Interesting topic, especially the Canon MP530 with MacBook part of it. As it happens, my daughter’s MacBook (2008 model, Mac OS 10.5.8) every once in a while displays similar sustained high fan noises. (I haven’t checked the power adapter temperature under those circumstances, but will if it happens again.) Her default printer at home is an MP530. No other Mac in the household (iMacs, MB, MBP) displays similar fan issues with the MP530. When I looked into it with Activity Monitor the few times I noticed the MacBook going through this attempt-to-take-off routine, it turned out that a clearly Canon-driver related file (the exact name of which eludes me now) was hogging the CPU. In only one case a file was stuck in the Print queue.
At the same time, I noted CCAAgent (Cisco Clean Access) sucking the remaining CPU cycles. Killing both processes solved the fan issue; I cannot say if killing the Canon process alone would have done this because I didn’t try that. I recently noted that CCAAgent is regularly using 80-150% of her CPU cycles regardless of printing; this is not accompanied with excessive fan speeds or noise. CCAAgent is required by many colleges to access their networks, and (I suppose) can be disabled when away from school. Beyond taxing the CPU, I wonder if this software could be involved more directly in my daughter’s printing related fan issues at home. However, that may be a topic for a different thread elsewhere. Still, the coincidence is intriguing.
