One of my cores keeps shutting down?

Mr.Green · Feb 7, 2008, 01:32 PM

I noticed this morning that one of my cores shuts down during heavy load. This has never happened on my Macbook Pro. See attached jpg.

Anyone else have this problem?

Is it due to heat?

NAG · Feb 7, 2008, 01:34 PM

What were you doing at the time?

thejadedmonkey · Feb 7, 2008, 01:35 PM

Your MBA is (on average) around 60º+ hotter then my MBP is right now. Your fans are also on max... so yes, I'd say that's very possible.

NAG · Feb 7, 2008, 01:36 PM

Remember guys, temperature can be represented either in ºC or ºF (or kelvin, I suppose).

Your CPU is running about 20ºF higher than his is, by the way.

loghyr · Feb 7, 2008, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Green

Is it due to heat?

What utility are you using to get the temperature and fan speed?

I.e., I figured out how to get the Activity Monitor...

NAG · Feb 7, 2008, 02:16 PM

Widget called iStat Pro.

loghyr · Feb 7, 2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAG

Widget called iStat Pro.

Sweet, that was painless to install!

Eidorian · Feb 7, 2008, 02:36 PM

There was a knowledge base article about the MacBook Air shutting a core down to prevent overheating but it's no longer online.

MacBook Air: 3D graphics applications less responsive when CPU has been in heavy use for prolonged period

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

noodle654 · Feb 7, 2008, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Green

I noticed this morning that one of my cores shuts down during heavy load. This has never happened on my Macbook Pro. See attached jpg.

Anyone else have this problem?

Is it due to heat?

Could be the first major MBA problem?

I must say that 158* is pretty high...call up Apple.

Consultant · Feb 7, 2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAG

What were you doing at the time?

He is using it to encode movies. See ffmpeg/VisualHub

In addition, he has apps open for torrents, music, video(s), and browsing web.
Well, at least he's not trying to play Crysis at the same time. =p

Translation = full CPU usage = heat
Might want to get a laptop cooler...
I am thinking about building one with 120mm quiet fans instead of a store bought that are fairly loud.

Eidorian · Feb 7, 2008, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noodle654

Could be the first major MBA problem?

I must say that 158* is pretty high...call up Apple.

I'm sure you've never seen a Macbook or Mac mini hit 190° F then.

TEG · Feb 7, 2008, 03:42 PM

Most systems are not suppossed to get above 70c. The reason for the core shutdown is three fold, 1) to reduce heat, 2) to save power when not needed, 3) to save battery life when unplugged.

You should be able to deactivate this "feature" by selecting "maximum" as your processor speed in the energy saver preference pane.

TEG

steffi · Feb 7, 2008, 05:29 PM

Well you're running VisualHub when this happens right so it's not all surprising that that's happening really.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TEG

Most systems are not suppossed to get above 70c. The reason for the core shutdown is three fold, 1) to reduce heat, 2) to save power when not needed, 3) to save battery life when unplugged.

You should be able to deactivate this "feature" by selecting "maximum" as your processor speed in the energy saver preference pane.

TEG

mactastic1971 · Feb 7, 2008, 05:35 PM

I know the real memory looked small but there seemed to be ahelluva lot of virtual memory. Could that be swapping in and out causing IO wait or something ???

NAG · Feb 7, 2008, 05:47 PM

Nah, just because there is a lot of virtual memory allocated doesn't mean there is a lot of swapping going on. We'd have to see his memory tab to know more.

mactastic1971 · Feb 7, 2008, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAG

Nah, just because there is a lot of virtual memory allocated doesn't mean there is a lot of swapping going on. We'd have to see his memory tab to know more.

Its just I've seen issues in linux where it automatically caches virtual memory for the last used applications and it will keep doing this until all the real memory is used. Then if the kernel needs to do something, one of my other cpus can drop out...

Again... linux... not osx...

NAG · Feb 7, 2008, 05:54 PM

Yeah, I was just commenting that we need more information to say anything conclusive about that.

JasonBourne9 · Feb 7, 2008, 06:11 PM

Hmm... just discovered that watching streaming 720p episodes of Lost from the ABC site overloads the processor and causes intermittent core shutdown. Annoying because it then gets all choppy and unwatchable.

That's a shame.

Mr.Green · 10:14 PM

I was primarily encoding video using VisualHub for my iPhone, and downloading something with Transmission. The computer was sitting on a marble table in my hotel room.

On my Macbook Pro, I am able to run the processors at 100% all day long encoding video. The fans would spin up at max and be very noisy, but I could do it if I wanted and the cores have never shut down like this. My first Macbook Pro, the core 1 duo, would sometimes even reach 85-90 degrees C / 185-194 F. My rev 2, Macbook Pro doesn't ever get that hot.

The processor on my Air almost never even reached 100%. I would have expected in the Air, Apple should have tested it and designed it so it could run at 100% without overheating and triggering a CPU shutdown.

I love my Air, but I think this is a mistake. Apple does like to push the thermal envelope all the time and I think they went a bit too far. Hopefully there would be a software fix for this.

steffi · Feb 7, 2008, 10:56 PM

Anybody installed Menu Meters on the air so you can see this activity in the menu bar all the time? That would be rather revealing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Green

I was primarily encoding video using VisualHub for my iPhone, and downloading something with Transmission. The computer was sitting on a marble table in my hotel room.

