Is heating problem related to old battery?

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Is heating problem related to old battery?

Recently, my 3-4 year-old macbook pro 15inch is having a heat issue. After using it with high cpu task such as watching flash movie or encoding some movie for 15 minutes in relatively cold room, I start hearing the fan noise and eventually crush the computer if I keep using it. The area where the battery is in the back of the computer gets extremely hot. I wonder if this problem has anything to do with the old battery. I haven't replaced the battery because I have been using the laptop with the power adaptor attached. Someone told me that charging the old battery causes more heat. I am not sure if it is true or not.

do you think the problem will goes away if I replace the battery with brand new one?

if the battery is not the issue, what would be causing this heat issue that I didn't have before.

thank you.

Mac Book Pro 15 inch, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 4:45 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2011 12:24 AM in response to Kozo Okumura

Try operating without the battery (just plugged in) If the heat issue is abated then you are golden: replace the battery and you are good to go. If this is not the case then you may have the NVIDIA chipset issue endemic to these models. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377. The issue is not confined to just distorted video as the article says, and the distortion and power issues come because of an overheated graphics chip. I had mine repaired by apple out of warranty and it was about $380, but better than having to replace my MacbookPro.

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