2012 Macbook Pro "Heat Issue"

For what it's worth, my new Macbook Pro seemed very hot the first week or so, but now not at all. I'm not running it any differently, so I don't know how to explain it. I never use mine in my lap, though. If you're worried or unhappy I'd return before the 14 day time period ends.

Shootist007 wrote:

Mac suffer the same software and hardware glitches as Windows PCs do.

I'd disagree with this. I've also owned both throughout the years and my wife owns an HP laptop now. As far as hardware goes, try to sell a used windows pc after it's 2 years old (let alone 5) and see what you get for it. And the software issues are exponentially greater on a windows machine. Just went through another round of removing viruses from my wife's HP. Every 30 seconds a window would pop up saying "virus detected". The window looked like a Microsoft warning, but was actually the virus program itself. Constantly have trouble with it connecting to the wireless printer, runs dog slow at times for no apparent reason, etc., etc.

No doubt windows machines are cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

Hmm...I thought the rdMBP is the coolest MBP ever. The Powerbook was hot, the early 2008 MBP was hot, but I've used the rdMBP for a few days now and it's only warm at the charging area when plugged in. Otherwise it's just cool to touch!

I agree with you Douglas. However, I also think some people are having heat issues that need to be addressed. Something is causing the heat in their macbook pro's. I hope this issue gets resolved.

I wonder if the heat issues are more apparent due to the metal body compared to a PC laptop which usually has a plastic body. Isn't plastic less conductive than metal?

I've been running a fan control app. I haven't wanted to take it in cause I waited so long to get it. But I'll have to. Apparently it's not adjusting the fan on its own at all. Won't be a simple swap as this one is maxed out and I know they only carry stock in the stores.

It will easily hit 80 c with 2 or 3 programs running. I'm sure it's one of those abnormal situations cause despite concerns about them getting hot this thing gets shutdown hot.

Well - I have had this computer for a week now, but I have hardly used it. Jokingly, it has to do with this Mac mystique, I swear, I am so afraid of doing damage to this thing; I am awaiting the delivery of a case and keyboard cover. Seriously, about two days after I originally tried to use it, but could not get past 10 minutes, I put it on wooden surface - keeping in mind that someone said these are not really supposed to be used on the lap. I was able to work on it for about an hour before the palm rests became hot; not unbearably, but more than I have felt on laptops that I have previously used. So far, I have not done much on the Mac, just trying to learn my way around it, mostly setup types of things.

In general, I am a light computer user, anyway; checking emails, reading the news, word processing, listening to music, maybe Netflix every now and again. Someone posted that over two weeks, their Mac ran cooler. Today, I have used it - lightly - for an hour or so, and the palm rests certainly are cooler than before, but I still would not want to put this thing on my lap. Maybe I will start running more on it at once to see what happens with the heat.

Already feeling a bit uncomfortable with the price I paid for this, I am trying not to let the heat be the reason I simply give up my foray into Apple-World.

Just so you know.

Apple has a 14 day No Questions Asked Return Policy for Full Refund.

So I would use that Mac as much as possible up until day 12 from date of purchase and make a decission whether or not Mac is for you, especially for the cost of it, and if not return it for a full refund.

Also if the heat bothers you, and IMHO it should not be getting that warm/hot doing normal computer tasks, then there may be something wrong with your unit. Mac's are not any better built then a good Windows notebook. Just read these forums and you will see many posts of problems with New, Nearly new and slightly older Mac computers. The one thing you don't want is a New computer that does not function propetly and then fails shortly after the warranty has run out.

So even if you like the Mac and plan on keeping it you might want to consider returning that unit and getting another that does not get as warm/hot as the one you now have.

Hello -

Thanks very much for your response. I agree with you and am certainly taking everything into consideration!

One other possible solution, and I suggest it hesitantly as it seems pretty random, is the following: http://superuser.com/questions/423772/bash-process-uses-90-cpu-comes-back-on-com puter-restart

When I looked at my activity monitor, I noticed two processes, bash and launchd were running at around 20 per cent CPU usage all the time (not as high as reported in the article above). I don't know anything about them, but do know how to use google and thought it odd they were running higher than say, Lightroom 4, which was running at the same time, so I did a search based on those activities.

I stumbled across the article above, and I did have Send to Kindle installed. I uninstalled it, then reinstalled the newest version. Bash and Launchd disappeared from the activity list altogether, and my computer dropped about 20 degrees in temperature in 10 minutes, no doubt due to a substantially reduced load on the CPU.

I don't know this, but I might extrapolate that you would want to look for some rogue programme that didn't make the transition or something to a new computer very well. I'm still running Lion, but moved my system from an older MacBook Pro and that seemed to trigger this problem.

FWIW

Im having this issue with my macbook pro which i bought last year... Lately it heats up way too much and the only reason i bought it was bcuz "they do not heat up".. i dont know what to do... maybe purchasing the apple care protection would help? What have any of you done to get this error fixed?

Actually today i turned it on and the fans were already running and wasnt running any programs.. im worried.. If they give u a brand new mac, how to transfer everything i have on my mac to the new one? do they do it for you?

You really need to backup your mac (if you're not) although if Apple transferred you to a new unit and your old one was operational they could restore from it. I'm still having some serious heat issues and have been forced to run smcfancontrol (and I run Temperature Gauge as well). I'm still assuming I'm the exception and there's something wrong with my unit. I do suspect all of the Retinas are built to run hotter and do.

My problem is that I can actually get the computer to shut down from heat, which it's done 3 times, and that's not a good thing.

The Genius I took it to did the normal Apple test and found all the sensors and things working. I did tell him though that it would only buckle under a load. I demonstrated this for him with my own system by copying files to an external disk and running Handbrake for video conversion at the same time.

Without the fan control running it doesn't take long to get it up to 90 and above. It didn't shut down. He said he couldn't rely on Tunabelly's Temperature Gauge software "because it was not an Apple program." I don't fault him - he works within constrained guidleines. He said he couldn't give me a "new computer" and I said I didn't want one, just wanted this one fixed. I told him that I had Apple Care and would just use it until it really destroys itself. Thankfully I don't run from battery much, cause this thing wouldn't last long with the smcfancontrol running the fans faster.

Which leads me back to backing up - I'm a fanatic. I do a Time Machine backup regularly and do a separate SuperDuper backup frequently. Both have saved me in the past when something went awry.

I always like to finish on a positive note so let me say - despite this heat issue this is hands down the best computer (not just laptop) that I have ever worked on. It's beast.

Wellif you plan on killing the unit from heat the worst thing you can do is run SMCFanControl. that will lower the temps and make thre system last longer.

Just shut SMCFanControl off and use the system as you normally would and hopefully it will die quickly.

Probably right - but also may have to try a different Genius and show them that I can shut the system down by running "too many applications."

I'm brand new 2012 mac pro user, i'm getting very hot with my lap which is unusual, istat says fans are above 2003rpms. please help. Thx.