MACBOOK PRO & SNOW LEOPARD - OVERHEATING

Hey everyone, I have a macbook pro, early 2008 model 15 inch, 4gb ram, 320gb hard drive.
Since installing SNOW LEOPARD, my machine is now overheating.

This was an issue I believe with the previous version of Leopard, but a patch was made by apple, and the overheating issue was fixed. But I'm guessing they may have forgotten about this particular problem with the new OS.

Does anybody know anything about this or having the same problem ????

MBP 2.4, Mac OS X (10.6), overheating

Posted on Sep 13, 2009 3:05 AM

248 replies

Feb 17, 2011 1:29 PM in response to kingofgc

I am having the same problems with my 15" Macbook Pro Snow Leopard that opened this discussion. This model was the second Macbook I bought within 2-1/2 years. Since my 13" Macbook is more portable, I only used the new 15" for watching some online TV in the evenings and almost never moved it. I bought the 15" in November 2009, and then towards the end of 2010, my fan started acting up. I had just moved and was way too busy to deal with taking in my computer for what seemed to be just a noise problem. It must have been a fan to make the noise of a helicopter taking off at a short distance. Computer performance was not affected, so I would close the laptop, let it "quiet down" and then reopen it. That worked in the beginning. Then it started to require more of these sleep attempts in order to quiet the fan. It increasingly got worse until I finally broke down and made a Genius Bar appointment. Surprisingly, the Genius Bar guy could find nothing wrong and said he cleared out the fans in case it was a dust problem. He also said I could pay >$17 (new fan) + $40 (labor) for a fan replacement, which really ticked me off, since it was a computer that has hardly been used and never been mistreated. Clearly, this is Apple's fault. In addition, he claimed I had purchased the computer in August of 2009, so the data or his ability to read it properly was in error. I knew I had purchased it in November and immediately verified this with my receipt when I went home. My experience at the Seattle University Center Genius Bar now upsets me even more after reading this thread, because it seems to be a problem that should be well-known to Apple by now and should be rectified by them. I started purchasing Apple products because of their reputation for taking care of their customers and continued being a customer because of the excellent service I had received on my first Macbook purchase. 😟 In the latest episode, it completely froze, and I was forced to hard shut-off. When I tried to start the computer again, the dreaded folder with ? appeared on a gray background. I hope my next Genius Bar appt this weekend at a different location provides more satisfactory results than my last.

Message was edited by: seattleann

Message was edited by: seattleann

Feb 17, 2011 2:06 PM in response to kingofgc

Hi again

I posted 5days ago saying I had downgraded to leopard again and it solved my problem fully. I just wanted to confirm that 5days after downgrading I barely heard my MacBook more than twice! CPU is down and fans are at 2000! it's a world of difference. I used to run at 80 degrees, now it goes from 45 to 70 max! What a weird issue, but happy this solution worked!

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,839 points

Feb 17, 2011 7:34 PM in response to seattleann

seattleann wrote:

In addition, he claimed I had purchased the computer in August of 2009, so the data or his ability to read it properly was in error. I knew I had purchased it in November and immediately verified this with my receipt when I went home.

Make sure you take your receipt with you.

Apple keeps track of when each machine was purchased, so it could be yours had been a sealed box return, say someone bought it and then returned it unopened a few months later.

Feb 22, 2011 3:29 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Here's an update to my 2nd GB visit. I took it to the Genius Bar in Bellevue this time hoping for better results. The "genius" who was helping me, claims to have never heard of this problem. When I told him it is the first hit that comes up if you type in '15" Macbook Pro Snow Leopard hardware problems' and that this discussion thread is from the Apple website, he said that he can also find Apple-haters on the web saying all sorts of terrible things about Apple computers. Again, I reiterated that these are NOT Apple-haters but more likely Apple fans who post directly on Apple discussions for help and clearly do not have any ill-will against Apple as is evident from the posts. Apparently, a 17-page thread from people all having the same problems is not credible to him. I told him from reading the thread, it appears to be a SL compatibility issue with at least the 15" MBP models. Another "genius" told me there was no way an OS could cause a fan to run too much. They are terribly defensive at these GBs: not at all like the service I and my friends received from other locations in the country. I'm wondering if it's because Apple is already so well-established on the West Coast, they don't feel they need to reconcile a faulty purchase for individual cases here.

Seems like each time I take it in, something else "breaks". This time, they kept it overnight for a diagnostic and later left a message on my voicemail that I need a new hard drive in addition to the fan. My recent encounters with the Seattle-area GBs feel analogous to the stereotypes about car mechanics. I love the Seattle area, but the GBs here are ruining my personal computing experience.

