Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Macbook Air Heat Issues?

B

BigMacUBC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 3, 2010
23
0
Hi guys, I've looked around and apparently everyone's saying their macbook air runs really cool. The problem is, mines always warm... It usually doesn't get hot unless I'm watching a full screen video, but it's always warm. Is this normal?

Sorry forgot to mention I have the 13 inch base model.
 
Mine is always cool, but I always keep it under 3-5 windows. If you have more than 10 open, maybe. I have 13 inch with 4GB ram.
 
Mine is warm when under normal use too. I can feel heat from the bottom and when touching the top of the keyboard. I was also wondering why everyone said their's was 'cool', some clarification on what you people consider 'cool' would be helpful. Does it mean there is no heat at all, totally? Or is it just very slightly warm? Or does it mean it feels like an air-conditioning unit, cold like ice to the touch?

This was very frustrating for me and I'm glad I found someone who appears to be wondering the same as me.
 
BigMacUBC said:
Hi guys, I've looked around and apparently everyone's saying their macbook air runs really cool. The problem is, mines always warm... It usually doesn't get hot unless I'm watching a full screen video, but it's always warm. Is this normal?

Sorry forgot to mention I have the 13 inch base model.
Click to expand...
13 inch base model of what revision? Kind of critical as older models of 13 inch was hotter.
 
zstar said:
Mine is warm when under normal use too. I can feel heat from the bottom and when touching the top of the keyboard. I was also wondering why everyone said their's was 'cool', some clarification on what you people consider 'cool' would be helpful. Does it mean there is no heat at all, totally? Or is it just very slightly warm? Or does it mean it feels like an air-conditioning unit, cold like ice to the touch?

This was very frustrating for me and I'm glad I found someone who appears to be wondering the same as me.
Click to expand...

Same here, I can feel very little warmness when I touch the upper left corner of the keyboard, and the bottom of that area.

I would consider the back of the lid as "cool". And even under light usage (only safari running a few tabs) my MBA is not as cool as the aluminium part of the lid.
 
poobear said:
13 inch base model of what revision? Kind of critical as older models of 13 inch was hotter.
Click to expand...

I have the newest 2010 macbook air base model.

It's weird because I haven't even done anything taxing on it as I understand it's not a performance beast, yet it is constantly warm. Usually just a couple of chrome tabs open, music playing in the background, and programming with Scheme (very primitive language).

By warm i mean the whole upper area from the number keys to the screen feel warm.

Maybe I should go see apple?
 
BigMacUBC said:
I have the newest 2010 macbook air base model.

It's weird because I haven't even done anything taxing on it as I understand it's not a performance beast, yet it is constantly warm. Usually just a couple of chrome tabs open, music playing in the background, and programming with Scheme (very primitive language).

By warm i mean the whole upper area from the number keys to the screen feel warm.

Maybe I should go see apple?
Click to expand...
With any of the iStat apps [http://www.islayer.com/apps/] you can look at your temperatures. What does the CPU temperature say? You don't mention if your chrome tabs have a lot of flash in them, because flash makes everything hotter. If you open Activity Monitor.app, and changes "my processes" to "all processes", and sort by "% processor", does any process take a lot of CPU? Processes that take a lot of CPU increases the temperature.
 
Because MacBooks are relatively thin and rely on conduction and radiation as a significant part of their cooling mechinism they tend to run a bit warmer and feel a bit warmer than many PC laptops.

It's quite normal for them to feel warm or even hot under load. It's not uncommon for CPUs to run at 70C under modist loads.

The new MBAs seem to run cooler than previous MBAs or MBPs. My new MBA runs a good 10-20C cooler than my previous MBA or MB but 50C is still pretty warm to the touch.
 
My old 17 inch 2.4GHz Santa Rosa MBP runs way hotter than my 13 inch MBA Ultimate, although the two machines are running identical setups. The hottest component on the MBA is the CPU at 44 degrees C (111 degrees F). The next hottest is the flash storage at 34 degrees C (93 Degrees F), which isn't even body temperature.:)
 
gwsat said:
My old 17 inch 2.4GHz Santa Rosa MBP runs way hotter than my 13 inch MBA Ultimate, although the two machines are running identical setups. The hottest component on the MBA is the CPU at 44 degrees C (111 degrees F). The next hottest is the flash storage at 34 degrees C (93 Degrees F), which isn't even body temperature.:)
Click to expand...

Resurrecting an old thread - I wondered if you still had that 2010 Ultimate 13". I'm under modest load here with the same spec and it's always between 60-74 C, but then I upgraded to Lion.... Actually I'm pretty sure it was similar under Lion
 
JonLa said:
Resurrecting an old thread - I wondered if you still had that 2010 Ultimate 13". I'm under modest load here with the same spec and it's always between 60-74 C, but then I upgraded to Lion.... Actually I'm pretty sure it was similar under Lion
Click to expand...
JonLa -- I do indeed still have my 2010 13 inch MBA Ultimate and love it just as much now as I did when I got it last October. It remains the best computer I have ever owned

I bought and installed Lion the day it became available. It seemed not to have much impact on existing apps. I just bought VMware Fusion 4 for Lion the other day, though, and, wow, the speed increase running Windows 7 and Windows apps has been dramatic. For example, Quicken 2010 for Windows now loads at least 2 or 3 times faster under Fusion 4 than it did under Fusion 3. This leads me to believe that Lion doesn't really shine unless it's running programs with code that was written specifically to support Lion. I haven't had any heat issues at all with Lion.
 
Compared to my old Pro I can def. feel a difference. According to iStat the temperature is usually 31-35°C on Enclosure Base 1-3, which is quite a lot more compared to 25-28°C I got with my old model. Anyone can confirm that? You think that's too hot?

I got a little thing that's bothering me - see here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1235261/

Otherwise I'm really satisfied with it - no wobble, great screen, no slanted keys etc. But if the thing is running too hot I might consider sending it back.
 
It's weird - I've just never had these low temperatures for long - even using chrome with no flash pages it soon cranks up to 60Cish
 
Last edited:
Anyone consider that for many of these units the internal thermal compound is simply bad or misapplied?

I have a 2010 MBA and is remains coole unless I am gaming. GPU probably is the reason.

A cooler does not work as I have one and it make NO appreciable difference since the MBA vents UP through the hinge.
 
BigMacUBC said:
Hi guys, I've looked around and apparently everyone's saying their macbook air runs really cool. The problem is, mines always warm... It usually doesn't get hot unless I'm watching a full screen video, but it's always warm. Is this normal?

Sorry forgot to mention I have the 13 inch base model.
Click to expand...

Is this full screen video flash?? Mine gets super hot and the fans kick into overdrive if I run flash video. I recommend click2flash. That way it mainly plays H.264 and only resorts to flash when there is no other option. And it keeps useless flash from even loading.
 
ZipZap said:
Anyone consider that for many of these units the internal thermal compound is simply bad or misapplied?

I have a 2010 MBA and is remains coole unless I am gaming. GPU probably is the reason.
Click to expand...

Well maybe, but most of us don't have the skills or tools to dismantle an air and assess the thermal compound.

My 2010 Air stays between 60-70 C after about 10 mins use on my lap - hitting 70+ if I do anything with flash even in chrome. I'm also running SMCFancontrol to increase the normal fanspeed from 2000RPM-3000RPM. I have itunes, sparrow, chrome and calibre open, but not actually doing much at any one time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back