MacBook Pro M1 fans running loudly and constantly

Your computer performs best when connected to AC power, such as the power adapter. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work could also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, even with the power adapter connected, the charged state may decline during very stressful work.

When the battery reports, "service required", or when you Mac is excessively hot, it often drops back into a handicapped mode, where it runs the fans at full speed, drops the available processing power, and runs an idle cooling loop inside kernel_task.

That may be what you are experiencing.

Your report says no Time Machine backup. If you submit your Mac for service, Apple requires you to sign a paper agreeing that you already have all the backup copies of your files you need, and your files MAY not be returned to you.

Michal_837 wrote:

The Terminal reported back "No such file or directory"1. , which I assume means the file was already deleted or never existed in that location on my system (perhaps I removed it manually before).

Unfortunately, your experience is pretty typical for these kinds of apps. Certainly, people will always have computer problems, but if it weren't for these kinds of 3rd party system modifications, this forum would be a much quieter place.

The result is still the same: The critical "Service Recommended" error persists, and the battery is locked and will not charge. The issue is not resolved.

Fair enough. I just wanted to make absolutely certain before going the repair route. Make sure to backup your data. Apple doesn't go through this kind of back and forth. If there's any doubt, they will just wipe the entire hard drive to make sure. So backup your data!

I want to exhaust every last software possibility before committing to a minimum 1000 PLN (250$) repair cost.

You've already done that.

* They are not liable for hardware damage, citing their Terms of Service.

What's more important is the financial liability. The cost of an entire MacBook Pro is within the range of what you'd pay an attorney for two hours of work. I'm sure this experience has already been costly for you on many levels. It might be time to cut your losses and move on.

* They claim the risk of AlDente causing this specific failure (PMIC lock) is "almost 0" because they use the same SMC keys as Apple.

SMC keys are something that Apple has never documented. Many of them were fairly well-known in the Intel days, but all that changed with Apple Silicon. EtreCheckPro reads SMC values (indirectly through Apple's own analytics) in its Analytics feature. But since Apple Silicon, most of this data is now gone.

But most importantly, just knowing the identifier of a hardware address is meaningless when you know nothing about the algorithms that manage all of the hardware addresses on the computer and work together to control cooling and power management.

Remember, you're talking about Lithium-Ion batteries. They are known to randomly explode. It should be obvious that hacking around on them is a potential safety issue. I encourage all Mac users to leave the management of Lithium batters to Apple.

* They stated that this type of M1 failure also happens to Mac users who have never installed their app.

Here in North America, we call this a "He said, she said" problem.

I recommend you shut off this computer and keep it unplugged. Take it in to Apple for hardware diagnostics. It's already 5 years old. Do you want to pay $200 for a 5 year old computer that had battery and power problems? Perhaps the developers of that tool are correct and it was just a random hardware failure.

I recently had a close call with combustibles at home myself. I'm very happy to have that stuff out of my house. $2000 is a lot of money, but new houses cost even more.

Michal_837 wrote:

I believe the failure in my case is **systemic and acute (sudden hardware failure)**, rather than a result of gradual thermal degradation or software usage.

You did install a major OS upgrade and then installed a 3rd party "battery management" app on the same day.

Crucially, **the battery condition was reported as NORMAL just yesterday**. The sudden switch from NORMAL health to **"Service Battery"** status, accompanied by the impossible **Cycle count = 0** reading in the EtreCheck report, is not consistent with slow heat-related wear.

I agree.

It indicates an immediate, catastrophic sensor failure on the power management controller (PMIC/BMS) on the logic board.

Not necessarily.

The EtreCheck log further confirms that the **`PerfPowerServices`** (the core system power management service) has **crashed 16 times**. This confirms the system's power control has failed first, forcing the high fan speed as a panic/safety measure.

