MacBook Pro 16" too hot with CalDigit TS3 Plus Dock

[vondy]

Earlier this year I bought a MacBook Pro 16" along with a CalDigit TS3 Plus.

After a while, I noticed my MacBook seemed to always stay hot when plugged into the TS3 even when fully charged. I took a temperature reading of the underside of the computer and at the hottest spot it's 107 degrees F measured with an infrared thermometer.

I started experimenting by unplugging all the accessories besides the TS3 and comparing the temperatures between it and the Apple charger that came with the MacBook.

Fully charged and asleep, the underside of the MacBook rest at 84 degrees F with the Apple charger. Unplug that and plug in the TS3 with nothing attached it ends up at 107 degrees F.

This seemed wrong to me so I contacted Caldigit and they ran me through the usual procedures of reseting the PRAM, etc. until swapping the unit out with a new one.

Getting the same results.

I should mention this is with the updated firmware for the TS3.

My conclusion is this device is not suitable for a 16" MacBook Pro. Which surprises me since I bought it directly off Apple's site.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'd like to figure it out before I have to deal with getting Apple to refund me for the TS3.

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core
32GB Ram
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Catalina

 

[chrfr]

Earlier this year I bought a MacBook Pro 16" along with a CalDigit TS3 Plus.

After a while, I noticed my MacBook seemed to always stay hot when plugged into the TS3 even when fully charged. I took a temperature reading of the underside of the computer and at the hottest spot it's 107 degrees F measured with an infrared thermometer.

I started experimenting by unplugging all the accessories besides the TS3 and comparing the temperatures between it and the Apple charger that came with the MacBook.

Fully charged and asleep, the underside of the MacBook rest at 84 degrees F with the Apple charger. Unplug that and plug in the TS3 with nothing attached it ends up at 107 degrees F.

This seemed wrong to me so I contacted Caldigit and they ran me through the usual procedures of reseting the PRAM, etc. until swapping the unit out with a new one.

Getting the same results.

I should mention this is with the updated firmware for the TS3.

My conclusion is this device is not suitable for a 16" MacBook Pro. Which surprises me since I bought it directly off Apple's site.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'd like to figure it out before I have to deal with getting Apple to refund me for the TS3.

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core
32GB Ram
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Catalina

The TS3 works fine on my 16”. The computer gets warm but I don’t consider that abnormal.

 

[vondy]

107 degrees external temp does not seem overly hot to you while the computer is asleep and not charging? It's basically at room temperature when on the apple charger. Seems like the same should be said for the TS3.

 

[MacModMachine]

Earlier this year I bought a MacBook Pro 16" along with a CalDigit TS3 Plus.

After a while, I noticed my MacBook seemed to always stay hot when plugged into the TS3 even when fully charged. I took a temperature reading of the underside of the computer and at the hottest spot it's 107 degrees F measured with an infrared thermometer.

I started experimenting by unplugging all the accessories besides the TS3 and comparing the temperatures between it and the Apple charger that came with the MacBook.

Fully charged and asleep, the underside of the MacBook rest at 84 degrees F with the Apple charger. Unplug that and plug in the TS3 with nothing attached it ends up at 107 degrees F.

This seemed wrong to me so I contacted Caldigit and they ran me through the usual procedures of reseting the PRAM, etc. until swapping the unit out with a new one.

Getting the same results.

I should mention this is with the updated firmware for the TS3.

My conclusion is this device is not suitable for a 16" MacBook Pro. Which surprises me since I bought it directly off Apple's site.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'd like to figure it out before I have to deal with getting Apple to refund me for the TS3.

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core
32GB Ram
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Catalina

powernap.

the laptop will be warmer since power nap is on when plugged in...assuming that option is checked.

 

[vondy]

Powernap is not checked. Regardless, it should be hot with the apple charger plugged in too.

There's no way this is normal and as popular as the TS3 is there has to be more people with this problem.

