Windows 7 64bit Boot Camp Heating Up - Increase Fan Speed

Just got my 2010 mbp and had the same issue. After finding smcfancontrol for regulating the fan speed in osx, ive found that bootcamp/windows will maintain whatever speed you had the fans set at the last time you booted into osx. I usually keep mine around 2400rpm in osx, but if im going to boot into windows 7 i turn the fans up to about 3000-3400. If youre going to play a game you probably wanna go for at least 4000rpm.

I was suprised how hot these things get on the default fan speed. Mine never slowed, but it got to the point where it was painful to keep my hand pressed against the bottom if the machine was doing anything demanding. I usually read how theyre designed to be used on a table, but thats pretty rare for me. Seems like an oversight in my opinion. Other than that one issue, beautiful machine.

Hmm... sounds a little inefficient, no?

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Yeah, cant argue. Its my first mac, and it disappoints me since pc notebooks have fans that take care of themselves. Seems like a no brainer to make a nb that keeps it bottom case from getting scalding hot, maybe were holding it wrong

Anyway, the best ive come up with so far.

You're right on all counts. Fan control on mac hardware running Windows is poor, and your machine will over/heat. If you use Windows a lot, under heavy loads, or want your HD to last longer, fan management is a good idea.

As far as I am aware there is no Windows-only option for temperature monitoring and control. There are Windows-Windows apps which do this sort of thing, but they (reportedly) either don't work at all on mac hardware, or they do but inaccurately or partially - which is in most ways worse than nothing at all.

I use and have used smcfancontrol for a long time successfully, with the "restart trick" noted above. It works well. Somewhat inconvenient yes but it works which is an advantage over the alternatives.

I have heard of two other fan management apps, one of which was macbook/pro specific and maybe worked from within Windows? But I haven't heard of it in a long time so it may no longer be available and anyway I can't remember the name. Something you wouldn't expect like keyboard something. That's not much help is it.

Anyway, I suggest iStat or Temperature Monitore or similar under OSX to stay aware of the situation (when you reboot back into OSX after a Windows session you can get a rough idea of how hot things got), and smcfancontrol to keep temps low/er.

Re why Apple doesn't have better/proper fan/temp management automagically under Windows like it does under OSX - to be honest I don't think Apple is falling over itself to optomise our Windows experience. They released bootcamp because it was relatively easy to do and was a selling point; but it's not like they update it with the latest graphic drivers or make sure their bluetooth hardware works out of the box ie. there are a number of minor irritants with the thing. Just have to live with it or buy a PC, sadly.

2 graphics cards...don't forget!

Hey guys,
So I can safely say THIS is the problem with heat:

Don't forget, the macbook and macbook pro line have 2 graphics cards: the basic chipset for normal everyday use and the dedicated graphics card. HOWEVER! In windows, it uses the dedicated graphics card ALL THE TIME! So, this causes the heat to increase, causing the hot case. You can *somewhat* resolve this issue by using a fan control program, but it will still be hot. There's nothing that you can really do about it.

Thanks,
Marugby123

Excellent point by m123 which I knew but completely slipped my mind. I did know tho honest.

Heat is an issue for other mac hardware too tho video card setup notwithstanding, so heavy Windows users should give it a passing thought imo.

marugby123 said:

Hey guys,
So I can safely say THIS is the problem with heat:

Don't forget, the macbook and macbook pro line have 2 graphics cards: the basic chipset for normal everyday use and the dedicated graphics card. HOWEVER! In windows, it uses the dedicated graphics card ALL THE TIME! So, this causes the heat to increase, causing the hot case. You can *somewhat* resolve this issue by using a fan control program, but it will still be hot. There's nothing that you can really do about it.

Thanks,
Marugby123

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You're wrong in a few parts. MacBook line only has the integrated video solution; not an integrated+discrete option - same with the 13" MacBook Pro. OPs 13" MBP only has an integrated 9400M in there.

Whenever I am in Windows, the fans turn on just like they would in OS X. If I run a game, the fans start blasting. It doesn't depend on the fan settings from OS X...for me at least. To be honest, my MBP is cooler in Windows XP when I am playing Crysis than when I am in OS X using Handbrake with DVDs.

As for the temperature of the case, MBPs are made of aluminum, which is a fantastic conductor of heat, which means heat travels through it very easily. Most of the PC laptops I have used are made of plastic, which is a very poor conductor of heat, so heat travels through it at a very slow rate relative to aluminum. That's why MBPs feel so god damn hot most of the time. The internal temperatures are pretty similar to PC laptops, its just that the case is a greater medium for heat to pass through.

DesmoPilot said:

You're wrong in a few parts. MacBook line only has the integrated video solution; not an integrated+discrete option - same with the 13" MacBook Pro. OPs 13" MBP only has an integrated 9400M in there.

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I forgot that the macbook doesn't have both, but with macbook pro's do (15/17"). As for the 9400/9600 combo, I'm not as sure with that one cause I hadn't worked with those really.

Heat is an issue for other mac hardware too tho video card setup notwithstanding, so heavy Windows users should give it a passing thought imo.

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Correct. My best recommendation as far as the heat issue goes is this: If you can find a way to use everyday computing in OS X, do so. It's gonna be better in the long run. If not, then use windows if you don't mind the heat. Personally, I use OS X for everything except for most of my gaming (except Counterstrike and Team Fortress 2). That's when I use windows 7, where I expect the laptop to heat up.

Marugby123

manu08 said:

I rarely run Boot Camp but whenever I'm using Boot Camp on my 13" MBP [Summer 2009 model] it really heats up a lot. I generally use IE8 or Google Chrome, & the Zune software. Not much besides that to be honest, occasionally I used MediaMonkey as well.

Anyway, point is for some reason - regardless of programs running - the notebook appears to be getting extremely hot.

I want to increase the fan speed while in Boot Camp so it doesn't run so hot. Any ideas/recommendations as to do doing this?

In OS X [10.6] it works perfectly fine so definitely something related to Windows drivers but increasing the fan speed should remedy, no?

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Have you guys tried Lubbo's Fan Control for Windows?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lubbofancontrol/

Works fine for me and it's compatible with the MacBook Pro 13" models for monitoring temperature and automatically adjusting the fan speed. Before gaming in the Boot Camp drive I always start this utility to keep GPU temperatures down to below 80° C despite overclocking the 320M.

ssn637 said:

Have you guys tried Lubbo's Fan Control for Windows?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lubbofancontrol/

Works fine for me and it's compatible with the MacBook Pro 13" models for monitoring temperature and automatically adjusting the fan speed. Before gaming in the Boot Camp drive I always start this utility to keep GPU temperatures down to below 80° C despite overclocking the 320M.

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+1

thank you, I was looking for this software but I couldn't remember the name.