Why is my macbook pro overheating and clocking down?

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Level 1

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Why is my macbook pro overheating and clocking down?

Hey all, I have a macbook pro mid 2012, 15" retina. 2.3GHz i7, 8GB Ram

For some time now I've been struggling with it overheating when barely anything is open and nothing intensive. I goes as high as 104C and clocks down to 0.80GHz, of course making everything very slow. It seems worse when running my external monitor from the HDMI port to a DVI adapter.

I also always have a soundcard plugged in through thunderbolt --> firewire 800.

I've tried opening it up and cleaning it with condensed air, as well as replacing the heatsync paste.

I did replace one of the fans a few years back because it was making a lot of noise and it's not sitting completely properly but pretty close. I'm also missing a bunch of the screws in the bottom of the mac.

Anyone know what may be causing this? I can't think any of those issues I mentioned could really be the culprit but maybe I'm wrong?

Thanks,

Alex

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Feb 15, 2020 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

69,380 points

Feb 15, 2020 8:13 PM in response to almix12

almix12 wrote:

I've tried opening it up and cleaning it with condensed air, as well as replacing the heatsync paste.

I did replace one of the fans a few years back because it was making a lot of noise and it's not sitting completely properly but pretty close. I'm also missing a bunch of the screws in the bottom of the mac.

If the fan isn't sitting correctly, then perhaps it is not providing the proper airflow. Why isn't the fan seated properly?

No insult intended, but make sure the heatsink is seated flat on the CPU. Also double check that enough thermal compound was used. Too much thermal compound can be bad as well.

You may have a software issue causing the CPU to run hotter. Run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.

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Answer 2

kaz-k

Level 9

51,108 points

Feb 15, 2020 4:24 PM in response to almix12

Hi,

Resetting SMC could solve the issue.

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

If it doesn't help, you'd better make Genius Bar reservation or take your MacBook Pro to Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined it.

https://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

https://locate.apple.com

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2020 7:44 PM in response to almix12

Your Mac is designed to use all the power available from the power adapter, and also to freely borrow from the battery when under load, on a moment-by-moment basis.

A battery that is is service now state can't supply any more, so kernel task slows the clocks and wastes time to keep things using less power.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

69,380 points

Feb 17, 2020 5:50 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

As @Grant mentions your drive is much too full and this is dangerous for two reasons:

1) It makes the SSD work harder causing it to wear out faster and it actually makes the SSD run much slower.

2) When HFS+ runs out of free storage space, it can begin overwriting stuff (a co-worker discovered this many years ago).

Also like @Grant mentions you are running short on free memory causing it to use Swap space on a drive with no free space left for it. This will really slow down your system.

In a related note, since you have no free space left on the drive the system won't be able to go to sleep properly or even hibernate so the laptop will remain running all night long when you think it should be asleep. Free up space on your boot drive. Ideally you should have about 20GB free especially if you ever want to upgrade the OS. At a minimum you should have 10GB of free storage space on the drive so the system can sleep or hibernate properly.

I'm not a Mac software expert so I cannot really comment on the software situation as I am unfamiliar with most of the installed software. I'll leave it to @Grant and others to comment on the software situation.

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Answer 5

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 15, 2020 4:41 PM in response to kaz-k

Thanks I'll give that a try.

I should also mention that literally putting a gel ice pack under my computer helps for awhile. It's still the same core temp, but it's easier for the CPU to clock up a bit.

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Answer 6

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 17, 2020 7:30 PM in response to HWTech

Hey Thanks all very much for the info. I'll definitely clear up some space. And the reason I'm running an older OS is my main programs I use for audio engineering can't run on anything newer than 10.9.5 as well as some of my plugins.

I had no idea about the battery heating up, that's very interesting! Do you think it heats up THAAAAT much to cause the entire system to overheat and clock down?

Thanks again,

Alex

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Answer 7

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 17, 2020 8:46 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That's so fascinating! So if that's the real culprit here (other than freeing up some space), would I be looking at replacing the battery & charger?

I consider myself decently computer/electronics-savvy, but wouldn't in a million years have considered the battery causing kernel to clock down the CPU. Thanks so much for that knowledge, it makes a lot of sense.

Best,

Alex

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Answer 8

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 19, 2020 6:31 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I freed up some space (15GB free now) so at least if the machine does need more RAM it can borrow from the SSD. It's still having major issues though, so I suppose I'll have to buy a new battery. I sure hope that causes it to run much cooler and thus not faster because it doesn't have to clock down! Is that what you'd recommend doing @Grant?

Best,

Alex

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Answer 9

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 13, 2020 6:47 PM in response to almix12

I should mention I'm not using a 60W official mac charger instead of the 85W unofficial, third party, cheap charger that messed up my battery. If I buy a new battery, what are the risks if any other than it charging slower, of continuing to use the 60W?

Thanks,

Alex

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Answer 10

almix12 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 17, 2020 2:48 PM in response to HWTech

Here's the report! In the attachment. Thanks for the help here! Let me know what you see if there's any problems there!

Best,

Alex

Report

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Answer 11

Lanny

Level 6

13,225 points

Feb 17, 2020 10:28 PM in response to almix12

You also are running the risk of having your battery swelling up and damaging your computer beyond any reasonable repair.

The overheating will cause the CPU to clock down.

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Answer 12

Feb 17, 2020 3:42 PM in response to almix12

The "swap used" high-water mark indicates that at some point since startup [7 days ago], you were 1.15GB short of real RAM that was simulated for you on disk. But the RAM in your Mac is soldered to the mainboard, so it can not be upgraded. If you are going to run so much stuff at once, you are going to have to restart your Mac more often.

Your Time Machine backup will be one full YEAR out of date in another two weeks.

Your battery is status "service battery" which can generate extra heat because your Mac runs extra loops in Kernel task when this happens, trying to reduce power usage.

Your boot drive is so full, it is amazing that it has not crashed hourly.

Your MacOS [10.9 Mavericks] is too old to get security updates and you have also turned some protections, like GateKeeper off.

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