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15-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Users Experiencing Fan Issues Related to SanDisk SSDs?

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iSunrise said:
Apart from some possible issues with the cooling system itself (firmware, sensors or fan curve) or SSDs or whatever, I find it quite telling that some people really complain about "fan issues" on such thin laptops like the Macbook Pro Retinas that have a powerful dual-core CPU/GPU and on the 15" models, they even have a discrete Nvidia GPU in them.

Guys. You bought a Macbook Pro Retina where the screen alone needs a lot of constant GPU power to feed it and thus the cooling system needs to work a lot harder than in a conventional Macbook Pro. Second, you bought a Macbook that is so thin that there´s even more compromises involved into cooling them.

It seems no one really cares or questions WHY this may be a bad thing for a Pro laptop. But because everyone always wants to have the newest and best marketed products from Apple, they are bought without afterthought, and after some usage heat issues arise where everyone suddenly wakes up and realizes that heat still has to be dissipated out of the casing and with laptops that are as thin as the Retinas are, the fans and cooling system can barely keep up to the job.
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You don't seem to understand the problem, like many others. The fans, sometimes, kicks in even though the temperature IS LOW (monitored in different ways, so I am absolutely sure that it is low), the CPU load is LOW and the GPU load is LOW. So could we please stop seeing posts speculating about the demand of retina screens, the casing dimensions to small, etc...?

I have used mac laptops (and others) for several years and something is clearly wrong. I have apple care and have not contacted them yet, will see if it is a software issue that can be resolved with an update, before replacing the machine.
 
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This thread is starting to become the complete Apple coverage thread!

As I said earlier I'm in a position where I NEED a new laptop (buying tomorrow morning) so I'll be happy to report my experience!
 
HarryKNN21 said:
Umm, so you expect a product designed in the USA and ASSEMBLED IN CHINA to be perfect?
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Yes I'm sorry but I do expect it to be perfect. Why? Because I'm paying top dollar. The MBP-R must be just about the most expensive laptop on the market. It's the old adage that you get what you pay for. If I pay top dollar I expect premium quality. If I bought a Bang & Olufsen TV for a lot of money I would expect that to be perfect to.

I don't think the designed in US assembled in China has much to do with it. The problem is that Apple is trying to cut corners to maximise their profit margins and it's us the customers who are suffering. They use inferior SanDisk SSD instead of Samsung because they have a petty squabble with Samsung. They obviously don't sufficiently test new/updated products because they want to get them on the market as quickly as possible to keep the tills ringing.

Apple need to ask themselves some hard questions. Are they a mass market computer maker in which case they need to lower their prices and ok we accept some faults or are they a premium computer maker in which case we expect better quality if we pay more.

Top prices + poor quality = unhappy customers and eventually lower sales
 
--AG-- said:
s

You don't seem to understand the problem, like many others. The fans, sometimes, kicks in even though the temperature IS LOW (monitored in different ways, so I am absolutely sure that it is low), the CPU load is LOW and the GPU load is LOW. So could we please stop seeing posts speculating about the demand of retina screens, the casing dimensions to small, etc...?

I have used mac laptops (and others) for several years and something is clearly wrong. I have apple care and have not contacted them yet, will see if it is a software issue that can be resolved with an update, before replacing the machine.
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I don´t talk about the problems in this thread. My post was a more general answer to people expecting the same cooling performance from a thinner enclosure. Read it again please.
 
Small form factor = more heat

That's what happens when a "sexy design" matters more than a proper ventilation. When every generation of Apple devices gets smaller and thinner, one should not be surprised that components malfunction due to overheating. That's of course not Apple's problem given a 1-year warranty.
 
Fan Noise Fix

Maybe not relevant but my G5 tower used to do this. The fix was to go into the System Preferences Control Panel>Energy Saver>Options>Processor Performance>change to Reduced.
 
Krauser said:
And I don't realize if you've noticed, but this is pretty much the first unibody MacBook to feature intakes on it in a location other than the rear. It has quite an extensive side ventilation system which draws in cool air, something the last generation unibody machines did not have. In my experience, this allows the computer to be cooler overall under load.
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Yes, that extensive ventilation system is needed because it´s thinner. We´re slowly getting there...

