17" Unibody under Vista64.. I was told it would be hot but... WOW!

[simonpickard]

Hello all,

Just wondering if someone could offer advice here. I've read a few threads but am a bit lost and as this is my first Mac I was wondering if someone could help.

I've installed Vista64, went well. All working great.

However it's SO hot, to the left of the palmrest and down the back of the keyboard near where the screen is you can hardly touch it.

I installed something called Smart Fan after do a search here and that's come back as..

GPU 67C
Core 0: 52C
Core 1: 52C

This is at rest. Just wondering if this is normal or not?
I can't hear the fans spinning up so I can't tell if it's normal or not? I've read that people do have problems with the fans?

Also is there anything I can install in windows to allow me to control the fan speeds? Smart fan doesn't seem to do this?

Under OSX it's fine by the way. Very cool.

I have the Unibody 17" 2.93

If anyone can help I'd be most grateful!

Regards,
Simon

 

[pyromaniaque]

Install a fan control software. By default, macbook pro fans run at their lowest speed.

 

[simonpickard]

Any ideas which one is best?

I've tired to use smart fan but that doesn't seem to work?

Regards,
Simon

 

[Sesshi]

Bad drivers - what's new on an Apple running Boot Camp?

Fan control apps will help. Sourcing as many non-Apple-provided drivers as you can may also help.

 

[ayeying]

How is that hot? That's my average temperature in OSX. I thought when you meant hot, it would be like 90 deg C for CPU or something

 

[ViciousShadow21]

there seems to be a lot of discrepancy between what is normal operating temperature. ayeying you say that your computer runs normally at a high temp with out the fans coming on, but other ppls run at that same temp with the fans coming on. i wonder why this is?

 

[ayeying]

there seems to be a lot of discrepancy between what is normal operating temperature. ayeying you say that your computer runs normally at a high temp with out the fans coming on, but other ppls run at that same temp with the fans coming on. i wonder why this is?

Usually, my fans work somewhere around this:

if CPU load < 25%, then temp can hit as high as 90 deg C before fans hits > 2000RPM.

if CPU load is > 25%, then temps usually hit ~78 deg C before fans > 2000RPM.

however, if ambient temp is hot enough, fans will come on before cpu diode temp hits 78 deg C.

This morning, my temps barely hit 70 deg C and my fans were at 3300 RPM. However, I was using the system on my bed and the bottom panel was extremely hot.

Note: the temps listed are CPU DIODE temps.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

Usually, my fans work somewhere around this:

if CPU load < 25%, then temp can hit as high as 90 deg C before fans hits > 2000RPM.

if CPU load is > 25%, then temps usually hit ~78 deg C before fans > 2000RPM.

however, if ambient temp is hot enough, fans will come on before cpu diode temp hits 78 deg C.

This morning, my temps barely hit 70 deg C and my fans were at 3300 RPM. However, I was using the system on my bed and the bottom panel was extremely hot.

Note: the temps listed are CPU DIODE temps.

yea i guess it's a question of where you use your computer. i know that when i use it on my bed the ventilation is obviously more constricted and the fans turn on. but when its on my iCurve runnning with the ACD the fans never come on.

 

[lapino]

My 15" gets incredibly hot too when gaming in Vista, but my fans start spinning incredibly loud after a few mins. I would rather have them stay a little more silent to be honest

 

[simonpickard]

So what software can I use to force the fans to run higher in vista? The only software I can find is for OSX.

It's kind of crazy at the moment. When gaming it gets to the point where I can't touch the metal just below the screen near the Esc key! Does everyone else have this?


Regards,
Simon

 

[ayeying]

So what software can I use to force the fans to run higher in vista? The only software I can find is for OSX.

It's kind of crazy at the moment. When gaming it gets to the point where I can't touch the metal just below the screen near the Esc key! Does everyone else have this?


Regards,
Simon

Yes, my system is like this right now. Im reporting 89 deg C for the CPU while running Windows Vista Ultimate in VMWare Fusion, playing civilization 4 beyond the sword in the virtual machine. I'm waking everyone up because I'm in class also playing a game with my fans going at 5700 rpm lol

 

[Salavat23]

Those are average temperatures. Nothing out of the ordinary to worry about.

 

[simonpickard]

Those are average temperatures. Nothing out of the ordinary to worry about.

So it just gets that hot under windows? Nothing to worry about? Apart from burning my hand that is..


Regards,
Simon

 

[ViciousShadow21]

I'm waking everyone up because I'm in class also playing a game with my fans going at 5700 rpm lol

that sounds like a pretty awesome class. your playing vid games and everybody else is sleeping? sign me up!!

