MBP 2015 extreme heating, Touchpad running on it's own, Bejing Apple store experience

Hi all, recently my Macbook Pro is running strangely and it’s very difficult to work with. I’ll try my best to explain everything in detail. Hopefully somebody could provide me a proper solution.

My Machine:

OSX El capitan Version: 10.11.6 (15G1611)

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB/AMD Radeon R9 M370X

My normal usage:

I’m currently in Beijing, China doing my language programme. I mainly use this laptop for do some University paper/presentations, Adobe software such as Lightroom, Illustrator and a bit of photoshop. I rarely play any video games on it as I rather play it on a gaming console and leave the memory space for working. The only game I play on the machine is GZDoom and the frame rate is not that good. It may worth a mention, when I newly bough the macbook pro, I installed Borderland 2 (steam version) but it ran very choppy even a lowest setting is I give up on it. I’ve been using thins machine for 2 years now, never put on a stress work on it. I’ll admit that the heating solution is not happened just recently but it’s even more obvious now. I’m not even sure if I’m just being paranoid.

The problems:

1. The system's temperature rising really fast even with a small task like browsing the Internet or watching youtube. It’s quickly become extremely hot to the point that it’s too hot to put it on my lap, unless I wear a thick jeans but I can still felt the heat easily. At this point the system is become slower and the fan is blowing really really loud. I can easily see video frame drop/ freezing/choppiness on youtube and some 1080p movie files. I also noticed, minimising any window/application animation are choppy too.

2. Touch pad stop working properly, causing the curser running and clicking around on it's own, even on the idle state

3. All of this could happen in 10-15 minutes of my usage (web browsing, Youtube video, Lightroom)

4. The temperature will drop after a while (it’s still warm) but will raise again soon after 10-15 minutes .

Self investigation:

1. Activity Monitor shown 80-90% idle, with plenty of memory left over.

2. The battery health is in a good state.

3. A little dust on the internal but it can be easily remove


Tried solution: (Non of this solve me any problems)

1. Reset SMC and PRAM

2. Clean the internal, using rubber air pump and soft brush.

3. I disable the touchpad while using the usb mouse but this is not a true solution

4. Consult official Apple store according to the given address in apple website.


Apple store experience:

So they took me to the genius bar and perform a “hardware analysis” using they iPad (connected trough thunderbolt-ethernet port). With my poor Chinese, I have little trouble communicating with the Mac Genius. Ultimately, the store manager have to do the interpret job and the process become annoyingly long for all of us. According to them, the “hardware analysis” given a normal result and the battery is in a healthy state. I stated them the problems that I’ve found above in full detail. We do a little web browsing together and the machine is noticeably warming fairly hot on the top of the keyboard and screen’s hinge. The manager found it a little strange but the genius insisted the its normal temperature for every laptop. The genius conclude that it is a software problems on of my third party software installed and because she can’t find the definite answer she instead given me a telephone number of official china apple support and expected me to speak in detail with my poor Chinese.


My ultimate solution:

I’m going to do a clean store and see if it going to solve the problems, then reinstall everything. Any other suggestion are welcome. It is a big disappointment when you use a premium product and the service is not much help. I’ve been using Mac for 13 years this is a big lesson for me. I owned 2 older macbook pro and it’s never have this heating problems before, even on gaming.