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Macbook Pro i7 Early 2011 - Overheating and other 'faults'.

D

Damian.De

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
6
0
Southend On Sea
Hi
Firstly, This is my first post here and I would like to say hello to everyone. :)

About a week and half I bought a new Macbook Pro from internet. After I bought it I noticed, that the keyboard 'space bar' is slightly uneven, so when looking under an angle it doesn't light up evenly. Also I noticed, that the power button is slightly rotated (about 1mm) to the right. ...so, I went to Apple Genius and they tested the 'space bar' on the other MacBooks pro and they find out that some of the MacBooks have the same thing, what means that it is 'normal'. They offered me a free keyboard replacement, but because it is on the other machines I was happy with it as the new one could have the same thing.

About a day after I noticed that the black plastic hinge strip makes squeaky noise when you touch it in the middle and it feels bit loose when you press it. The plastic strip was also bit 'elastic' on my Alu Macbook, but it didn't make that noise.

Then after few days I also noticed that my new Macbook Pro is much louder than my Early 2008 Alu Macbook 2.0GHZ CPU.
ON iStat Pro the Fan speed is at around 2000rpm and the CPU temp is about 40C - 55C when doing no aggravating tasks like browsing 3 or 4 tabs on Safari.

When I run Logic or Reason (tested on small few channel projects) the CPU Idle is on about 70 - 80 % the CPU Temp temp is at between 80 C - 87 C while the fan is rotating between 2000 and 4700RPM.

The other problem I have is when i running low latency DAW Software like Logic or Reason with monitoring through the built-in Audio Out, after a while the sound starts to sound like digitally damaged (like when the processor cannot process the sound quick enough), sound like problems with latency but the processor still shows 70 - 80% Idle.

Now my question is - Are these 'problems' are normal and what should you recommend visit Apple again:roll eyes: regards to this mac? I want my mac to survive at least 3 years.. :/

Quite a lot of people have problem with overheating and recently find these articles:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1154535/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2775930?start=0&tstart=0 - In this case the overheating was diagnosed as effect of motherboard failure.


Thanks for all your useful answers in advance. Damian
 
Damian.De said:
Then after few days I also noticed that my new Macbook Pro is much louder than my Early 2008 Alu Macbook 2.0GHZ CPU.
ON iStat Pro the Fan speed is at around 2000rpm and the CPU temp is about 40C - 55C when doing no aggravating tasks like browsing 3 or 4 tabs on Safari.

When I run Logic or Reason (tested on small few channel projects) the CPU Idle is on about 70 - 80 % the CPU Temp temp is at between 80 C - 87 C while the fan is rotating between 2000 and 4700RPM.
Click to expand...
Your Mac is not overheating. The Intel processors used in Macs are designed to automatically shut down to prevent damage if they truly overheat (around 100C/212F - 105C/221F, depending on your processor).

Unless there is a rare defect in your Mac, your temps are well within the normal operating range, considering the workload you're putting on it. Websites with Flash content, games and other multimedia apps will put higher demand on the CPU/GPU, generating more heat. This is normal. If you're constantly putting high demands on your system, such as gaming or other multimedia tasks, expect temps to rise and fans to spin up accordingly. It's just your Mac doing its job to maintain temps within the normal range.

Your fans are always on when your Mac is on, spinning at a minimum of 2000 rpm (for MBPs) or 1800 rpm (for MBAs, MBs and minis). They will spin faster as needed to keep temps at a safe level. If they're spinning up without increased heat, try resetting the SMC. Also, make sure you don't block the vents, which are located at the rear, near the hinge.

Learn about the fans in your Mac
Apple Portables: Operating temperature
 
Wow...Thanks for really quick answer.

I ve done the the SMC reset few times before.

What sounds strange to me is that when about 70% of the processor is Idle, the fans and temp are at nearly highest level. What will happen when the processor use will be at say 60%? Will it just shut down every time the processor wil use 60% of its speed?

I have just run the X-Plane simulator demo (with one safari tab opened) and thats the results:
web.jpg


While on the X-Plane website says:

'X-Plane version 9 requires a computer with at least the following specifications:

A 2 GHz processor
1.0 GB RAM (physical memory)
64 MB VRAM (video memory on your video card)
10 GB of hard drive space
The simulator will run on Mac OS X version 10.4 or later, Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (32- and 64-bit), and Linux. Note that when using Windows Vista and Windows 7, it is recommended that at least 2 GB of RAM be used.

Of course, a computer with 4 GB of RAM, a quad-core processor, and 2 GB of VRAM can be used and X-Plane will take full advantage of it. CPUs with multiple cores are useful because X-Plane will use that second core to load scenery while flying. This eliminates the tenth of a second stutter usually associated with transitioning from one scenery file to another (which is still experienced when using a single-core processor).'
 
Damian.De said:
What sounds strange to me is that when about 70% of the processor is Idle, the fans and temp are at nearly highest level.
Click to expand...
Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes". Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.
 
Damian.De said:
Ok, The Activity Monitor shows:
Image
The X-Plane CPU Usage jumps between 60 - 100 % so it seems that the iStat Pro is unreliable, but anyway should it take so much cpu?
Click to expand...
Understand that the CPU utilization changes moment to moment. Both iStat Pro and Activity Monitor readings will lag real time by a bit, but they're accurate enough to give you an idea what's going on.

Multimedia apps such as X-Plane can place high demands on CPU/GPU, causing temps to rise and fans to speed up. This is normal, and your temps are within the normal range, especially considering the workload.
 
When it comes to heat people need to understand something about the new (2011) MacBook Pros. This is the first generation of laptops to have quad core processors. For years various Macs (and PCs) have used dual core mobile processors. Quad core processors have twice as many cores, are twice as fast, use twice as much power, and produce twice as much heat as dual core processors. It's pretty straight forward. In the years to come heat "issues" will be resolved.
 
What I'm really concerned is whether those CPU high temperatures and high fan RPM and quick temp changes are safe for long term use. When I pay £1300 for a computer I expect to work for years. of course that also require using the mac with care.

I didn't wanted to pay additional £200 for AppleCare, but I think I will have to... Can anyone confirm the issue with the creaking black plastic strip from my first post. Is it normal on 'most' of the other machines?

@Nielsenius
My one is a 13'' version with 2.7 i7 Dual Core CPU.
 
The black plastic thing creaked on my Mid09 13", so I'd say it's normal.

Temp thing sounds normal.

Spacebar, again normal.

Sounds like a severe case of buyer's remorse?
 
Damian.De said:
What I'm really concerned is whether those CPU high temperatures and high fan RPM and quick temp changes are safe for long term use. When I pay £1300 for a computer I expect to work for years. of course that also require using the mac with care.

I didn't wanted to pay additional £200 for AppleCare, but I think I will have to... Can anyone confirm the issue with the creaking black plastic strip from my first post. Is it normal on 'most' of the other machines?

@Nielsenius
My one is a 13'' version with 2.7 i7 Dual Core CPU.
Click to expand...

Your temperatures are both normal and safe. I've had my C2D early 2008 MBP for nearly 4 years now(it'll be 4 years old in february) and I've had it past 95C for hours on end running calculations, it still works like new.

If it was dangerous to the chips, think intel would let manufacturer get them this hot?

You have a much more powerful processor in that MBP than you did in your alu macbook. More power = more heat, and there is nothing else to it.
 
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