MacBook Pro overheating when monitor is in sleep [weird]

djmagma · Apr 2, 2013

Hello everybody,
this is my first post here but I am a long time Apple user (from 1995 until today).

Last summer, in August, I bought my new MBP 15" with non-Retina display, mid-2012 series which presents a very strange issue.

I investigated a lot on the problem, trying everything, without coming to a solution, unfortunately.
I've contacted Apple via Bug Report website, also, but they didn't reply yet.

The thing is quite simple to reproduce: when I put the monitor(s) to sleep, doesn't matter if only the integrated one or using also the external display attached to the Mac, the GPU becomes HOT, let's say hotter than when using the Mac normally. Isn't it strange?

How do I measure the temperature?
There are many softwares. I use two: Temperature Monitor and iStat Pro, which is a widget for the Dashboard.
I also use my hand!
If I go away from my desktop and leave the display going to sleep, or if I put it to sleep manually using a hot corner (it's the same, no difference), when I come back and touch the top case in the zone corresponding to the processor and the GPUs, it is uncomfortably hot.

When I use the MBP normally, like now, writing this post, with fifteen applications open (among which Photoshop) in the background the GPU is at only 48° and the top case slightly warm.

When I come back from sleep the sensors display temperatures that go from 60°C to 80°C !!!
It's absurd. Everybody knows that high temperatures are not healthy for electronic components and batteries.

I decided to investigate deeply, looking also into the logs, and I found, in /var/log/system.log the following excerpt just after coming back from sleep mode with the GPU working in some mysterious way:

Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28d for display 0x003f003e
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28e for display 0x003f003f
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local iTunes[1863]: 2013-03-18 12:56:46.834449 PM [AVSystemController] Stopping AirPlay
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local Dock[185]: CGSSetWindowAlpha: Invalid window 0x0

Then I booked an appointment to the Genius Bar, in my nearest Apple Store in Rome.

First time, after explaining the issue, they changed the fans (...).
No way, it didn't work (I had my doubts from the beginning it should do, anyway).

Second time I booked, they resetted SMC and PRAM (NVRAM), and gave me the MacBook Pro back.
It didn't work. I did the reset before going to the AS, by myself, at home.

Third time I booked, suspecting a hardware problem, they changed the whole logic board.
It didn't solve the problem.

I tested and reproduced the issue with the lastest release of Mac OSX, 10.8.3, with a clean install and no third party softwares installed. It happens not everytime the display goes to sleep, but almost everytime.

I also have done all the firmware updates, every time they came along in Software Update application from August 2012 since today.

I really don't know what else I can do, except writing to Apple Bug Reports and hope they read me and work on this.

Moreover, to understand if it's an issue related to the Intel HD Graphics 4000 card or to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M one I found and installed a simple software, gfxCardStatus, which allows you to bypass Apple automatic switch feature and choose manually which card to use.

I noticed that only using the most powerful card, the NVIDIA GeForce, the MacBook Pro becomes hot when the display is left alone and goes to sleep after the interval set in Energy Savings options.

Disabling the screensaver doesn't change anything.
Changing the period after which user's password is asked after waking the Mac from sleep changes nothing as well.

Useless to say, I need to leave my Mac turned on, because sometimes I have to access to it from another machine, and I also want to save energy and the life of my monitors putting them to sleep when I don't use them.

Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your attention so far.
Daniele

djmagma · Apr 3, 2013

any comment?

xShane · Apr 3, 2013

djmagma said:
Hello everybody,
this is my first post here but I am a long time Apple user (from 1995 until today).

Last summer, in August, I bought my new MBP 15" with non-Retina display, mid-2012 series which presents a very strange issue.

I investigated a lot on the problem, trying everything, without coming to a solution, unfortunately.
I've contacted Apple via Bug Report website, also, but they didn't reply yet.

The thing is quite simple to reproduce: when I put the monitor(s) to sleep, doesn't matter if only the integrated one or using also the external display attached to the Mac, the GPU becomes HOT, let's say hotter than when using the Mac normally. Isn't it strange?

How do I measure the temperature?
There are many softwares. I use two: Temperature Monitor and iStat Pro, which is a widget for the Dashboard.
I also use my hand!
If I go away from my desktop and leave the display going to sleep, or if I put it to sleep manually using a hot corner (it's the same, no difference), when I come back and touch the top case in the zone corresponding to the processor and the GPUs, it is uncomfortably hot.

When I use the MBP normally, like now, writing this post, with fifteen applications open (among which Photoshop) in the background the GPU is at only 48° and the top case slightly warm.

