macbook Pro Retina burning hot in it's carry case

Question

Level 1

26 points

macbook Pro Retina burning hot in it's carry case

I had my MBPR in an incase in my car for a couple of hours this morning, when I came to take it out of the case it was so hot I could hardly touch it. I had to open it up and keep it in the outside air for a while to cool a bit. I'm not sure if I put it to sleep when I put it in the case or simply closed the lid. When I opened the lid the screen was black, I pressed start and it chimed, the fan then cut in for a while.

I honestly expected to smell hot plastic but there wasn't any smell.

I'm using it on my desk now and it's running cool as it normally does with no fan noise, the power lead is plugged in but it's still barely lukewarm.

What would have caused this overheating?

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 10:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

sanjampet

Level 5

7,982 points

Oct 11, 2013 11:29 AM in response to cadplan

It may have come out of sleep mode while in the case, and was running some process with no ventilation in the case the exhaust heat built up.

As a rule I always power off the machine as opposed to putting it to sleep when moving it around in a case.

Reply

Answer 2

cadplan Author

Level 1

26 points

Oct 11, 2013 3:29 PM in response to sanjampet

Yes I figured that this is what might have happened, it's alarming though that such an intense amount of heat could build up unchecked from a MBP battery which wasn't on charge. It looks as if the fan slots are blocked off when the lid is closed so even if the fan was to activated it wouldn't have been able to cool anything. I think this could be something which apple need to look at as who knows what might happen if it had been left overheating for a longer period in an enclosed car. I will be shutting it down in future but I wonder why it came out of sleep?

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 11, 2013 3:40 PM in response to cadplan

See here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1776?viewlocale=en_US

Your occurrence raises the point against quite a few here who have been advocating, after being questioned,....that its "ok to pack your macbook in sleep mode".

Many advocate against doing same, ever, as I do as well. .......This alas has been a point many people are split on, but shouldnt be.

😊

Reply

Answer 4

sanjampet

Level 5

7,982 points

Oct 11, 2013 3:41 PM in response to cadplan

There a number of things that could wake it, if BT was on, wake for network access, a bounce that it took as a wake command from pressure on the keys........

But if there a CPU intensive process running (only a guess cuz I did not expeience it first hand) the fans would spun up and since no ventialtion and no fresh air flow, it creates a sort of feedback loop in that it keeps blowing ever hotter air thru it. The machine would have shut itself down at critical, but overheating electronics really stresses them and shortens their life span.

So shutting down is always the safe bet, the MBP's boot pretty fast anyway, I think the peace of mind is worth the extra couple of minutes.

All the best

Reply