MacBook Pro fans spinning like crazy ... driving me nut or really to Parallels Desktop!

[nyholku]

Hi,

I've been evaluating VMWare Fusion for a weeks now and while I like the product,

the fan noise is driving me nuts. If I can't get the fans to slow down I have to

abandon Fusion and get back to Parallels.

Anything I can adjust to make this work quieter?

br Kusti

[admin]

Fans spinning are a symptom, but unfortunately is not very useful in pinpointing what's wrong. The most likely cause of fans spinning is high CPU temperature, which is in turn most likely caused by something using a lot of CPU cycles. So start with /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor, and be sure to show All Processes. Sort by % CPU. What's taking up all the cycles? Is it VMware Fusion (the UI process)? vmware-vmx (a virtual machine that you're running)? Something else?

[nyholku]

Hi

vmware-vmx is eating +100% of CPU, fortunately this is a dual core....

So yes, this is VMWare causing the spinning but how's that going to help me...

br Kusti

[admin]

vmware-vmx is eating +100% of CPU, fortunately this is a dual core....

So yes, this is VMWare causing the spinning but how's that going to help me...

It's too early to conclude that. vmware-vmx using 100% CPU is probably be caused by something in the guest using a lot of CPU - after all, if the guest is legitimately (or not) trying to do work, it'll show up somewhere. The next thing to do is check Process Monitor (or equivalent) in the guest and see what it thinks is going on.

[TheTenTech]

Try not to use as many cores for your mac and if it does go too crazy let it sit down for a bit.

For example, my MacBook Air has a quad-core. So I put in a dual-core. The fan might be going crazy but if you just pause the guest OS and close your mac then you can let your mac rest for a bit so it can cool down. Let it cool down for about 5 minutes.