Macbook Heating Up

[VinWin15]

I have a late 2009 Macbook Pro that is running Mavericks that has been heating up to the point where I cannot touch it on the bottom because of the heat being generated.

I know this can be a result of a lot of RAM is being used at once - but it has become more frequent with the upgrade to Mavericks then under any of the old OS systems. To where even a few minuets of YouTube video with another App open is enough to hear the fan start increase in speed.

Should I downgrade back to Mountain Lion (is it even possible?), does it just need to be opened up and cleaned, something else? I just don't want to fry anything or do damage to other components due to the heat.

 

[Intell]

It isn't caused by memory being used, it caused by the CPU working. YouTube often uses Flash, which is required many CPU cycles to display a video properly. That is why the CPU generates large amount of heat. You won't cause damage to the machine by having it run hot. It was designed with all of that in mind and the machine will protect itself accordingly. If it does get too hot, the machine will turn itself off.

 

[x3n0n1c]

I have a late 2009 Macbook Pro that is running Mavericks that has been heating up to the point where I cannot touch it on the bottom because of the heat being generated.

I know this can be a result of a lot of RAM is being used at once - but it has become more frequent with the upgrade to Mavericks then under any of the old OS systems. To where even a few minuets of YouTube video with another App open is enough to hear the fan start increase in speed.

Should I downgrade back to Mountain Lion (is it even possible?), does it just need to be opened up and cleaned, something else? I just don't want to fry anything or do damage to other components due to the heat.

If YouTube is causing your system to heat up, you may be able to solve the issue by switching to the HTML5 player.

See the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA

HTML 5 video is much much easier on hardware than flash is.

Also, since your Laptop is ~5 years old, it will likely be a very good idea to open it up and clean out the fan and heatsink. They LOVE to trap dust.

Hope this helps.