MacBook Pro 15 hot on the left side

[Rodrigo Yoshida]

I am currently working with a MacBook Pro 15 mid 2010, Core i5 2.4ghz, upgraded to 8gb RAM and 240gb SSD. It is working perfectly for my current needs, but the heat on the left side is bothering me.

I already tried to clean the fans and change the termal paste (which was horribly applied) but I did not see any improvements.

I use SmcFanControl to check the average temperature and it is normally 60c˜70c at normal usage and 90c with intense tasks. I think the CPU is warmer than normal, but the topcase temperature is what bothers me. It feels a little uncomfortable when I rest my wrist on it after about a half an hour of usage.

What can I do to solve it?

 

[Raunien]

I am currently working with a MacBook Pro 15 mid 2010, Core i5 2.4ghz, upgraded to 8gb RAM and 240gb SSD. It is working perfectly for my current needs, but the heat on the left side is bothering me.

I already tried to clean the fans and change the termal paste (which was horribly applied) but I did not see any improvements.

I use SmcFanControl to check the average temperature and it is normally 60c˜70c at normal usage and 90c with intense tasks. I think the CPU is warmer than normal, but the topcase temperature is what bothers me. It feels a little uncomfortable when I rest my wrist on it after about a half an hour of usage.

What can I do to solve it?

Can't really do much at this point. The 2010 MBPs were notoriously hot. Since you changed the thermal paste and cleaned out the machine, there's nothing else you can do from a hardware's point of view.

What you can do at this point is use fancontrol to crank up the fans on your machine to get rid of the heat faster. That should lower your temps for a bit.

 

[snaky69]

What can I do to solve it?

Turn it off.

All jest aside, your temps are perfectly normal for a Macbook Pro from that vintage. There is nothing to be done about them, they are within spec and as I said, perfectly normal. Learn to live with it, that's the temps they run at and that's that.

 

[Nautilus007]

A genius told me last week that apple "portables" are known to be hot. He then ran tests on my machine that checked out normal. I was insistent that my retina macbook pro was abnormally hot and they all used their apple propaganda training to advise me this was normal and that a 2500 notebook that burned my legs was satisfactory. I then told them to run the overnight stress tests which showed that my computer had so many problems stemming from the video card to the SSD.
Moral is, Genius's are trained to make any situation seem like its okay when a lot of the time its not normal behavior.

 

[Rodrigo Yoshida]

Can't really do much at this point. The 2010 MBPs were notoriously hot. Since you changed the thermal paste and cleaned out the machine, there's nothing else you can do from a hardware's point of view.

What you can do at this point is use fancontrol to crank up the fans on your machine to get rid of the heat faster. That should lower your temps for a bit.

I tried to use SmcFanControl to keep the fans running at 3500rpm, the cpu temperature reduced a little but it did not help with the topcase. Also I am afraid that it can make the fans die soon if I keep it working at that speed all the time.

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Turn it off.

All jest aside, your temps are perfectly normal for a Macbook Pro from that vintage. There is nothing to be done about them, they are within spec and as I said, perfectly normal. Learn to live with it, that's the temps they run at and that's that.

I did not know the 2010 MacBook can get hot like that. I used several MB models, C2D and i5/i7 processors, and the last one I had problems with the temperature was a PowerBook G4.

If the processor temperature is within spec I can live with that, but it would be great if I could find a solution for the heat "leaking" to the topcase.

 

[MH01]

Your laptop is fine.

My Retina on low tasks is around 60-70 degrees, under intense it hits over 100 sometimes touching 105.

If under intense tasks you are on 90, that is good.

And researching into it, its quite common, there are many threads on high temps.

 

[snaky69]

I tried to use SmcFanControl to keep the fans running at 3500rpm, the cpu temperature reduced a little but it did not help with the topcase. Also I am afraid that it can make the fans die soon if I keep it working at that speed all the time.

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I did not know the 2010 MacBook can get hot like that. I used several MB models, C2D and i5/i7 processors, and the last one I had problems with the temperature was a PowerBook G4.

If the processor temperature is within spec I can live with that, but it would be great if I could find a solution for the heat "leaking" to the topcase.

The case is part of the cooling system, it's used as a giant heatsink.

Ever notice Apple markets it as a "Notebook" and not a "Laptop"?

 

[iAhmedy]

what kind of thermal paste did you use?
and how did you applied it?

your temps are really high and it is abnormal imho, i have a MB Mid 2008 and it maxes at 78 with heavy load an average of 50-55, i also have MBP early 2008 with an average of 55-60,i uses ARCTIC MX-4 TP in both machines, maybe the TP you used causing this issue or the way you applied the TP.

 

[gbrug1995]

Those temps are perfectly fine! MacBook tempt to feel hotter than other laptops. Most windows laptops are made from plastic which doesn't conduct heat as well as aluminium.

My rMBP is also hot when doing little stuff. Doesn't matter. Your macbook will shutdown when it overheats preventing from damaging your system.