HEAT = Intermittent freezing or complete crash requiring a hard reboot

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HEAT = Intermittent freezing or complete crash requiring a hard reboot

I have a stock Macbook Air 1.6ghz with the hard drive and I'm on my second machine. Both have done the same thing leading me to believe there is a serious defect in the Macbook Air. What happens is that after about a half hour of using the machine and running it with some apps like Parallels, video, whatever, it will get really hot. Especially in the upper left region of the computer. It feels hot to the point that you can't really hold on to it as it's too uncomfortable.

iStat claims the case temperature is: 108 degrees fahrenheit. This is prior to it getting really slow and crashing, since I can't really get to iStat when that happens anyway. The whole process of the Macbook Air getting to this point seems to correlate with using the disk and pushing the CPU. What always seems to be true is that the upper left region of the base of the computer is really hot.

The intermittent freezing is quite annoying as the trackpad will completely become non-responsive and you can't type or do anything. Although if a USB mouse is plugged in you can move that and it will move the mouse cursor on the screen, but clicking or doing anything doesn't work. One time we were in a video chat through iChat and it worked fine for about 20 minutes or so and then suddenly started doing the intermittent freezing. The video and audio would freeze, then it would suddenly come back and play the missed portion in fast forward or just skip it altogether.

So my question is how do we get this fixed, I love my Macbook Air, but being able to actually use it is even more important. The minute I try to do anything more compute intensive it just seems to seize up and die. From my experience and reading about other peoples experiences this appears to be a fundamental defect in the Macbook Air. I would like to actually get some support for this instead of the usual we don't know anything about it and blah, blah. Hopefully Apple will just own up to it and work to quickly fix it.

Macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 28, 2008 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 28, 2008 1:49 PM in response to chriscamero

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookair.html

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Answer 2

Rhyd

Level 3

806 points

Mar 28, 2008 2:30 PM in response to chriscamero

If you have the same problem with two different machines, have you considered what you are doing that might be the same and might be problematic? Have you watched the Activity Monitor and checked the Console for console messages and the system log? Have you considered the surface on which you are running the MBA?

The upper left is the location of the power source; are you running power heavy apps? The more power it takes in the warmer the area.

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Answer 3

chriscamero Author

Level 1

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Mar 29, 2008 10:29 AM in response to Rhyd

Yes I've considered what I do on the machine, and no it doesn't matter what I'm doing specifically. What does seem to matter is whether what I'm doing is taxing the machine. If I'm compiling software, running a video, running Parallels with Windows, copying large files, etc. then it will cause the machine to heat up and then start failing. I don't have to do very many things at the same time either, if I watch a video on it and compile some software it will heat it up and cause it to start failing. It seems to be a combination of using the processor and hard drive to where it can't handle things.

Right now for example I'm doing a Macports port install of Apache 2 and then typing this message into Safari. That's it. The machine is right now at 113 degrees F according to iStat. That seems to be the magic temperature where at that level and up it starts failing. It's hot enough that touching it is too uncomfortable. It's sitting on a Targus cool pad, clear open access for the vents below. It's simply not designed properly to handle doing anything that pushes the hardware, in my opinion and from my experience with it. I do really like the form factor though so I wish it did work properly. I'm writing about my experiences with it so hopefully Apple will pick up on what users are experiencing and fix the design of the machine. Clearly it has design issues.

The other thing that bothers me about the Macbook Air is that everyone acts like the users are somehow causing the problem. Things like oh you are blocking the fans and putting it on your lap, or you set it on something that causes it to heat up, or it's the software you are using. Well I've got news for you, these things should work in those environments, it shouldn't be a problem to put the thing on my lap, if I wanted a computer that I could only put on a table or something similar I would have just stuck with my Macbook Pro or bought an iMac. This thing is built to carry around and throw on your lap to get stuff done. At least that's why I wanted it.

I guess for now I'll just have to use it for only 20 - 30 minutes at a time and give it breaks to cool down, ugh!

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Answer 4

Mar 29, 2008 12:25 PM in response to chriscamero

Hi,

Apple does not read your experiences here! Please use the link I posted above to give feedback that can be evaluated by support and/or technical people at Apple.

On a side note: Compiling works well on my MBA, no problems so far with overheating. Then, I don't compile large projects but some of my own apps - usually compilation times of below 2 minutes. These 2 minutes are not enough to drive up heat. But, I experienced stark rises in heat when compiling big packages on my G4. I had not rarely temperatures just at the maximum that I would trust the chip to take. Then usually my G4 sounded like an Aircraft, my dog scared away from it then. So, the higher the CPU load and the longer the period of high CPU load takes, the more probable gets a core shutdown. The MBA is not built as a number cruncher, thus it could be called expected behaviour in some cases. Maybe you should try a MBP, but I bet it will at least roar then as well. The one at my company does when I let it crunch large amounts of numbers with full CPU load for prolonged time. It doesn't shut down a core, though, but then, I usually start the apps and come back the next day. So if core shutdowns happen, I might not detect them due to my absence.

Cheers,
Volker

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Answer 5

chriscamero Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 29, 2008 2:42 PM in response to Volker Runkel

The compiling I'm talking about is just installing things like Apache with mac ports, something I have to do on my laptop that shouldn't really be a big deal. I just think the MBA is flawed in the design somehow to where it can't handle doing the basic stuff people want to do like watching a video, video chatting, etc. Remember, it locked up on me when doing a basic iChat video chat, again due to overheating. I have a MBP and it gets a bit hot, but it handles it fine, it doesn't crash causing a forced reboot and it doesn't do the intermittent lock-up where it freezes for a few seconds, then comes back, then freezes for a few seconds, etc.

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Answer 6

bgmdmba

Level 1

0 points

Apr 8, 2008 5:06 PM in response to Volker Runkel

Volker,
Thanks for the link to give Apple feedback. I will send them the following.
I am on my second 1.6 SSD and now I think it is just nature of the machine to run hot when there are processor intensive tasks going on. I converted from a Sony Vaio and went for the SSD because he noise of Sony’s hard disk drive was annoying. I mistakenly thought a SSD would result in fairly silent operation. The drive may be quiet but the fan is not. Two minutes into processor intensive tasks such as Chess computer vs. computer or running Parallels, the temp is above 80 C and the fan is cranking at 6200. Performance then goes down and on occasion a CPU shuts down. Before I downloaded the special Macbook Air version of Parallels, I could freeze the computer at will by first opening the chess game and then adding in the Parallels boot up.
Today I went to my local Apple store and the three demos all got above 85 C with chess and safari. The HDD version got up to 91 C.
I would advise anyone to NOT spend the extra on the SSD if your reason is based on an impression that the noise will be less. From a speed of processing standpoint, I sure wouldn’t be the one to ever notice any difference. I dropped the jing expecting a quiet machine. I am disappointed I spent the extra grand. If I had not, and if I knew it was going to run hot and loud, I may have been quite pleased as the portability and WOW factor do have value. If I could trade for the HDD and spend the extra money on something else, I would.
For now, my laptop sits on a cool gel pack as I use it.

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Answer 7

Apr 8, 2008 5:42 PM in response to chriscamero

This has happened to me, too, usually when I have a time machine backup going on (I guess the heat of the constant drive use). It IS extremely annoying when it happens. I usually end the time machine backup, put the laptop to sleep and get back to it once it cools down.

I'm hoping that the new firmware release may fix this problem. I've installed the firmware update and have currently had a time machine backup going on for the past 2 hours without any freezes.. <crossing fingers>

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