Macbook Pro bad heating issues

[Murasame]

Well, my Macbook Pro is heating, quite bad I must add.

I recently got that annoying gray stain behind my screen, took it to the Genius Bar and they fixed it, I just thought that it's worth mentioning that.

At the moment, I am running Firefox and that's it, I have nothing else open, 2 tabs, digg.com and macrumors.com. The Laptop is sitting on a glass table with nothing behind it, so there is room for some air ventilation. I'm also using a Speck SeeThru clear hardcase.

The problem I am having is that the MBP is heating up real bad, to the extent that I'm feeling it (and im sitting on a chair with some distance from it).

I really don't understand whats wrong with my mac, it takes ages to start and load everything and the heat is bad. What's worse is when I asked at the Genius Bar what the issue was, the reply I got was in regards to me having Photoshop and so many "3rd party" software, and when I asked about the heating, the only reply I got was that softwares like photoshop and illustrator are memory intensive... even when I tried explaining that it over-heats even when I'm not using it.

Any help or suggestions would be quite welcome, I understand it heating when I'm using a program like that, but over-heating when I'm only using Firefox? or just watching a Movie?

Mac:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz
2GB Ram
GeForce 8600M GT (256MB).

And the room is well ventilated, and can anyone also tell me what is needed to be done if I wanna upgrade my Mac (say add more ram and so on?)

Thank you, and sorry for the lengthy post.

 

[secretpact]

Tell us the temperature that your MBP gets when it gets to the point where you can feel it sitting on a chair at a distance. I think iStat Menus can tell you, maybe someone else can recommend a better program. Please post the temperature when you find it. I don't know the normal operating temperature of MBPs, but mine does get very hot too.

 

[gillyweed]

My Macbook Pro gets really hot, too. It starts to whirrrr really loudly, so I move it to a location that's hasn't been well cooked by having the computer sitting on top of it for a while. The whirrr stops immediately.

My boyfriend always tells me to put it on top of a book. He's convinced that putting it on top of a book, even a big one that takes up the entire bottom of the computer, keeps the computer cooler than placing it directly on a desk or couch. Maybe he's right. If it's a small book, there is air circulation under the computer...

But yours sounds like it is getting abnormally toasty.

HEAT KILLS!

 

[hppenterprises]

Hey,
I think I'd go back to the Genius Bar and try a different "Genius", 'cause it shouldn't really get THAT HOT.

Mine gets hot just being on my lap (I have a Speck case too, but that wouldn't cause this heating issue), but never that hot, and of course, you have other symptoms that there is a bigger issue.

 

[rjp]

As others have said, we need to know the actual temperture. Please install istat pro (from the dashboard options. It's free and good), and tell us the temps it reports. My MBP gets hot when using the GPU. I think the GPU diode hits 145-150 F if I remember correctly. Of course the case temp is much less.

What the heck is the GPU diode anyway?

 

[shoarthing]

As others have said, we need to know the actual temperture. Please install istat pro (from the dashboard options. It's free and good), and tell us the temps it reports. My MBP gets hot when using the GPU. I think the GPU diode hits 145-150 F if I remember correctly. Of course the case temp is much less.

What the heck is the GPU diode anyway?

. . internal [to the IC] temperature sensor - reads roughly 10~12C higher than at the interface between the GPU & its heatsink.

 

[mgacam2]

so my cpu is hitting around 90 degrees celcius when video encoding, is that to hot? Also it seems that every apple genius i talk to says i shouldnt be running my computer all the time? I'm not supposed to use the processor to the max? Why the hell shouldnt I be able to use the full capabilities of the laptop. Makes no sense to me.sorry to hijack the thread just wondering myself because it seems my laptop is also to hot.

 

[katorga]

realistic

so my cpu is hitting around 90 degrees celcius when video encoding, is that to hot?

To be totally honest, my Dell M70 hits 85C while the CPU is loaded.

My D630 hits mid 80's while loaded.

My old Acer 8104 hit mid 90s while loaded.

My wifes Macbook hits 90C while loaded.

My Macbook Pro hits 87C while loaded.

I think the MBP just feels hotter because of the metal case compared to the plastic cases. But all of them get uncomfortably hot on my lap when loaded.

 

[Murasame]

The PC Temp was 75-76% with Adium and Mozilla Firefox running...

Is that bad?

 

[Slothapotamus]

I've been wondering about the CPU temps on my new MacBook recently too. I've only had it a month and I've heard about how MacBooks can get hot.

When I boot up the temperature hangs around 35C for a while but after about half an hour of use it rises up to 50C. A few minutes ago, looking at some stuff on Youtube, the temperature rose to the 60's. Also, yesterday I installed Parallels and have been running Windows XP (mainly for MS Office as I need it sometimes). When Windows is running my CPU gets into the 80's.

I was trying to play Alpha Centauri earlier and decided to stop because I was worried I was pushing the CPU temp too high (it maxed out 78C while playing I think, and the fan was really loud).

I've heard there's some software to control the fan but can't remember what it is. Anybody know anything more about this?