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Macbook Pro running hot

Okay so I installed SL around Christmas time. I was away for a week around New Years. Come back and for some reason my Unibody Macbook Pro runs at 150-165 degrees F while idle and using roughly 5% of my resources. It use to run at 120 before. I mean it even runs the fanspeed over 3k RPM to maintain that when I watch a simple youtube video.

Now I tried doing the batter reset, but that only fixed the problem for 2 days and then boom back to 150 degrees again. Now should I go to an Apple store and ask them to replace my battery. Or is there something else that I could do to avoid the time spent at the store.

Macbook Pro Unibody 08, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 29, 2010 7:18 AM

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16 replies

Feb 4, 2010 5:59 PM in response to Martin_C

I am having a similar problem. I'm running a 1st gen late 2008 MBP 15". After one of the Snow Leopard updates late last year, my MBP stopped sleeping with the lid closed, and runs extremely hot with a drained battery if I don't do a manual sleep and wait for the fans to shut down (even when they've shut down it will still fire up in transport and drain the battery).

I'm super frustrated and can't find any support online. I'm about to rip it apart and look at the reed switch sensor, although my suspicion is that this a software related issue.

Apr 9, 2010 7:06 PM in response to Martin_C

My 15" MBP seemed to be much hotter after updating to 10.6.3. iStat was showing over 70°C with CPU under 5%. Palm rest area was uncomfortably warm. I was sure it was an OS issue, but I was an electronics tech, so, following iFixit instructions, I removed 8 screws on bottom and 6 screws holding 2 fans, cleaned out dust, reassembled. Machine is running 44°C now, after a few hours, about 30°C cooler. Big win.

A little dust can block a lot of heatsink.

Do not try this if you care about your warranty, or if you are not comfortable with expert level technical repairs. But it sure worked for me.

Disassembly, cleaning and reassembly took about 30 minutes, not counting the hour and a half I spent searching for tiny screws after using a blower. Be careful with the screws, they are really hard to find.

Message was edited by: Lawrence Jones1

Apr 23, 2010 5:15 PM in response to Martin_C

I just took my Macbook Pro to the Apple Store and did a "Quick Drop" because as of yesterday (no software changes / modifications) my idle temperature went from being around 47C to 87C within 3-5 minutes of boot. If I open a browser and start browsing the web we hit the 91C mark where it used to only hit low 50s. After checking the Activity Manager there are NO rouge processes or excessive CPU cycle usage. I don't understand what , besides a hardware fault, could be causing this. Even cranking the fans to full throttle only drops the temp to 78-80C idle. Not good. Not normal. Hopefully I will get a call in a few days telling me the outcome of the diagnostics. This is mid-2009 MBP that I've had for 5 months.

So, if anyone here was given a solution or could clue me in to what I'm in for, I would appreciate it. I will post the verdict of my machine once I hear from Apple.

Cheers.

Apr 24, 2010 4:22 PM in response to jmontgomery

So, I got my Macbook Pro back from the Apple Store today with the explanation that the thing was super dusty and that is why my temps were shooting up. The representative also stated that he cleaned it and all was back to normal....

Get home, plug it, boot up... 5 minutes just chilling on the desktop 89C. Open Firefox and browse to Gmail and my school website - 93C. WTH, nothing has changed. Start looking around and really analyzing Activity Monitor. Every few seconds the Lexmark CUPS and Wifi driver for the printer would shoot to the top at 99% CPU usage. Removed all print drivers rebooted and now I'm back in the high 40s. Right where I used to be.

It appears that 10.6.3 and the Lexmark driver don't play well. Will investigate more and then file a bug with Lexmark.

So Apple Store 'tech guy', thanks for the cleaning but... you're full of **** and obviously didn't test anything.

Apr 30, 2010 8:20 AM in response to Lawrence Jones1

I had the same issue... macbook pro 2006 2.33Ghz. After SL installation it started run progressively hotter and hotter over the months. It actually started about one year ago when i still had 10.5 on. I tried all the software solutions (PRAM, etc), and also shoot compressed air in the vents, with no results.
Then i read an article about dust collection in the vents and replacement of thermal paste. As someone else on this thread, I followed the iFixit instructions to take it apart (you need to be very careful but it's not rocket science and i am not an technical guy). Here's the link to the instructions i followed:

http://tinyurl.com/349l4pu

Once i took the laptop apart, i cleaned up the vents that were literally clogged by dust. Cleaned up the old thermal paste from the CPU's, GPU and heatsink that was pretty much dry and spotty, and applied a nice coat of Arctic 5 thermal paste. Reassembled the laptop, said a couple of prayers, powered it up and it worked flawlessly, and i am now running at least 10-15 celsius degrees cooler. Before i was running around 70-75 celsius degrees in light to medium use conditions (mail, entourage, a couple of safari windows) and now i rarely go over 55. I then opened a few youtube videos in separate windows (which used to be a killer for my mac, often times forcing my mac to quit), excel, powerpoint, and whatever else was already open. Usually it was running between 85 and 89 with peaks well over 90, and after the "surgery" it was pretty much around 70 degrees, with peaks of 76.
I can say - so far - that i have my old Mac back. I was quite annoyed and ready to trash it to get a new machine when it kept acting up and running unbearably hot, but i think i will give the old guy another chance... all in all it's still the most reliable laptop i've ever had.

Please note that my machine was purchased in 2006 and the Apple care coverage was long gone, so i did not have any warranty drawbacks. If you have a newer machine that it's still covered, opening it up will invalidate your warranty, so be careful if you go down this path.

Macbook Pro running hot

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