Thenecron

Q: MacBook Pro Overheating [FIXED]?

I think i found a solution and the reason to why the macbooks are overheating. The cause? The CPU is doing all the work.

 

I watched the cpu and gpu temeratures. My GPU never got too hot(50 c at max?), basically just the heat from everything else heating it up. Meanwhile, my CPU will be up at 80-90 degrees celcius.

 

System Preferences > Energy Saver > Uncheck Automatic Graphics Switching.

 

What happens (from my understanding) is that to conserve power, it uses the CPU to do the work of the graphics card, and of course is rediculous when running HD flash vides and such. Unchecking it will force it to always use the GPU. Which, takes a heavy chunk off that CPUs load.

 

Try it out, see for yourself. All it is is a simple box to check or uncheck if it doesnt do you any good.

 

For me - It seems to be a lot cooler now that I unchecked that.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.66 GHz i7 (1st gen) 4 GB RAM +SSD

Posted on Aug 21, 2011 9:38 AM

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Q: MacBook Pro Overheating [FIXED]?

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  • by cbs20,

    cbs20 cbs20 Jul 23, 2013 6:37 AM in response to Shriz
    Level 4 (2,785 points)
    Jul 23, 2013 6:37 AM in response to Shriz

    The 13inch MBP won't have this option since they only have one graphics card.

  • by philmetcalfedj,

    philmetcalfedj philmetcalfedj Jul 26, 2013 11:17 PM in response to Thenecron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 26, 2013 11:17 PM in response to Thenecron

    My MBP fan was constantly running at high speed and the case was extremely hot after being on just a few minutes browsing the web. After checking the System Activity Monitor, it tuned out Google Chrome Worker was hogging 100% CPU usage. After force quitting the app, the fans instantly slowed down and I could eventually put the laptop back on my lap without using a tray underneath it! I hope this helps some of you out!

  • by Joni Chacho,

    Joni Chacho Joni Chacho Jul 26, 2013 11:26 PM in response to philmetcalfedj
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 26, 2013 11:26 PM in response to philmetcalfedj

    Thanks a lot for your input.

    very helpful

    I don't have google chrome worker but I do run the chrome browser on my mac

    thanks again

  • by Joni Chacho,

    Joni Chacho Joni Chacho Jul 26, 2013 11:28 PM in response to Thenecron
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 26, 2013 11:28 PM in response to Thenecron

    some personal best practices: turn screen lumi down to 5 bars, whenever possible

    unplug as soon as the mac is charged, dont leave it charging from morning to night

  • by Herbert718,

    Herbert718 Herbert718 Aug 22, 2013 3:28 AM in response to Thenecron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2013 3:28 AM in response to Thenecron

    My son got a 2011 MBP running LION. I am not sure if he plays too much game or is just play up by the computer. It just went died.

     

    I got it reload again after reinstall over internet. It went died again. Then my son was complain it has overheating problem sometime.

     

    I check the software update .. there is a firmware update as in Aug-2013. So I load up the new firmware ... and finger crossing ... not sure if will eventurally fixed the problem. But I was a little disappointed for non-performance by Apple for good money I paid for initially.

     

    Will let you guys know if it fixed problem next week.

  • by nyberg15,

    nyberg15 nyberg15 Aug 24, 2013 7:36 PM in response to Herbert718
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2013 7:36 PM in response to Herbert718

    My 2011 MacBook Pro just started overheating after just a couple of minutes-- The culprit was my Carbonite running a backup.  I had switched it from "Lower Priority" to  "Backup" and that was causing it to hog the CPU.  Switched it back to Lower priority and heating issue resolved.  Hope this helps someone.

  • by treeyou,

    treeyou treeyou Aug 27, 2013 7:42 PM in response to nyberg15
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac App Store
    Aug 27, 2013 7:42 PM in response to nyberg15

    hey everyone, i created something for this very issue... and just launched it on Kickstarter. Please check it out if you want to stay 'Cool'.

     

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/myworm/cool-apple-macbook-pro-cooler-that-co ols-inside-an

     

    Lowers BOTH internal and external temps... and it's tested and proven! contact me through Kickstarter or treeyou@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thanks and please pass the word!!!!

