2020 Macbook Pro overheating

Did it work for you?

You have 14 days to get a full refund, I know some things that can be done, like a Laptop Cooler, but that would be ridiculous for a brand new Mac & shouldn't be needed.

What temperatures does this App report? Especially the GPU.

This App can be used to speed up the fans, all my iMacs would be dead without it.

Never ever ever drop fan speeds below the speed that the Mac itself is calling for.

MacFansControl…

https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

jessica1623 Said:

”2020 Macbook Pro overheating: Is there anything else I should try to do before going in that direction? Or do you think I'm better off replacing it?...”

I Agree - Return it.

Contact Apple Support:

Have Apple take the Mac back in for return(or a swapout). Being that Apple Stores are closed at the moment due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, Send-In Service is all that is available at the moment. So, here is how it would work:

Send-In Service Method:

1. You: would contact Apple
2. Apple: should send you a box
3. You: would ship this to Apple
4. Apple: would proceed with the return

Apple Support Contact Info:

• Contact Us - Choose Locations
• USA: 1(800)MY-APPLE
• Proceed from there as Necessary

How to Where to Place This:

In the meantime, while you are expecting the box, being that it is hot, place it in an open space (not in a closet or the corner of the room). If you have a laptop cooler, most certainly place it on that, powering the cooler from a device an external device, other the Laptop (i.e. use an external plug for the wall).

I saw on YouTube, the fans were getting activated when cpu reaches to 70-80 degrees, they must have dropped the triggering value down with the new update where fans starts running before it is too hot and keeps the component cooler, people were using 3rd party softwares to manually start the fan running before it is too hot..they might fixed this within the kernel with the latest update.. That's why maybe after update you're getting better thermal control.. I am waiting them to fix this heating issue before getting a new mac and will be sticking to my macbook 12 m5 until then..

1) The heat you get is “normal”. My guess is that if someone complained to customer relations and customer relations escalated it to engineering, engineering would say it was within spec. The MacBook Air’s Y-Series processors are the modern equivalent of the Intel Atom processors formerly seen on the Netbooks of old; they are not particularly powerful and should only be used for the simplest computing use cases. Apple’s fan would be adequate if it were connected via a heat pipe to the CPU’s heat sink. My guess is that they assumed it would be fine. As for the 2020 two-port 13” Pro, the cooling situation is similar to how it has always been on that machine and similar to its 2019 predecessor (which used the exact same processor options, RAM, and storage). It gets warmer than desired, but it’s no change from 2019 and Apple would probably deem its behavior to be within spec. They did give the 2020 Four-Port 13” an extra fan over its 2019 predecessor, but it’s still not prioritizing a cooler running system over a quiet one in the way that the 16” MacBook Pro does.

2) For the MacBook Air, I’m inclined to say yes. Was helping someone out in another thread who was having issues with the stock Chess app and her 2020 MacBook Air. I know that app is CPU intensive, but a single running instance of it shouldn’t be THAT taxing to any modern Mac. The 2018-2020 dual-core Airs are underpowered, and all 2020 Airs are not cooled enough for a typical load.

3) For the MacBook Pros, yes; Apple is designing their machines to be too thin to have the fans run quietly while still keeping the computers cool (this is better on the 16” MacBook Pro and the less better but still markedly improved on the Four-Port 2020 13” MacBook Pro). For the MacBook Airs, the problem is BOTH that the laptop’s design (both from thinness and provided CPU cooling standpoints) is insufficient for the processor AND that the CPU is pretty weak. Again, the 2018-2020 MacBook Air’s CPUs are effectively the modern day successor to the Intel Atom processors that once powered Netbooks.

4) In theory, yes, Apple Silicon SoCs can CURRENTLY run a processor that beats out the performance of every MacBook Air (and 13” MacBook Pro) that ever has existed. They have such an SoC in the current iPad Pro models. So, yeah, a MacBook Air with the current cooling amenities and chassis could absolutely run faster and cooler and not have the issues we’re seeing with Intel’s 10th Gen Y-series CPUs.

Macs can run at 60 C all day long.

A Mac approaching 100 C should have the fans at maximum. Since the fans are always on at least 800 RPM, that -1 is indicative a problem that needs service, and soon.

near 100 C your Mac is at risk of doing an emergency power-down to save itself from damage.

I’ve had the same problem on my two fan four thunderbolt 10th ten intel processor MacBook Pro, let alone my 2018 MacBook Air. It ran hot over simple things like YouTube. Returned my MB PRO and just got an iPad Pro instead.