Maybe there are not enough 16" and TS3 combos out there.

 

[chrfr]

Powernap is not checked. Regardless, it should be hot with the apple charger plugged in too.

There's no way this is normal and as popular as the TS3 is there has to be more people with this problem.

Maybe there are not enough 16" and TS3 combos out there.

I suspect that your computer isn’t actually asleep during the times you find it warm.

 

[vondy]

Why would you say that? I hit sleep, close the lid and it sleeps. If the TS3 is plugged in it gets hot, if the apple charger is plugged in it doesn’t. Pretty straight forward. If it’s not sleeping then the TS3 is waking it up. Keep in mind nothing is plugged into the TS3.

 

[vondy]

Screenshots below of temperatures with the TS3 vs Apple charger. These were taken right after waking up from sleep with the battery at 100% and no peripherals plugged in.

You can see the higher temps on the TS3, especially on the right thunderbolt port where the chargers were plugged in.

 

[chrfr]

Screenshots below of temperatures with the TS3 vs Apple charger. These were taken right after waking up from sleep with the battery at 100% and no peripherals plugged in.

You can see the higher temps on the TS3, especially on the right thunderbolt port where the chargers were plugged in.

When my 16" is connected to the TS3, it wakes up almost immediately after I put it to sleep.
If you paste the below text into terminal it'll show you when the computer wakes up:

pmset -g log | egrep '\b(Sleep|Wake|Start)\s{2,}'

 

[EzisAA]

I have MacBook Pro 15 (2019) + CalDigit TS3 Plus.
And it get hot same as your Macbook Pro, because both side have a Thunderbolt controller.
Simple - when you use a Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt controller will be little hot. I don't see the problem.

 

[vondy]

Then why is it not hot with the apple charger plugged in?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

This is a completely off-the-wall response, but...
The 16" has USBc/tbolt ports on both sides, is this correct?
If so, have you tried switching the CalDigit connecting cable to the OTHER side?

 

[EzisAA]

Then why is it not hot with the apple charger plugged in?

When you plugged Apple charger it not use data connection. Try plug hard drive or camera or phone and you get the same result - temperature will be little high. Because it now use data connection
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OP:

This is a completely off-the-wall response, but...
The 16" has USBc/tbolt ports on both sides, is this correct?
If so, have you tried switching the CalDigit connecting cable to the OTHER side?

There no difference. If you use a chip, it get hot - CPU, GPU, Thunerbolt controller etc.

 

[chrfr]

Then why is it not hot with the apple charger plugged in?

Please take a look at the information I put in post 9 in this thread. My 16” wakes up right away when the TS3 is connected. I am almost certain yours does too, and you can verify this by looking at logs the computer records when it wakes.

 

[vondy]

Please take a look at the information I put in post 9 in this thread. My 16” wakes up right away when the TS3 is connected. I am almost certain yours does too, and you can verify this by looking at logs the computer records when it wakes.

Here's what I got with the TS3 plugged in. The last wake is where I actually woke it myself.

2020-05-09 20:42:47 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 1163 secs
2020-05-09 21:02:10 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to Notification Using AC (Charge:100%) 1 secs

2020-05-09 21:02:11 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 5 secs
2020-05-09 21:02:16 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to Notification Using AC (Charge:100%) 10 secs

2020-05-09 21:02:26 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 4000 secs
2020-05-09 22:09:06 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to HID Activity Using AC (Charge:100%)

 

[satcomer]

Most people disconnect the port before they sleep to prevent this situation!

 

[chrfr]

Here's what I got with the TS3 plugged in. The last wake is where I actually woke it myself.

