had taken in advance in the event that he might say exactly that.



I also told him that the above application had enabled me to see that the fan was indeed not working properly, to which he responded that since the program was not an official apple product, that it was not accurate. I told him that I at least wanted the computer to be opened and looked at as it was apparent that something was obstructing the the fan. He agreed and I signed all the necessary paperwork and left.

Later that day I received a phone call that the repair had been finished. The fan was replaced and some dust had been blown out. I didn't have time to pick up my computer until a few days later, but when I went back, I witnessed a genius dealing with an infuriated man who just could not comprehend the concept of logging into an itunes account. I don't blame them for assuming everyone is ignorant now.

By the way, the repair was fully covered under my apple care plan. I'm so happy I decided to bite the bullet and pay for the full three years.