Message was edited by: seattleann

Message was edited by: seattleann

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,839 points

Feb 23, 2011 4:35 PM in response to seattleann

They should investigate your problem, but there is no issue with 15" MacBook Pros and Snow Leopard.

I know of any number of people with 15" MBPs of various vintages who have no issues with SL, including myself.

ctmurray

Level 1

88 points

Feb 23, 2011 7:35 PM in response to seattleann

seattleann wrote:
Here's an update to my 2nd GB visit. I took it to the Genius Bar in Bellevue this time hoping for better results. The "genius" who was helping me, claims to have never heard of this problem. When I told him it is the first hit that comes up if you type in '15" Macbook Pro Snow Leopard hardware problems' and that this discussion thread is from the Apple website, he said that he can also find Apple-haters on the web saying all sorts of terrible things about Apple computers. Again, I reiterated that these are NOT Apple-haters but more likely Apple fans who post directly on Apple discussions for help and clearly do not have any ill-will against Apple as is evident from the posts. Apparently, a 17-page thread from people all having the same problems is not credible to him. I told him from reading the thread, it appears to be a SL compatibility issue with at least the 15" MBP models. Another "genius" told me there was no way an OS could cause a fan to run too much. They are terribly defensive at these GBs: not at all like the service I and my friends received from other locations in the country. I'm wondering if it's because Apple is already so well-established on the West Coast, they don't feel they need to reconcile a faulty purchase for individual cases here.

Seems like each time I take it in, something else "breaks". This time, they kept it overnight for a diagnostic and later left a message on my voicemail that I need a new hard drive in addition to the fan. My recent encounters with the Seattle-area GBs feel analogous to the stereotypes about car mechanics. I love the Seattle area, but the GBs here are ruining my personal computing experience.

Message was edited by: seattleann

Message was edited by: seattleann

A possible issue is a poor thermal connection between the heat pipe and the CPU or a failing heat pipe. On laptops there is no room for a standard heat sink and fan. The have to use a lid over the CPU and the lid is connected by heat pipes to the side of the unit where a blower can push air over the small radiator. So there is at least one dollop of thermal grease between the lid and the CPU. There might be others along the path. The heat pipe(s) could also be failing, they are often bent to snake through the unit and to work properly need to have been bent correctly.

So if they are offering a new fan, see if you can get a new entire assembly of lid, heat pipes and fan. This is probably the repair anyway as they are often one assembled unit. Make sure they know to apply new thermal grease (again probably the standard repair).

If it was just the fan then you would hear the sound of a dying fan. But if you are just hearing the fan running all the time you have lost a good thermal path from the CPU to the exterior of the unit. The CPU is not being cooled and it is calling for more cooling (high speed fan for a long time).

Mar 2, 2011 9:42 PM in response to ctmurray

This is (hopefully) my final message for this thread. The Bellevue Apple store did a great job in the end and rectified the existing problem and the additional problems that may have been caused by my initial visit to the University Village location. At least three geniuses there thoroughly checked my computer for a week and made sure they found absolutely everything wrong with it. Unfortunately, the problem had suddenly become severe in the two days I had it back from the other location where they had found "nothing wrong". The hard drive, hard drive cable, and fan had to all be replaced. The admin genius was very professional, helpful, and accommodating to the problems I was having.

My laptop seems to be again in the pristine condition it was before the fan problem. Thanks for your input everyone. It is strange to have such a large thread of people with the same problem and yet for there to still be claims that there is no issue with Snow Leopard and Macbook Pro. Maybe for some people it was the extra stuff they installed, but for me, I had very little software installed and nothing to cause high usage of any hardware components.

Apr 24, 2011 3:18 AM in response to seattleann

Hi folks - I haven't scanned all the pages here, but I have just yesterday upgraded to Snow Leopard (bit slow on the uptake I know but just wanted to make sure it was working Ok for a took te leap 🙂) and this morning my fan was whirring and my batteries lasted about an hour!!! Dug around and in my case it was Adobe Recourse Synchronzer hogging pretty much al the CPU - still trying to kill it permanently but force quitting in Console immediately sorted the problem! This wasn't a problem before Snow Leopard and I haven't installed anything since upgrading so I can only conclude this is one of those "incompatible" programs. Thanks Adobe, this seems to have been an issue with some people since 2007!!!

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MACBOOK PRO & SNOW LEOPARD - OVERHEATING