When I come back from sleep the sensors display temperatures that go from 60°C to 80°C !!!
It's absurd. Everybody knows that high temperatures are not healthy for electronic components and batteries.

I decided to investigate deeply, looking also into the logs, and I found, in /var/log/system.log the following excerpt just after coming back from sleep mode with the GPU working in some mysterious way:

Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28d for display 0x003f003e
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28e for display 0x003f003f
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local iTunes[1863]: 2013-03-18 12:56:46.834449 PM [AVSystemController] Stopping AirPlay
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local Dock[185]: CGSSetWindowAlpha: Invalid window 0x0

Then I booked an appointment to the Genius Bar, in my nearest Apple Store in Rome.

First time, after explaining the issue, they changed the fans (...).
No way, it didn't work (I had my doubts from the beginning it should do, anyway).

Second time I booked, they resetted SMC and PRAM (NVRAM), and gave me the MacBook Pro back.
It didn't work. I did the reset before going to the AS, by myself, at home.

Third time I booked, suspecting a hardware problem, they changed the whole logic board.
It didn't solve the problem.

I tested and reproduced the issue with the lastest release of Mac OSX, 10.8.3, with a clean install and no third party softwares installed. It happens not everytime the display goes to sleep, but almost everytime.

I also have done all the firmware updates, every time they came along in Software Update application from August 2012 since today.

I really don't know what else I can do, except writing to Apple Bug Reports and hope they read me and work on this.

Moreover, to understand if it's an issue related to the Intel HD Graphics 4000 card or to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M one I found and installed a simple software, gfxCardStatus, which allows you to bypass Apple automatic switch feature and choose manually which card to use.

I noticed that only using the most powerful card, the NVIDIA GeForce, the MacBook Pro becomes hot when the display is left alone and goes to sleep after the interval set in Energy Savings options.

Disabling the screensaver doesn't change anything.
Changing the period after which user's password is asked after waking the Mac from sleep changes nothing as well.

Useless to say, I need to leave my Mac turned on, because sometimes I have to access to it from another machine, and I also want to save energy and the life of my monitors putting them to sleep when I don't use them.

Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your attention so far.
Daniele

Do you have any USB devices plugged in?

djmagma said:
any comment?

Please do not self-bump threads (just a heads up).

djmagma · Apr 3, 2013

xShane said:
Do you have any USB devices plugged in?

Thanks for replying.
The MBP mis-behaves as I described before either if the USB chain is connected, or if everything is disconnected, including the AC adapter.

xShane · Apr 3, 2013

djmagma said:
Thanks for replying.
The MBP mis-behaves as I described before either if the USB chain is connected, or if everything is disconnected, including the AC adapter.

I'm not sure, honestly. It seems that you exhausted every option.

Your best bet is to take it back to an Apple Genius, explain everything, and show that this is your FOURTH time taking it in (for the same issue). Your chances of a complete replacement are high.

djmagma · Apr 4, 2013

xShane said:
I'm not sure, honestly. It seems that you exhausted every option.

Your best bet is to take it back to an Apple Genius, explain everything, and show that this is your FOURTH time taking it in (for the same issue). Your chances of a complete replacement are high.

Thanks a lot, I'll try this way...

Queen6 · Apr 4, 2013

Use gfxCardStatus and look at the dependencies, and application is clearly triggering the Nvidia GPU. You may be surprised at what applications can call for the more powerful graphics card, one for me was a VPM helper application due to it`d user interface. the application had no need of the Nvidia GPU, however it`s interface would trigger the GPU switch and temperatures would escalate for no real reason. An email to the development team resolved the issue.

I would recommend Bresink`s Temperature Monitor for trouble shooting temperature related issues and UltraFan to take control of the cooling. As you have already had the majority of hardware changed and still have the same symptoms i would tend to look carefully on the software side and the settings.

The Nvidia GPU will always trigger and switch when an external display is plugged in, and 70C - 80C is not unrealistic, here UltraFan will help, with a manual setting of 65C fans will spool up more aggressively preventing thermal saturation. My own Late 2011 2.4 15" MBP struggles with temperature when the external display is in use, right now it`s temperature is 60C with UltraFan and no external display, with the display connected the temperature will rise significantly without UltraFan keeping control of the temperature. With UltraFan of and the discrete GPU on the temperature rises by more than 10C, with external display far more. Under Apple`s cooling algorithm the fans will not react, with UltraFan the fans will spool up and cool the system, also look at elevating the rear of the MBP for greater airflow.

djmagma · Apr 4, 2013

Queen6 said:
Use gfxCardStatus and look at the dependencies, and application is clearly triggering the Nvidia GPU. You may be surprised at what applications can call for the more powerful graphics card, one for me was a VPM helper application due to it`d user interface. the application had no need of the Nvidia GPU, however it`s interface would trigger the GPU switch and temperatures would escalate for no real reason. An email to the development team resolved the issue.

