2012 Macbook Pro "Heat Issue"

And why cant you boot into safe mode with an encrypted hard drive? Frustrating and such a time waster...

Are you using Lion? if so, you need to disable File Vault. This is a quote from a CNET article on this subject:

"In OS X Lion Apple implemented a new full-disk encryption technology called FileVault (or more appropriately "FileVault 2"), which first preboots the system to a log-in screen that requires you supply your password to unlock the drive before the system can boot. This configuration prevents the system from accepting a keyboard-based boot command like the Shift key and passing it to the operating system.

Apple has acknowledged this limitation with FileVault, and affirms that the only option for booting to Safe Mode if you have FileVault enabled in Lion is to first disable it in the Security (& Privacy) System Preferences. This may take a little while to do, but should not affect your data at all.

Do keep in mind that while this is the case for people using FileVault 2 in Lion, it is not the case for the first-generation FileVault technology in earlier versions of OS X."

You may have to first unlock this preference pane in order to turn it off.

Hope this helps!

I am still experiencing "Cool Runnin'" since the safe boot / reboot.

Yes thanks, I read that too. My post was in frustration to that fact. It takes hours to decrypt a drive. It isnt a simple "disable". But its done and we will see how she goes.

Apple employees do read these posts right? Why are you guys so afraid to let graphics switching be available on Windows? Why do you guys cripple Windows and say that it isnt Apple's fault for not delivering optimized drivers to get the same experience you do on Mac OS? For all the money we put out we should have the right to use all the available hardware on any os.

Apple employees do read these posts right?

Nope - no one around here but us users. Apple only provides monitoring when someone reports a post as inappropriate...

Clinton

Here are the facts: your fans can go up to 6000 RPM. 2000 RPM is quite low. They should be running faster to keep your system cooler. You can use smcFanControl to achieve this, but be careful because it can make your system's preferences get corrupted and then if you're not running it, your fans will not behave correctly until you reset your SMC.

Your fans should blow quite loudly when the system gets hot to the touch. If they are staying quiet while the system is pretty hot, I would recommend resetting your SMC controller, and if that doesn't work, then take it into Apple for diagnosis. It should never become hotter than like, 180°F even when running games. It will automatically shut down if it gets past 210° to avoid damaging the computer.

I had a 2010 Macbook Air and could run it forever even video and it would not heat up. I just bought a 2012 13" Retina Macbook Pro and I was watching streaming video for about 5 minutes and it got so hot I had to take it off my lap. It's ridiculous. The 15" is the same way. I downloaded SMC fan control and it showed it running at 220 degrees F and so I ramped up the fan speed and got it down to 168 degrees F but **** way too hot.

I find it bizzare, but people dont seem to think its an issue. I dont buy it.

I went through the whole process with Apple. They even did diagnoses over several days on my rMBP. It runs very hot. They told me this was normal and that the retina had been engineered to deal with it. At that point I decided to stop watching the temp or playing with the fan speed. They've blessed it, and I've got Apple Care. I'm going to just use it hard as I need to, and deal with a problem when it arises. Do I think there's still an issue. Absolutely. You can touch the rail between the function keys and display and almost burn your fingers sometimes.

Hi, Clinton. Does your machine run under 2000 rpm? Mine is right on 2000 plus/minus 5. Ted.

Hello all ... I am using Macbook Pro 13', non-retina and it was getting very very hot at the left bottom side. I am using the macbook only on table in my office. I noticed that it was getting extremely hot when I am using apps like Firefox or Virtualbox for virtual machines. Everything else seems to be OK. I recommend you to install the free application for monitoring of temperature of your battery "The Battery". If the battery temperature is below 80 C, then everything is OK.

My MacBook Pro is about two years old. Occasionally runs a bit hot. For the last two mornings it has been hot, hot, hot - I can hear the fan running.

And this is what we find on the website? Did anyone out there ever get an answer? I have been looking at the Activity Monitor and would set it to default (as suggested on another site) if I could see how to do it.

You are Correct, there was intention behind not naming them Laptop

My Macbook Pro 13" (mid-2012) not only started heating up the point where it couldn't sit on my lap comfortably without being too hot, but then the fan kicked in as soon as I started visiting just one web site. At first, I blamed it on the browser so I stopped using Firefox. I then read a posting that the "Hardware Acceleration" on Firefox needed to be disabled. That didn't work. So I started using Google Chrome and its been fine. I use it interchangeably with Safari. i installed the SMC Fan Control app to keep an eye on my laptop temperature. My fan still kicked into high gear (6000+ rpm, normally 1900+ rpm).

I've been contemplating buying a laptop cooler off of Amazon but decided to search more postings for possible solutions. Some were to run AHT (Apple Hardware Test) and some errors resulted but the solutions were to take it to the Apple Store. So I decided to check ALL software installed on my macbook since the heat-up started. I decided to do some "house-cleaning" on my macbook by uninstalling under-used, rarely-used, or unused apps. The one app I forgot ***** up resources whether you're on a PC or Mac........Norton! I installed Norton Internet Security when I used to have Comcast. Once I uninstalled it earlier today, I launched Chrome with 4-5 tabs of sites loaded like usual. My RPM has hovered around the 2000 rpm ever since. PROBLEM SOLVED!