MacBook 16-inch Fan Noise

For me malfunction means when something doesnt work as intended and advertised, i think these problems are not ordinary, along with other issues related to Catalina and T2 chip. I am mostly pushing these threads around because i am thinking they might be connected.

Please have a carefull read thru this thread, issues caused by connecting peripherals, monitor, eGPU not working, and graphic card switching, energy management - sleep mode, but looks like its related to OS Catalina, than MBP16 itself.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250826263

Also i am trying to prepare when **** hits the fan, as i have great customer experience with repair programs - 2011/12 defective gpu Nvidia chip, it took Apple almost 3 years to launch a repair program. What is concerning is that they knew Nvidia chips were malfunctioned but they still shipped them. For 3 years they were charging 850eur for repair - basically logic board replacement.

Summary of the Situation:

1- Fan Noise and Heat issues at MacBook Pro 16 Inches.

2- All Models are affected.

3- It looks like all MBP 16 are defected.

4- The issue appears connecting external device to the USB-C. In special external display.

5- Issue is affecting by display 4K, 2K.

5- Several test shown it is a hardware issue. (Test running with windows software shows same results).(Latest software updates have not improved the situation).

6- The best action is to report to Apple. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

7- Till now Apple has denied any issue, or they have not hear about the issue.

It is a worldwide issue and not an special Lot of computers. From Poland to USA, Germany and Italy.... worldwide is reporting the same failure at fan noise and overheating at just browsing.

8- Some test shown the issue is in relation with the GPU.

9- Apple support has also not hear about the issue, even in my case, I have returned two computers in the same Store.

10- It is recommended to return the MBP within the 15 days period of guarantee.

11- All the users that have contacted and followed the indications of Apple support, for example : restart in safety mode and so on.. have not observed any improvement.

12- Bunch of people is waiting for a solution or communication from Apple in order to buy a new MBP. (Two and half month gone).

13- If I missed something, just added to the summary. Thank you.

I'm now seeing another issue with the discrete GPU on the internal screen, as it seems to be a separate issue I've posted it here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251109554?answerId=252115114022&page=1

I work with pixel precision elements so this sort of glitch really stands out to me, others may not notice it.

The reason I mention it here is that maybe there is a fault with my 5500m GPU that is causing both of these problems and I wonder if anyone else who has the GPU overheat issue has this graphical glitch when on the discrete GPU?

I'll also chime in with the exact same issue. My 16" MacBook Pro gets hot when external monitors are plugged in. I reached out to Apple last week and they sent a bunch of logs from my machine to their engineers. I just got off the phone with Apple and they say that this is normal and sent me this article Find out which graphics processor is in use on your MacBook Pro.

This is not normal! My 2017 MacBook with a DGPU had zero issues with external monitors plugged in.

Check these 2 issues they posted today:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250991137

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251118885

Both of them seem to be GPU related issues, one of the was a GPU kernel panic. So more problems related to the GPU on the MacBook Pro 16-inc.

Summary of the Situation: 

1- Fan Noise and Heat issues at MacBook Pro 16 Inches. 

2- All Models are affected. 

3- It looks like all MBP 16 are defected. 

4- The issue appears connecting external device to the USB-C. In special external display.

5- Issue is affecting by all kind of display 4K, Full HD.

5- Several test shown it is a hardware issue. (Test running with windows software shows same results).(Latest software updates have not improved the situation). Other users could consider a software issue.

6- The best action is to report to Apple. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

7- Till now Apple has not reported any issue.

8- It is a worldwide issue and not an special Lot of computers. From Poland to USA, Germany and Italy.... worldwide is reporting the same failure at fan noise and overheating at just browsing.

9- Some test shown the issue is in relation with the GPU. 

10- Apple support can not inform if the issue is resolved. 

11- It is recommended to return the MBP within the 15 days period of guarantee. 

12- All the users that have contacted and followed the indications of Apple support, for example : restart in safety mode and so on.. have not observed any improvement.

13-Bunch of people is waiting for a solution or communication from Apple in order to buy a new MBP. (Three months gone).. 

14- Several people reported that computer work almost properly with no external connections. 

15- Fan loud Issue improve if you close the lid. 

16- Some people reporting better behaviour if you connect MBP to a dock.  Some people reporting that there is not improvement even with connection to a Dock. 

17- Some people reporting the fans goes crazy just connecting external hard drive. This was my case connecting hard drive through a hub to the USB- C. Please confirm if still the case. 

18- Media reports: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=EkmdHVfk4XE

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747/page-23

https://www.spidersweb.pl/2020/02/laptop-jako-desktop-poradnik.html

https://www.spidersweb.pl/2020/02/macbook-pro-16-przegrzewa-sie-problem.htm

19- If I missed something, just added to the summary. Thank you

My question, what else can we do?.

This is really frustrating.

Could you quote the user? Because I am the user that has 2 TS3+ docks and they both work just fine. There is no loud or runaway fans when having two 4k screens connected.

There is also this post here regarding CalDigit and the lid open causing heat: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250878229?answerId=252137064022#252137064022

davidbenda wrote:

Somehow every time I call to report the problem, I'm told it's the first time they hear about the problem.

