Macbook 12 cooler

[VS8]

I can't find any passive mats/coolers (i read about some that have an organic salt compound that dissipates heat but i can't find anything). I have a Macbook 12 (2019) that overheats when on YT and i want to avoid the sound of fans, hence the need for a fanless cooling pad. Thanks!

Apologies in advance if any rules are broken/bent

 

[4sallypat]

There is no 2019 Macbook 12"

Last one was 2017 - mine runs cool watching YouTube all day...

 

[VS8]

bought in 2019*, don`t see how that makes that big of a difference... thought about opening it up and replacing the thermal paste on the cpu (is that possible?), don't think that would be such a long term solution, hence my question regarding a fanless cooler, icepack, something that could make it easier to hold on my lap (seeing as this is a LAPtop, haha, highly witty, i know) much appreciated

 

[Mike Boreham]

There is a long and at times heated (haha) debate in the MacBook Air section about the 2020 Air thermal behaviour. The wide variety between delighted users and those with burnt knees has led to the suggestion that there is variability in the quality/quantity of paste used by Apple.

The same might be true of the 12" MacBook. AFAIK it has never had the same scrutiny that the latest MBA is getting.

I don't watch YT for long periods so can't comment on that, but what actually happens when it overheats? These modern low power, high turboboost CPUS are designed to run up to 100C very quickly. Not an issue unless it burns your knees or malfunctions somehow.

(BTW Mac models are always indentified by the year of introduction, not manufacture or purchase. Sometimes with a "early", "mid" or "late" prefix. This is formal Apple terminology, and defines exactly what the model is, as seen in "About this Mac" under the  symbol. Sometimes people buy older but still new models in a later year which could cause confusion)

 

[VS8]

wow 48 pages for this issue, that`s highly heated (😃). the main issue is, yes, the burnt knees, but, sometimes, it also gives off the warning of temp (God forbid to be on youtube while charging, that makes everything much worse, much faster) and i need to let it cool down. dialling the quality down to 480p sometimes helps, but who wants to live like that...?
apologies for the confusion in this case, yes, it`s a 2017, when i mentioned 2019 i was just trying to highlight the idea that it's basically new...
so i`m looking at a last option to open it up and change the thermal paste? no passive cooler...
a second to last option would be to send it to the dedicated apple service (no official apple store in my country) where they will reinstall OS and just give it a once around and just send it back, i`m guessing, based on past experiences...

much appreciated for the info!

 

[Mike Boreham]

wow 48 pages for this issue, that`s highly heated (😃). the main issue is, yes, the burnt knees, but, sometimes, it also gives off the warning of temp (God forbid to be on youtube while charging, that makes everything much worse, much faster) and i need to let it cool down. dialling the quality down to 480p sometimes helps, but who wants to live like that...?
apologies for the confusion in this case, yes, it`s a 2017, when i mentioned 2019 i was just trying to highlight the idea that it's basically new...
so i`m looking at a last option to open it up and change the thermal paste? no passive cooler...
a second to last option would be to send it to the dedicated apple service (no official apple store in my country) where they will reinstall OS and just give it a once around and just send it back, i`m guessing, based on past experiences...

much appreciated for the info!

Well there could be a software cause for your overheating. I would certainly want to make sure of that before sending it off or stripping it down.

A very useful diagnostic tool, which will almost certainly reveal anything wrong, is the free and well respected Etrecheck app.

Another approach is to create a small separate partition, 30GB should be enough, on the boot drive and do a fresh install with no third party software, and watch YouTube from that. If that still overheats you know there is no point in chasing software causes on the main volume.

 

[Mike Boreham]

FWIW I just came across this old thread discussing 4K and HD video on the first gen 2015 12" MacBook.

I am currently watching a 1080 video on mine, No overheating and smooth so far (20 mins)

 

[mj_]

The 2017 MacBook should handle YouTube contents just fine without overheating. Replacing the thermal compound won't do anything for you. It's the modern equivalent of snake oil.

Are you by any chance using Google Chrome?

