Is my mac too hot?

To me that seems to be average for idle. Nothing seems to be overheating.

Secondly I would suggest you not reapply the thermal paste, you could really damage you Mac if you don't know what your doing.

It looks like you have a faulty enclosure temperature sensor. The enclosure bottom temperature is reading wrong - it should be 30 to 35 C.

Error readings like this can cause the Mac to go into fail safe mode where it runs the fans at full speed.

The enclosure temperature sensors are very cheap. It might even just need plugging in again. Has anyone opened your Mac recently?

Also I think you have iStat Menus (if that is what you are using) set up wrong. The temperature being reported in the menu bar is 36 C which is the HDD temperature. Your CPU is at 61 C. You can change what the menu bar shows by reconfiguring iStat.

IMHO applying AS5 is not worthwhile. Why? Look at the temperature difference between your CPU and your heatsink. It's only 5 or 6 C. That means there is pretty good thermal contact between the two. Your Apple-applied thermal paste is doing its job well. I doubt that applying AS5 would significantly improve your CPU temperatures either at idle or at full load.

But having said all that, if your fans are at 6000 rpm your CPU (and heatsinks) should be cooler than that. It may be that you have a blockage in the air flow (dust?). I would expect to see CPU and heatsink temperatures of 50-60 C with the fans at 2000 rpm.

So I think
- your fans are at 6000 rpm because of the faulty temperature sensor
- AS5 not worth it, thermal contact between CPU and heatsink looks OK at the moment
- you may have a blocked airflow, your CPU & heatsink should be cooler at 6000 rpm.

hope that helps!

Are you running your computer with the battery out?

36ºC is roughly human body temperature. relatively cool for your HDD temp. 61ºC is your CPU temp, which is average. Mine usually runs around 55-65ºC. I'd tone down your fans though, 6000 RPM will really suck down your battery. There's software to do that, I use smcfancontrol to keep mine running around 1700. You're probably fine without Arctic Silver, unless your CPU has become loose or is consistently up above 70ºC.

The -128ºC is because the Macbook actually produces liquid helium. Just kidding Temperature software is usually designed for both Macbook and Macbook Pro. Macbooks only have two temperature sensors (I think) while the Pros have three (one extra fan in there too). Since there's no data feeding to it, it spits out a negative value.

Also, make sure you turn your backlight off before putting it in clamshell. The heat it puts out adds to the heat of the Macbook, and the extra heat can severely damage your LCD screen if left closed for two long.

johnnyham said:

Also, make sure you turn your backlight off before putting it in clamshell. The heat it puts out adds to the heat of the Macbook, and the extra heat can severely damage your LCD screen if left closed for two long.

Click to expand...

This is not true. In clamshell mode, neither the backlight or the LCD itself will (or should) turn on, so there is no need to kill the backlight. Anytime I am doing anything heavy on mine in clamshell, I actually open the lid, but it still stays in clamshell mode with display off, but is able to let extra heat out.

alex.purple.mac said:

When you said that about liquid helium i was like WTF?! LOL.

And i have that smc fan control but as far as i can tell you can only control the minimum, not the maximum?

Click to expand...

Are you running your laptop without it's battery?

And yes, that's true about SMC.

alust2013 said:

This is not true. In clamshell mode, neither the backlight or the LCD itself will (or should) turn on, so there is no need to kill the backlight. Anytime I am doing anything heavy on mine in clamshell, I actually open the lid, but it still stays in clamshell mode with display off, but is able to let extra heat out.

Click to expand...

I use InsomniaX to keep mine running in clamshell rather than having it hooked up to an external monitor and waking it up via USB. InsomniaX leaves the backlight on, so I always have to remember to turn the backlight off. Sorry for the lack of clarification.

alex.purple.mac said:

And i have that smc fan control but as far as i can tell you can only control the minimum, not the maximum?

Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right you can only control the minimum speed. I had it confused with the FanControl preference pane. That lets you set a minimum and maximum temperature, essentially let you set a maximum and minimum fan speed.

johnnyham said:

I use InsomniaX to keep mine running in clamshell rather than having it hooked up to an external monitor and waking it up via USB. InsomniaX leaves the backlight on, so I always have to remember to turn the backlight off. Sorry for the lack of clarification.

Click to expand...

InsomniaX did the same thing for me. Now part of my LCD is burnt out (only mildly). Try Sleepless, it does a far better job than InsomniaX.

tristangage said:

InsomniaX did the same thing for me. Now part of my LCD is burnt out (only mildly). Try Sleepless, it does a far better job than InsomniaX.

Click to expand...

Except Sleepless costs $9.50. As a student paying off loans, I'll stick with any freeware I can find.

alex.purple.mac said:

Ye i am using it without its battery. This may be why its reading -128 degrees all of a sudden, because its never done this before.

Im assuming it wont do any damage to my mac running it without its battery, i wouldve thought it would be better for the battery to just run the mac off the mains?

Click to expand...

I don't think it will do any damage, but

- I believe the CPU runs slower when on battery (use Google, the Apple site will confirm this). Because the power supply can't always provide enough power for high CPU load spikes, the CPU power/speed is turned down

- I doubt it will make your battery last longer. When your battery is fully charged the Mac stops applying power to it, the battery just "floats" without any volts being applied to it. So leaving the battery fully charged & inside the Mac is no different to taking it out

Your battery should last ages without you worrying about it. There is a small chance it will fail early, but I think most last years and years without any special treatment.

Apple's batteries are built with a microprocessor in there that tells the computer how much charge is left, how long to charge it, etc. Once it hits 100%, it pretty much closes the power flood gates, so there's no need to take it out.

I remember there being a lot of hype about people leaving their batteries out of like their Thinkbooks to extend life, but that was because those batteries were poorly designed. Once they reach 100%, the computer kept feeding them a slight trickle charge, which, over time, will reduce its life. I bought a replacement battery for my first Macbook (early 2006) back in January 2008, and it's still kicking strong with 5 hours of battery life. I keep it charged up along with my extra battery so I always have two fully charged batteries just incase I get stuck on a ten hour layover

alex.purple.mac said:

Ye i am using it without its battery. This may be why its reading -128 degrees all of a sudden, because its never done this before.

Im assuming it wont do any damage to my mac running it without its battery, i wouldve thought it would be better for the battery to just run the mac off the mains?

Click to expand...

That is why your temperature reading is so wrong then. I would recommend putting the battery back in, as others have explained in this thread - the two posters above me are correct.

I've noticed when the battery is fully charged and still plugged in my comp gets a bit warm to the left side of the trackpad(where the battery ios) taking it out really cools it down. I just figured it was because the battery was refusing energy, so this energy was just dissipated as heat.

Anyone else notice a warm... fully charged battery?

unixperience said:

I've noticed when the battery is fully charged and still plugged in my comp gets a bit warm to the left side of the trackpad(where the battery ios) taking it out really cools it down. I just figured it was because the battery was refusing energy, so this energy was just dissipated as heat.
Anyone else notice a warm... fully charged battery?

Click to expand...

The battery doesn't generate heat like the CPU and GPU. Also, it is not recommended to run your Mac on the A/C adaptor with the battery out (Of course, this only applies to removable batteries).

-128 degrees? Don't put that on your lap!