Macbook Pro 2018 overheating, and other strange problems

Thanks for the detailed response. I have the same problem with my new 2018 15 inch i7. Macbook is getting over heated even with a regular day to day activity. I can observe this heat issue even with the 20 - 30% CPU utilization’s. It’s very difficult to have it on your lap. I have the latest version of operating system which did not solve the issue. Another annoying point is in 1 hours it drained almost 50% of my battery. I am not sure it’s relates to the heat build up. I am very much surprised to see that with the same load my other thinkpad laptop is working perfectly fine which is way almost less than $1000 than this. Apple you definitely need to resolve this issue.

Same issue here.

I spent four...thousand...dollars....on this MBP! Fans are always blasting under minimal load. CPU never reaches 10%. I've uninstalled nearly all other software to see if something has been running under the hood somewhere causing this. Activity monitor never shows anything hogging resources anywhere. The only time fans are not blasting away is when I close everything and look at a blank screen. I'm about to return this and stick with my 2015 MBP. PLEASE FIX APPLE!!!

I am having the same issues and just purchased my macbook pro in december. Its not even a month old yet and is sounding like a 3 year old computer when I am simply watching a youtube video. Going to the genius bar on friday and hopefully will get some answers!

I had to replace my first MBP 13' 2018 in January '19 because it couldn't download Mojave. They gave me a new laptop in return.. This second one I have has the worst battery life ever, too!! It barely overheats too, and my CPU% isn't even above 80% for any apps running. I've used it for one hour, just having my email tab open to do notes on something, and I'm at 84% like that, and my laptop is pretty hot.

My first one never had this problem and was excellent. I take care of my equipment, and I am very disappointed. Unfortunately as a college student, I do not have much time to go to an apple store an hour away from here (freshman w/o a car too!).

My old 2012 MPB was almost better with battery life than this!

This is definetely a apple bad design. I sent my macbook pro to support. They spent 2 days testing it and the conclusion was everything is OK. But it's not.... $2,000 dollars for a machine that burns can't be normal.

My final conclusion is that this machines heat easely and quickly when CPU has to work. just opening lightroom for example and seeing pics makes the CPU temperature goes to 100 celsius degree.... just having a GoToMeeting o seeing a YOUTUBE video makes this machine get tempeturatures of 80 - 85 celsius degree.

Apple considers this normal. But again for me it is not. It's a design problem

Please be aware that the retina display may be affected by the overheating Touch Bar. Mine had horizontal lines at the bottom of my display after just a week of overheating. This happen just after my warranty ends. Thus, the repair cost amount to more than 1k. My old macbook pro used to last for so long (mid 2007 still working great), it so sad that Apple quality standard has decreased to force consumers to add Apple Care or upgrade their machine after a year.

I loved their product but it making me seriously considering to change to other platform due to their design and manufacturing issues. High Price but low quality.

I have to say I can't believe the temperature difference between the 2018 and the 2019. My 2018 would get pretty hot - not so bad that it would cause problems but processing video in FCPx would get it very warm.

I just got the 2019 MBP and it seems much better, faster and cooler. I'm not sure what happened. It still gets a little warm but not hot and the fans don't kick on near as high.

Yes, I still experience the issue. Whether Chrome or Safari if you hit a site that uses a bunch of flash or use an app such as Photos, iTunes, etc... the temp increases almost instantaneously. Shoots past 90° Celsius almost instantaneously. If you shut down the tabs or app the temps drops rapidly to normal. I understand that it is a very slim notebook and part of the temperature control is literally the case heating and dissipating the heat it still boggles my mind that the processor cannot handle these tasks. I have never experienced this with my 2008 MacBook Pro, nor my 2013 MacBook Air. (I went back and ran the same scenarios under the same operating systems (Mojave 10.14.5) and guess what neither the 2008 MacBook Pro or the 2013 MacBook Air even broke a sweat. Very frustrating, spent well over $2K on the 2018 MacBook Pro 13" 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB and this is what you get. Per Apple employees at the Genius bar they see quite a few come in, testing shows that all systems are "operable" and within spec. They can't do anything...

" A 2018 MacBook Pro does not supposed to feel like a heater on very light load."

Well, as you mentioned you've replaced it before with the same results. I don't think your MacBook is defective. I have the same year MacBook as you do. You can still take it to Apple and have them look at it. Hopefully you're still under warranty.

You are right. I am keeping mine but running in High Sierra. No problems. Apple will come out with a fix.

So what do you do with the 68% memory that is not being used? Modern OSs use all available RAM to store recently and often used data/apps. This gives instant access to needed resources. When additional RAM is needed by another app then the stored data is immediately replaced with the newly needed data. Once again, what is the advantage of having unused RAM? Maybe on old slow systems there may have been an advantage but this is 2018, new systems have figured out how to best use all available RAM.

But you are welcome to argue symantics and spout old technogy.

Bob, you are right about ‘lap’ use. But the rapidity of heat buildup and extreme temps are not good in any event. Your reply regarding RAM is a specious argument as noted by jasun. Apps and internal processes do not use all available resources if they do not require them. Your logic implies that the more ram you have, regardless of the actual requirements, will result in faster and more efficient machine. You are wrong. Experts do declare that overpurchasing RAM can be gratuitous and wasteful.

And last, no reply regarding battery life?

This is a silly argument. Firstly, where does Apple say it's NOT a laptop? Nowhere.

Wrong...the real answer is, everywhere.

It may not seem obvious, but it's extremely consistent, it is not an opinion, it is a provable fact:

Apple does not use the word "laptop" to describe portable computers on apple.com.

Go to various official Apple product and support documents and do a search on the word "laptop". You won't easily find it, or it might not be there at all. Apple is so systematic about avoiding the word "laptop" that it must be part of their editorial style guide.

The word Apple uses is "notebook." Look at the name of this category on the Discussions forums: Notebooks. Not "Laptops"

Same on the MacBook Pro product page. The word "notebook" is used there, the word "laptop" is not present.

This is a very intentional choice of words that several companies have chosen to use to avoid issues like complaints or lawsuits about computers that get too hot against the skin. Instead the official support documents advise you to use your notebook on a flat surface for proper ventilation around and under the case.

I have a 5 day old MacBook pro custom built and it is running so hot I feel like it’s damaging the computer. Same thing with phone support. They ran diagnostics and found nothing wrong. Advice :keep it on the desktop. 5600.00 and I can’t use my computer while watching the TV because it is too hot to be comfortable??? Seriously? After reading through this forum, I will be returning it. I am so sad.