Unfortunately, EtreCheck's software installation date is only accurate to an entire day. I didn't think it would ever be necessary to have seconds of precision. Perhaps I was wrong. EtreCheck does record the exact time internally. It just doesn't show that on the text report. You could drag an EtreCheck report to BBEdit. BBEdit automatically understands gzip and will format the underlying XML very nicely. You can look at the /etrecheck/install/package nodes to see the exact time. I would be very interested to see which came first, the first PrefPowerServices crash or the AlDente installation. I've got some pretty strong suspicions though.

Given this specific combination of **sudden failure, Cycle Count 0, and PerfPowerServices crashes**, I will proceed directly with scheduling a hardware service.

I'm in complete agreement with everyone else here. Uninstall those two "battery management" apps. Then restart and see if that fixes the problem.

What should I do now ?

Go to service ? It will cost a lot.

Unfortunately, there is a distinct possibility that there really was nothing wrong with your battery on 2025-11-19, but the hardware modifications made by that 3rd party software destroyed the battery and/or logic board on 2025-11-20. These kinds of apps are particularly risky as they can physically damage the computer in ways that normal apps cannot.

Apple has flat-fee battery service options. But usually, that's meant for that slow degradation of battery health, not catastrophic failures. The first thing Apple will do is wipe the hard drive, so make sure you have a good backup. If you get lucky, just wiping the hard drive (including those 3rd party apps) will be enough to fix the problem. If you don't get lucky, you might want to compare the costs of repair with the cost of replacement.

Every thing I was going to say you already did. I don’t think I know anything else to do. So I guess apple is the next step.

Post the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option when posting. The report contains no personal information. Third party software installed in the System Folders not specific to a User will continue to run even when you create a new user and will be identified in the report.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

If you have an Apple-owned store available, your appointment for an evaluation and estimate is free, in warranty or out.

Apple-Authorized Service Providers (AASP) are free to set their own policies, and many charge an evaluation fee to keep you from consuming valuable technician time with frivolous issues.

If they get a paid repair (by you or by Apple warranty) it is not frivolous, and I suggest you ask for a refund of the evaluation fee.

Both the Aldente and MacFansControl processes in the LaunchDaemons folder will be launched no matter what user is logged in, so they should be removed when you are experiencing a problem with the fans.

Not sure if the report is complete as it does not include several of the categories normally seen, although it is possible you don't have anything in the User LaunchAgents and the System LaunchAgents folder, so they simply are not appearing. If you reached the character limit of the post, make sure to use the Additional Text option as detailed in the link.

I don't disagree with your assessment. My first approach is to always look for software conflicts that can be easily tested with uninstalling. This is simply to avoid the Factory Reset with clean install if possible. The combination of Aldente for battery charging management and MacFansControl for a reported issue specifically related to fan speed and failing battery is just too difficult to ignore.

Without a software issue, then that obviously leads to a hardware problem that can be costly and I try to refrain from automatically jumping to that conclusion without ruling out all options.

I would proceed by first uninstalling both of those identified apps. Follow that up with full reboot, which is equivelent to an SMC reset. Any change in Fan Speed or Battery reporting? Does the problem only occur when running on Battery?

You can schedule an appointment where they will identify an issue and give you an estimate. I have not seen where there is any diagnostic charge to do that and confirmed on the site to schedule a service. You are not required to perform the service.

Our Genius Bar technician will inspect your product in the store and run any diagnostic tests necessary to determine the issue at no charge. If repairs are needed, they’ll provide an estimated turnaround time and any associated costs based on the issue and your warranty status or AppleCare coverage.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

With that you should have enough information to make a decision on what you want to do.

Unfortunately, your Terminal output and EtreCheck report do not agree with you. They suggest that you still need to delete the macsfancontrol executable and then you need to restart.

Your Terminal screenshot has a timestamp of 01:39:30. Your EtreCheck report has a timestamp of 02:31:55 and it shows the result ("Not found!") of deleting both the AlDente files and then not restarting. Since you only deleted the config file for the macsfancontrol task, it would still be loaded (and running) by the operating system and will therefore still appear in your EtreCheck report.

You need to restart once more to clear all that out.