Macbook Pro overheating because Mac OS Sierra

1. Does this problem prevail if you boot into Safe Mode?
2. Does this problem prevail if you boot into Safe Mode, then reboot normally?
3. Try Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM and Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC).
4. Reinstall Sierra:

Reinstall Sierra Without Erasing Drive

Please be sure you back up.

1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears.
2. Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
3. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the the side list.
4. Click on the First Aid icon in the toolbar. Wait until the Done button activates, then click on it.
5. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
6. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

Also, see this User Tip: Basic Steps for Upgrading OS X.

I confirm that MacBook Pro (Mid 2014) and MacMini (Mid 2011) overheat after upgrading to Sierra.

Overheat happens when screensaver is running (Arabesque).

Also, screensaver performance dropped to unacceptable level on MacMini (to 1-2 fps).

Hot? Yep!

I have a MacBook Pro circa 2013 that's had a lot of different OSX installed on it.

I think I may have run 10.6.8 on it at one time.

In any event, when I went to 10.12 my computer got really hot.

How hot was it? Hot enough to make me order another laptop before this one hit the big casino. (Apple marketing?)

So hot the video began to have problems AND the machine would go into continuous reboots until it cooled down.

I installed smcFanControl (thanks!) to monitor the temperature and saw the temperature go .... over .... 200 .... degrees F. before my video went psychedelic on me and my laptop began to perform the reboot tango. No, that's not a typo, I did say over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

I reformatted and reloaded the laptop a few times to see what the hey!

Still smokin' hot!

I erased the drive and re-installed OS 10.9.5, which by the way makes the machine slower to use than 10.8.5(memory management "improvements". Note to marketing. Invest in memory).

And now that 10.9.5 is running? smcFanControl tops out at 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

No more psychedelic auto-cooldown reboots.

What's my problem now? What do I do with that extra laptop?

I have a MacBook Pro circa 2013 that's had a lot of different OSX installed on it.

I think I may have run 10.6.8 on it at one time.

No you didn't, Macs can not run any OS earlier than the one they were shipped with. There was never any need to but another laptop, fixing what is wrong would have sufficed.

"Macs can not run any OS earlier than the one they were shipped with."

I used to think that was a hard rule too and it's one I still generally accept as true but ...

I was wrong.

I had a newspaper prepress project that required OS 10.6.8 to run the vendors software.

The problem was Apple was no longer shipping 10.6.8.

I told the software vendor I didn't think that he could install an earlier OS than was shipped with the machine.

He said it would not be a problem and that they had downgraded the OS many times.

I ordered two MacPro 5,1s that shipped with OS 10.7.1.

The vendor installed 10.6.8 Server software and his software on those MacPros.

We ran on 10.6.8, without issues, from 2011 to spring 2017.

Had the same problem but resolved it just unscrew the back lid and using air duster cleaned and wiped all the dust inside. MBP back to normal.

Can tell, after 7 years on duty this device is really showing good Apple product.

I am having very similar issues. My is a MacBook Pro is the 15 inch version. Well last month after installing Sierra my MacBook was overheating to temps as high as 200 Fahrenheit. I use SMC fan control and have to keep it running at full speed and im still sitting around 113 Fahrenheit doing nothing but using chrome right now. My MacBook also the display gets all messed up and then lines in the screen and when I reboot the screen ihas lines in it and it will boot to a grey screen and sometimes reboot and sometimes not. My hard drive's SMART status said my drive was failing. Well I bought a new one and it passed all my tool checks on it. But it's a crap shoot booting my mac. I have to reset the SMC and PRAm all the time. I try to keep it on in sleep mode all the time and I will still get randomly rebooted. I have another mac an early 2011 that is having the exact same problem. Two MacBooks doing the same thing? After installing Sierrra? The Apple hardware test says everything is fine and so do all of apples utilities plus Tech Tools Pro which is the best diagnostic application made.

I have just moved to high sierra, definitely an OS issue, coming from sierra there are a couple of things to keep an eye on.

1. photos (as mentioned earlier): it does some sort of sorting/analysis on what's currently stored in your iCloud. you might want to turn that off or kill the process.

2. scd> it does really keep doing something on the background.make sure you go to> system preferences> iCloud > disable keychain. reboot.

Hope this works for most of you.

It could be a video card or other board going out.

Before you go there;

LOG OUT OF Your internet accounts, Reboot.

Make sure it's not indexing by searching for something in the spotlight.

Turn your internet accounts back on.

If that don't work, and it possibly will - boot into safe mode ie with shift... see if it's doing anything.

Then as a last response; then try resetting SMC and PRAM.

If it's still giving issues after a few hours at idle with little use - check that you don't have dust accumulation = you may have a dirty internals OR just as likely - you need to have your thermal grease re-done.... if you're on a computer thats 5-7 years old - that's a probable reason, but super heavy users could need it in about 2-3 years of continual hard use.

I tried everything that has been suggested online (shame apple never offer support) in the end I restored to a previous time machine backup. When I checked the HD beforehand the file system was totally corrupted. I am an hour from completion so fingers crossed. If successful I shan’t be updating until Apple sort out this mess. Longevity has been a problem for Apple as they sell fewer units so wouldn’t be surprised if it’s intended to reduce the life of the machines. I suggested it in another post but they refused to publish it!!

The problem is related to the older system you updated, not Sierra. One possible problem is whether SMC Fan Control is compatible with Sierra.

Use Activity Monitor to Kill Runaway Processes

Use Activity Monitor on your Mac

Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity.

Several mdworkers which creating index for Spotlight running on your MacBook Pro?

Try to Check it with Activity Monitor.

Try resetting the SMC http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

I too have this issue, but when I looked into it further, I found that Photos is running a process in the background to sort my 70Gb database. It is one of the new options in Sierra to optimise the system - not sure what you found after running the activity monitor, but I had this:

As you can see, it has been running for a long time - think I will give it a while longer and see what happens.

Note to self - do not rush into opening all the apps until I have checked the system out :-)