New 2011 MacBook Pro Heating Issue?

And what model do you have??

My C2D MBP NEVER runs that cool - right now I have safari open - 1 tab - just on these forums - and it is at 49 degrees.

I got a good chuckle out of that support article, especially the mention of, "Ambient temperature plays a role in the responsiveness of the fans. The fans will turn on sooner and the fans will run faster if the ambient temperature outside the computer is high."

I live in Michigan, where it's still very much a wintery environment. To save on energy costs, our home is cool, yet comfortable, 65°F / 18.3° C. Considering how little it took for the fans on the 13" MacBook Pro i7 to speed up (and for the CPU to hit 192°F / 89°C), I can't imagine the strain the system would be in come summer.

The rest of the article is pretty standard: don't block your ports, you might notice the noise more in a quiet environment, etc.

While I can't speak for the i5 version, the 2011 13" MacBook Pro i7 runs much hotter and louder than the equivalent high-end 13-incher from 2010 (the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo). Sadly, the article says nothing to address why that might be the case.

So basically Apple is telling us: "Live with it! It works as designed."

Since there's talk of what the C2Ds are doing, my 2010 13" (2.66 GHz) is currently running at 39°-40°C. The system has been on for a few hours at this point, and is running Safari with 4 open tabs, OmniFocus, Mail, iTunes, Adium, Twitter, and Scrivener. Those apps are spread across four Spaces, and the video output is being sent to a 27" LED Cinema Display (which would certainly create a GPU strain).

The ambient environment is 65°F / 18.3°C which certainly helps keep the MBP cool... but more to the point is that Core 2 Duo machines can run at 39°C under a fairly typical computational load.

Nice to see that Herb is having similar results with his 2011 15" MBP. Too bad things couldn't have been that good on the 2011 13" MBP i7.

I have the same home temperature environment as SmartMoose. Home temp at 64°F, sometimes even 63°F. Given how quickly it heats up in these conditions, I can't even imagine how it will be in the summer months. Maybe we are suppose to use our Macbooks in a walk-in freezer?

I think the issue, at least for me, is SOLVED.

I just came back from the Apple Store, where I planned to return the new 13" i7. I also made an appointment at the Genius Bar to see if they had any ideas. Kevin was right onto it. He suspected a printing application might be using a chunk of the CPU. Opened Activity Monitor - right there was HPShortcutManager (or maybe it was HPShortcutManagerStartup). It was taking 99.9% of the core. He said it was not critical (could still print and scan from computer) , and was continually drawing power to the CPU, which would account for the higher temps, and consequent fan. I said delete it, which he did (not sure exactly how). Restarted - it was gone from Activity Monitor.

The CPU temp immediately has dropped 40º from in the low 80's to around 40º C and the fan stays right around 2000 rpm - about half of where it was. Aahh - quiet again. Seems to me that that was it - a software, not a hardware, issue. Hope this helps others.

they dont let u buy the store models do they ?

Im beginning to think its a case by case issue, eg. its either a monday or a Wednesday computer. I'll be stuffed if im getting a monday one for that amount of money.

I know that mostly those who have problems do the posting so the size of the problem is hard to tell here so i will wait for more reviews but at this stage im not rushing into buying one as I already own a jet engine that Im posting on now 🙂

silent is golden AND is not optional for me.

Adam Adkins wrote:
And what model do you have??

My C2D MBP NEVER runs that cool - right now I have safari open - 1 tab - just on these forums - and it is at 49 degrees.

It's right in my signature line. If we're switching back to the Core2Duo models, I have one of the first ones of those as well, a late-2008 MBP unibody. It isn't nearly as cool as the newer one, but it's usually around 55ºC using the integrated 9400M and about 70ºC using the discreet 9600GT.

So I went to the Apple store to do some temperate tests. I used the CPUtest application to max out CPU usage and read the temperatures and fan speeds. I tested two 15 inch models, one 13 inch model, and my personal 15 inch C2D model. For my results "idle" will represent the idle temperatures, "spike" will represent what the CPU spiked to at full load, and "sustained" will represent what the temperature dropped to with maximum fans.

My 15", 2.33Ghz C2D: Idle: 115 degrees, Spike: 210 degrees, Sustained: 200 degrees

13" i7: Idle: 115 degrees, Spike: 200 degrees, Sustained: 175 degrees

15" 2.0Ghz: Idle: 110 degrees, Spike: 185 degrees, Sustained: 170 degrees

15" 2.3Ghz: Idle: 110 degrees, Spike: 185 degrees, Sustained: 170 degrees


Overall, the 13" was the hottest, but none tested were as hot as my late-2006 MBP. Based on the results I saw at the store, there is not a immanent heat crisis with these MBP's. Comments please

COMMENTS are WELCOME!

I ordered the 2.3 ghz i5 13" mbp but upgraded the ssd to 128gb...
ill be recieving it next week and make sure to tell you all know about fan/heat issues!

I've got a 17" i7 2011 Macbook Pro. Never hits 6200 RPM even when running 8 cores at 99% using a cycling terminal command. Anyway I have noticed however (upgrading from a 2009 17" 2.8 C2D) it is much more sensitive to heat changes. That is, it doesn't get as hot as my old Macbook, but that is because it is right on the ball--1 degree change on my old one would result in, say, a 100 rpm increase after maybe a minute. This one is perhaps 200 rpm in 30 seconds. As a result it goes loud quiet loud quiet quite often as I close open, close open applications.

Not sure if I'm bothered though. I can process images in Aperture faster than many desktop macs!

On Macrumours there seems to be more related with people whom have the 15 inch screen why I do not know.
But the problem seems to be the over usage of Thermal paste.
It has been known the laptops are reaching upto 106 degrees upon max usage.

For most it seems they have taken back and received an exchange and all seems well.

I bought the 13" Macbook Pro (2.7GHz) last week having previously used the mid-2010 model which I no longer have.

Since using it, I did replace the standard HDD with a SSD of which the improvements are improved with speed but this something I already knew as it was the same config on the older model. With that in mind the only other issues that I have is the fan speed on this model when watching any flash videos online and opening many different applications (which on the 2010 model, the fan never revved up so much) Almost all the time since the first few days the fan speed cranks up to around 5500+ during the video and heavy usage and slows at the end to idle speed conditions (2000rpm, 40C). Having browsed around and mentioned above it looks like this is becuase of the switch to the integrated graphics. This is a sound that im not normally used to when watching any online videos as I work in a quiet enviroment.

I was on the phone to the Apple retail store from where I bought it and they said I have another week to return it within that period but they dont have any 2010 13 (2.66Ghz) models left in stock. Other than watching online video or doing anything else intensive the fan speed remains at around 2000rpm with a temperature of 40C for the CPU.

Do you guys think there is potential for a software fix later down the line? And should I return it as it could be a faulty batch issue, are the others ones going to be the same?

Can we get a link for this please?

I remember my 17" C2D regularly running at 105 with raised fans.

My i7 17" is running at 76 with maxed out fans. They have changed the ratios or sensitivity, for certain. A software fix is possible I therefore believe. I mean if smcFanControl can do user adjustable, I'm sure Apple can change the baseline default levels...