109°C (228°F) CPU temperature, fans idle @ 2k rpm!!!!!! I'M SO MAD

While the ideal solution or fix would obviously come from Apple directly, here is what I did to combat overheating.

I simply installed Fan Control (not smcFanControl). Fan Control is available for free at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137. Unlike smcFanControl (fixed settings, regardless of temperature), Fan Control allows you to set "the temperature ramp" according to which the fan speeds are adjusted. Fan Control gets installed into your System Preferences and is a nice "set and forget" type of solution.

My Fan Control settings are as follows:

Base Speed: 2000RPM
Lower Threshold: 50C
Upper Threshold: 80C

With these settings, running two instances of "yes /dev/null", the CPU temperature averages out to 77C. This is according to iStats. The fans, consistently, speed up and slow down based on the ramp set up in Fan Control.

Fan Control settings survive sleeping, restarting, and shutting down without a problem.

-k

Message was edited by: kkh0987654321

Yow! Running 'yes /dev/null' caused my terminal to hang with the spinning beachball. It also caused my CPU to peg both cores on the CPU meter. The temp went up to over 170f and I chickened out at that point and used SmcFanControl to cool it down. But, I can confirm it's happening here and probably has been from the start. I've had enough other problems to not be at all surprised by this.

Mmmhhh. Should be "yes > /dev/null" of course. I omitted the ">" by accident. Without the ">" it will probably cause Terminal to hang as it's repeatedly outputting to the window. As you experienced, one would probably need to force quit that after a while...

So, yes, I like Fan Control over smcFanControl. Set and forget. It keeps the CPU from ever reaching a temperature over 77-78C if that's how you set it. The fans ramp up from as early on as you want them to. And it only affects the minimum fan speed of course, leaving SMC to speed up the fans further if SMC so decides.

Oh, and 170F is about 77C, by the way. Still absolutely fine. If it goes over 100C (=212F), I'd be worried. Although I do not know exactly how hot these chips can run and still survive. But anything where things get hotter than boiling water would make me nervous. 🙂

Message was edited by: kkh0987654321

Yes, I feel kind of dumb about leaving off the '>'. I should know better since I'm a Unix admin. Oh well. I did have to terminate the terminal app, and later separately the 'yes' program was still running, and had to be terminated separately. It did give a good test of temps, however.

I figure that if it runs even a little hot for long periods of time, it can still cause damage. I've seen that happen with a server I have running. It's an old system with an original AMD Athlon 1400 processor. These things could literally cook an egg. I had to throttle down the CPU from 1.4GHz to 1.0GHz in the BIOS or my system would overheat and do a thermal shutdown. This was mainly due to aging and running hot for so long that things just don't work quite right at full speed anymore.

I'm afraid of what might happen to our shiny new Macs after 2-3 years of this if Apple hasn't fixed it by then.

Hi,

Well....I also have this problem with my new MacBook Pro....
Fortunately apart from this and the screenshot freeze when battery operated with 9600gt it doesn't have any other problem....
Now I'm using Fan Control to manage the fan speed with temperature and also when rendering with an almost 100% CPU use I remain in the 65-75 °C range....

Hope in a firmware update solving this two problems....

Michele

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Check the store you bought it at and ask if you are in the exchange/return time frame. If not, call AppleCare and tell them it appears your GPU is overheating. Don't try to do anything internal to fix it yourself if you just bought it, or it is covered under AppleCare. All Macs bought new are covered under hardware support for 1 year, and you can purchase AppleCare to extend it. Wishing for a firmware update, won't bring it about. http://www.apple.com/feedback/ is a good place to give Apple feedback, but it won't stop your immediate problem.

Hi,

How do you know it's fixed in other/newer machines and doesn't affect all?

Best regards,
Michael

Has anyone had any or seen any kind of answer to this yet from apple? I returned mine and have been laying in wait for some kind of fix, word, **** anything but we all know how forthcoming apple is on that. I thought Microsoft had issues with fixing things.....