Hi JessHr,

I bought my new MacBook pro 2020 13" 16GB 1Tb in June.

My usage is not that much and I was just beginning to use it. In July the Catalina update came in.

I have been trying to use by Bluetooth but it sorts of abruptly shuts down my machine. Mine did over heat when I was charging with the ports on the left side. While on the right side - weirdly it does nt heat up.

I have been facing the issue of the abrupt Bluetooth shutdown causing a system shutdown abruptly. You should try that test to see If u have a similar problem

Something tells me that Apple has something pretty wrong on these new 2020 13" MacBook pros. My 2010 MacBook Pro is still working - though a little hot, but works and is more solid than the new one! Weird!

And yes I did try the SMC resets, SAFE boot, Reinstalling the OS post and pre formatting the entire machine. No body has answers for stuff like:

1. Why does the battery percentage show different numbers at startup login screen and the post startup desktop screen.
2. Why does the entire machine shut down if the blue tooth is switched off?
3. If bluetooth is switched off pre startup of the machine why the machine dies on its own when starting up in normal mode.

None of these is an issue if you switch it on in SAFE mode. Have you tried switching on in Safe mode and see if the heating happens??

What I would like to get help on is a solid solution, I'm concerned at this point the way it overheats might be dangerous or cause a fire. It was causing a tingling sensation when I touched the top bar. Also note: Be careful how you post your responses in this community forum as they have deleted mine since they did not "follow the apple discussion rules" which is fair. Be sure to tell your friends, family and acquaintances what to expect from the product if they're considering buying it. Some may not mind the overheating because they enjoy Apple products so much but at least give em a heads-up so they don't feel as frustrated as us. Good luck to you all with getting help with this particular overheating issue. Although, at this point, the only real solution I can see is recalling the product as it's unsafe before they risk getting a class action. Remember the Samsung phones blowing up? Yeah.

A few days ago I got my new Macbook Pro 13in 2020, the $1800 (fancy) model, and noticed this issue of the laptop getting ridiculously hot for literally browsing through chrome.

I found a solution (or at least it seems to work so far).

I downloaded an app called Macs Fan control for mac, which allows you to control the mac's fan speeds. It turns out, the fans don't even turn on even when the Mac is hot -- they only turn on once you are about to fry your computer.

Now, I set it to start to run at 35 degrees Celsius and to max out at about 80 degrees Celsius. So the fans run far before the Mac begins to "overheat."

My mac now hovers around 50 degrees Celsius or lower when doing general browsing (which is a huge relief). It no longer feels like its burning me.

In sum: it seems as if Mac's software is silly, as it doesn't kick in the fans unless you are about to push the temperatures in the danger zone (which is like scorching hot to the touch).

So this program allows you to turn on the fans and keep the Mac cool. I'm sure Mac will update this, as it seems like a simple fix, but until then, the app works fine.

Thank goodness <3

Is anyone having problems with the hubs they've attached to their 2020 MBP? I saw mention of this on MacRumours - people were saying their hubs were getting very hot and they feared damage to their hubs.

It looks to me that the heat of my 2020 MBP damaged my J5 hub. This hub is supposed to be designed specifically to work with the MBP. It started out giving intermittent signal transmission problems, but after a few weeks, it was giving major signal transmission problems. The Satechi hub I used before it also gave problems. Both hubs became hot when in use.

Here's the long version of the story for anyone experiencing similar problems:

I started out with a Satechi hub, but it wouldn't support a signal to both my external monitor and my backup drive. I noticed the hub would get very hot. When I called Apple Support about this, they did say that the laptop could be causing the hub to heat. When I talked with tech reps at Staples, they said the same thing and suggested I get a J5 hub.

The J5 hub snapped into the side of my 2-port MBP and so was able to sit on top of my cooling pad. I figured this would keep the J5 cool. It did keep cooler than the Satechi did- as long as I remembered to turn the fans of the cooling pad on. The J5 was also able to send signals to both my external monitor and my backup drive at the same time - but not completely; I would still experience a couple of seconds of blackouts of signal to the monitor several times a day.

And then suddenly the problem with the J5 started becoming much worse. One day the blackout lasted for 5-10 minutes. I checked and rechecked all connections. I thought my monitor must have died; but I plugged in my old 2013 MBP directly to the monitor and it worked just fine. I tried again with my 2020 MBP and this time the J5 sent the signal. Then, the next day, the signal from my 2020 MBP to my monitor (via the J5) was in trouble again. This time the words on my document were pulled out into long black lines and then my entire screen was filled with bands of coloured statics - like the snow of a 1950s TV set.

