MacBook Air Overheating

Hi,

if I sit in a doctors waiting room I must think everyone is ill and needs medication. I still doubt it is as widespread as some might believe after coming here or to other forae. Both, need for medication and MBA heat problem.

I did the Mindgames test now that I found some time (as Marcus suggested), what can I say, no CPU shut down on me. Why, I don't know. I won't disassemble my MBA though, just to find out.

Cheers,
Volker

I am having problems with overheating also. The fan turns on basically when I start the computer. By a half hour of moderate usage the computer slows dramatically. For example as I type this the letters appear about a second after I hit the key. This is my second Air, I returned my first for the same problem. It is definitely a known issue.

I use CoolBook Controller to underclock and adjust voltage of CPU, and it has made a difference. Also, I use a defragmentation program such as iDefrag to optimize disk use... thus a cooler system overall.

I have attempted using coolbook and it doesn't seem to make a real difference. I also bought a license...still waiting on serial.

I did some experimenting and unplugged my peripherals. Unplugging the second monitor didn't seem to make any difference. Unplugging my usb hub had a big effect. I think the issue is not related to CPU usage, but to CPU usage and power.

I was able to linger at 70C without core shutdown for about 15 minutes. I caused this condition by viewing youtube videos and playing a 3d game I had written in Flash (more cpu-intensive than youtube).

I then turned on my webcam...and after about 5 minutes of skype video calling I start seeing intermittent core shutdown.

I then plug in my peripherals(iphone/scanner/usb headset/wacom via powered usb hub). After 3-4 mintues of Skype video calling my computer is unusable, the core is completely shut down.

My theory is that the extra power usage of the webcam/peripherals has some kind of connection to core shutdown. Perhaps someone who knows more about hardware can connect the dots and come up with a solution?

My dads MBA gets pretty warm. I first noticed when I was playing Halo on it. When the performance was actually pretty good (better than on my iMac XD) I continued playing, only to stop when it got alarmingly hot in the upper left corner of the keyboard. The big touchpad was so inviting to play an FPS on, too bad it got so hot.

Hello,

i have this serious issue too and not with one - with two Macbook airs!

The other day I noticed that with some intensive work on my Macbook air that one of the cores of the CPU shut down (I was simply watching a 5 minute YouTube video). The video got really slow, slow like on a G4. I decided to use a cooling stand from now on which features two fans blowing air on the bottom of my Macbook Air. Today I used Skype Video and had a video chat for 1,5 hours. Then all of a sudden my video froze (i guess the isight shut down), then my keyboard and my (bluetooh) mouse stopped working. I couldn't do anything any more except use the mic and see the video of my chat partner. Three minutes later the whole Mac froze and the sound looped like crazy.
I could only force a shutdown with holding down the power button. I had the activity monitor up btw too and it showed me that one core was off and the other core (until it all died) was on maximum.

Now my mom has the same Macbook air like me, only with 1,6 Ghz. I tried the same with her book now. I put ichat on this time on both books and let it run with photo booth effects to see what happens and within 30 minutes my moms book froze completely like mine did this morning.

This can't be normal! A computer has to be able to function and cool itself down no matter what you do with it. I can understand that this can happen if you block the vents but not if you use a table and especially not like in my case when you have a cooling tablet which btw didn't really seem to make a difference.

So I think I will call Apple Support. I bought those two Macbook airs to do work and do webchat. After all this thing comes with a built in isight. I hope that they will look at the Macbook airs and give me better ones. Maybe its really a thermal paste thing. It's just really frustrating. I love the Macbook Air. I just want to be able to use it and not just look at it.

**
Daniel

Daniel Drogies:

Please tell me; were you plugged into the charging power supply the whole time on both?

Have you attempted the same test running on just the battery?

I have not produced a shut down but my fan runs at max most of the time if I watch a full screen TV show (down load from iTunes) while wired to the wall but on battery his fan runs ~ half as fast and CPU ten degrees C cooler.

