White MacBook 2.16 GHz (2006) Fan Running Very Often

About seven months ago, I bought a Lenovo T400 for law school and left my 2006 13" MB with my dad (the computer mentioned in the subject line). All he did was install Snow Leopard on it, and then let it sit and barely use it. So, last time I was home I took it back from him to have as a fun/backup laptop.

I know the fan on this model (compared to the older G4 iBooks) always did run somewhat frequently, but usually I could tell what I was doing that would do it (something CPU intensive). However, since I've been messing around with it, I've noticed the fan runs a LOT more often, at a high speed. I could even let it sit for five minutes with no applications running and the fan will turn on for a bit.

I don't think I'm just spoiled by the cool-running T400, but I'm fairly sure the fan is running more often than when I used this MacBook. Can anyone tell me if Snow Leopard (at 10.6.2) is making a difference? Or is there some other issue that can be present here? I've also done the PRAM reset tricks to no avail.

Thank you for you help.

 

Install istat menu for dashboard and post the fan speed you are getting. On the newer MB's and MBP's it quite normal for the fan to be spinning always at 2000rpm, even on idle.

 

Right now, doing nothing but running Transmission (downloading one torrent) and running Safari (no flash or anything), it's at 2087 RPM. Also, the CPU temp is 145, which to me seems hot given the light use.

Also, at the speed the fan is right now I can't even hear it. But I'm sure in a minute or two of me using Safari or Finder, it'll go up really high. That's what seems abnormal to me.

 

You can try SMCfancontrol to monitor and control the fans.

Also keep an eye in the Activity Monitor when the fans spin up, and check whats using the most CPU%. Or you can use istat pro widget to monitor cpu usage and see what process is using the most.

That being said, the fans are there to spin up when needed, so it is not uncommon for them to spin up when the cpu gets hot, it happens on all laptops.

 

Running a torrent program at least on OS X seems to generate higher temperatures which is still a mystery to me.

 

I think Transmission may have actually been the problem. Which I find odd, as it seems to be a light program. When I run uTorrent on Windows on my ThinkPad, I don't notice a single change in temperature or fan speed (uTorrent is also a very light program).

 

Yes even running utorrent on the mac side and then running it on the windows side I notice the difference in temperatures.