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macbook CPU gets really hot, record is 85 celsius!

F

fishmoose

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 1, 2008
1,856
361
Sweden
Hello!

I have a strange problem my macbook gets really hot, the cpu once went up to 80 celsius and i only had Safari one, i also had finder one and was copying some files to an usb memory.

When i do some video conversion it goes to 85 celsius instantly!

Anyone knows what's can be wrong i only had it for 6 months, i can also recall that this problems began after i did a restore with the leopard discs can this be the reason or is it just a convenience?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
well on video conversion mine gets hot and has the fans running, but didnt know the temp since i wasnt near it, but was the usual running condition 50 - 54 before it started going messey, did u change any of the settings? Because i think i might have done that without knowing, and had to reinstall tiger (leopard wasnt out) and fixed the fan problem and heat problem all up..
 
fishmoose said:
Hello!

I have a strange problem my macbook gets really hot, the cpu once went up to 80 celsius and i only had Safari one, i also had finder one and was copying some files to an usb memory.

When i do some video conversion it goes to 85 celsius instantly!

Anyone knows what's can be wrong i only had it for 6 months, i can also recall that this problems began after i did a restore with the leopard discs can this be the reason or is it just a convenience?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

What exactly is the problem? Does the Macbook shutdown or does it work fine? Are you able to finish the video conversions?

I wouldn't worry too much about the temperature, if everything is working correctly and the fans spin up after a while to full speed.

About the first issue when running only safary try opening the Activity Monitor and look at which process is using all the cpu.
 
The computer dosent shutdown and i can finish everything im just worried that the macbook will die, and i cant remember changing any settings.

Maybe i shouldn't worry but it's a little strange thou
 
nah it shouldnt die but yea i would be freakin out too, i actually was when i accidently changed a setting and somehow made it hotter causing the fans to go on. Maybe if u dont have much stuff on your mb back it up and maybe reinstall leopard and wipe the hd, when mine did that i wiped it and it fixed it. and actually that i reinstalled leopard the flicker in my scren stopped :confused:
 
MacHappytjg said:
nah it shouldnt die but yea i would be freakin out too, i actually was when i accidently changed a setting and somehow made it hotter causing the fans to go on. Maybe if u dont have much stuff on your mb back it up and maybe reinstall leopard and wipe the hd, when mine did that i wiped it and it fixed it. and actually that i reinstalled leopard the flicker in my scren stopped :confused:
Click to expand...

yeah i guess i could do that i think i will phone apple support to maybe they have some advices but backing everything up and reinstall it shouldn't be a problem.
 
That is pretty common. Mine gets to 85-86 when I encode video. I notice this across multiple macbooks. They still work fine, no shutdown, no nothing. The bottom case on the SR macbooks do not get as hot as the previous models(Napa, etc). One of the macbooks I manage I have seen get to 96 deg Celsius. It still works just fine, no falters or anything. It has to do with poor thermal paste application mostly.
 
sabregreen said:
That is pretty common. Mine gets to 85-86 when I encode video. I notice this across multiple macbooks. They still work fine, no shutdown, no nothing. The bottom case on the SR macbooks do not get as hot as the previous models(Napa, etc). One of the macbooks I manage I have seen get to 96 deg Celsius. It still works just fine, no falters or anything. It has to do with poor thermal paste application mostly.
Click to expand...

okay so i should be fine? I'm thinking of buying a laptop cooler thou.

Maybe i should give Apple a call anyway?
 
Yea, that is pretty normal. My MacBook hovers around 47c when I'm just browsing and chatting. Shoots up to around 85c once I start something CPU intensive like 3D games.
 
okay so i should be fine? I'm thinking of buying a laptop cooler thou.

Maybe i should give Apple a call anyway?
Click to expand...

Its pretty hot for the processors, but still within thermal limits. I wouldn't worry about it unless your machine is shutting itself down or locking up. The best solution would be to reapply the thermal grease, but its very tricky and time consuming to get to on the macbook.
 
***ALL TEMPS REPORTED ARE IN FAHRENHEIT***

Use smcFanControl and set it to "higher RPM". Instead of the standard 1800 RPM exhaust on the MacBook, the fan will kick up to around 3500 RPM, cooling things down about 10 degrees. You can barely hear the fan in a quiet room. I do the same thing with my iMac, except I've got the CPU fan set at 2500 RPM all the time versus the 'standard' 1200 RPM which is next to useless, especially when playing games.

