Macbook gets 190 Degrees hot When Closed

[HTCThunderbolt]

I've had this macbook for 30 months, it's a 2009 macbook 13 in' silver and since the software update 10.6.7 and after updating to lion, i've had problems where even when the Mac is closed, the apple light on the back of the screen will flash intermittently once every 20 seconds. For some reason it won't go into sleep mode properly and eats up battery like no other. on top of that, every time I open it after an hour of it being closed, I check iStat pro and see that its 190 degrees F while the fan is only running at 2000 rpm. after I keep it on for a minute it cools down and the fan kicks in but as soon as I open it it gets too hot to touch! I mean on the point of burning my fingers hot! Any ideas here? I've tried pulling the battery already and it's still at 95% health so is this a software issue?

 

[logana]

Sounds like you have some kind of process running away with the CPU - a print job that never printed or something.....

Open Activity Monitor then CPU tab and change the drop-down to all processes. Check what is causing the CPU to heat up. You might need to click on "%CPU" column to sort them into descending order.

Post back what it says and somebody is sure to help....

 

[HTCThunderbolt]

Nothing. Any other ideas?

 

[dcorban]

Nothing. Any other ideas?

It's pretty much impossible for your Mac to be getting that hot with "nothing" using CPU on your computer. Make sure you have the drop-down box in Activity Monitor showing all processes, not just your processes.

The only other explanation would be a broken cooling fan. I assume you can hear the fans going? Did you try resetting the SMC? Google it if needed.

 

[GGJstudios]

Here's a few things to check:

The Intel processors used in Macs are designed to automatically shut down to prevent damage if they truly overheat (around 100C/212F - 105C/221F, depending on your processor).

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

Your fans won't necessarily spin faster unless temps are sustained at a high enough level for a period of time. Reset the SMC if your fans aren't working properly.

I don't know if you have Parallels installed. If you do, this may apply:
Mac Dock consuming 100% of CPU core after upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
Determine why your Mac wakes up from sleep

Also, there is very little impact on temps by having the lid open or closed, as the vents are located in the rear, near the hinge.

 

[HTCThunderbolt]

Alot of the processes say root in the description and there is one using ~200 mb of real memory and 1.6%CPU titled kernel but I don't think that's it.

I recently went to the terminal and did this before this all happened, maybe this is why:

sudo su -
Password:**********
Jake-*****'s-macbook-~:root#

the code went something like that on the last line.