Macbook pro i7 running unusually hot

[Stevolution]

So I got my macbook pro yesterday and i've been doing some basic stuff on it. While I was installing World of Warcraft, the computer jumped up about 101 degrees celcius. I know I shouldn't trust istat pro 100% but still, my fans are running super loud and the computer is very hot to touch. I'm not running any heavy programs or doing any gaming. I had Aol Instant Messenger on, and WoW instaling in the background. I'd like to also add that when opening various programs I get the spinning beachball very often. I don't want to be over reacting but I just got it but it's bothering me a bit. Should I take it to a genius? Thanks in advance for your input guys!

 

[spinnerlys]

Have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

 

[valdigre]

Well, I don't think that installation of any game should cause such a increase in temperature...

I have i5 2.53 and my normal idle temp is around 40 degrees celsius in Os X.
Keep in mind, that installation of a game (running CD ROM, HDD, cpu) is heating the whole case of the notebook, but I would assume that it does not reach anything near 70 degrees?

Observe how your Mac behaves, I would recommend to enable process viewing in istat, so you may see if actually some process is taking 200% of your CPU and hence the temperature.

My other advice is, that if you plan to play some game or use a heavy app, set your fans to spin to max RPM before you start doing the task - this way you will not let the cpu to reach critical temperatures.

 

[Stevolution]

Have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Looks like the culprit was World of Warcraft installation client. I don't get why the computer would have to use 200% of the cpu to install the game .. If anything, I'm downloading this from blizzard's website so it's not from a disk but from online. Is that usually the case if the internet is involved? my internet is super slow during this process too. There was another one called "Kernal_Task" that was taking about 55% of the cpu. I don't know what's going on. Even when opening Photoshop CS4, I get the spinning beach ball for a good 2-3 seconds before it finishes loading. Should I make an appoint with a apple genius?

 

[spinnerlys]

Looks like the culprit was World of Warcraft installation client. I don't get why the computer would have to use 200% of the cpu to install the game .. If anything, I'm downloading this from blizzard's website so it's not from a disk but from online. Is that usually the case if the internet is involved? my internet is super slow during this process too. There was another one called "Kernal_Task" that was taking about 55% of the cpu. I don't know what's going on. Even when opening Photoshop CS4, I get the spinning beach ball for a good 2-3 seconds before it finishes loading. Should I make an appoint with a apple genius?

I don't know about the Blizzard Downloader, but Kernel_Task is a system process, that sometimes gets taxed, Blizzard Downloader has surely its hands in it. If you finished the installation, I'm sure the CPU will go back to normal.

And the internet speed is compromised due to the Blizzard Downloader doing what it does, downloading. Once the download is finished, the internet will be at full speed again.

 

[Stevolution]

What bothers me is that my desktop that is lightyears dated compared to my mbp downloaded it the same way with no problems. I guess this is the fineline between a desktop and a laptop. I always thought as long as the hardware is better, it'll be better at everything. I guess with its shape and size, putting good fans in the laptop would be hard. Well that settles the overheating issue.

My second issue even before the world of warcraft installer, applications like photoshop threw a spinning beachball when i had nothing else running. Are my expectations just super high or is this a problem with the i7 cores? I saw videos of i5's opening CS4 just fine with no lag or spinning beach balls.

 

[aaronpaws]

I too have the i7 base model (just upgraded the display to HR-AG). The beachballs you see on large application loads aren't due to the processor lacking speed, they're due to the drive not being able to load the data into the ram fast enough. If you want to get rid of that I'd recommend loading a solid state drive into the machine. I personally, am going to install 8 gigs of ram and an optibay 120 gig OCZ vertex 2 next month. The total upgrades should only cost around 350 if you find the right deals, but the performance increase with both of those, especially with a memory hog like WoW, will be substantial.

 

[michial]

I too have the i7 base model (just upgraded the display to HR-AG). The beachballs you see on large application loads aren't due to the processor lacking speed, they're due to the drive not being able to load the data into the ram fast enough. If you want to get rid of that I'd recommend loading a solid state drive into the machine. I personally, am going to install 8 gigs of ram and an optibay 120 gig OCZ vertex 2 next month. The total upgrades should only cost around 350 if you find the right deals, but the performance increase with both of those, especially with a memory hog like WoW, will be substantial.

Im looking to buy a macbook pro and heard these things. Should I go for the i5 2.53 17 inch? I was going to get the i7 but too many people are complainig about this . I shouldnt have to upgrade to an ssd on an already 2300 computer to keep it cooler. Any thoughts? Will an i5 drop the performance noticeably

 

[WardC]

Your MacBook Pro i7 would be running extremely hot if you were taxing the processor as much as your activity monitor CPU graph shows.