Burn marks on my MBP

[zosoaudo007]

This is more for those that use their MBPs in closed lid mode with an external monitor consistently.

I have a home-studio setup where I connect a larger monitor to my MBP while it sits with its lid closed and do audio work (CPU intensive), and I'm sure it gets pretty hot. I don't know what is causing it, but the computer has been unusually unresponsive and slow lately. I thought it may have been due to Leopard updates and Logic updates.

I opened the lid the other day to turn the computer on and I noticed something unusual at the base of the screen. There is black ash on my computer!! I mean, it looks like my computer caught on fire!

Have any of you ever experienced this? The computer works OK (not great like it used to). Everything seems to be working, but Logic is incredibly slow and unresponsive. And it just generally seems like the computer is working harder than it used to for the things I have been doing for the last 6 months.

Any of you have experience with this? This is my THIRD MBP from apple. All have needed to be replaced by the previous. Each has not lasted longer than 6 months.

 

[merl1n]

I use the same setup 99% of the time and have had multiple PowerBooks (and my MBP) running closed with external Displays attached.

I get the same thing on all of them when running in this fashion. There is an exhaust port right behind the area where you see the "dirt" and in closed mode it sucks up dirt or debris in the air. I'm a smoker so I see Nicotine stains in the same area.

Clean up is easily done with some Q-Tips and Isopropyl Alcohol.

As far as performance, I have never seen a performance hit on any of them. I do a lot of video editing which is processor intensive. You may be dealing with a separate issue if you are having problems.

You can download OnyX and cleanup log files, and all of the cache files (system, user, fonts, internet, etc). You may also have some fragmentation issues.

Some good utilities to use for general maintenance are:
DiskWarrior (highly recommend)
Drive Genious
iDefrag
OnyX (highly recommend)

 

[zosoaudo007]

I get the same thing on all of them when running in this fashion. There is an exhaust port right behind the area where you see the "dirt" and in closed mode it sucks up dirt or debris in the air. I'm a smoker so I see Nicotine stains in the same area.

So you have ash collect in the same area because you are a smoker? That is actually comforting to know because I had a candle lit the other day that made the whole apartment fill with smoke. In which case, that is probably what did it.

Thanks man.

 

[UltraNEO*]

To aid cooling, you can download and use SMCFanControl.

Also buy a cradle, to hold your MBP vertically - just note,
accessing the CD/DVD drive might be hard... but the system will be cooler.

http://www.powersupportusa.com/products/macbook_dockingstand.php




oh.. that not burn marks,
it's just dust, dirt and grim from your room.