Knock on effects from a Faulty TBP

@danj I edited the Q as it kinda has 3 points in it, what is your opinion on them?

@livfe - I've not encountered a TB port failure like you have encountered so I can't tell you if the port is the issue or the circuitry behind it for sure which is why I was aiming you on how to test things.

1 - I would expect the ports logic was more likely the issue

2 - SMC sensors would be the trigger of the fan to go into over drive. Not the TB port it's self unless it was damaged. So disabling SMC would be the extreme. You might be able to clear the process load within Activity Monitor killing kernel_task items.

3 - The connector it's self is passive so removing it won't be an issue, but you do limit the system ability to access fast storage and leave a gaping hole.

@danj The TBP appears to be 'burned' inside where the connector would go, this is linked to a previous question Replacing a burned Thunderbolt Port hence, why we have the need to remove it or replace it.... (3) The port I believe is not being used anyway, so we could just 'plug the gap' after.

@livfe - I understood that, but the cause of the ports damage is the deeper question! For the sake of argument let's say this person had an external AC powered HD drive and the Air was plugged into the same outlet but the plug was 180° so the hot and the common are shared across and the MagSafe charger was a cheap knock off the the power would jump across the TB outer shield (chassis ground on both sides thing would get toasty! It's also possible a lighting strike or power line surge messed you up. So was the damage limited to the port? Or was the circuitry affected? Clearly it was as the fan is running hard.

So yes! The port is damaged but that is not the worry as long as it doesn't have a short which gets back to the diagnosis of the problem checking the lines. Get an old TB cable cut one of the ends off and carefully figure out which wire goes to which pin and then reference the schematic and drawings to see what the line should be and also use a second good system to compare as well.

@danj Unit was using an original charger, board appears under the michael to have no blown components though we will be checking as much as we can, it is just quicker to just remove it in whole as I think the 'issues' are inside the port part and not on the board. Looks like an insect or something got in there on the train tracks and then the port was connected via the cable and it got badly hurt internally. Like you, I haven't encountered an issue like this before. I seem to be good (Or unlucky) to find these systems haha. (The fan issue maybe due to a bad sensor and unrelated), who knows, 1st to isolate this TBP somehow and see if it changed anything.