2020-05-09 20:42:47 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 1163 secs
2020-05-09 21:02:10 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to Notification Using AC (Charge:100%) 1 secs

2020-05-09 21:02:11 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 5 secs
2020-05-09 21:02:16 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to Notification Using AC (Charge:100%) 10 secs

2020-05-09 21:02:26 -0500 Sleep Entering DarkWake state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:100%) 4000 secs
2020-05-09 22:09:06 -0500 Wake DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to HID Activity Using AC (Charge:100%)

Interesting. Mine wakes up right away. I’ll have to do some investigating, but in any case the fact that the thunderbolt controller is warm doesn’t alarm me at all.
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Most people disconnect the port before they sleep to prevent this situation!

You have no proof of that. In fact, I’d bet the opposite is true.

 

[vondy]

I'm sure I will end up disconnecting it for the time being. It's a pain because I have to eject disk every time. I like to use my MacBook in desktop mode most of the time.

 

[vondy]

I figured this out!

Sat there one night and did a bunch of testing by turning off various settings and came up with nothing until I discovered I had a folder being shared as a music library. Once I got rid of it the TS3 would put itself to sleep, blue light goes out, about 30 seconds after I put my Mac to sleep.

Now the Mac stays nice and cool while plugged in to the TS3.

The shared folder was being watched by my network audio device on my home stereo system. I'm guessing that was keeping something alive on the Mac and in-turn keeping the TS3 on. Didn't seem to matter if I was actually using the device or even if my shared folder which resides on an external drive was plugged into my Mac.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

 

[chrfr]

I figured this out!

Sat there one night and did a bunch of testing by turning off various settings and came up with nothing until I discovered I had a folder being shared as a music library. Once I got rid of it the TS3 would put itself to sleep, blue light goes out, about 30 seconds after I put my Mac to sleep.

Now the Mac stays nice and cool while plugged in to the TS3.

The shared folder was being watched by my network audio device on my home stereo system. I'm guessing that was keeping something alive on the Mac and in-turn keeping the TS3 on. Didn't seem to matter if I was actually using the device or even if my shared folder which resides on an external drive was plugged into my Mac.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

So it was waking itself up. I haven't yet solved the whatever's causing mine to wake up right away, but I also haven't tried real hard to solve it. At least it's good to know there's a solution.

 

[vondy]

I don't know if it was fully waking up or not. I started by turning off Wake for Network Access in the energy settings and for a moment thought that fixed it but the problem came back. That led me to the shared folder.

I didn't even know the "on light" on the TS3 would turn off until I did this. That's a sure fire way of knowing it's working correctly. Mac went from 107 degrees external to cold to the touch.

 

[chrfr]

I don't know if it was fully waking up or not. I started by turning off Wake for Network Access in the energy settings and for a moment thought that fixed it but the problem came back. That led me to the shared folder.

I didn't even know the "on light" on the TS3 would turn off until I did this. That's a sure fire way of knowing it's working correctly. Mac went from 107 degrees external to cold to the touch.

It seems like mine wakes up to show a notification on the screen even with Do Not Disturb enabled, and then never goes back to sleep. Maybe 10.15.5 which just released will solve it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I didn't want to create a new thread...

I have an M1 Max 16' MBP. I was given (for free) a CalDigit TS3 Lite Thunderbolt dock. I noticed that just plugging the dock in with a 4k monitor on Display port would cause the dock to be extremely hot to the touch and eventually lose the ability to recognize any USB device attached to the dock. We're talking almost melting plastic burning smell hot - can't hold hand on it for more than a few seconds.

I also noticed that my laptop would run very hot, especially on the side where the dock plugged in - and for the first time since owning this laptop, doing tasks that never turned on the case fans, I'd hear the case fans going at 3k+ rpm (TG Pro) - (rare for this laptop even when doing very heavy work).

I guess I see why it was donated for free, lol. Amazing how hot the thing gets when it's just displaying a static 4k screen (60hz) and ... for whatever reason the laptop itself overheats - I cannot in good conscience use this without fearing for the safety of my laptop.

Person who gave me the dock for free told me they had similar experiences with the USB ports not working after awhile. <shrug>.

Just thought I'd add my experience with an M1 Max 16' MBP.