If you had such an extensive one in the older Macbooks, they would run even cooler. You don´t seem to get my point. I am not arguing about how bad it is or that it´s worse. I am saying that if your enclosure offers more volume, you have a much easier time cooling your components down with lower spinning fans compared to a tiny enclosure that has barely any space for a good cooling system. Also, one major negative of drawing in air is that the laptop will also build up even more dust inside. Do the Macbooks Pros actually have some kind of dust protection at their intakes? Probably not, but nothing is perfect, right?

I want a professional laptop to be cool to the touch and not burn my fingers and last about 3-5 years. Especially if it´s over 2000 EUR/$2000. We could of course argue that 3 years is enough, but not every company can shell out that much money every 3 years.

I hope the next generation fixes some of that, but I am not hoping for too much. I think the main improvements are going to be coming from a much improved TDP of the new Haswell chips and potentially (when LG is ready for it and the yields are finally approaching a level to mass-produce them) IGZO screens.
 
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iSunrise said:
I don´t talk about the problems in this thread. My post was a more general answer to people expecting the same cooling performance from a thinner enclosure. Read it again please.
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My retina mbp runs cooler than my previous mbps. The cooling performance is not an issue and not the topic of this thread.
 
To be fair its not like Samsung are known for their high quality SSD's anyway.

Sandforce driven OWC drive is much better than the Samsung blade that comes in the rMBP - id be always tempted to swap it out.
 
Well I took the plunge and bought a maxed out retina!

Initial impressions are...wow! I'm thrilled. I got the Samsung SSD and screen. The screen is simply stunning and definitely no problems there. I haven't heard the fans yet, though it's still early days. Under light use (all I've done) they're practically silent. It's my first all flash computer so it was a shock at not only how quickly but how quietly it boots.

Honestly, even if I did notice the fan issue I don't think it'd be enough for me to return the machine. But I've got two weeks to make that call.
 
2013 rMBP 2.4 Retina SD256

Opened it last night. The fan went full blast 7 times in 3 hours. Wasn't doing anything on it other than browsing and downloading my audio software. Nothing crazy. Reset PRAM and SMC. Blew wind again. This morning reading NYTimes... fan went full blast twice.

I'm done. Taking it back. I have never been so un excited about an Apple purchase ever. I've been a user since 1991 of Apple. Heck I even worked for them for a bit.

Had Apple support call me. After the 1 prompt to talk to someone it hung up. TWICE. Then 45 later two back to back calls, one said there are MANY OPTIONS TO PROCEED. pfft. The other guy was like... oh take it to the Apple Store. WHAT THE HECK. $2200 for this?
 
iSunrise said:
Guys. You bought a Macbook Pro Retina where the screen alone needs a lot of constant GPU power to feed it and thus the cooling system needs to work a lot harder than in a conventional Macbook Pro. Second, you bought a Macbook that is so thin that there´s even more compromises involved into cooling them.
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Do you own one? I do. It runs mostly quiet and cool most of the time. It is cooler and quieter than my previous MacBook. It only gets hot when you'd expect, running 3D games, video editing and the like. Even when the fans are at full pelt it's a lot quieter than my old machine.

Noisy fans and hot-to-the-touch are not the norm for a regular rMBP.

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maxosx said:
I said exactly what I mean. Yes Apple's quality control is in decline.
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SMC/EFI style firmware errors are as old as the hills. I had a nasty one on my old MacBook. Apple provided an updated eventually that fixed it. Not everyone will experience these problems.

It's under warranty. It should be taken into Apple for a repair.
 
jowie said:
Do you own one? I do. It runs mostly quiet and cool most of the time. It is cooler and quieter than my previous MacBook. It only gets hot when you'd expect, running 3D games, video editing and the like. Even when the fans are at full pelt it's a lot quieter than my old machine.

Noisy fans and hot-to-the-touch are not the norm for a regular rMBP.
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No, but I want to buy one. I throughfully test every hardware I buy beforehand and even though the current Macbook Pro Retinas seems good in pure specs, I want a bit more. I´m in the market for a Haswell one.

