MacBook Pro is getting to ~200 F from just watching Youtube

Hi everyone,


I've been having some issues with my 2017 MacBook Pro 2017 lately. I noticed that my Mac got extremely hot while watching streams on twitch. There has also been a random ticking noise occurring at random intervals (no pattern from what I can tell) – I don't know if this is related to a temperature thing or something else.


I thought that this could be a Google Chrome issue, so I download the Twitch application and that helped with the heating issue. However, I've just been watching random YouTube videos, and temperatures are up around 200° F. I have no other applications running, so I am pretty confused by this. The bottom of the computer is hot to touch and I cannot rest it on my lap. The fan does not seem to ever go on (that I can audibly hear).


Something interesting I just noticed: I am doing text to speech right now (using the Mac voice dictation function), the temperatures are saying 203° F, and the fans just turned on. As soon as I quit out of the voice dictation function, the fans immediately turn on. If I turn on voice dictation, the fans immediately turn off. This is the first time I have audibly heard the fan while having this issue.


My battery says "Service Battery", which doesn't make sense either because I have really good battery life. I don't know if the clicking is related to a power issue?


I've attached a screenshot of some specs (iStat Menus)



Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to get an idea of what could be wrong, before having to send it in for repair.


Thanks a lot.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on May 31, 2021 5:22 PM

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5 replies

Jun 2, 2021 1:54 PM in response to Razuto22

"Service Battery" indicates that macOS has detected a hardware fault with the battery so you should have Apple or an AASP examine the laptop.


As for the heating issue Google Chrome is notorious for causing CPU & memory issues which also means it can make a system run hot. To look for other possible software issues contributing to the higher temperatures run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


macOS will allow a laptop to get to 80C to 90C sometimes before the fan speed increases (doing anything on a CPU core will cause the temp to spike even if just for a second). If the CPU is being heavily utilized, then it is not uncommon to see CPU temps at 90C (once it hits 100C the CPU will become throttled if the fans are running at maximum speed). In most cases these Macs will attempt to keep the temps between 60C to 95C depending on the workload. In the future please post temperature in Celcius since benchmark & product reviews only reference temps in Celcius.


See if your laptop qualifies for this free battery repair program:

https://support.apple.com/13inch-macbookpro-battery-replacement


FYI, here is the current list of the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some products have multiple programs):

https://support.apple.com/service-programs



Jun 1, 2021 11:33 AM in response to Razuto22

Hi there, Razuto22! Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. 


After reviewing your post, it sounds like you are experiencing a few issues with your MacBook Pro. We definitely understand that this can be a concern and we'd love to help. We have a few articles we suggest reviewing that may be of help with these issues:



Please let us know if you have follow-up questions about these issues after you do some testing and make suggested changes from the articles. We are here to help. Have a great day!

Jun 3, 2021 5:52 PM in response to Razuto22

Razuto22 wrote:

Thanks for the info! I will have to go in and get the battery checked out. I will download EtreCheck as well and will run it when high temps occur again.

No need to wait for the issue to occur again before running EtreCheck.


I didn't realize that Celcius was the benchmark – that's good to know from now on!

This is the only time I use Celcius myself.

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MacBook Pro is getting to ~200 F from just watching Youtube

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