Cooling Solutions for Apple Users


  1. Posts : 1,506
    W7 Ult. x64 | OS X
       #1

    Cooling Solutions for Apple Users


    Just figured I'd post this on here, I'm sure atleast a few people are running Windows on Apple machines, and they tend to get hot fairly quickly. Apple went on a quiet is awesome kick and totally f'ed the settings for their fans. Anyway, if you want to change the speeds of your fans there are a few ways to do so.

    MacFan
    The only *working* Windows side solution that I know of. Basically, you have to run an adminstrative command prompt to execute the program and tell it what speeds you'd like the fans to run at. It's useful, especially if you can't get Fan Control to work, and/or you want complete control over the fans. It's a project to watch as well since the author has stated that he intends to continue development to include temperature monitoring and such. See the tutorial below for a trick...

    Fan Control 1.2
    Fan Control allows you to set a minimum (base) fan speed via OS X. It also allows you to tell your computer when to start increasing the fan speed from the base and when to max out the fans. In other words, if set correctly, you can increase the speeds of your fans and cool your computer properly without fixing your fans to one particular speed.

    Note: You have to have OS X installed, as it's an OS X program. Before you install it, reset your SMC (System Management Controller). Once you've done that, install the program, set your settings and the settings should keep even after a shutdown/reboot.

    EDIT: This program stopped translating to the Windows side for me. Each time I reboot, it gets stuck at whatever the last fan speed it was at. Effectively, it freezes your fans at it's last known speed in OS X.

    SMC Fan Control
    Another OS X side solution. This program simply allows you to set a minimum fan speed. You can restart the computer without it changing. At the moment, I'm using this to set a minimum fan speed of 2500 RPM and letting the regular fan settings take over from there. It seems to be working ok for lower end computing. If you get your laptop really hot, you may want to use MacFan to set a higher speed.

    MacFan Tutorial: Making changing fan speeds easier

    This mini tutorial will show you how to avoid typing into a command prompt every time you want to change your fan speeds. What you're going to do is create a set of administrative shortcuts to execute the commands for you.

    • Extract MacFan files and place them in a folder called "MacFan" within your home folder.
    • Right Click Desktop > Create Shortcut
    • Type "cmd" into target field
    • Name it whatever you want, you'll change it later.
    • Right click on the shortcut, Properties
    • Click on the Shortcut Tab
    • Paste the following line into the Target Field:
      C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C MacFan.exe XXXX XXXX
      (Replacing MacFan.exe w/ MacFanx64.exe if on a x64 system and XXXX with the fan speed RPM you want)
    • In the Start in field type: %USERPROFILE%\MacFan
    • Click Advanced, Select the Run as Administrator option.
    • Close the Window and rename the shortcut w/ whatever RPM you used.
    • Repeat this process w/ other RPMs you'll frequently use.
    • Right Click Taskbar, Toolbars > Create New Toolbar
    • Create a folder and name it.
    • Place all of your shortcuts in this folder.
    • Now, whenever you want to change your fan speed you simply open that taskbar toolbar and click whatever speed you want.

    Note: Make sure you run the program once beforehand to be sure it'll work properly (Don't forget to start the Command Prompt as an Adminstrator.
    Last edited by not so gray matter; 05 May 2010 at 21:24.
      My Computer


  2. Lee
    Posts : 1,796
    Win 7 Pro x64, VM Win XP, Win7 Pro Sandbox, Kubuntu 11
       #2

    Been running Windows 7 in Boot Camp since October, and as of yet had no problems. Albeit, thanks for the information may be in the future it might come in handy.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 1,506
    W7 Ult. x64 | OS X
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Yeah, the overheating problem most often effects Apple laptops. I don't think they modified the fan settings in any models other than those.
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 20:09.
Find Us