Netflix Overheating -'12 11" Air... Lion

whyrichard · Aug 16, 2012

Hey,

I just got a new 11" macbook air, lovely machine. I haven't upgraded to Mountain lion yet as I want to wait for the battery issues to be resolved (are they fixed by deleting the desktop or dock plist files?)

... however, while watching netflix and browing the web at the same time with chrome, the air just froze. i had to do a hard restart. the fan was going full blast...

... what gives?

thanks,
r.

GGJstudios · Aug 16, 2012

whyrichard said:
I just got a new 11" macbook air, lovely machine. I haven't upgraded to Mountain lion yet as I want to wait for the battery issues to be resolved (are they fixed by deleting the desktop or dock plist files?)

... however, while watching netflix and browing the web at the same time with chrome, the air just froze. i had to do a hard restart. the fan was going full blast...

If your MBA was truly overheating, it would shut down. Use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of your battery, temps, fan speeds and much more.

For Flash-related issues:

Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available. Never install or update Flash from a pop-up on a website. Always go to Adobe's site to get Flash or updates.
Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
Try using the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available. (May impact fullscreen viewing. See link for details.) Some have reported better performance with HTML5, while some have reported worse. Try it and find out what works best for you.

N4n45h1 · Aug 16, 2012

I just picked up a mba 13in earlier this week and have noticed that Netflix, which uses Silverlight, runs much better on Safari on OSX. So you may want to give that a try. Also, if you look on the website, Chrome is not supported by Silverlight on OSX.

Fernandez21 · Aug 16, 2012

Netflix uses silverlight, not flash. Make sure you have the latest update, but silver light runs like crap, flash is ten times better. My 2011 11" airs runs fine while viewing flash, but if I load up netflix the fans hit full blast and my air gets very warm.

whyrichard · Aug 17, 2012

N4n45h1 said:
I just picked up a mba 13in earlier this week and have noticed that Netflix, which uses Silverlight, runs much better on Safari on OSX. So you may want to give that a try. Also, if you look on the website, Chrome is not supported by Silverlight on OSX.

good point... will try that on my next tv binge.

r.

mikeray · Aug 17, 2012

The exact same thing happened to me in Netflix. The video just froze while the audio kept running, and there was nothing I could do to do but turn the computer off.

This was on a newly bought 2011 11" running Lion.

Try upgrading to Mountain Lion as I don't think it has happened to me since the upgrade.

Cynicalone · Aug 17, 2012

My 2011 13" i7 model gets nice and warm while watching flash content. After a while the fans while spin up and usually stay on. It is perfectly normal.

Modern computers have protection built in where it is near impossible to actually damage them from overheating.

Some people on this forum play games on the MacBook Air that keep the machine at 95º to 100º celsius for hours without issue.

mbauser123 · Jan 17, 2013

hardware acceleration

I had the same problem with netflix and my macbook air. 2.0ghz, i7 8g ram. Just right click on the video playing in netflix, click on silverlight preferences. click on the playback tab and deselect enable hardware-accleration. My temps never get out of hand now. Before they'd soar to 190º F, now they're around 149º. I hope that helps.

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