The intel Mac's run hot bottom line, so I would suggest kicking all the fans up 1000 to 1500 RPM across the board. Also, computers are sensitive machines! You should not have them in a room that is 80 degrees...most people don't seem to understand that they should be in a room that is at most 75 degrees. My room is in a basement, so the temps are far lower than what most people see. It has been HOT here lately (90 degrees) and the ambient as reported by iStat pro on my iMac says 76 degrees. Currently my CPU temp is 95 degrees. I rarely see 120 degrees, unless I have been playing a game. My Macbook definitely heats up faster than the iMac, but hovers around the same 95 degree temp if I'm doing the same things with them (e.g.; web browsing, IM, word).

Don't worry about wearing the fans out...seriously. Most of the fans max out at around 6,000 RPM, and in the case of the MacBook, I've seen them run at 8,000 RPM! So, a steady 3500 rpm is not going to wear anything out.

***ALL TEMPS REPORTED ARE IN FAHRENHEIT***
 
Living in Italy, my fans are constantly on full whack. Each sensor is reporting AT LEAST 120F/48C.

My poor MacBook can't wait to get back to the UK...
 
sabregreen said:
Its pretty hot for the processors, but still within thermal limits. I wouldn't worry about it unless your machine is shutting itself down or locking up. The best solution would be to reapply the thermal grease, but its very tricky and time consuming to get to on the macbook.
Click to expand...

Well the laptop is only 7 months old so if the thermal grease needs to be reapplied then i rather have Apple do it then me i've only done it on a tower, and i have very little experience with taking laptops apart only changed ram in an HP and and Asus ee pc.

econoline06 said:
***ALL TEMPS REPORTED ARE IN FAHRENHEIT***

Use smcFanControl and set it to "higher RPM". Instead of the standard 1800 RPM exhaust on the MacBook, the fan will kick up to around 3500 RPM, cooling things down about 10 degrees. You can barely hear the fan in a quiet room. I do the same thing with my iMac, except I've got the CPU fan set at 2500 RPM all the time versus the 'standard' 1200 RPM which is next to useless, especially when playing games.

The intel Mac's run hot bottom line, so I would suggest kicking all the fans up 1000 to 1500 RPM across the board. Also, computers are sensitive machines! You should not have them in a room that is 80 degrees...most people don't seem to understand that they should be in a room that is at most 75 degrees. My room is in a basement, so the temps are far lower than what most people see. It has been HOT here lately (90 degrees) and the ambient as reported by iStat pro on my iMac says 76 degrees. Currently my CPU temp is 95 degrees. I rarely see 120 degrees, unless I have been playing a game. My Macbook definitely heats up faster than the iMac, but hovers around the same 95 degree temp if I'm doing the same things with them (e.g.; web browsing, IM, word).

Don't worry about wearing the fans out...seriously. Most of the fans max out at around 6,000 RPM, and in the case of the MacBook, I've seen them run at 8,000 RPM! So, a steady 3500 rpm is not going to wear anything out.

***ALL TEMPS REPORTED ARE IN FAHRENHEIT***
Click to expand...

I've have read about smcFanControl and the thing with my problem is that the fan does kick in at a higher RPM then normal but it dosen't help the temperatures to drop. But i could always try smcFanControl.
 
Here's where I am hovering at on temps.
 

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The problem is not the thermal paste being misapplied.

The problem is Apple's cooling design. The only fan is an output fan. There is no in-take and there is no way to circulate air. Plus everything is so tight inside of the case that there isn't much room to "breathe".

My MacBook has the 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo (Merom processor, Napa platform). It gets up to 88c while encoding video.

My HP (with a thicker case, proper ventilation in the case, and a fan that sucks air in and blows it out the back) peaks at 61c under full load.
 
Well on my 2.4ghz macbook, I have it on my lap for a few hours and it feels a bit warm but it feels just fine and I'm doing things like safar, mail, downloading 100gb worth of files, running vmware fusion for vista using a couple of programs in windows, 4 spaces used up, watching a 720p mkv file, using visualhub to encode a 9gb file while the fan goes full tilt at 6300 rpm.
 
For normal usage, mine is usually about 40 degrees Celsius running at 2500 RPM.
 
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