Is CPU overheating covered under warranty?

7oby wrote:
I haven't broken my MacBook yet, but I fear it may happen if I run Folding @ Home. I see in iStat Pro temps of 90-91 Celsius and that's way too high. My fan obviously kicks into high gear (6100RPM) but it doesn't go down. If I leave folding on for a few hours, apps start to get sluggish and the OS just acts funny.

I hear from all the experts that 91C is way too hot, and I know about the old paste debacle but that was supposedly fixed in the core 2 duos.

I'm not alone in these hot hot heats:
http://teammacosx.org/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.pl?act=ST&f=54&t=3117&st=0#entry47 101

Usually the CPU's normal high temperatures are around 82 degrees C. Are you sure where you are putting your laptop is in a well ventilated place?

Try running folding on desktops like your Mac Mini instead.

7oby wrote:
The mac mini is being used by the girlfriend, and I'm sure she'd be furious if I abused her CPU like that.

As well, it's not just well ventilated, it's on one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Targus-PA248U-Notebook-Chill-Pad/dp/B0000AKA8Y

(and yes it's running, and the back of the notebook is properly lifted by the little nubs)

Also, that thread I linked showing 89C temps? It's talking about a Mac Mini itself.

Message was edited by: 7oby

Have you tried running the system without that pad? I don't know how effective that pad really is. I know from my experience with my Mac, it never peaked over 82 degrees ever.

The more ventilated the area is, the less likely the temperature will spike on the system. For me, the regular idle temperature is 40C, if your machine is idling at more than 45C, you should make sure that nothing is blocking the vent.

Sometimes these products MAY interfere with the cooling of the laptop. I do not have such a product to test it but I'm just asking if you take it off, did it see a difference. My Macbook is on a flat surface and the room is well ventilated and it idles at 40C and never peaks 82C when it's working on full load.

Back to the original question.

I believe it is covered under the warranty. It is a design fault if it overheats without blocking the vents/modification.

I'm not sure how you would address this as an overheat issue with Apple. Folding @ Home maxes out your CPU to 100% 24/7... meaning your CPU is working absolutely as hard as it can without ever having a chance to slow down. Your fan can do a bit to help cool your system under normal circumstances, but it's almost impossible for the MacBook fan to get the temp much lower than it is under that kind of load. Folding @ Home is really not a great application to be running on a notebook. As you mentioned about running FAH on your girlfriends Mini +*"I'm sure she'd be furious if I abused her CPU like that."*+ you already know it's an "abusive" application. I know the PC version lets you determine what percentage of the CPU power you want to let it use (I usually keep it at around 80%)... but I haven't found a way to do that on a Mac.

JoeyR wrote:
I'm not sure how you would address this as an overheat issue with Apple. Folding @ Home maxes out your CPU to 100% 24/7... meaning your CPU is working absolutely as hard as it can without ever having a chance to slow down. Your fan can do a bit to help cool your system under normal circumstances, but it's almost impossible for the MacBook fan to get the temp much lower than it is under that kind of load. Folding @ Home is really not a great application to be running on a notebook. As you mentioned about running FAH on your girlfriends Mini +*"I'm sure she'd be furious if I abused her CPU like that."*+ you already know it's an "abusive" application. I know the PC version lets you determine what percentage of the CPU power you want to let it use (I usually keep it at around 80%)... but I haven't found a way to do that on a Mac.

I guess the lesson is: if you don't feel like burning your laptop, don't use FAH, it won't kill you if you don't run the application (now if FAH worked with my ATi card I would run it on my desktop, but that's another story).

I hope that the Geniuses don't waste your time and actually fixed the problem. I have had a string of problems after my first repair from them and am not satisfied with their repairs. I'm going to get it fixed by my local Apple service provider to see if they will fix my keyboard issue once and for all.

As for your laptop, it could just be dust or a motherboard (Apple calls these logic boards) mishap.

One time i was running a similar mac killing program and my CPU was up at 100 it shut itself down and the hard-drive was melted. luckily it was under warranty but i lost all my files, they couldn't evan recover them forensically.


currently i am having a different problem with my fans or should i say fan.

basically the cooling system on mac's laptops is RUBBISH

Paddy Crawford Clarke wrote:
One time i was running a similar mac killing program and my CPU was up at 100 it shut itself down and the hard-drive was melted. luckily it was under warranty but i lost all my files, they couldn't evan recover them forensically.


currently i am having a different problem with my fans or should i say fan.

basically the cooling system on mac's laptops is RUBBISH

Actually, I agree with that. Ever since the Intel upgrade, Apple hasn't realized that Intel has a bad record of releasing overheating CPUs that aren't optimal for laptop use. Back then on the G4s, heat was never an issue for consumers.

I've got FAH running on one of my older Toshiba notebooks that I don't really use for anything... it just sits there and runs. That machine typically never runs warm... but even on that, the fans kick in to full speed and stay there after FAH has been running for just a few minutes. I guess the issue isn't so much that you shouldn't "be able to" run it on a MacBook... but that you should expect to get some pretty high temps... and have them stay high while it's running. I also agree that the MacBooks tend to run on the warm side. They really do have an inadequate cooling system. Whether FAH ... or other super processor intensive applications, quite a few people have experienced thermal shutdowns. I do have an issue with that. So far as I'm concerned, you should be able to run a computer at 100% capacity without any significant issues... anything less indicates a design flaw. Granted, you will shorten the life of a machine running at 100% 24/7... but that's to be expected... but it should be able to properly regulate temps at whatever load it is under.

Having blah-blahed enough there... I put FAH on my MacBook last night just to see how it ran. As expected, the fans did rev up quick after the processor was at 100% for a few seconds. However, my temp did not really get above 80-82 C. So that's about 10 C cooler than the original poster is experiencing (which can make a difference when you're getting into ranges that high). However, since I'm not running on the same hardware, I can't say that 90 C isn't normal for newer MacBooks. I'm running on a 2GHz Core Duo on one of the first gen MacBooks.