I also may skip that completely depending on whether my next job offers me to choose one to buy for work, so I can also use it at home. But if that´s not going to happen then I will surely buy one. I work a lot with VMs (I´m an IT Infrastructure Specialist, aka. IT Systems Engineer) so I need all the power and RAM I can get with it.
 
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iSunrise said:
No, but I want to buy one. I throughfully test every hardware I buy beforehand and even though the current Macbook Pro Retinas seems good in pure specs, I want a bit more. I´m in the market for a Haswell one.
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If that's the case, then obviously wait for what suits you. But you can be sure that although there are some issues for some people with the 2nd gen rMBPs, it's not a thermal design flaw. The fans are going mental because there's a firmware issue.
 
jowie said:
If that's the case, then obviously wait for what suits you. But you can be sure that although there are some issues for some people with the 2nd gen rMBPs, it's not a thermal design flaw. The fans are going mental because there's a firmware issue.
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It may not be a flaw in general (the outcry would be a lot more wide-spread in that case), but I find it kind of strange that so many people have problems with the cooling system of theirs. And I don´t want to be the beta tester for a product well over $2000. I wonder if it´s related to the recent change from Apple, when they reduced the prices on the Macbook Pros. I get a bit paranoid when that happens, because a company would not reduce prices to lower their margins like that if not for a very good reason. So either they didn´t sell that well or they have included some other changes with it (cheaper components or contracts for like Sandisk SSDs, other system changes...).
 
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iSunrise said:
It may not be a flaw in general (the outcry would be a lot more wide-spread in that case), but I find it kind of strange that so many people have problems with the cooling system of theirs. And I don´t want to be the beta tester for a product well over $2000. I wonder if it´s related to the recent change from Apple, when they reduced the prices on the Macbook Pros. I get a bit paranoid when that happens, because a company would not reduce prices to lower their margins like that if not for a very good reason. So either they didn´t sell that well or they have included some other changes with it (cheaper components or contracts for like Sandisk SSDs, other system changes...).
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I'd be surprised if Apple would make any new internal design changes for a minor speed bump release. But I guess iFixIt will have those answers soon.
 
After a couple of days and probably at least 12 hours of use I still haven't heard any fans ever, the machine is silent. Definitely no full-speed blasting. I think it's safe to say I'm in the clear.

Once again, mine was maxed out 2.8/768/16 with Samsung SSD.
 
I continue to see this problem myself which happens at least once daily when i'm using the machine doing very low CPU intensive tasks. When it happens I notice increased threads and higher CPU usage for "kernel_task" while the fans are rotating at a higher RPM. I use the wonderful program menumeters to monitor system activity. This issue continues to happen even when using the latest beta 10.8.3 (12D78). I believe this is some sort of software issue that will be resolved by a software update or some sort of firmware I hope :)

My is the 2013 rMBP with the SanDisk SSD and my LCD shows: LSN154YL01001 DLM250700R0F49HBT

No issue with the LCD (ghosting) as of right now.

-Mike
 
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I got my Macbook Pro yesterday and it is perfect. I have the Sandisk 512GB SSD and a Samsung perfect display. The laptop is extremely quiet. I am impressed.
 
My take

I purchased a maxed out 15" MPB Retina (2.8GHz, 16GB Memory, 768GB Flash Storage) on February 13th . . . so I've had it for a little under a month, and love it. Display is beautiful, and its faster than the early 2008 MacPro 2.8 - 8 Core it's replacing.

I've been using it in clam shell running my old 30" Cinema Display, about 99% of the time. I use it all day everyday for work. Almost zero problems. Haven't even restarted it in a couple weeks.

I say almost zero problems because of a slight fan issue. I suspect it's caused by the problem others our experiencing. Whenever I transfer a large file (maybe 300-500MB) via GroupLogics MassTransit (one of my clients use this, so I'm forced to . . . it's some sort of web based ftp thing?) the fan ramps up. As soon as the file has finished uploading/transferring , the fans spin down. This is the only time I've ever heard them. It does this every time I use MassTransit. I use Fetch most of the time, and it never happens when sending files with Fetch . . . only the web based MassTransit.

Not sure if this will help, but I've been following the thread since it appeared on MacRumors, so i thought I'd share my experience.
 
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