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Macbook Pro Retina High CPU + Screen Fault

J

Jazper

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 16, 2012
643
34
After upgrading from a 2012 13" base model Macbook Pro to the top model 2013 Retina 15" Macbook Pro (bought this brand new), I've noticed that my CPU usage is way higher on things like Google Chrome, when I install items (e.g. installing an OS in Vmware, or simply installing an app in the App store) my CPU usage goes to 80-100% and the fans run to about 4000rpm - I never experienced this on my old Macbook Pro either.

So far I'm not that happy if I'm honest, the battery life isn't amazing, getting about 4 hours was hoping for 5-6 (this is when just watching a film in VLC player, admittedly the CPU is around 30-40% though).

Also randomly I keep getting, what I've seen referred to as 'spotlights', my screen darkens and at the bottom there are 7 spotlights - not sure what to do about this. At the beginning putting the display to sleep fixed it but sometimes the issue comes back a few seconds later. It seems to happen more often when it's darker, not sure why. Would this need to be repaired to fix this?

Thank you for your help. :cool:
 
Last edited:
Jazper said:
After upgrading from a 2012 13" base model Macbook Pro to the top model 2013 Macbook Pro (bought this brand new), I've noticed that my CPU usage is way higher on things like Google Chrome, when I install items (e.g. installing an OS in Vmware, or simply installing an app in the App store) my CPU usage goes to 80-100% and the fans run to about 4000rpm - I never experienced this on my old Macbook Pro either.

So far I'm not that happy if I'm honest, the battery life isn't amazing, getting about 4 hours was hoping for 5-6 (this is when just watching a film in VLC player, admittedly the CPU is around 30-40% though).

Also randomly I keep getting, what I've seen referred to as 'spotlights', my screen darkens and at the bottom there are 7 spotlights - not sure what to do about this. At the beginning putting the display to sleep fixed it but sometimes the issue comes back a few seconds later. It seems to happen more often when it's darker, not sure why. Would this need to be repaired to fix this?

Thank you for your help. :cool:
Click to expand...

The spotlight effect is the LCD failing. The LEDs which light the display are at the bottom, and when you see the spotlight effect, half of them aren't working.

As for the CPU usage, that sounds like a software issue to be honest. Did you restore from a time machine backup?
 
Brian Y said:
The spotlight effect is the LCD failing. The LEDs which light the display are at the bottom, and when you see the spotlight effect, half of them aren't working.

As for the CPU usage, that sounds like a software issue to be honest. Did you restore from a time machine backup?
Click to expand...

Nope fresh install. Just seems a little ridiculous to be getting 80-100% CPU when installing something that's only using 1 core and 1GB of ram (VMware windows 7 install).
 
Jazper said:
Nope fresh install. Just seems a little ridiculous to be getting 80-100% CPU when installing something that's only using 1 core and 1GB of ram (VMware windows 7 install).
Click to expand...

Installing Windows in a VM will be quite CPU intensive, especially in a VM - since it has to uncompress every file on the disk/iso. A more worrying point would be if the CPU usage for VMware was more than ~5% with your Windows 7 install idling.

Also, when looking in activity monitor, the % is core based. Activity monitor showing 100% means it's using 100% of 1 core, so, if you have a dual core CPU, that's actually 50% usage (the max would be 200%, or 400% for a quad core).
 
Jazper said:
Nope fresh install. Just seems a little ridiculous to be getting 80-100% CPU when installing something that's only using 1 core and 1GB of ram (VMware windows 7 install).
Click to expand...

You're running a full OS, and vmware, this is kind of CPU intensive. You could give the VM more cores which may off load the work a bit but keep in mind its doing a lot as it stands.

As others stated on your screen - it certainly sounds like a hardware failure occurring and since its a 2013 model, it should still be in warranty (hopefully) so give apple a call.
 
Multiple vCPU VMs, while there is only a dual core CPU in the host (13" MBP,) is a bad idea.

The 13" MBP really isn't suited very well to run VMs with more than a single vCPU in them.

I bought a 13" MBP at first due to the extreme weight of the 15" one.

(ok, I'm kidding there ... couldn't resist.)