 

[VS8]

Yes, i`ve read up on that, the google chrome issues, i`ve also tried it with safari, at first glance it's kind of the same issue... i didn`t have the necessary patience to continue using safari for youtube, mainly because the ads are constantly annoying, chrome has a nifty extension that blocks all ads, didn`t manage to find smth suitable also for safari... i think my best shot would be to switch to safari for a few days, tolerate the annoying ads and see exactly how it handles.
one thing i forgot to mention, don`t know exactly if it is highly relevant, i`m the kind of user that constantly fast forwards, 5 sec, 10 sec, a couple of times a minute, could that be putting more stress on the cpu?
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Well there could be a software cause for your overheating. I would certainly want to make sure of that before sending it off or stripping it down.

A very useful diagnostic tool, which will almost certainly reveal anything wrong, is the free and well respected Etrecheck app.

Another approach is to create a small separate partition, 30GB should be enough, on the boot drive and do a fresh install with no third party software, and watch YouTube from that. If that still overheats you know there is no point in chasing software causes on the main volume.

to tell you the truth, a fresh install on a separate partition and etc is a little bit above my pay grade what would Etrecheck highlight?

L.E. etrecheck report:
Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:
Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

Other processes 132.55 % (?)

trustd 29.06 % (Apple)

Google Chrome 7.28 % (Google, Inc.)

EtreCheck 7.05 % (App Store)

other processes?!

 

[Mike Boreham]

There shouldn't be 132% of other processes. Etrecheck and Activity Monitor should enable you or someone to track it down but this is not something that can be fixed on a forum. I wouldn't bother with replacing thermal compound.

 

[VS8]

There shouldn't be 132% of other processes. Etrecheck and Activity Monitor should enable you or someone to track it down but this is not something that can be fixed on a forum. I wouldn't bother with replacing thermal compound.

is there any way i could identify exactly what the other processes might refer to? is my best option to take it to a authorised apple service?

l.e. just noticed kernel_task running at about 35-40% right now, laptop getting a little bit warm, with no YT in sight... could this be the issue?

 

[Mike Boreham]

Utilities > Activity Monitor should show you but it sounds like you will probably end up needing local help from someone who can sit at the machine and see what is going on.

 

[EugW]

My MacBook 12” Core m3 2017 stays cooler on my granite counter than it does on my wood dinner table, and I actually have performance measurements that prove it.

This is how the 2017 MacBook Core m3, i5, i7 behave during sustained CPU load: 10+ runs of Cinebench

I posted this originally in a different thread, but I think it deserves its own thread. See this post for results of the m3, i5, and i7, with the m3 tested on two different table tops...

forums.macrumors.com

However, that’s with constant usage. For just watching YouTube in Safari, my MacBook doesn’t get stressed and does not overheat. This is not a surprise, since h.264 acceleration in Safari YouTube is hardware accelerated. I’ve had it since 2017. Chrome might be more of an issue though, since AFAIK it would be using CPU decode.

The 2015-2017 MacBooks do not have fans.

The 2017 MacBook should handle YouTube contents just fine without overheating. Replacing the thermal compound won't do anything for you. It's the modern equivalent of snake oil.

Are you by any chance using Google Chrome?

As mentioned, I have no significant overheating issue with my 2017 Core m3 MacBook either.

However, for old machines, replacing thermal compound is not snake oil. It can work well for a couple of reasons. Companies tend to use stuff like thermal pads or else too much cheap thermal compound when they assemble these things. Not sure about the 2017, but for the 2015 they use a big dollop of thermal paste. 3 years isn’t a long time, so I wouldn’t bother with the thermal paste on a 2017 MacBook either, but if the paste is older and lost some resliency and there is too much of it, changing it could help, that is if you’re brave enough to disassemble it. I probably wouldn’t bother on a 2017 MacBook in the first 5 years.

OTOH... My older white MacBook was constantly overheating. I tried cleaning out the fan. That helped a bit but overheating was still a problem. Because the machine was old and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I broke the machine, I decided to do a proper disassembly and put in new thermal paste, just a small amount but spread evenly, with higher quality paste than most OEMs use. It made an enormous difference.

 

[supertiffany]

try using mozilla