I have a fairly new MacBook Air 13-inch 2019.
I’ve had to do a lot of working from home recently and have been using Microsoft Teams.
Question - whenever I’m in a Video Conferencing meeting my fan goes crazy loud. It quiets down as soon as the meeting is over. Does anyone know why this is? Is this the laptops fault or is this normal?
Can this affect the longevity of the laptop?
Many thanks!
MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15
I have a brand new MBA 2020 i5 16GB. To me the basic issue is that MS Teams triggers the Turbo Boost. Due to a design flaw the MBA 2020 just hasn't got the proper CPU cooling to back up the Turbo Boost. Maybe your Mac also suffers from poor CPU cooling. I fixed the issue with MS Teams by shutting down the Turbo Boost of the CPU, using the 3rd party Turbo Boost Switch app. With the TB off the temperature lowers from 100C to 80C, so the fan doesn't go crazy. With the TB off, MS Teams still works fine. PS Due to this design flaw, I now have turned Turbo Boost off permanently. If I knew about this design flaw, then I would not have spent €1,750,- on a MBA.
My MBP (2020) has also such issue with ZOOM.
I have the same problem!!!
Same issue here :(
This is an issue with both Apple, Intel and Microsoft.
Intel: they have developed power hungry and powerful processors that compared to other current market options are not that efficient.
Apple: they have developed sleek devices which look great and have metal bases to assist with cooling efficient processors. Apple uses the Intel processors which heat up quick and the Macbook's cannot cool without the fans kicking on.
Microsoft: Developed Teams as an Electron app, which let's it develop and update the application for all platforms really easily. The downside here is that it has overhead involved in running the application which makes it less efficient. Teams is also more than just a video conferencing application, providing businesses with a full unified communication+ application, and therefore often uses more resources.
So combining everything together, Teams does use more processing power than other dedicated video chat only applications (Zoom, Bluejeans, etc). As such, your processor will get warmer, and therefore need to be cooled more actively kicking the fan on to maintain safe temperatures.
To answer the question about longevity, having the fans run is a good thing as it keeps the laptop cool so it will last. They are designed to run and the system will prevent the processor exceeding certain temperature thresholds that could shorten the lifespan. So ultimately, no it won't degrade your device unless you set your computer on a dust pile and the fans suck in said dust and clog up the cooling system.
Finally, disabling the GPU acceleration ends up putting more load on the CPU which could make things worse than allowing GPU acceleration. Granted, the GPU is built in to the CPU in most of these cases which use the same cooling system. The only thing you'll really end up achieving by disabling the GPU is worse performance elsewhere, specifically when multitasking.
So how do you minimize some of this:
1) Use headphones or a headset when in a call. Nothing is worse than being on a call with someone using the built in mic. They pick up a lot of extraneous noises and it's unpleasant for everyone. When using headphones with a microphone has the mic near your face for better audio, plus you then won't be able to hear the fan as you have headphones in. Win-win.
2) Put your laptop on a hard surface. Blankets, carpet, pants, etc will insulate keeping the heat in rather than letting dissipate causing more heat, as well as blocking the fan ports causing more troubles. If you don't have a desk or table, order a lap stand or go buy a small piece of wood from your local hardware store to place your laptop on. We call them laptops, but they are not.
I can confirm that this is still an issue and only happens when I am running Microsoft Teams on my Macbook Pro 13" (2019 version). It's extremely hot and loud for the duration of the call and only begins to slow down and somewhat cool off about 5 minutes after ending a Teams call. This does not happen with any of the other video chat applications.
Is there a GPU-underclocking feature on Teams or on my laptop that I could enable specifically for Teams use? It all seems tied to the GPU which would explain the massive amount of heat.
I just found this and it seems to be a reasonable solution to address the issues with Microsoft Teams specifically. See page 5 of the thread and the note from Noenflux regarding the ability to "disable GPU accleration" within Microsoft Teams settings.
I have same issue. I can confirm that this is totally isolated to MS Teams who are seemingly playing catch up all over the place to try and not loose marketshare to zoom. In the last few weeks they have rushed out greenscreen backgrounds and now more that 4 people onscreen at one time amoungst other mainly pointless features. I've tried the disable GPU but still get the same issue, I'm going to be experimenting over the next few days just running teams in browser (Chrome / firefox / safari) and see if any of those solves the issue and vote with my mouse by deleting their desktop app. Good luck all. Next step is to just refuse any Teams invites.
I have been noticing the fan becoming noisy when using Microsoft Teams with the video activated. It usually kicks in when the video has been on for 20 or more minutes. It stops as soon as the video is turned off. Good to know I am not the only one with this issue. This issue is only with my video camera being used as I’ve been on zoom calls for several hours without my camera being on and it’s not an issue. I can be in a MS Teams meeting for 1 hour with my camera turned off and it’s not an issue. It would be great if it could be fixed!
As a follow-up, I tested this today on several back to back Teams video calls and disabling GPU acceleration did not fix this issue... sad face...
Loud Fan noise when using Microsoft Teams
