New 2011 MacBook Pro Heating Issue?

Which Macbook version do you have ? 2.2 or 2.3 and SSD or HD version.?

😟 this is really annoying. Fans are on way too much on full speed (during a long TimeMachine backup for example). Really takes the joy out of using/owning a new laptop 😟.

I had to send my New 2011 Macbook Pro 17" back because of the heating issues. It got so hot that the frame around the LED screen came unglued! The fans were revved so high, lots of noise. I had to put a fan under the Macbook to keep the heat down because it kept freezing up in the middle of rendering video. Worried about QA putting these together in China. For the cost of a fully loaded Macbook Pro 17" Quality Assurance needs to be on top of their game! I hope this issue gets resolved soon because I need my Mac!

I tell you what... I got a brand new MBP and heat has been no problem. It idles at a cool 100 degrees F and maximum 190 degrees f.

Today I received my MacBook Pro 13" i7 from Amazon. I'm upgrading from a MacBook Aluminum 2.4 GHz C2D. I always had smcFanControl on the old MacBook and I'm very familiar with its average temperatures under different loads and fan speeds. I would purposely keep fan speeds elevated to 2400 or 3600 rpm, depending on what I was doing, because in my experience it would help avoid really high temperatures and the resulting max fan speeds trying to bring things back under control.

I basically swapped my SSD (OCZ Vertex 2 240 GB) into the new Mac and updated it with the included DVD. This worked great btw. It didn't even archive and install, it simply upgraded OS X with all my stuff in place. I didn't have to do anything afterward except get back to work. Nice.

Any way...I've only been using this new MacBook Pro for a few hours but it is, without a doubt, running cooler than my old MacBook. smcFanControl works and I've got the fans at 2400 rpm but I could honestly put it at default. It's holding 40-45C with a load that would have had my old model at 50-55C.

I've done a few processor intensive things in VMWare Fusion and the temps did climb into the 70-80C range but quickly fell back down. The CPU probably did its turbo boost thing, but it didn't actually drive the fans higher than I had them already, 3600 rpm.

The fan btw is very responsive. If I change speed it jumps within a second. On my old MacBook it would take 5s to reach the new speed.

I know this doesn't help much for those who are experiencing problems, but I don't think there's a design issue. Perhaps Spotlight and Time Machine are just driving temps up for some, and perhaps there's a thermal paste issue for others. Probably the best advice I can give is to let the MacBook settle down a bit. Spotlight and Time Machine, on their first runs on a new machine, can easily push temps into the stratosphere. I for the most part avoided that by transferring an existing drive.

I missed typed in my system specs below.

2.2GHz, 256 SSD (OEM), 8GB RAM, HR DIsplay.

Message was edited by: DickDigggler

I agree. not a design issue. When the unibody design first came out there was the same issue, running hot which I experienced first hand. That issue was the thermal sensor that was failing to rev the fans fast enough. I am not saying this is the issue this time.

I would still like to know if anyone is seeing the same problems that they see if they have Graphic switching OFF, meaning always running the ATI and not going to the intel on board chip.

I have seen poor performance playing games, WoW, but other than that no heating issues.

Everyone download this and post the highest your CPU temps get to! Be sure under "instances" to select the number of cores you have in your processor!

http://www.coolbook.se/CPUTest.html

'All of you would appear to rather have a machine that is quiet, but running so hot that it's likely harming/heat soaking/damaging the internal components. '

Its more some of us want the choice of silence by sacrificing a bit of power, many of us couldnt care less if we have to wait an extra few minutes to render something if it means it stays cool and quiet.

Ive been waiting for sandy bridge for over a year because of how much less heat for the same speed they achieve, Im sick of my computer being so hot it breaks me into a sweat and finding out the new machines are as bad if not worse than mine just turns me off the whole idea.

I think apple has under estimated the amount of customers they are alienating in their quest for the fastest laptop/up grade path.

Turbo mode 2.0 MUST make it dead easy for apple to have included the ability for users to select a 'silence' setting and be able to adjust it to balance performance to heat/noise they want.(under clocking basically)

I make music on my current laptop with ableton live and It uses the same amount of cpu (about 30 to 50 % cpu) and the fans run at about 3500 rpm. If my old lappy can do this then the new sandy bridge Should be able to at least match this performance for ableton but at a lower heat/noise output.

And Im sure it could if apple included such a feature!

Come on apple, 90% of your customers us less than 50% of the power of these new machines, let these ppl do it in peace and quiet if they wish....?

@Adam Adkins

I ran CPUTest with the following settings:

Test type: all
Repetitions: 1
Instances: 8

The hottest my CPU ever got was 83C.

What is a normal temperature for the CPU when it's idle?

I have a i7 2.2GHZ Quad Core. When my CPU is still 70% idle the fans already start to run at full speed.

Highest temperature I saw at 0% idle is about 90 degrees Celsius / 194 degrees Fahrenheit

I used smcFanControl to increase the lowest RPM a bit, CPU is now cooler overall but fan RPM still increases a lot when I use my computer (not even for that CPU intensive tasks).

I just want to know if it's normal behavior or if I should return my new MBP.

This is so wrong: my girlfriends Macbook Pro is 1 year old (core 2 duo 2,66 GHz, 4 mb ram). It can run World of Warcraft with low video settings WITHOUT any noise. When I run World of Warcraft with the SAME low video settings on my new i7 sandy bridge state-of-the-art Macbook Pro (2,2 GHz i7, 4 mb ram), the processor heats up like mad and the fan goes crazy.

Why the **** can a processor that's supposed to be incredible fast not run wow on low settings without any noise, when a 1 year old ****** processor can do it.

I just wasted €2200 on a machine that I wont be using because I can't stand the noise.

Hey guys, recieved my 13inch 2011 mbp last week...custom configured with 128gb ssd (from apple)
Things ive noticed:
-The SSD specs: "trim = yes" i thought osx didnt support trim...yet
-idle cpu temps is about 40-55 degrees Celsius fan @ 2000rpm
-youtube with word and music can shoot up to 65 degrees celsius, fan can go up to 3000 rpm
-When running skype cpu temp shot up to 85 degrees celsius fan @3700-4000 rpm

-Encoding an 4gb mkv to 700mb mp4 has the cpu at a constant 91-93 degrees celsius with fan @ constant 6200rpm
*(whilst encoding, i had an avi playing in the background, youtube and cs5 - just to stress test it....it made no difference though when i had the other programs running - temp remained the same with handbrake on its own)
** i did however notice at time things got laggy with youtube, cs5, an avi running whilst handbrake was encoding

top of the laptop surprisingly remained very cool and operable....but the bottom especially near the screen became very hot.

My questions:
1. are these temperatures relatively normal for what im doing?
2. is it ok for a fan to be on 6200 rpm for that long (took about 45min to fully encode the mkv)
3. Is the led screen effected at all by the heat produced from the exhaust?

Thanks guys

I returned my 13" MBP and got a 13" MBA Ultimate instead.
Yeah, It doesnt have the same power but Its got a much better screen and I can actually use It on my lap without getting 3rd degree burns. Honest to god, this thing does not get hot. And after a weeks usage, I still have not heard a fan

Send some feed back to apple,

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

They really need to be made aware of how many ppl feel the same way and would prefer a quiet cool laptop as apposed to the absolutely fastest.

they will be missing out on my money if I cant achieve a cooler/quieter computer than my 4 year old core 2.