Exactly. Here's what I'm talking about. I'm on my 2014 mba 11" and it's getting real hot right now for no reasons (safar/dropbox/scriver opened). Kernel_task going insane for some reasons. I'm beginning to think dropbox is evil
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Any one else worried about it being fanless?
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Exactly. Here's what I'm talking about. I'm on my 2014 mba 11" and it's getting real hot right now for no reasons (safar/dropbox/scriver opened). Kernel_task going insane for some reasons. I'm beginning to think dropbox is evil
BrettApple
macrumors 65816
Not worried at all, It's a Core M, and Apple has designed the new MacBook specifically for this CPU. I'm sure it will simply throttle.
But I do see where some concern is coming from:
Yes, that's a PowerBook, but I've seen people do it on the first gen MacBook and MacBook Pro too. Just a joke, but still funny.
But I do see where some concern is coming from:
Yes, that's a PowerBook, but I've seen people do it on the first gen MacBook and MacBook Pro too. Just a joke, but still funny.
zhenya
macrumors 604
Keep in mind that the Core-M consumes 1/3 of the power of the chip in you MBA, and when it starts to heat up, it will automatically throttle down, which should allow it to cool so long as the heat-sink has adequate capacity. I actually think that allowing programs to run wild like that is a serious problem with both OSX and Windows. It's still based on the old model where most computers were always connected to mains power and power consumption was of no concern. Today, when most new computers are battery powered, it's time that these operating systems start to clamp down on that behavior and cut off those programs if they start to draw excessive power.
lets say it over-heats up and somehow just brakes....will that be covered by the 1 year warranty??? Or does over-heating count as an accidental thing?
BrettApple
macrumors 65816
Unless you stuck it over a fire or used it outside the listed operating temperature, it should be covered.
It would essentially be a bad logic board issue. They'd probably just replace the thing. But perhaps they can swap the board easily.
Anything that results in a dead computer that wasn't your doing (eg. accidental damage) should be covered by the warranty. *Should. We've seen lots of bad GPUs over the years that weren't covered, and the coating coming off on the rMBPs that they won't fix. So YMMV.
Hankster
macrumors 68020
I've used my iPad before hours at a time. In fact yesterday I watched six hours of movies on it with my wife without a break. So, if it can run nonstop for six hours and not "overheat" I'm sure it is very atypical for an iPad to "overheat.
iRun26.2
macrumors 68020
I once had an XPS gaming computer from Dell with an Intel X-treme processor. I used it for work and my Freescale Symphony Studio DSP software would lock up both cores running at their maximum frequency. At first I didn't know what was happening and my computer would shut off because it was overheating. Eventually I figured out what was going on (I had to go into the task manager and kill the threads) but that wasn't before my hard drives failed.
This rMB doesn't have an X-treme processor so I am not to worried.
This rMB doesn't have an X-treme processor so I am not to worried.
yes, the macbook will not ever overheat of course, because it has a bunch of thermal sensors that warn it when the temperature is getting dangerously highly. the problem is, that when the temperature does reach this point, it results in CPU throttling, which is what blurobot is observing with the "kernel_task" process. kernel_task is a fake process, full of fake cpu cycles, that allows the cpu to cool back down by fooling the system into the thinking it's running a process that isn't actually doing anything. this absolutely destroys the performance of the computer and was a huge problem with the first mba
Intell
macrumors P6
kernel_task isn't a fake process full of null cycles. The SystemIdle process in Windows is the fake process full of null cycles. Kernel_task is the process where the mach_kernel runs. It loads and hold all the drivers, delegates out system resources, and interacts interrupts. Of course kernel_task is going to have lots of CPU time, it's always running and is the very first process started and the last to die.
According to notebookcheck the Asus Zenbook UX305 (which is a fanless aluminum core-m laptop) it is cooler both at idle and under max. load than the new 13" Macbook Pro
topmounter
macrumors 68030
Good to know. I wouldn't be concerned about Apple's ability to properly engineer a fanless MacBook.
Yup, same problem here, certain version of FLASH am guessing in conjunction with whatever version of OSX you have is bumping up my cpu usage for no good reason. Now my machine is configured for QUIET mode so the fan never goes too loud but the machine will lock up for a few second because of high cpu load and, would not be surprised to me, it's throttled down. All I have to do is to kill Safari and restart it again. Annoying as hell but this is a FLASH problem, that's why Jobs hated it so much.
3bs
macrumors 603
Kernel task @2.6% is normal
I'm not sure why you think a Mac OS X kernal_task process using only 2.6% CPU is "going insane"! It looks pretty minimal to me...
If you are referring to the total CPU time, then this is normal as well. After all, the kernel task is used pretty much *all* of the time your computer is switched on.
Also bear in mind that the percentage shown is for one hardware thread of your CPU. If you have a dual-core CPU with hyperthreading, then you have 4 hardware threads (two per core), so even a 100% process usage is still only using a quarter of your CPU capacity.
I'm not sure why you think a Mac OS X kernal_task process using only 2.6% CPU is "going insane"! It looks pretty minimal to me...
If you are referring to the total CPU time, then this is normal as well. After all, the kernel task is used pretty much *all* of the time your computer is switched on.
Also bear in mind that the percentage shown is for one hardware thread of your CPU. If you have a dual-core CPU with hyperthreading, then you have 4 hardware threads (two per core), so even a 100% process usage is still only using a quarter of your CPU capacity.