Bearing in mind my 17″ MacBook Pro is the A1212 2003 model, it has definitely lasted a while so I kind of expect it when things need replacing.
Last month I noticed that my right fan speed was at 0rpm while my left ran at the designated speed.
This showed up on 2 programs I use to monitor my Macs goings on.
I use smcFanControl to regulate my fan speeds and iStat Pro (click here for the review and download link for iStat Pro) to display temperatures/general goings on with my Mac. Fan Control runs in the top bar next to my battery percentage while iStat runs in the background and can be viewed/adjusted in the dashboard.
So, back to the fan issue.
1. The next stage was to run an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) to confirm that there was indeed an issue.
Apparently the AHT is NOT on new OS Snow Leopard disk I bought and now have installed – so I went and dug out the original disks that came with the laptop. OS Tiger 10.4.8
I followed some easy steps from the trusty old apple website on how to run the AHT Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
Simple enough to do, it confirmed by suspicions of a non functional right fan.
2. Next I went and bought a brand new right fan from TheBookYard who offer 3 months warranty.
3. Then over to iFixit.com and followed the step-by-step guide to replacing the right sided fan.
Note: If you’re going to try this, double check the required tools needed.
This was a fairly easy task to do and both fans are now running perfectly.