I agree with b.eric: it’s probably not a hacker and is likely a problem with Flash. Flash is notorious for stuff like that.
There is another thing that it MIGHT be, though. As unlikely as it is, it is POSSIBLE that you could be infected with a “trojan” that got installed when you clicked on something. There are a (very) few that affect the Mac, but you would have allowed something to install that did the damage. It is VERY easy to be taken in by “social engineering” phishing schemes that can slip by your common sense filters. I say this, not as a suggestion that that is what it was, because I know you’ve been using Macs almost as long as me, but that circumstances might have conspired to make that happen. I have seen PCs actually burn out from running too hard trying to keep up with all the malware spamming the world. That said, malware is very unlikely and the far more common culprits for runaway fans are exactly what Eric said: hot spaces and overworked web browsers. I do not even have Flash installed and sometimes I have to shut down my Safari because it’s just gone nuts (<=technical term). The way to tell is to bring up Activity Monitor, click on the CPU tab and sort on %CPU. Processes that are causing the fan to work hard will have the biggest numbers. Jonathan > On Feb 17, 2017, at 6:40 PM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was using my MacBook Air (away from my trusted home network and on an > unsecured wifi) when the fan started to spin really fast and really loud (is > there even a fan in my computer?) I forced the computer to shut down by > holding the powerkey down till it shut off then started it up again. > > What gives? -- Jonathan Fletcher [email protected] Kentuckiana FileMaker Developers Group Next Meeting: 2/28/16 Sent from a device not known for spontaneous combustion _______________________________________________ MacGroup mailing list Posting address: [email protected] Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/>
