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Macbook Air 2012 Hot, Constant Fan, Short battery life

I have a 2012 MacBook Air 11". i7 2.0 512gb 8gb. I've had it for 3 days. From the beginning it is very hot and the fan is running at what seems like top speed constantly. A fully charged battery lasts 1.5 hours for email, web, and MS office apps. It's like there is something running in the background that is sucking the battery fast. I don't notice any speed reduction but I'm not using anything very intesive.

I have used a 2011 macbook air 11" 1.8 256gb 4gb for the last year and typically got 3-4 hours of battery life. That computer didn't get this hot unless there were multiple apps running and some CPU intense processes like google earth or video rendering.

I've called apple support and their suggestion is to take it to the apple store. If there is a known problem and or solution that doesn't require a full day of driving and waiting that would be better.

Thanks in advance.

MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 24, 2012 3:21 PM

Reply
45 replies

Feb 8, 2013 8:00 AM in response to tylerskis

I found that a process called 'fmpd' was using 130% of the CPU. The fans were on constantly and the battery was running out in no time.


It turned out that this process was MacAfee virus scan getting its knickers in a twist about the computer not being restarted for a long time. I restarted, updated it, and since it has not been a problem


There is also a hot fix on this web page: https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB73473&actp=LIST&showDraf t=false. I couldn't get it to download though!!


Hope that helps.


Message was edited by: kenvoletrouser

Apr 7, 2013 4:28 AM in response to tylerskis

Hello,


I just wonder that whether my Mac air is still okay? while I got lag when running youtube, and the temperature is very high 70 degree. At normal state, just using safari, the temperature still 48-50 with the fan speed is 3418. Im really confused cause at first 2 days ( I just got it for 4 days), everything was fantastic, and the temperature was quite low 35-45, running safari, word, reading mail, and pdf file. But yesterday, running video on youtube is suck =.= ( other conditions are ideal, strong wifi, got adobe flash player), and the battery is very short 4hours =.= while they advert for 7 hrs.


should I exchange it or go to the genius bar first? Can I exchange it to get a new one ( I bought it at apple store)


Best regards,


Ive tried LosiMD's tip as well, but it still stays the same.

May 15, 2013 10:26 AM in response to W Sanders

I have the same issue. My MBA is running very hot (ie the chassis feels very hot) and the fan is funning full speed (6500rpm). The CPU temperature readout is not that high (72degC) and memory bank A1 is at 61degC. According to Activity Monitor I have very little CPU loading (97% idle) - so the question is: what's generating all this heat and making my fan run max speed?!! Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Dec 24, 2013 6:40 PM in response to tylerskis

I had a similar situation on my MacBook Air 2011 after the Mavericks upgrade. The CPU was constantly running hot (70-75°C) and the fan was almost constantly running. The new System Activity Monitor showed 25% system activity (user activity was down to almost 0%), but no process that was responsible for it (even with "All Processes" enabled).

I went through the applications running by hand and eventually found an Adobe Updater process running in the background. After I let it update Adobe Reader the system activity dropped to almost 0% and the system ran at much lower 52°C (according to iStatPro that is). This still seems to spin up the fans a little, but the 3800 rpm are a fair bit less noticable than the over 6000 rpm I was used to.


So there is probalby no Mavericks to blame for this, but maybe you find some strange thing as my Adobe Updater lurking in the background?

Mar 9, 2014 11:03 PM in response to Zalaroth

So I have this exact problem. I had first noticed that Safari Web Content (first in red then in black font colour) was taking up over 100 on my CPU and so I had taken steps to delete it (now of course cannot remember for the life of me how). It came back and so I forced quit it from my CPU, but it still keeps coming back. Now my fan noise is horrendously loud and the Macbook is very hot. However, when I use the Finder Go To thing (I use shift + command +G), and type in user/myname/library/preferences, it says there is no file to be found. I have tried to search this thing every way I know how on this bloody laptop and cannot find a library folder ANYWHERE. I am kind of nervous that I may have deleted it or something from it when I tried to fix the Safari Web Content thing but I can't remember. I looked in my trash but found nothing there either.

Anyone have any tips or have had a similar experience that can help me out? Or perhaps another way to find the com.apple files that I should delete because I can't find them anywhere either. I'm loathe to go to Apple but given that this thing was over $1000 I may well have to.


Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

Oct 21, 2015 4:01 AM in response to fnamna

Had a problem with loud fan that wouldn't turn off.

Tried resetting SMC and PRAM. No result.

Found out that if you go to the activity monitor and check the CPU useage, you can

see which app is sucking up the power. In my case it was a printer file that was running about 300 percent.

I deleted the file and the noise stopped, fan went back to normal.

applications>utilities>activity monitor chose the CPU tab.

to delete

Apple>system preferences> (in my case 'printers and faxes')

Macbook Air 2012 Hot, Constant Fan, Short battery life

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