Heat Increases With Ram Upgrade?

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Level 1

9 points

Heat Increases With Ram Upgrade?

Sorry, posted this in the wrong place before.

Hi Everyone,

I recently got a mid-2009 15" MBP (2.53 GHZ). It came with 4Gb of ram, and actually ran surprisingly well in that configuration. One thing I noticed in moving to this machine from my 12" G4, was that it ran much cooler to the extent that I wondered if it even had a fan.

I have now updated the ram in two stages, first to 6Gb, then to 8Gb, with RAM from OWC. I have noticed an increase in performance for sure, but I have also noticed that the battery drains faster with each upgrade. Particularly after going to 8Gb yesterday, it seems that the computer is running hotter, I can feel it and hear the fan running, and of course, the battery is going down a lot faster with the fan running.

Does that seem normal? I guess it makes sense in a way. Just wondering what anyone thought about it.

Thanks

MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.2), Mac Since 87

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 1:20 PM

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Answer 1

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Feb 9, 2010 1:49 PM in response to rmcmpastor

Hi rmcmpastor,

There are some swings and roundabouts in this situation,and it may use a very little more power, but I wouldn't expect your computer to be noticeably hotter, or to be using noticeably more battery, unless having more RAM has actually encouraged you to keep more applications running at a time, or to make heavier use of some "high powered" applications. (Not uncommon behaviour when one gets more RAM! 😉 )

Another combined behavioural/technical problem explanation may be that you are letting the computer run longer between restarts previously needed to free up RAM and that something you regularly use has a bad "memory leak", causing increased power consumption.

First thing I'd be doing, though, is checking that you don't have a rogue process of some kind chomping up CPU cycles and battery run-time. See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473

This is probably the most common cause of increased heat / decreased battery run time issues.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 2

rmcmpastor Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 9, 2010 2:55 PM in response to rmcmpastor

Thanks Rod,

I'll check the Activity Monitor. I am using it exactly as I did before. I just noticed last night while watching TV online that the machine got hot for the first time ever - hot to the lap. Then today at my desk, the fan has been running all day. I am hooked up to a 23" Apple Display that I use daily. Safari is open and seems to be using the lions share of CPU right now Flash plugin showing 49%). A few other programs open as always - Word, Pages, Mail, Keynote, and Freehand. Building posters in Freehand today. Nothing unusual.

Thanks for the input.

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Answer 3

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Feb 9, 2010 3:59 PM in response to rmcmpastor

It will be Flash and Safari doing the damage almost certainly , rmcmpastor,

Unfortunately the current Flash plug-in for use under Safari in 64 bit mode is a real CPU hog when used to view movies on line etc. The problem with Flash was bad enough even with the 32 bit Safari under Leopard but under SL it is dramatically worse.

It will substantially increase temperatures, increase fan activity, and reduce battery charge life. Whether this is down to Apple or Adobe who can say, but perhaps it adds another aspect to the recent public tiffs that the two companies have been having!

Unfortunately Firefox and Chrome , as alternative browsers, don't seem to be handling such things any better.

Some have suggested that in Snow Leopard running Safari in 32 bit mode (go to Get Info and simply click on the 32 bit mode box) will reduce the impact of this somewhat.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 4

rmcmpastor Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 9, 2010 5:50 PM in response to rmcmpastor

Thanks again. This afternoon when I was ready to shut down to come home, I unplugged from the monitor, which made no real difference (my old G4 used to work really hard to push that monitor). I noticed that my battery, having been plugged in for several hours and very fully charged, was only showing that it had a little over 2 hours of running time on board. I shut down Safari and the fan stopped almost immediately, and the battery time jumped to 5 hours 45 minutes. I opened Safari again and started opening tabs one at a time while watching the Activity Monitor. There is one weather site that I keep open all the time that has several little flash ads going all the time. When I opened that one, flash again started using half my CPU. Interesting.

I don't know why this hasn't been a problem in the past, since I always have that site up, but at least I know where the power is going. I still find it odd that for the first three weeks that I had this computer, I never once heard the fan. The difference in both heat and noise from the G4 had been very noticeable.

Thanks for the help.

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Answer 5

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Feb 9, 2010 9:45 PM in response to rmcmpastor

Probably just an unfortunate combination of sites open at the one time, rmcm...

It usually takes a while for the MBP fan(s) to kick in ( and this seems to be based on temperature primarily) , but once they have they don't usually seem to cut down again until the thing actually using power (even if the temps have dropped a bit) has been terminated.

I'm simply speculating here. Power use and temperature are obviously very directly related, nd both play a part in Mac fan routines, but I think the response to the sensors may operate a little differently on the way up and the way down.

Maybe it has been cooler where ever you are over the last few weeks than it is now and you have simply never reached the "cut in" temperature accordingly?

I'll certainly be glad if Adobe (or Apple, if it is their fault) get their act into gear and sort out a less ravenous 64 bit version of the Flash Plug-in , though!

Cheers

Rod

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