Microsoft doesn't make computers. They only do software, peripherals, and the Zune. So to compare Apple to Microsoft is not quite a truism. Apple usually is quite forthcoming on repairs. If you are having trouble with repairs at any store, please call AppleCare and ask to speak to someone about it.
If you feel you aren't getting what you need from either source there is feedback here:

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

and

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

where changing "broken links" to "management feedback" can get the appropriate department to realize what is happening. I don't work for Apple, and only know the methods that have worked for me in the past.

Message was edited by: a brody

Just wanted to take a moment to say that my fans don't spin up fast enough either. I actually only started experiencing this after the SMC firmware update! Without going into much detail, it should suffice to say that when using an app like World of Warcraft, even with the 9400M, all settings dropped to minimum (but running at the display's full, native resolution), and frame rates capped at 25FPS, the CPU still climbs up past 80°C with no fan activity. This is really distressing because my MBP is my main machine - I use it for everything, and frequently. I don't want it to totally burn out on me which I'm sure would happen just after any warranty runs out. (C'mon, you know it will! Haha. - For what it's worth though, I've never had a Mac die on me.)

I'll try an SMC reset, but it sounds to me like I'll simply recreate the problem on a frequent basis as I do sleep my laptop when it's not going to be moved around, and I do often close out an app and then relaunch it later (which, based on earlier posts, seems to also be a cause).

I'm all for a new firmware or software update as needed to get this resolved ASAP.

Last note: Using the 9600M and some custom video settings in WoW, the CPU will easily climb up to the low 90's (Celsius). I use Temperature Monitor so I'm not aware of my fan speeds. I'd like to think that when the computer is **** near silent, the fans are hardly running. Before the SMC update they could easily be heard when they sped up.

you can use this third-party program http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23137/fan-control
to solve the issue, as a temporary solution.

I am having these overheating issues as well. I ordered my MBP from Macmall and do not live anywhere near an Apple store so I don't really have the option of returning my macbook. Any suggestions on what I should do? And is it even worth it if this problem affects all MBPs? Why exchange my MBP for one that will just continue to have the same problems.

@ a Brody

Okay, sorry. Microsoft updates better and dell/hp at least recall ****** up computers. I know the release of these was pretty close to Christmas to want to do any admission of problems, but come on there's A LOT of people with issues linked to the hardware and software of the unibody macbook pro's and macbooks.

Since you are so helpful with the support links I suppose I should tell you I had mine replaced twice, taken to apple store 5 times, and had two upper tier tickets. Guess what that solved... come on just guess. I eventually requested a return in the hopes of apple doing SOMETHING(I would even just take an admission of "whoa, nvidia screwed us again.") Unfortunately apple is staying pretty quiet about it and that is just wrong while people pay twice the price for a comparable machine.

Message was edited by: Peace25

Well i just got in to Mac's and i am really liking it 🙂 i have done some test. ive notice that when i play a video (TV show or just a movie) my Macbook Pro heats up (tho i dont know how hot but it's hot!!). now, during my tv show or movie, i let i cool. since ive let it cool, ive used the computer again but with out playing my show or movie, i just used it as a regular computer like ichat, web, word (MS); you know simple stuff. NOW, while me doing simple things like web suffer, word, and ichat it doesnt heat up so bad or quick, why is it like that verus, movie and simple stuff uses??

another question which Steve Job's can answer (please answer steve job's; your the man in technology lol) ive notice that people are complaining about the cray heat coming out there computers. why isnt there a patch file that would regulate the fans huh Steve? exmaple. if the cpu reaches at 85F the fan should go from 2000rpms to 2800rpm. if the cpu goes to 95F, than fan should be at 3600rpm's. if cpu is at 105F, than fan should be at 5000rpms. know what i mean??

As I and others said many times, using Fan Control solves the problem. But it's pretty crazy that apple don't do anything themselves. Do they want everybody to burn their MBPs in the first months? Maybe when a really working revision with new/upgraded features comes out, I will heat mine up to 200°C and then call applecare… everybody should do something like this…