Overheating problem with my MacBook Air m2

I very much agree with @Mac Jim ID

Though, I do have a different take on how to resolve these issues, as outline by my colleague

With those many softwares to remove and including the infamous CleanMyMac aka BrickMyMac

You may consider, the machine will never work as well once CMM has been installed and used

Start Over from Scratch 

Heavy Handed ? - Yes

Effective ? - Yes 

You can spend hours or days hunting down all the bits and pieces of these softwares and never really get it all off the computer

For Apple Silicon computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

Always make a Time Machine Backup  before  proceeding 

Emphasis on User Account Only

St4rBoyeK wrote:

A few months ago, while cleaning the screen, I think some Kernau cleaning liquid might have gotten inside through a small gap around the display. Since then, I’ve noticed faint shadows appearing at the bottom of the screen, kind of like a subtle “cinema mode” effect with dark areas shaped like \/ \/ \/.

That kind of liquid damage can cause all manner of problems.

Back to software installed: why do you have Cloudflare? That seems unnecessary and could be draining resources.

Does your laptop overheat when you boot into safe mode?

In addition to all of the previous suggestions, now that you reposted the EtreCheck report I can see that MS Edge web browser is using a lot of CPU cycles. Web browsers in general and Chromium based web browsers specifically tend to use huge amounts of system resources which can cause both performance issues and hot computers. I'm reproducing the relevant section of the EtreCheck report here (I believe this was after only a single hour after the laptop had been rebooted):

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

Microsoft Edge Helper (Renderer) (7) 194.05 % (Microsoft Corporation)

mdworker_shared (20) 63.78 % (Apple)

Discord Helper (Renderer) 45.94 % (Discord, Inc.)

Microsoft Edge 37.87 % (Microsoft Corporation)

WindowServer 25.38 % (Apple)

Oh, and in addition the MBAirs do not have any cooling fans, nor even a traditional heatsink/heatspreader, so they will run hotter than a comparable MBPro which may have one or two cooling fans depending on the exact model configuration. Plus the case of the MBAir will act as part of the cooling system dissipating heat from the CPU onto the Aluminum case as that is the only way such a laptop can be cooled. So, yes this laptop may get hot if you are using lots of system resources & CPU cycles.

FYI, Apple laptops have not been able to be used on a person's lap for many years now...in fact even many non-Apple laptops are the same way. If you want to use them on your laptop, then you will need to place some kind of tray or insulator between the laptop & your lap.

St4rBoyeK wrote:

I use Cloudflare as Warp, which is a VPN to connect to a virtual server. Yes, the overheating also occurs in Safe Boot.

I'd get rid of (uninstall) Cloudflare. It MIGHT be contributing to the problem. The key is to uninstall things until you have a Mac that is working well. Then you can bring things back one or two at a time to check for which one caused the problem.

If your problem is present in Safe Mode, that strongly implicates the liquid intrusion as a physical (hardware) problem causing your overheating. The only way to really tell is to have the computer diagnosed at an Apple Authorized Service Center. Some AASC are Apple Stores, others are third party shops that Apple certifies.

Remove Unsigned files:

• /Library/LaunchAgents/org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
• /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist

Get rid of NordVPN. Use their uninstaller and follow up with another EtreCheck report to make sure removal was successful.

CleanMyMac needs to be removed. No exceptions.

Along with NordVPN, you also have OpenVPN processes running on startup.

You should also uninstall that Kernel Extension (if possible). AFAIK, Kernel Extensions are no longer permitted and it may be impossible to remove it from Sequoia without a clean install of macOS (don't restore Applications or Settings from a backup....I have no idea how macOS will handle it).

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Extensions

[Not Loaded] SteelSeriesEngine3Driver.kext - com.steelseries.ssenext.driver (SteelSeries, 1.6.32 - SDK 10.15)

Also, your system security has been reduced. Why?

Was it necessary to allow this Kernel Extension or perhaps one of the other Extensions listed in the EtreCheck report? If there is an app which wants to reduce system security, then you should check with the app's developers for a newer version of the app which doesn't require changes to system security, otherwise look for another app to replace it.

Non-Apple "cleaning" products wreck perfectly good Macs. Your problems will continue until you completely erase it and reconfigure it from the ground up.

Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

Erase the Mac.

St4rBoyeK wrote:

<logs.log>

Still nothing helped

Although it appears from this Report generated: 2025-09-10 15:33:25

The machine may have been wiped and reinstalled thereby removing CMM

It has been loaded up with New Junk

New Junk as in stuff not appearing in the earlier Etrecheck  report 

 [Other] com.nordvpn.macos.helper.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-09-08)

  [Other] org.openvpn.client.plist (Not signed - installed 2024-08-16)

  [Other] org.openvpn.helper.plist (Not signed - installed 2024-08-16)

    Executable: /Library/Frameworks/OVPNHelper.framework/Versions/Current/usr/sbin/ovpnhelper

[Loaded] com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake.plist (Google LLC - installed 2025-09-02)

   [Not Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-08-10)

   [Not Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-08-10)

  User Login Items:

  [Not Loaded] AdGuard Login Helper (App Store - installed 2025-06-04)

   /Applications/AdGuard for Safari.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AdGuard Login Helper.app

Not Loaded] WireGuardLoginItemHelper (App Store - installed 2025-04-02)

 /Applications/WireGuard.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/WireGuardLoginItemHelper.app

VPNs:

    [Loaded] WireGuardNetworkExtension - /Applications/WireGuard.app

Aside from the very good suggestion by of my colleagues

Let us all remember the M class MacBook Air machines are All Fanless computers

Meaning they are 100% dependent on are ventilation for cooling

Doing a lot of live video / audio over the internet is going to tax the system

St4rBoyeK wrote:

I can't even touch my MacBook

Nor should you, other than to erase it and reconfigure it from the ground up.

St4rBoyeK wrote:

Yeah, for now I’d like to focus on other things rather than completely reinstalling my laptop. I just don’t have enough time to set everything up from scratch at the moment. But I do plan to do a full reinstall in the future if nothing else helps.

To use the analogy

The first cigarette my not kill a person

With each successive cigarette, the chances increase

The computer may or may not survive the damages CMM has inflicted on the machine

Even doing an " In-Place installation " = recovery >> install the OS On Top of the existing installation may or may not fix the damages

In essence, this a roll of the dice

Just saying