I need my MBP for work-from-home (COVID) and had to conduct 4 training sessions by Zoom in the next two days to teachers who had to be up and teaching on-line on the morning of the third day. I thought the problem might be my monitor and started investigating compatibilities and costs of new monitors. I started looking for a third hub, particularly at the Satechi Type-C mulitport adapter 4K which specifically said it was compatible with the 2020 MBP - but it carried this disclaimer, "We recommend connecting one bus-powered device at a time." So that meant that despite its three USB ports, I would not be able to plug in my monitor and backup drive into it at the same time either.

I called Apple practically in tears and they gave me a phone number to the manufacturer of my monitor to check with them whether my monitor was dying or was incompatible with my 2020 MBP. I talked with the monitor company, and they said it was most likely the J5 hub that was the problem and to not use the hub for the monitor, but plug the monitor into one of the two MBP ports on its own via a USB-C to HDMI adapter.

I ordered the adapter and replaced my J5 hub with the Satechi hub that I used at first - plugging only the monitor into the hub. This restored the signal to the monitor with no problems at all. So the J5 was the problem. But the question remains as to why the J5 worked for weeks (albeit with intermittent signal loss) before suddenly starting to fail. It does look like the heat of the MBP did damage the J5; maybe because the J5 plugged into the MBP and so sat directly alongside of it.

The solution I've found is to keep my MBP on top of a cooling pad. I got a 5-fan KLIM cooling pad that I plug into its own USB wall port. These cooling fans are very quiet and so are fine for use during Zoom meetings too. This keeps my MBP cool-to-warm when I'm working on it. So that is a workable solution for me in that it lets me continue to work with my Mac. I have a great many hours of files I've done on Keynote that I want to continue to edit and work with, so switching to a PC is not feasible for me.

However, my MBP has only two ports so I have to use a hub. I have been concerned that the heat from the MBP is damaging the hubs. I've gone through both an $85 Satechi and a $129 J5; both gave me trouble. Up to now, both Apple Support and the tech help at Staples have said that heat from the MBP could be affecting the hubs. The J5 snapped into the side of the MBP and so sat on top of the cooling pad so I thought that would keep the J5 cool. But it still gave me trouble.

However, this morning I was talking with support at J5. They were good listeners as I told them of the trouble getting a stable signal to my external monitor with both the Satechi and the J5 hub. I also told them that my 2013 MBP had started not being able to send a stable signal to my external monitor despite the fact it had a dedicated HDMI port; that's why I replaced it with the 2020 MBP. (I've done all the restarts, cable replacements, etc.)

The J5 support person told me that the problem was probably neither the hub or the MBP - but more likely the backup drive. He said that backup drives draw a lot of power and can cause problems, but that replacing my backup drive with a self-powered one might still cause problems.

I know that my Satechi hub will send a steady signal to the monitor if I unplug my backup drive. I am trying this now with my J5 hub and so far so good, but it will take a few days to make sure.

Take it back. Return it. If I was in the return window I would. But they have that 15 day policy that just screws you over. I only started using mine about 30 months AFTER i bought it because I was using my actual functioning MACBOOK PRO 2016. Return it while you can. Don't hold out, it's not like it'll magically start working. It's whatever they put in the hardware in this 2020 round. Save yourself the headache of "tech support" unless they can replace some hardware or redesign this product ... it's wayyy over their heads. And warn your friends. That's what I've been doing. About 6 of my firends have been in the market for a new laptop for school and/or working remote and they love Macbooks but I had to go ahead and squash their hopes there. Maybe if you/they get an older version it will be better?

If you are not happy with it, Please return it!

What is faulty is NOT the device,

but only your expectation that it will remain SILENT under heavy loads without some modifications to reduce heat and noise.

Your Mac can run all day every day at 60 degrees C (140F) without any damage, and it is not defective unless it reaches temperatures near 100 C, at which point it will emergency power off to self-protect.

If you would like to have it run cooler, you can try some of the MANY suggestions already posted on this thread. One of the simplest is to disable Turbo Boots using Turbo Boost Switcher. Turbo Boost can only run when only one or a few cores are active, and it generates an enormous clock-up and a huge burst of Heat at a time when the processor chip is lightly loaded. In my opinion, it is pure specsmanship, and disabling it has little real world performance impact.