I would recommend Bresink`s Temperature Monitor for trouble shooting temperature related issues and UltraFan to take control of the cooling. As you have already had the majority of hardware changed and still have the same symptoms i would tend to look carefully on the software side and the settings.

The Nvidia GPU will always trigger and switch when an external display is plugged in, and 70C - 80C is not unrealistic, here UltraFan will help, with a manual setting of 65C fans will spool up more aggressively preventing thermal saturation. My own Late 2011 2.4 15" MBP struggles with temperature when the external display is in use, right now it`s temperature is 60C with UltraFan and no external display, with the display connected the temperature will rise significantly without UltraFan keeping control of the temperature. With UltraFan of and the discrete GPU on the temperature rises by more than 10C, with external display far more. Under Apple`s cooling algorithm the fans will not react, with UltraFan the fans will spool up and cool the system, also look at elevating the rear of the MBP for greater airflow.

Thanks for replying.
Let's go in order.

This malfunctioning could be depending on:

a hardware related problem (i.e.: the integrated monitor, or some internal connector);
a software issue related to an OSX bug;
a software issue related to a third party software.

I know and I've been using Temperature Monitor for years.
Since it's not fully compatible with my Mac, two days ago I bought another monitor in the Mac App Store, which name is Temperature Gauge (at the cost of about 5).

It returns me the same values as the ones registered by Temperature Monitor, plus some more informations about other SMC sensors that TM couldn't read.

I know about the application dependencies (GfxCardStatus); as I said in my first post, my MacBookPro becomes hot randomly (= not always) when the monitor(s) go to sleep, sometimes just after that and, sometimes, after an unpredictable amount of time.

I come back to my desktop and find the temperature (GPU 1 Diode is the highest sensor) at 70° and more, with the top registered value of 83° C.

I don't like it at all!

Logging into my Mac via SSH from another device, launching "top" I cannot see any evidence of processes consuming much CPU.

Executing Temperature Monitor via terminal,

/Applications/Utilities/TemperatureMonitor.app/Contents/MacOS/tempmonitor -c -l -a

I see that the temperature relative to the GPU are actually high.

I reproduced this situation also booting from a CLEAN installation of Mac OSX 10.8.3, all the firmware updates done, with or without the external monitor attached (but selecting the NVIDIA manually with GfxCardStatus), using only battery or AC power adapter.
No programs opened except Temperature Monitor and GfxCardStatus (I specify that I discovered the latter investigating on this problem; my Mac would become hot even before installing it).

I am really tired, don't really know what else I can do apart from trying to ask for a complete replacement.

Thank you everybody for your help.

Queen6 · Apr 4, 2013

djmagma said:
Thanks for replying.
Let's go in order.

This malfunctioning could be depending on:

a hardware related problem (i.e.: the integrated monitor, or some internal connector);

a software issue related to an OSX bug;

a software issue related to a third party software.

I know and I've been using Temperature Monitor for years.
Since it's not fully compatible with my Mac, two days ago I bought another monitor in the Mac App Store, which name is Temperature Gauge (at the cost of about 5).

It returns me the same values as the ones registered by Temperature Monitor, plus some more informations about other SMC sensors that TM couldn't read.

I know about the application dependencies (GfxCardStatus); as I said in my first post, my MacBookPro becomes hot randomly (= not always) when the monitor(s) go to sleep, sometimes just after that and, sometimes, after an unpredictable amount of time.

I come back to my desktop and find the temperature (GPU 1 Diode is the highest sensor) at 70° and more, with the top registered value of 83° C.

I don't like it at all!

Logging into my Mac via SSH from another device, launching "top" I cannot see any evidence of processes consuming much CPU.

Executing Temperature Monitor via terminal,

/Applications/Utilities/TemperatureMonitor.app/Contents/MacOS/tempmonitor -c -l -a

I see that the temperature relative to the GPU are actually high.

I reproduced this situation also booting from a CLEAN installation of Mac OSX 10.8.3, all the firmware updates done, with or without the external monitor attached (but selecting the NVIDIA manually with GfxCardStatus), using only battery or AC power adapter.
No programs opened except Temperature Monitor and GfxCardStatus (I specify that I discovered the latter investigating on this problem; my Mac would become hot even before installing it).