Apple first responders are trained to be friendly. They are generalists, take calls about ALL Apple products, and can only "hear about" what literally comes over their headsets during a day of calls. There are hundreds of agents. Even though you think this issue is a huge disaster, the likelihood that a particular agent has:

a) heard a similar problem recently AND

b) can connect the dots to suspect it might be the SAME problem they heard about earlier, ... is quite slim.

There will only be an article describing the problem [so that all can say "Aha"] when the solution(s) are posted.

What Readers are trying to attain in the process of "Contacting Support" is not recognition on the face of every first responder, but rather a growing list of Bug Reports that remain un-solved after your call. DO NOT tell them you are OK with what is happening. INSIST that your problem is not solved, and they need to either send you to a specialist and/or file a Bug Report. and if you have a moment, file a synopsis of your issues on the product feedback pages:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Engineering works from the Bug Reports and excessive numbers of Repair Returns/Exchanges to decide what problems get priority for solving.

I just called Apple support (5th or 6th time) and finally I have good news!

The technician said they could not do anything right now because our problem is known to Apple engineers and they are working on an update that will fix it.

It may take a week, two, three or more, but they cannot do anything else because of the procedures until the update will be ready.

He told me to call again if the next update does not solve the problem, because then they will be able to do more, because other procedures will apply.

So anyone who has a problem should call Apple and report it here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Thanks to this, the problem will be even more important for them and will solve it faster.

I was facing the same issue with an external monitor. After following the two steps of the SMC reset description for computers with T2 chip on Apples website, my MacBook Pro is working fine now.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Thanks a lot!

Hi, did you talk to Apple today? Because another user said that he talked to Apple and they told him that they know about this issue and they are working on a fix.

Also, did you see this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250991137?page=6

It seems that people is starting to get kernel panic on the 16-inch, a few of them already sent them for repair.

It seems that you missed my previous message, a lot of people are having kernel panics (all GPU related), you can check the discussion right here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250991137?page=6

And some people are also having a flickering issue when using an external monitor.

And it's also the problem with the speakers: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250879269?answerId=252132288022

So I don't think people is speculating other than you and William that keep coming back to this discussion without any valid reason.

My whole point is whether that is normal or abnormal, the thermal design of the MBP is handling it properly, though not in the way you would prefer.

For example, though it certainly could be done, I doubt you'd expect a render farm at Pixar to be made up of hundreds of laptops.

Laptops are designed to be powerful but yet portable; desktops are designed to be as powerful as possible within their design parameters, period. No tradeoffs for battery life or portability needed.

I don't think you can challenge me on the fact that many of the multiple display users here would be better served with an iMac/iMac Pro/Mac Pro, but I understand budgets intrude and some people like the idea of having a single portable machine that "does it all."

The reality is, though, that desire will result in inevitable tradeoffs, and historically the biggest has been thermals. This is why going back years, on Macs that had them, when choosing "better graphics performance" over "better battery life," inevitably battery life would suffer and fans would often kick in.

I've mentioned before the 12" MacBook, when connected to an external monitor would go into thermal shutdown within twenty minutes of firing up Photoshop; you could demonstrate the same at any Apple Store, and the response from Apple Service was that the MacBook was operating within design parameters.

I agree the heat while idle is a strange issue, but any guess I could have to why (and I have a few) would be idle speculation of the type specifically forbidden by the Apple Support Community Terms of Use.

Suffice it to say I have never said that people should not use an external monitor, nor have I said anything about costing Apple sales.

Same here, no improvements at all. We are done wasting our time with this machine, there is enough proof that this machine is not good for a Pro user, we have videos of music and video producers complaining about the noise and we have a lot of developers and other professionals also complaining about the noise and the machine getting too hot or the GPU failing at some point.

We also realized that even when an external monitor is not connected if you go to apple website, specifically to the 16-inch section: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-16/ and scroll to the part where there is a video of the avengers movie, if you leave the video playing for a few minutes the machine will get really hot and the fans will go over 3700 RPM just for doing that!

This is unacceptable for a $4000 Pro machine.

[Edited by Moderator]

Safari for me wouldn't autoplay but I found it and just let it loop. I'm on battery and thought I would give an update because of our thoughts on the integrated graphics vs the AMD GPU. I was disconnected from a second screen for this test because I wanted to do this making sure I could turn off the 5500.

I tried it both with integrated graphics and the AMD GPU - it made no difference. I let it loop for a while and the fans never kicked up - though it did warm up (see the screensshots)

Question: Is the Radeon High Side actually the GPU?

I asked because I turned off the AMD gpu but the Radeon High Side was still using the same wattage.

Observations:

1. The first screenshot is Safari showing much less power usage running the same page than does Chrome. I was surprised how much more wattage Chrome sucked.
2. Even though the GPU is set to integrated only in both system settings and GFX and it shows using "Intel UHD Graphics 630", Radeon Front Side is still pulling 25+watts - that is why I question whether RFS is actually the GPU or if it's something else.
3. Even so, my fans did not kick up, as seen in the screenshots. Not that I'm upset because it's not hot to the touch. I assume this is actually normal operation. Much hotter and the fans would kick up.

Safari:

Chrome:

If it changes running this site and having the dual screens connected I'll update.