Brand New Macbook Air Overheating!!

I have exactly the same problem and it's serious. I can't videoconf with ichat because the macbook air would overheat and one of the two cores would get disabled.
any streaming video (slingplayer) works for a few minutes and then the laptop becomes impossible to control (slow typing, cursor acting erratically). I hope there's a fix for this.

Is the fan running and what speed? What kind of surface? The MBA has vents on the bottom, the MBP on the back. If it's a soft surface the vents on the MBA could be blocked while the MBP vents would not be.

Hi, i just bought my MBA and it is my first apple. I'm a little bit disapointed in reason of the overheating. Do you think that this is a problem with no solution?? It's so expansive and I can't see my videos...ridiculous.

Without some idea of the actual CPU load (from in Activity Monitor), temperature numbers are almost meaningless. Note: I don't mean a guess, like "I so far have only opened System Preferences and Safari".

There's certainly not enough data here to conclude the Macbook Air is overheating.

P.S. Switch to Celsius; it's what most people use when discussing CPU termperatures.

P.P.S.: Spotlight might take a while to index a new Mac with a slow hard drive, which could explain this.

Strongly advise you check the fan rpm to see if the fan is operational. My first MBA's fan was inoperative and MBA overheated with one of the cores reaching 204ºF and then shutting down. I called AppleCare and they had me take MBA to nearest local Apple Store and they promptly replaced it and took my MBA in for inspection.

If your fan is operating correctly it should spin at 2500 rpm when machine quite idle. At 2500 rpm it's hardly audible and can only be heard with your ear almost touching the keyboard. When the CPUs and Memory are under stress the fan will kick up to a max of 6200 rpm and can be clearly heard.

Download smcFanControl version 2.1.2 at http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html and install it pronto and check the fan rpm. If it reports "000" as it did in my case then shutdown your MBA and call AppleCare immediately.

Depending on how long it has been running I would say the spotlight-index is the culprit. Mine did the same and then came back to normal and has been terrific ever since.

The fan does get jiggy in a snap when I do video, but I dont do too much.. and I the fan goes right back down when I am done. NOthing like my MBP that was always a noisy little guy.

hopefully it will calm down for you.. If not, go get another cause that is not right and the MBA is AWESOME.

I am responsible for almost a half dozen MBAir's and one of them may be overheating. I will download the fan utility to determine its status, but how can I get an accurate reading of the temperature of the aluminum body of the MBA? Thanks.

Please define "ice cold."
Run Chess, new game, computer vs. computer and check the temp after about 5 minutes. To check the temp, download the IStat widgit.
Please post back your findings. I am on my second Air and would like to believe that there are machines that run without the fan cranking loud.

I have had 2 Airs, a week 5, that was great but the fans always kicked up to 6200 and stayed there, now I have a week 11, and it stays at 50/2499 most of the time and if it does kick up...it goes back down very quick.......

Mine is running mostly 150 F when browsing. It gets quite hotter just by opening animations. I'm glad I'm not using it for "more intensive" apps. I confess this bothers my a little.

This is my first mac 🙂

Message was edited by: Bagini

The MacBook Air does, in general, have an overheating problem. Not all units overheat easily, but overall the design has little margin. Some have thermal paste applied too copiously to the CPU, which acts as an insulator and drives temperature higher. Some have had defective fans. MANY users experience overheating and core dropout when using CPU intensive application for more than a few minutes. Ambient temperature matters, and anything that blocks the vents on the bottom of the unit causes the temperature to rise quickly. Of course, a laptop computer that can't be placed on a laptop without overheating is a bit problematic. Solutions: clean off excess thermal paste and reapply it properly (beyond the ability level or guts level of most); install Coolbook to undervolt the processor and reduce heat output (very effective). From extensive reading of posts on Apple.com and numerous other Mac websites, it appears Apple really needed the new 45nm chips from Intel for the MacBook Air, which would have used less power and generated less heat, improving both battery life and cooling in this very thin case. However, these chips weren't ready yet, so Intel put a larger chip on a smaller package to fit into the Air. This chip's heat generation is really too high for the Air's case to handle unless everything goes right.

Just to prevent the flames, I know that NOT all Airs overheat constantly, but many do, and these are the reasons why.

I have had the same problem with my MBA. If I played a particular flash game for a few minutes (on a flat surface, in a cold room!), one of the cores would shut down. I eventually got Temperature Monitor, and ran activity monitor as well constantly to be able to watch the cores.

After suffering with this problem for a month or so, and not wanting to swap the entire unit due to laziness, I went to my local Mac shop (Mike's Mac Shop here in NYC, they're good) to have them swap the logic board out of both my MBA, and my coworker's.

I haven't been able to reproduce the problem since. I ran my 'torture test' flash game for probably 20 or 30 minutes and haven't been able to get a core to shut down.

I feel like this is simply a manufacturing defect in some of the early release models. Strange that Apple hasn't acknowledged it at all.

Okay, after having the logic board or motherboard or whatever it was swapped, I was able to have one core shutdown. I used my flash-game torture test for more than half an hour or so.

However - it wasn't like it was before. For a second or two, I lost a core, then I got it back. It wasn't the same death-spiral that required me to completely stop using the computer and leave it for 5 minutes (or sleep it immediately). I just simply lost the core, then it came back, then I lost it again, then it came back. It was far less deadly than before, and didn't seem to bring the machine down as badly.

I will keep my eye on it and keep this question updated.

My MBA does sometimes freeze for up to 20 seconds, then comes back for about 3 seconds before it freezes again. I sometimes helps to close the screen, and after a short time it may function good for a long time.

Other times i use the off button to close down the whole ****, and it maybe takes 4 restarts before its normal again.

is this a typical symptom of overheating?
Of course, when i took it back to the shop i bought it from, the problem was not there.
I stay in a warm place by now, and apple shops uses aircon.

When its working ok, all temps show between 30 and 55 degrees celsius, and the fan runs at 6106.
What the the istat says when it freezes, i don´t know