 

[Anuba]

So it just gets that hot under windows? Nothing to worry about? Apart from burning my hand that is..


Regards,
Simon

Vista does run a lot hotter than XP, simply because it fully utilizes the GPU, whereas XP used like 2% of its capacity due to the antiquated desktop graphics engine that predated accelerated video cards, DirectX and all that. But your machine should certainly not be like a frying pan when doing normal stuff like playing video, surfing or whatever. But cooling is software controlled, so if Apple didn't take care of that in BootCamp, Windows on Mac will be a lot crappier than it has to be. Not that I would put it past Apple to make sure that Windows looks its worst...

As for gaming, well, laptops weren't really built for that kind of insane resource utilization. There's a reason why there are dedicated desktop gaming machines such as the H20-cooled Dell XPS 730 tower... or the 17" XPS notebooks which were designed by Dell's AlienWare division. They're really thick, like 2 or 3 MBPs stacked, and boy do they push vast amounts of air through the interior.

 

[jagr200]

I dunno my UMBP runs Crysis maxed out perfectly without any heat issues. Same with COD4 and other very graphic intensive games. It runs better than my buddies $4500.00 AlienWare. Much better in fact. But I am also running on XP Professional.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

But I am also running on XP Professional.

me too!! xp pro is great....well in comparison with vista which sucks

 

[simonpickard]

Arhh ok so I might well be vista doing this?

Humm I didn't think it was that much slower than xp?

So if I was to install a new OS would you go for Windows 7 or Xp?

I'd be running the 64Bit version.

Regards,
Simon

 

[ViciousShadow21]

Arhh ok so I might well be vista doing this?

Humm I didn't think it was that much slower than xp?

So if I was to install a new OS would you go for Windows 7 or Xp?

I'd be running the 64Bit version.

Regards,
Simon

yea in my experience with both running on a mac XP just seems more stable. vista is always screwing up my friend's iMac and it seems to be the same on these forums.

 

[Anuba]

So if I was to install a new OS would you go for Windows 7 or Xp?

That's like asking would you go for MacOS 9.0 or MacOS X Snow Leopard?
Windows 7 of course. XP needs to die. It's 9 years old for chrissakes. Using XP today is like using Windows 3.11 when Windows 2000 was available. Literally.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

That's like asking would you go for MacOS 9.0 or MacOS X Snow Leopard?
Windows 7 of course. XP needs to die. It's 9 years old for chrissakes. Using XP today is like using Windows 3.11 when Windows 2000 was available. Literally.

ok whatever you say buddy. i am very happy with running XP.

 

[lapino]

How is XP compared to Vista on a MBP when it comes to battery life. My MBP really is dreadful when on battery power in Windows7 (full charge lasts 1,5h at best!)

 

[bossxii]

So it just gets that hot under windows? Nothing to worry about? Apart from burning my hand that is..


Regards,
Simon

Maybe your MBP is talking to you? Windows.... HOT, BURNING YOU... mmm sounds like your Mac is trying to BURN the evil from it's HDD lol.

lol on a more serious note, I do notice the left side being rather warm/hot to the touch when my MBP is under a fairly heavy load. I guess Aluminum is a great heat sink to dissipate heat but the downside is it's spreading through the machine to area's were our hands are touching it.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

How is XP compared to Vista on a MBP when it comes to battery life. My MBP really is dreadful when on battery power in Windows7 (full charge lasts 1,5h at best!)

i've only used XP and i get about 2hrs. logically i would say that they get about the same battery life. i think it also depends on what software you are using to run them. parallels would probably take more Bat life then bootcamp because you are running two operating systems at once.

 

[Anuba]

How is XP compared to Vista on a MBP when it comes to battery life. My MBP really is dreadful when on battery power in Windows7 (full charge lasts 1,5h at best!)

Win7 beta is far from optimized... but yeah, the post-XP versions do eat more power.

First, there's the new desktop graphics engine which is infinitely more advanced than the one in XP. In XP, the GPU is basically 99% idle except if you wake it up by playing a heavy duty 3D game. In Vista, your desktop is composed with GPU effects, like CoreGraphics but with more unnecessary bells & whistles, and poorly optimized in typical Microsoft fashion.

Then there's the many background processes that XP didn't have. Windows Defender, Windows Search indexer, automatic defrag, SuperFetch, Previous Versions (it creates incremental backups of all the files you save, kind of like Time Machine but on your local drive rather than an external one).

Do the Win7/Vista power plans work properly in BootCamp? On my Dell notebook I get like 4 times longer battery life with the Power Saver plan than the High Performance plan... and normally I use the Balanced plan. If you're running Win7 on High Performance I can see why the battery would be taking a serious pounding.