  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Aug 9, 2015 8:37 AM in response to nscamuffa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2015 8:37 AM in response to nscamuffa

    Nearly identitcal story to nscamuffa, has anyone found a solution to the slightly older mac book pros (mine is 15") on Snow Leopard doing this? It came with SL, I never upgraded to Lion because I heard so many people had problems with it, the inside has been completely replaced when this was under warrenty so it's mostly new (probably cheaper...) inside, not running anything like Carbonite that could slow it down significantly, stayed on Snow Leopard because I had a few friends who ended up downgrading back to SL when they went to Lion.

     

     

    I can't change the energy saving solutions in mine because it does not have them.

     

    These are the specs:

    Hardware Overview:

     

      Model Name:    MacBook Pro

      Model Identifier:    MacBookPro5,4

      Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo

      Processor Speed:    2.53 GHz

      Number Of Processors:    1

      Total Number Of Cores:    2

      L2 Cache:    3 MB

      Memory:    2 GB

      Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz

      Boot ROM Version:    MBP53.00AC.B03

      SMC Version (system):    1.49f2

     

    This morning I woke up and tried to turn it on - nearly burnt my hand when I touched the top left corner, I wasn't even using it (I didn't turn it off, just put it into sleep mode before bed)

     

    Thing is, I'm a PhD student, I NEED my computer to survive, every time it's been sent away it's come back with a note 'we couldn't replicate the problem so we cleaned it' and charged £50 for their time.

     

    Any help would be appreciated, I need this computer and can't really afford another one...

     

    Help!

  • by jopolo,

    jopolo jopolo Oct 20, 2013 7:52 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2013 7:52 AM in response to userremoved

    I added smcfancontrol www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol and it seems to have solved the problem.  My macbook never overheats anymore and I've been using this for about 3 months now.  I also had a problem with my macbook freezing for no apparent reason that I thought was related to overheating but obviously wasn't (because it continued to happen) and I added insomniax and that seems to have worked around that problem too.  This is my 5th macbook and I have to say - the most trouble plagued model yet.  It is a mid 2012 model I bought from the Apple store in early 2013. 13" Macbook Pro, 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3

    running 10.8.5.  Good luck.

  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Aug 9, 2015 8:37 AM in response to jopolo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2015 8:37 AM in response to jopolo

    Thanks - my only concern is there seem to be a lot of complaints about performance of the macbooks when I scan the community posts about this software... I'm concered about that? I don't want to create new problems with my macbook shutting down...

  • by MEDMKE,

    MEDMKE MEDMKE Oct 23, 2013 7:21 PM in response to mebyin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 7:21 PM in response to mebyin

    I know this is rather late respose to your 2012 post, but how did you reset back to Snow Leopard?

     

    I'm so tired of my MacBook Pro (2008 2.33 Ghtz w/4GB ram & 500GB HD) overheating.


    Side Note:

    I agree with another poster who said Apple clear seems to be ignoring the issue or doing this on purpose as I just had a similar overheating/battery depletion issue with my iPhone 4s -- thank God they AT&T game me $200 trade in.

     

    Appreciate your help!

  • by MEDMKE,

    MEDMKE MEDMKE Oct 23, 2013 7:22 PM in response to jopolo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 7:22 PM in response to jopolo

    Says only for 2006 MacBook pros -- got any other ideas also how to find the software once it's supposedly installed -- doesn't show in Systems screen.

  • by MEDMKE,

    MEDMKE MEDMKE Oct 23, 2013 7:26 PM in response to Arbabi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 7:26 PM in response to Arbabi

    Did you ever find a work around on this?

     

    I'm still trying to fix this!

  • by MEDMKE,

    MEDMKE MEDMKE Oct 23, 2013 7:30 PM in response to inyourbus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 7:30 PM in response to inyourbus

    Not sure what model you have but mine is a 2008 Macbook Pro 15" 2.33 Ghtz w/4GB ram and 500 GB HD.

     

    Took mine up from max original maximum spec of 2GB to 4GB to run Lion and runs so hot to the touch, it shuts down .

     

    Downloaded SMC fan control per Apple C/S but it has not helped -- right now running at 138F

     

    Your advice?

  • by renee180,

    renee180 renee180 Oct 27, 2013 1:01 PM in response to Thenecron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 1:01 PM in response to Thenecron

    I had HORRIBLE overheating problems until I tried this based on Amazon reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Targus-Chill-AWE55US-Black-Gray/dp/B002NU5O9C/ref=sr_1_1?i e=UTF8&qid=1382904022&sr=8-1&keywords=targus+chill+mat

     

    i bought it in silver / white to match. best $30 i ever spent.

    my MBP is always cool now - it just uses a USB port.

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