Macbook Heating Problem

[Rob83]

Hey Guys. Im sure this is one that comes up a lot, yet nothing has settled my mind yet.

I own a aluminum, '09 13" Macbook with the standard memory ect, Yet whilst running only Safari and iAntiVirus in the background I have just hit 175 Degrees Farenheit with a minimum fan speed of 3500 RPM?

I do use my Macbook as a "Lap top" as i own a 24" iMac, Yet i still never expected this level of heat? Should i be concerned or take steps to dissipate the heat?

Thank you for your time, Much appreciated.
~Rob.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Yeah, that's pretty damn hot for those tasks unless you're running a lot of Flash or Flash Video within Safari.

I'd imagine iAntiVirus is using a fair bit of CPU cycles too. You can go to Activity Monitor via Applications-->Utilities-->Activity Monitor, then in the dropdown at the top, choose "All processes" instead of "My processes." See what's sucking up all those CPU %'s and kill that process.

Your temps will drop quite quickly I imagine. If I were you, I'd uninstall iAntiVirus anyways, it's pretty useless IMO. There are many threads/topics on this matter so I won't threadjack about it

For others, 175F= ~79C.

 

[-tWv-]

its a problem with the iantivirus scanning program. When iAntivirus does a scan it takes nearly all the CPU, I'm not sure why. I would suggest doing away with iAntivirus because you don't really need it and it is EXTREMELY cpu intensive. You could also only have iantivirus scan overnight, and install smcfancontrol to put the fan speeds higher to keep the macbook cool just during the scan. I do a scan maybe once every two weeks with iAntivirus and use this method so it's not really hot while i'm using it. Also if you are on battery power and using iantivirus, it dramatically decreases battery life.

 

[Rob83]

Ive exited iAntiVirus and its reduced the temperature! Thanks for your help!

 

[m1ss1ontomars]

When iAntivirus does a scan it takes nearly all the CPU

Well duh. It's an AV scanner; how could it NOT take up all the CPU time?

Additionally, 79 C is a reasonable temperature. The thermal limit for mobile Core and Core 2 CPUs is typically 100 C.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Well duh. It's an AV scanner; how could it NOT take up all the CPU time?

Additionally, 79 C is a reasonable temperature. The thermal limit for mobile Core and Core 2 CPUs is typically 100 C.

A good virus scanner does NOT need 2.0-2.4ghz x 2 in order to do it's job. That's just asinine.

It may bog down your HDD as it's running through there, but in terms of CPU cycles, no way. 79C is in no way a reasonable idling/light use CPU temperature.