replace the hard drive, how do I connect Hard Drive thermal sensor?

"alexandre



Rep: 289




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"I have used the sensors from earlier iMacs as well as from Macbook Pros. The Macbook Pro aluminum models are the ones I usually use. There are several of them, I usually use the ones that are under each fan. They have 2 leads just like the iMac which I extend to reach the drive. Then i attach the sensor with double-sided tape (same stuff we use to adhere glass on iPads and unibody MacBooks).

The sensors from earlier iMacs (if they are the 2 lead type) also work. Some splicing is usually required.

I have done it this way since the very first drive replacement I had to do on one of these iMacs. I don't think that any resistor or jumper is a good idea at all. Temperatures in a computer need to be monitored and the fans adjusted continuously for everything to work at peak efficiency. I don't want to leave fan control up to my clients to monitor. Nor do I want their iMacs running noisily because their fans have to be run at high speed all the time.

I'm perfectly willing to hack and modify things when it makes sense, (my Hackintosh is over- clocked to 4.7GHz, and I install Mt Lion and Mavericks on unsupported Macs all the time) but in this case it doesn't make sense.

Macbook Pro A1150 right fan ambient temperature sensor. Splice one of these (black to black and color to color) to your old sensor cable and stick it to the hard drive. The hard drive fan will function just as it did with the original drive.

People have over-thought this problem.

My thinking was:

I can't use the internal sensor so I need an external one.

I have all these other mac parts.

Maybe the sensor from another Mac will work.

Lets try a Macbook Pro sensor.

Splice the wires and try it out.

Works fine, all temps check out.

Simple"

"I see this thread has been going for some time and it is the best one I found on the Internet so far. I purchased a new SSD drive for my late 2009 27"" iMac and before I dismantle everything, I would like to be prepared for all operations in advance. This includes replacing the HDD by a SSD but also deal with the Thermal sensor issue.

I find Alexandre's answer to use a 2N3904 transistor simple and interesting and would like to know a little more about it, so please allow me to ask a few questions:

1. Has this solution been tested and validated by anyone?

2. If so, does this setup provide a temperature reading when using a tool such as MacsFanControl or iStat Pro?

3. Does the reported temperature (and variation) make sense?

4. Does this solution allow HDD Fan to behave normally - without any additional software control (ie. not spin at max speed at startup and increase speed reasonably if temperature goes up)?

If this solution has not proven to work, I will most certainly just jump the connector, but will then have a zero reading for that sensor :-(

Thanks in advance"

I have an Independent Apple repair business here in Oregon. This issue is really not an issue. Apple was not trying to prevent anyone from replacing hard drives. Apple was trying to save money by using the built in sensor in the HDD instead of adding their own external one. I have used many other temp sensors from other Macs for this. My reasoning is that if I have to alter the cable I may as well make it easier on the next tech by adding an external Apple temp sensor from another Mac. The temp senders Apple uses are surprisingly standardized. I have checked them with an infrared thermometer and they appear to have similar specs.

"I know this is an older thread, but here's something I've found. If you're replacing a WD drive, you need to rotate the temp sensor connector 180º when connecting it to the new drive, so the dark cable is closest to the drive's PCB.

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This will fix the issue of the fans spinning up after a few minutes (technically, because the ""HDD Proximity"" sensor data was out of tolerance)."