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i7 MBP temperature and bat life

N

neccoloup

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 6, 2008
38
0
I just set up yesterday a new i7 MBP after transfering my files from my old iMac. I'm a little concerned about the battery life and temperatures it's running at. The battery hasn't seemed with minimal programs running over 4 hours but I suppose this is because it's new and will improve over time.

However it does seem to be running pretty hot. Take a look at what iStat is reporting for me here. Is it okay? Is there anything I should do? At the time of this screenshot I only have safari open with this page. Everytihng in Fahrenheit btw
 

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Nothing is very hot there. 149 F = 65 C, not much. Your enclosure was probably quite warm to touch at 100 F = 37 C.

If you work an MBP hard the CPU and GPU dies will get much hotter than that. The Core2Duo CPUs will easily hit 95 C, possibly go over 100 C = 212 F if you run the machine flat out. The fans will spin up to 4000 rpm or maybe more. I would guess your i7 will get to similar temps.

I would expect that if you leave your Mac completely idle its CPU temp will drop down to about 120 - 130 F and the enclosure temps will drop to say something like 85 - 90 F.

Apple seems to like quiet machines with warm CPUs. But the rest of the interior doesn't get very hot.

Re 4 hour battery life, was that while copying files across? The 8 hour or whatever life will only come with light use & 1/2 brightness or less. copying files really exercises the HDD which uses quite a lot of power.
 
That's running about 10-15 degrees warmer (bottom enclosure) than the ones at the Apple store which have the demos running all day. What were you doing prior to the screen shot? What kind of surface is the MBP resting on?
 
What were you doing at the time that you had those temps? All those are between 30% and 50% hotter than what my 17" i7 is running at right now but I'm only using google chrome, utorrent, mail, quicksilver, and adium... so my fans are quietly blowing away at their base 2000 rpm... I would expect my temps to go up considerably if I were doing something more intensive... your temps are only an issue if you're idling that hot.
 
It was pretty much idle, just running safari and quicksilver and such. I called Apple and they sent me to the applestore about it. They're going to replace my PSU and also said someone came in 2 hours earlier with a similiar problem. They said that iStat Menus is incorrectly reporting information and to discontinue using it until they release a new one.

Since they didn't have the new style PSUs they sent me home with the one I came in with and are ordering one for me.

They didn't really check much, which is suprising. No stress tests or anything. I guess I'll have to wait and see. :/
 
neccoloup said:
It was pretty much idle, just running safari and quicksilver and such. I called Apple and they sent me to the applestore about it. They're going to replace my PSU and also said someone came in 2 hours earlier with a similiar problem. They said that iStat Menus is incorrectly reporting information and to discontinue using it until they release a new one.

Since they didn't have the new style PSUs they sent me home with the one I came in with and are ordering one for me.

They didn't really check much, which is suprising. No stress tests or anything. I guess I'll have to wait and see. :/
Click to expand...

If they said that iStat is reporting temps incorrectly why would they replace the PSU?
 
MBHockey said:
If they said that iStat is reporting temps incorrectly why would they replace the PSU?
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention, the PSU was extremely hot to the touch, they're replacing it for safety or something. Could the power supply somehow effect the internal temperature of everything?
 
No the Power supply can't effect the internal temps of the notebook. I'd be more worried about your battery than these temps.
4h is a long way from the 8h and although a new bat is not at 100% capacity without a few cycles it is usually close to 100% and not at 50%.
 
I installed Temperature Monitor since it was updated for the new procs and it shows the CPU temps with more programs that before running as 39'C. I guess fruit was right!
 
Update 2: Full battery charged, unplugged, now shows 8 hours and 5 minutes. Problem solved!
 
I just checked my istat and I am running at 34º with C4D opened, Indesign CS4, i chat, and firefox with about 6 tabs.

No problems with heat or with high fan speeds so far.
 
I still have the original charger until the new one comes in. The difference is that I have it plugged into the wall instead of via the extention cable... so I think the problem was a mix of some weird one time battery thing that hasn't returned... and the extention cable. Very bizarre, the charger is cool to the touch in the wall outlet as well.
 
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