I am really tired, don't really know what else I can do apart from trying to ask for a complete replacement.

Thank you everybody for your help.

I also have a Mid 2012 Retina (2.3) and it is without any doubt the coolest running Mac I have owned and we are going back about the same in time. I too would be concerned with the GPU temperatures that you are describing. On my own Retina the only time I see temperatures in this region (85C) is when I play the occasional game presently "The Witcher 2", now this is one of the most taxing games graphically for OS X with it set on highest setting only then does my Retina`s GPU reach mid 80`s centigrade, equally it`s difficult to compare as both my Late 2011 & Mid 2012 15: MBP`s have significantly different architecture to your Mid 2012 standard MBP.

What confuses me is that the logic board has already been replaced, which would lead one to rule out a hardware issue. If it was only while connected to the external display, it would be the point of focus. As you have already done a clean install and still have the same issue I tend to agree that going back to Apple and asking for the unit to be replace is not unreasonable, however i fear they may prefer to effect repair.

I know that this this is unrelated, equally it may be relevant: during the Nvidia GT8600M fiasco my own Late 2008 MBP had no issue, nor does it to this day, however my corporate Dell went through five Motherboards before IT simply replaced it as it was costing significantly more in my time than the Notebook. When i spoke with one of Dell`s on site "engineers" he told me that all the replacement Motherboards were refurbished and that this is a common practise in the industry. I know from my own industry (energy O&G) that refurbished boards in general are 7-10 times more likely to fail in use. In the facilities that I managed I simply instructed the technical staff to junk and replace with new, I can safely say that many of these boards far exceeded the cost of any Mac portable, the relevant question is what is Apple`s policy?

Slender- · Sep 1, 2013

Daniele--any resolution?

I started noticing the same correlation a few months ago--putting the display to sleep dramatically increased the operating temperature.

--Screensaver, no effect
--Normal operation, no effect
--Using external monitor via Thunderbold, no effect

Only sleeping the display causes the temps to rise.

For example, right now I'm running Firefox to write this, Thunderbird is open in the background, and the external display is active. Temp 42C.

Now...I've just put the display to sleep for 5 minutes and have come back. Temp now 52C. In the time it took me to write the previous sentence the temp dropped to 50C. Now 48C.

I use UltraFan set at 55C. I realize this is rather low but I'm paranoid about bloody heat.

Anyway, was the issue resolved for you?

(Incidentally, I'm also a long-time user--1995--and also got unknowingly stuck with one of the dreaded 2008 MBPs, which failed just after the 4-year extended warranty expired. The $310 flat-rate motherboard replacement has continued to work well now for a year, though.)

Cheers.

P.S. Temp now 44C.

djmagma · Sep 1, 2013

Slender- said:
Daniele--any resolution?

I started noticing the same correlation a few months ago--putting the display to sleep dramatically increased the operating temperature.

--Screensaver, no effect
--Normal operation, no effect
--Using external monitor via Thunderbold, no effect

Only sleeping the display causes the temps to rise.

For example, right now I'm running Firefox to write this, Thunderbird is open in the background, and the external display is active. Temp 42C.

Now...I've just put the display to sleep for 5 minutes and have come back. Temp now 52C. In the time it took me to write the previous sentence the temp dropped to 50C. Now 48C.

I use UltraFan set at 55C. I realize this is rather low but I'm paranoid about bloody heat.

Anyway, was the issue resolved for you?

(Incidentally, I'm also a long-time user--1995--and also got unknowingly stuck with one of the dreaded 2008 MBPs, which failed just after the 4-year extended warranty expired. The $310 flat-rate motherboard replacement has continued to work well now for a year, though.)

Cheers.

P.S. Temp now 44C.

Hello Slender, thanks for your contribution.

The situation here is exactly the same, yet.

Having replaced the logic board, I'm sure it is a software issue, that I really HOPE will be fixed in the next release of OSX, Mavericks, scheduled for release in fall 2013.

Best regards from Rome and a long time user like you (we are both Mac users from 1995

).
Daniele

P.S. Temp now is 54C - you're a lucky guy.

Slender- · Sep 1, 2013

djmagma said:
P.S. Temp now is 54C - you're a lucky guy.

Maybe it helps that I am hiding from the August heat in a nicely air conditioned room...

I still sometimes use an old G5 DP Tower that in the winter can heat the room by itself.

Cheers.

Slender- · Sep 16, 2013

Upgraded to 10.8.5 today.

No change.

Slender- · Oct 31, 2013

Upgraded to Mavericks. Brief testing suggests a big improvement.

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MacBook Pro overheating when monitor is in sleep [weird]

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