MacBook Pro 2014 idles at 91%

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Level 1

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MacBook Pro 2014 idles at 91%

I've bought this MacBook Pro 2014 for school. I'm not really an apple enthusiast so I've been hating this quite a lot more than I do one regular computers. The thing is the computer will freeze and become unresponsive for hours sometimes on simple tasks that the computer I own from 2002 can handle. Tasks such as chatting on Skype and watching YouTube. The second I took the MacBook out of it's box it was like this. I should say it is refurbished but I purchased it from Apple in early June. The only real answer to this freezing is that in activity manager I've found it says it idles at 91%. I am not an Apple user so this may be normal but to me that sounds like the CPU is about to freeze and shutdown. Can somebody confirm if this is normal. I have almost no out of the ordinary tasks running in the background. Firefox, Skype, Dropbox, and occasionally Steam. Ironically when I launch Blender, a software for 3D modeling, the computer works almost as good as my work computer. Any solutions or confirmations would be very well appreciated.

edit note: I know that Apple products are subject to overheating but I also know overheating occurs when you usually do things on a computer not on idle. The computer right now is hotter than a crispy cookie from the oven and I only currently have this tab with the Apple forum open no other program or anything. This is raising my suspicion very high.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10), null

Posted on Aug 2, 2015 9:03 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 2, 2015 10:02 PM in response to skrewapple

The second I took the MacBook out of it's box it was like this.

Then it's defective. Claim on the warranty. Your screenshots don't show anything abnormal.

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Answer 2

BigGee42

Level 2

319 points

Aug 2, 2015 10:24 PM in response to skrewapple

You're reading the figures wrong. Idle means that it's available for use but not actually being used.

In the image you've attached, it shows that 84.36% of the CPU capacity is idle. This means that only 15.64% is actually being used.

That sounds normal, and it sounds like there's not much going on.

However, what I can see is that Firefox is using 39.9% CPU. do you have lots of tabs open?

I'm not sure where you got your information - "apple products are subject to overheating". Any computer can overheat under the wrong conditions.

Are you absolutely sure it's overheating and you haven't just got it on your lap and plugged into the power? Any laptop requires ventilation around it and having it in contact with your clothes with no ventilation underneath can make it warm. Remember, it's Aluminium and it uses the bottom case for some of the heat dispersal.

If the computer is refurbished it has a 1 year warranty. I would recommend you take it to an Apple store and ask them to look at it if you're unhappy.

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Answer 3

skrewapple Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 3, 2015 6:23 AM in response to BigGee42

Thanks for being descriptive. I've worked in Linux my entire life and switching to OSX Yosemite is killing me. I couldn't give you the exact figures but the computer felt like the processor was getting close to T.G. Max. This was scary to me because I don't have my work computer with me so I've been using this mac on my hardwood desk. I only had Firefox open with one tab when I mentioned it. This week I'll try and fit in an appointment in an Apple store.

Thank you!

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