Dear Daniel,

Please, try to see my post : http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1585371&tstart=0

Maybe the issue is not hardware related, I mean heat, etc.

Hi barkingmad ,

both of my MacBook Airs were plugged into the power supply. The batteries were already fully charged so no charging took place during those tests.
I haven't tried it out without the charger yet though I'd prefer for tasks like video chat to use the power supply. It's really heavy on the power.

Hi Mario,

it's interesting but I don't know how much this can be a software problem. I had it with Flash videos, with Skype and with iChat. On top of it all i read a PC review about the Macbook air, those guys installed Windows on their macbook air and their benchmarks came out weird. They noticed that the results didn't make much sense because one core shut down during their tests. So under Windows as well.

Ok now I tried it with just the battery and no power cable attached. Sitting outside in a cool breeze playing 10 minutes of the spore demo - then the Mac turned off one core of my CPU rendering everything slow. This time I didn't want to play it all the way until the Mac freezes...

Hi Daniel,

I have my 2nd core shutdown even when the temperature is around 62C. I am using Temperature Monitor ( http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html ) to track the temperature. I noticed also, without my external monitor, takes a little longer to have the 2nd core shutdown. When I quit SL, the 2nd core is back almost immediately.

My test conditions:

External Temperature : around 25C
External Monitor : ON
Power Supply : ON
MBA on Flat Table : YES
2nd Core Shutdown : Around 62C , and fan , I believed around 6200 rpm.

I really would like to see a pool , where users can put if they manage to have their MBA fixed after exchange at the Apple store.

Hi Mario

the temp behavior is really weird. Like on my 1,8Ghz Air usually froze on me when the temp reached around and above 72°C. But on my other 1,6Ghz Air the whole computer already froze when it hit 56°C. Really weird but I know that it froze at that temp because I had iStat up and running during my ichat tests. Maybe the temp sensors aren't always quit reliable either. I don't know.
I still believe that it must be a thermal grease problem some factory in china caused. I doubt Apple would design a Mac that is not able to cool itself down enough for reliable operation.
It is a big problem, because if I think about I would be doing some work on my Macbook air and all of a sudden the Air freezes everything would be lost what I did and I don't want to take chances.
I'll call the Apple Hotline tomorrow and report them my experiences. I'll let post here again and keep you updated.

P.S. I haven't tried to connect a second monitor to my book so far but from what I heard I should rather not do that either. It seems to make the problem even worse.

Dear Daniel,

Thanks, I will be waiting for some news. Yesterday I was on an Apple store and I heard a sales guy there trying to convince a student that for him the better option will a MAC PRO, "since the MBA , according to the guy, is to be used for email, WEB" only. I was like "What a ...", good that I was not his supervisor. That means I payed U$ 1.8K on a computer to browse Internet and email only !!!

The " bad" news, is that I did not know anyone that had the issue solved by Apple store, like exchange or fixing the MBA. They try, as far I saw here, give all kind of excuses, "MBA is not suppose to be used on graphics intensive applications, bla bla". I love my MBA, but if I start to have so many issues , I will try at all costs to have a refund. That will be to bad, I really like this little guy.



Regards,

Hi Mario,

gosh I can't believe that the guys at the apple store say those things. You are right, all that money for the air just to surf the web? Ridiculous.
I am really torn myself as well, I love the Macbook Air. It is a dream for me because I travel a lot and I can just take my work with me easily. Before I carried an 17" Mac and lastly even a PC (yuck) laptop with me across the ocean (traveling between Europe and the USA). It was so heavy and the air is so light and just perfect for me. I just want to be able to actually work with it and not just "surf the web".
I am in Germany so we don't have any Apple Stores here (yet). I will have to call the Apple hotline. I hope they don't give me these kind of excuses.
I'll let you know what happened tomorrow.

Oh and btw don't let the store people get away with such excuses. Just think about the isight camera is built in and Mac OS X comes with iChat. It has to work with that. So much for "no graphic intense work possible" 😉 Also iPhoto, it kills off my second core as well during use. Comes with the Air too..