My MacBook Pro is Hot (literally)

[scott0309]

My macbook pro gets really hot at certain times during the day. I can even feel the heat on my finger tips when I type on the keyboard. This usually occurs when I am using a processor intensive program (3D game, installing a big program like Office 2007).

Questions:
- Are there any other programs other than smcFanControl to monitor temperature in other sectors (CPU, GPU, Hard Drive, etc.) of the MacBook?
- Is it "legal" for me to rip apart the MacBook without voiding the warranty, if one still exists?
- What are the "normal" temperatures for the MacBook? Do they always run this hot?

[scoobydiesel]

I really have to say that is the biggest downfall i have with my MBP, its so hot, i have not cooked anything on it but it does rate High on the heat level for me.

[b-r-o-k-e-n]

- Are there any other programs other than smcFanControl to monitor temperature in other sectors (CPU, GPU, Hard Drive, etc.) of the MacBook?


There is a program which was featured on a recent Tekzilla daily for OS X called iStat

http://revision3.com/tzdaily/2008-06-05istat/

There is a dashboard and a menubar version of it. With either version you can monitor multiple things, but more directly to the point you can monitor temperature of the various parts of your Macbook. Here is what the temperature monitor looks like set up on my MacBook Pro.

http://img254.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture1hy5.jpg

You can find it at http://islayer.com . Hope this helps you a bit, and yes I agree with you that they run hot.

[zomgorly]

There is a program which was featured on a recent Tekzilla daily for OS X called iStat

http://revision3.com/tzdaily/2008-06-05istat/

I was going to recommend this. Well I kind of already did. ;)

As for the heat make sure to check that nothing is blocking the fan like a clear plastic piece. Next I would recommend buying some canned air and opening up the macbook. You can follow the instructions on ifixit (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/) to open up the top case and blowing any dust out of the fan. I recommend to keep the fan steady and blow the air from out to in. That way if you see any dust bunnies you can pick them out.

[aaronsaund]

My HP laptop gets extremely hot as well. It gets so hot sometimes I have to put something else over my legs so it doesn't burn me. The touchpad can get really hot as well and I have to be careful moving my finger over the touchpad too much. Any tips on keeping it cool?

[Mal]

Any tips on keeping it cool?
Search on google for underclocking... basically you install software, mess around with the settings to make your gfx card and cpu run slower and at a lower voltage. You can set it to run at different levels depending on demand, like playing games switches it to a high performance mode while web browsing would stay at the slow setting. Good thing about underclocking is that it increases the battery life, but bear in mind that not all hardware can be underclocked like this.

[tokenuser]

My HP laptop gets extremely hot as well. It gets so hot sometimes I have to put something else over my legs so it doesn't burn me. The touchpad can get really hot as well and I have to be careful moving my finger over the touchpad too much. Any tips on keeping it cool?I have a HP nc6400, and it gets hot as well. Its the nature of the beast. If it really bothers you, get something like the Targus Chill Mat (http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA248U) for active cooling with USB powered fans, or the Lapworks Laptop Desk Futura (http://www.laptopdesk.net/index.php) for something passive (it prmoted better air flow). I am pretty sure I have seen both at local megastores.

[b-r-o-k-e-n]

I think I might have found an app for Macs that could help with this problem. It is called smcFanControl2 and you can download it at http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html . Pretty much what you can do with it is set the minimum speeds of the fan on your intel mac. One good thing about this program is it won't let you set it lower than Apple's default as to not damage your Mac. I really haven't tested it yet but it might help.

edit: So I've been testing it for about a half an hour now, and it definitely helps out the heat issues on my MacBook Pro. Also while tooling around with the preferences I found a very helpful option especially for laptops. You can set it to use a different fan speed profile when your MacBook is either on battery, charging, or on AC power which is very nice so you don't drain your batteries with the fans running faster.

[hoodedrobin]

My friend has a macbook that was getting really hot so he re applied the thermal paste *artic silver* is what he used and it reduced the temp by like 10-15 degrees.

I have a lenovo which isn't as cool as a thinkpad or a macbook/mbp and it runs nice and cool. And I got it at really good price (y410 usually goes for 800 now at the time it went for 999, and I got it for 300 out the door... after taxes)

[zoomtechtv]

http://digg.com/hardware/NVIDIA_significant_quantities_of_laptop_GPUs_defec tive

Digg user wrote

shahrumshahrum
on 07/03/2008
That explains all the issues with my MacBook Pro...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/nvidia-says-significant-quantities-of-laptop-gpus-are-defectiv/

[b-r-o-k-e-n]

well there we go, maybe when apple releases the new driver for the Macbook Pro GPU, which it seems by that story is going to be nVidia's fix by making the fans kick in sooner, they can include 256 color support so I can play Diablo 2 and Starcraft w/o having to boot into Windows.

[zoomtechtv]

http://digg.com/hardware/NVIDIA_significant_quantities_of_laptop_GPUs_defec tive

Digg user wrote

shahrumshahrum
on 07/03/2008
That explains all the issues with my MacBook Pro...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/nvidia-says-significant-quantities-of-laptop-gpus-are-defectiv/

The chips that are having problems I think are the ones from last gen.

[maxhdrm]

I concur with the istat and while my macbook doesn't sound like it gets that hot I have a friend who echos the sentiment. This is something else to check out. it is called the Roll Pad by Gigabyte. well worth every penny. Very versatile, extremely portable/moldable and so far the superior product for passive cooling.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/NotebookCooling/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2526&ProductName=Roll%20Pad

[maxhdrm]

Digg user wrote

shahrumshahrum
on 07/03/2008
That explains all the issues with my MacBook Pro...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/n...-are-defectiv/

actually this is non-inclusive and may or may not explain said issues as the article pointed out that Nvidia was no being specific of which GPUs only that it was media and communications devices. Very ambiguous and broad. Don't mistake the Laptop makers proactive attempt at update drivers as an indication that laptop (notebook for apple) gpus are affected. This is an update driver for the cooling fan by the VENDOR not for anything Nvidia related.

Laptops as a whole have always produce a large amount of heat due to their compact space. My macbook possibly could but I never have it on that long at home. When it is on for a couple of hours it is pretty warm.

[fauceeet]

Try a laptop cooler to lower the temp!