Cooling methods Macbook pro 2.2 15 Inch - solution (Heath Robinson variety)

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Cooling methods Macbook pro 2.2 15 Inch - solution (Heath Robinson variety)

So my MacBook Pro gets too hot and sometimes programmes start to freeze. That gave me an idea.

In Winter I popped it outside on the window ledge - cooled nicely (it's ice cold here in the Alps in Winter)

Spring (now), "freezing" gave me an idea: now using an ice pack from the fridge. After only a few minutes it seems to be working (rapid heat reductions) AND the fan is not working so hard or making such a noise.

Heard some cracking noises (!!) so that will be the ice in the cool pack beginning to melt. I have a second pack in the freezer ready to replace this one if required.

So simple.

I am using it in clamshell mode, but it seems just as bad or worse if I leave the lid open.

Really only had the ice pack there since just before I started to write this, I was going to say let's see how it goes, but the fan had gone off! And there is NO heat.

Can it be as simple as that? An ice pack? (Measures about 8 inches x 4 inches and an inch thick - and of course frozen solid.) MBP is perched on top, with the hot parts directly on the ice pack.

Seems to be.

Anthony

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Macbook pro 2.2 15 Inch, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on May 27, 2009 1:43 PM

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Answer 1

May 27, 2009 1:47 PM in response to how do I delete this account?

The above is a solution - not a question. 🙂

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Answer 2

Jun 3, 2009 9:06 PM in response to how do I delete this account?

no risk?

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Answer 3

Jun 3, 2009 9:35 PM in response to Florian_aka_v18

yes, my wife occasionally takes the ice pack for picnic use...

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Answer 4

Jun 4, 2009 2:31 AM in response to how do I delete this account?

I'd be careful with that. The temperature difference between the freezing ice pack and the hot computer could cause condensation, which will fry your main board.

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Answer 5

Jun 4, 2009 6:54 AM in response to EclecticMunk

an interesting point.
We live in a low humidity region at altitude, but even so I guess ice versus heat has to offer the chance to do some condensing... if it gets hot in the first place. No crispy frying sounds yet. Multiple backups every hour though.

Does occur to me that fried by excessive heat versus fried by condensation is a devil and the deep blue sea problem. Either way I can't work.

In any event I have another strategy now. iTunes was/is running all day and evening so I have shifted it (the external disk with the itunes library and tv content on it (the music content being on yet another hdd attached to that)) to an old (but trusty) ppc Mac Mini. It just struck me as an idea. Sure enough, the MB Pro 15", while still getting warm, is not hot and nothing has "not responded" all day yesterday and today. Much less fan activity, if any, I am no longer aware of it.

Why iTunes might have been causing the MBPro hdd to get hot I have no idea. Does it just hammer the cpu and is that why we get heat? I guess given that the library and all data (music/video) files were on external disks, that only really leaves the program running and of course caches for both program and data. Maybe that's it? The caches? Meaning the internal hdd is kept constantly running and the cpu as well.

Curiouser and curiouser..

oh yes, for anyone interested, the Mac Mini is running "headless", no screen and no keyboard or mouse, accessed via screen sharing (wired ethernet), the screen share screen allocated to a Space in "Spaces", which is where I had (local) iTunes running in the first place, so in daily use it feels very little different: I use the local iTunes to stream the Mac Mini video content and both Mac Mini and MBPro are hooked into the same external sound system in parallel. It's nice to be able to reboot the Pro without the music going off.

I guess less cpu work is less work is less heat. (?)

Anthony

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