MacBook Pro Retina running very hot and battery life is reduced

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MacBook Pro Retina running very hot and battery life is reduced

Hello,

I am using a 13-inch retina macbook pro (mid 2014) and it has used up about 33 charge cycles and is only about a couple of months old. I am facing the following issues :

1. The portion just under the screen on the underside of the laptop heats up a lot(the region where the battery is). So much so that it becomes uncomfortable on the lap.

2. The battery life is also greatly reduced. I get a project battery time of 1:15 minutes with 50% charge which is really low and it drains very quickly as well(70-50 in about 1.5 hours)

3. CoconutBattery keeps giving me notifications " Battery Temperature too high(37.2 C)" but I am not running anything other than a few tabs in Safari and a text editor.

4. iStat shows almost 70% of the CPU is under use(35 user and 35 system) even though I am doing hardly anything at all(just browsing) even the disks show only 26MB as free.

How do I fix these issues ? Do I need a battery replacement ?

Thanks

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), null

Posted on Feb 24, 2015 11:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

dominic23

Level 10

83,904 points

Feb 25, 2015 2:27 AM in response to Shivam10

"Runawy applications can shorten battery runtime,affect performances and

increase heat and fan activity"

Activity Monitor graphics will look different in Yosemite.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473

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Answer 2

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Feb 25, 2015 2:34 AM in response to Shivam10

Shivam10 wrote:

1. The portion just under the screen on the underside of the laptop heats up a lot(the region where the battery is). So much so that it becomes uncomfortable on the lap.

The battery is located under the trackpad and palm rests, not the display.

Try a SMC reset:

http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=chrktevavps9n

Ciao.

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Answer 3

Xrival

Level 1

19 points

Mar 3, 2015 12:58 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

I am not sure about the coconut battery warnings. Since I updated to the last version, I keep getting such warnings all the time on my two laptops. It was not happening before. Sigh. Most likely a coconut battery issue.

Regarding to the other symptoms, I would look at the applications that are running, indeed.

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Answer 4

Dec 21, 2016 6:48 AM in response to Shivam10

I think it is a known issue for all MBP that it gets really hot when you use it on you laps (or any cushion, puffy, anything with no GREAT ventilating environments around) running even just medium tasks like watching a video online. So if this is just the case then maybe your MBP is just fine. If it is this simple, the solution is easy: don't use it on your laps, or at least not directly on your laps. Use something, like one of those "desk on laps" or anything with a flat hard surface between you and MBP is gonna be fine I think.

The full capacity of the battery changes constantly I think reacting against the fluctuations of the temperature, power usage etc. Ageing will always lower the running time but other factors' impact can vary. Mine full capacity fluctuates between 6100 mAh to 6300 mAh mostly with a designed capacity of 6559 mAh and 380 circle counts.

I use rubber feet to level up my MBP a bit to increase the ventilation and avoid scratching the bottom part. I think I read it somewhere about replacing the rubber feet of MB that Apple says third party glue or such may cause fire in some cases. But I think if an MBP reaches a temperature that high,especially on the outside part, it is beyond what this community can help with...

Apple claims the proper operating temperature is 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C) [1] and some advice [2]

But of course, what I said above is preconditioned with a normal battery status (option+click icon in the menu bar), reasonably clean machine (no heavy dusty), a working pan, and a proper usage environment etc.

[1]. Mac notebooks: Operating temperature - Apple Support

[2]. https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

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