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2.4GHz, 2.7GHz, or 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache. Released February 2013.

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Strange CPU spikes, fan speeding even on low demand applications

This is an Early 2013 with 16GB RAM which seems to strain intermittently even when there is no major demand. I replaced the thermal paste already, made sure there are no dust blockages, and we have a new battery installed. My friend, who owns it reports that even after those measures:

I've been using the Mac, and I'm still having huge CPU spikes, sometimes at idle, or just when using basic applications like Spotify and YouTube...

The fan is still coming on all the time, and there is quite a bit of heat for running low demand programs

Alongside that, I was playing a game (civilization 5) for about 10 minutes, a relatively low to moderate demanding game from 2010, and the whole game actually crashed, amidst the heat and the fans etc.

He will be sending the machine to me to see if I can get to the bottom of it, and my first shot at it will likely be another SSD with a fresh install of Mojave, instead of Catalina which is on there right now.

I was wondering if there are some other likely culprits I could hunt down?

Update (12/08/2020)

Hi Dan , thank you for taking the time to look at it, I very much appreciate you doing this.

The SSD is an original Apple native SSD which I had transplanted from an 2012 13”retina into this 15”machine.

So is also 8years old.

If the heat sink is faulty, then there should be some residue of the liquid by the seams visible under my scope, right? Well, I could always switch it out for a heat sink from a known good machine.

I do not have the machine here in front of me right now, it is being mailed to me as we type.

Here are some reading my buddy Cole took: he wanted to use it to create high resolution videos and audio recordings, but the fan noise made him suspicious.

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Update (12/08/2020)

@danj, Hey Dan, back to this early 2013 A1398, with the fan spikes. My buddy sent it back to me to replace the "Fledgling" and see if that helps. Long story short, Canada Post lost the parcel, it ended up travelling to the far north, read cold, finally came here after 7 weeks on the road, did not even boot. Replaced the Fledgling, did the resets, and it booted. However, to make sure I was not returning a damaged machine I did run ASD. Came up with 12 errors in the Video controller, see images. 2 Questions: a:Could this have been result of the cold detour, or more likely the issue with the up-spinning fan in the first place? b: And does this look to you like I might just change the appropriate chip on the logic board and have another chance of a working mac? I can replace simple caps, but am still unsuccessful at more-than-6 prong connections...Since it is compromised, I have nothing to lose but inexperience, as far as soldering components goes.....

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Update (02/06/2021)

The error reports in ASD:

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You appear to have a 3rd party SSD! The volume name: Fledging_Feather is not an Apple original SSD!

This series of SSD is using a fixed M.2 adapter, I have four in my dead SSD drawer! Fledging Feather

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Aha, so when I get the machine on my bench, i will switch this SSD and then how would I test it? What is your favorite CPU/GPU bench marking or diagnostic tool, Dan? You rock, as usual...!

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I don't really use benchmarking tools for repairs. Other than using Apples Diagnostic tools, Activity Monitor, thermal infrared imager (FLIR) and TG Pro which I use mostly, I use Drive Genius & DriveDx for drive diagnostics.

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Hey Dan, thank you for catching this. I expect then to have issues like this one with many other brands of M.2 blades? I am asking, because I have taken to buying those M.2 adapters and combining them with the more reasonably priced, and supposedly faster M.2 blades which are readily available. What brands hold the most promise to be trouble free in your experience? For instance I have a few Crucial 1TB M.2 blades coming....now I am doubting the wisdom of this purchase....

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Sorry I don't do M.2 in Mac's ;-{ This is not a slight to M.2 SSD's I like them (major brands). The rub is the adapters!

Think of it this way...

I lift weights so I use a thin broom stick to slide the weights on, 20lbs no problem! I add some more weight and bang! The broom stick snaps. Was that a good use of the broom stick?

Its not the weights fault and hopefully you didn't get hurt when the weights fell or got any splinters! So the smarter direction is to use the proper metal bar which could hold all the weight I would want to use!

Go with the Apple SSD's, 3rd party OWC or Transcend SSD's unlike the adapter and M.2 these were designed from the ground up to mimic the Apple units! They have the missing sleep lines and working garbage collection services that the M.2 SSD's don't access via the adapter.

I've been cleaning up this week I carted off 46 M.2 SSD's and 70 adapters (I was able to recover a few SSD's for use in other systems and a few external cases)

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I would install a good thermal monitoring app like TG Pro look at the CPU and the exhaust temps how big a spread are they? You may have a bad heat sink.

I would also review the drive is it a M.2 with an adapter? If it is this could be the issue.

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