On my Macbook Pro, I am able to run the processors at 100% all day long encoding video. The fans would spin up at max and be very noisy, but I could do it if I wanted and the cores have never shut down like this. My first Macbook Pro, the core 1 duo, would sometimes even reach 85-90 degrees C / 185-194 F. My rev 2, Macbook Pro doesn't ever get that hot.

The processor on my Air almost never even reached 100%. I would have expected in the Air, Apple should have tested it and designed it so it could run at 100% without overheating and triggering a CPU shutdown.

I love my Air, but I think this is a mistake. Apple does like to push the thermal envelope all the time and I think they went a bit too far. Hopefully there would be a software fix for this.

Eidorian · Feb 8, 2008, 11:41 AM

Seems like utilizing the processing power of the dual core processor is going to make it a single core anyways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Green

Hopefully there would be a software fix for this.

Hopefully it won't melt your laptop. Then again Apple changed the thermal tolerances and fan speeds for the G5 in Leopard.

*cough*Thicker laptop*cough*

Feb 7, 2008, 01:32 PM	#1
Mr.Green macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: EWR	One of my cores keeps shutting down? I noticed this morning that one of my cores shuts down during heavy load. This has never happened on my Macbook Pro. See attached jpg. Anyone else have this problem? Is it due to heat? Attached Thumbnails

Feb 7, 2008, 01:34 PM	#2
NAG macrumors 68000 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: /usr/local/apps/nageth	What were you doing at the time? __________________ "You call this archaeology?" • Professor Henry Jones

Feb 7, 2008, 01:35 PM	#3
thejadedmonkey macrumors 68040 Join Date: May 2005 Location: Pa	Your MBA is (on average) around 60º+ hotter then my MBP is right now. Your fans are also on max... so yes, I'd say that's very possible. Attached Images __________________ Mac Mini G4 • MacBook Pro • iPod Nano "Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement." - Mulla Nasrudin

Feb 7, 2008, 01:36 PM	#4
NAG macrumors 68000 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: /usr/local/apps/nageth	Remember guys, temperature can be represented either in ºC or ºF (or kelvin, I suppose). Your CPU is running about 20ºF higher than his is, by the way. __________________ "You call this archaeology?" • Professor Henry Jones

Feb 7, 2008, 02:16 PM	#6
NAG macrumors 68000 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: /usr/local/apps/nageth	Widget called iStat Pro. __________________ "You call this archaeology?" • Professor Henry Jones

Feb 7, 2008, 02:36 PM	#8
Eidorian macrumors G3 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Indiana	There was a knowledge base article about the MacBook Air shutting a core down to prevent overheating but it's no longer online. MacBook Air: 3D graphics applications less responsive when CPU has been in heavy use for prolonged period http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 __________________ MRoogle it! hikari T7500 2.2 GHz / 4 GB / 320 GB / GMA X3100 / 10.5.8 shinobu Core i5 750 2.66 GHz / 4 GB / 640 GB / 4830 / Windows 7

Feb 7, 2008, 03:42 PM	#12
TEG macrumors 601 Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Langley, Washington	Most systems are not suppossed to get above 70c. The reason for the core shutdown is three fold, 1) to reduce heat, 2) to save power when not needed, 3) to save battery life when unplugged. You should be able to deactivate this "feature" by selecting "maximum" as your processor speed in the energy saver preference pane. TEG __________________ Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation-Steve Jobs The Tegian Zone-Wikipedia

Feb 7, 2008, 05:35 PM	#14
mactastic1971 macrumors regular Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Bay Area, CA	I know the real memory looked small but there seemed to be ahelluva lot of virtual memory. Could that be swapping in and out causing IO wait or something ??? __________________ 2.6GHz Penryn MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Res Matte Bad Malloc! Very Bad Malloc!

Feb 7, 2008, 05:47 PM	#15
NAG macrumors 68000 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: /usr/local/apps/nageth	Nah, just because there is a lot of virtual memory allocated doesn't mean there is a lot of swapping going on. We'd have to see his memory tab to know more. __________________ "You call this archaeology?" • Professor Henry Jones

Feb 7, 2008, 05:54 PM	#17
NAG macrumors 68000 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: /usr/local/apps/nageth	Yeah, I was just commenting that we need more information to say anything conclusive about that. __________________ "You call this archaeology?" • Professor Henry Jones

Feb 7, 2008, 06:11 PM	#18
JasonBourne9 macrumors member Join Date: Jan 2008	Hmm... just discovered that watching streaming 720p episodes of Lost from the ABC site overloads the processor and causes intermittent core shutdown. Annoying because it then gets all choppy and unwatchable. That's a shame.

Feb 7, 2008, 10:08 PM	#19
Mr.Green Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: EWR	I was primarily encoding video using VisualHub for my iPhone, and downloading something with Transmission. The computer was sitting on a marble table in my hotel room. On my Macbook Pro, I am able to run the processors at 100% all day long encoding video. The fans would spin up at max and be very noisy, but I could do it if I wanted and the cores have never shut down like this. My first Macbook Pro, the core 1 duo, would sometimes even reach 85-90 degrees C / 185-194 F. My rev 2, Macbook Pro doesn't ever get that hot. The processor on my Air almost never even reached 100%. I would have expected in the Air, Apple should have tested it and designed it so it could run at 100% without overheating and triggering a CPU shutdown. I love my Air, but I think this is a mistake. Apple does like to push the thermal envelope all the time and I think they went a bit too far. Hopefully there would be a software fix for this. Last edited by Mr.Green : Feb 7, 2008 at 10:14 PM.

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