Seriously, though ... I did get a 13" MBP at first because it would be easier to use in smaller confines, like on a plane, but due to my VM-related work, it just was not up to par for my performance requirements, due to the dual core CPU (running multiple 2 vCPU VMs.) Sadly, I had to return it and get a 15" MBP instead.

I dream for the day when quad-core CPUs find their way into the 13" models (but at the same time, I'm not going to hold my breath, either.)
 
maflynn said:
You're running a full OS, and vmware, this is kind of CPU intensive. You could give the VM more cores which may off load the work a bit but keep in mind its doing a lot as it stands.

As others stated on your screen - it certainly sounds like a hardware failure occurring and since its a 2013 model, it should still be in warranty (hopefully) so give apple a call.
Click to expand...

True, but my 13" ran it fine without even increasing the fan speed. So far my 13" could actually do more without getting hotter. I appreciate the retina display and upgraded specs are a little more intensive to run but I thought the CPU would be far lower. Again, the CPU also increases considerably when just downloading apps from the App Store. It just seems that something isn't quite right.

duervo said:
Multiple vCPU VMs, while there is only a dual core CPU in the host (13" MBP,) is a bad idea.

The 13" MBP really isn't suited very well to run VMs with more than a single vCPU in them.

I bought a 13" MBP at first due to the extreme weight of the 15" one.

(ok, I'm kidding there ... couldn't resist.)

Seriously, though ... I did get a 13" MBP at first because it would be easier to use in smaller confines, like on a plane, but due to my VM-related work, it just was not up to par for my performance requirements, due to the dual core CPU (running multiple 2 vCPU VMs.) Sadly, I had to return it and get a 15" MBP instead.

I dream for the day when quad-core CPUs find their way into the 13" models (but at the same time, I'm not going to hold my breath, either.)
Click to expand...


Not sure if you didn't read the thread properly, but I upgraded from the 13" to the 15". The 15" is the model I'm having the issues with.
 
I read it just fine, thanks. You just neglected to put '15"' in your post. I'm sure that you thought of it, but for some reason the thought never made it to the keyboard. No worries, that happens to everyone once in a while.
 
Still wondering why my CPU jumps so high, was installing Photoshop today and went up to 80% when just downloading the program, went higher than installing it, this doesn't seem right.

Also whenever the CPU goes up the fans turn on straight away even though the temperatures are fairly low, 50-60 degrees.

Is this the same on all retina 15" macbooks?
 
Jazper said:
Still wondering why my CPU jumps so high, was installing Photoshop today and went up to 80% when just downloading the program, went higher than installing it, this doesn't seem right.

Also whenever the CPU goes up the fans turn on straight away even though the temperatures are fairly low, 50-60 degrees.

Is this the same on all retina 15" macbooks?
Click to expand...


i have a top spec 2014 15 rMBP not experienced any of your issues sorry.When downloading apps its low cpu usage and my fans don't kick in till 80 ish, happy to try replicate the issue if you tell me what to run
 
Greg1fraser said:
i have a top spec 2014 15 rMBP not experienced any of your issues sorry.When downloading apps its low cpu usage and my fans don't kick in till 80 ish, happy to try replicate the issue if you tell me what to run
Click to expand...

Hmm, what browser do you use? Do you have automatic graphic switching on and what's your battery life like?

Just interested in this, not sure if it's just my machine or the fact you have a 2014 model.
 
Jazper said:
Hmm, what browser do you use? Do you have automatic graphic switching on and what's your battery life like?

Just interested in this, not sure if it's just my machine or the fact you have a 2014 model.
Click to expand...


yeah automatic graphics switching get 8 hours battery easy & i use safari as Cjrome is a major hog on OS X and not optimised for it
 
Greg1fraser said:
yeah automatic graphics switching get 8 hours battery easy & i use safari as Cjrome is a major hog on OS X and not optimised for it
Click to expand...

Hmm, really tempted to return this and get a 2014 model, thanks for the info, I don't get 8 hours, I get about 5-6 to be honest, if not less.
 
Jazper said:
Hmm, really tempted to return this and get a 2014 model, thanks for the info, I don't get 8 hours, I get about 5-6 to be honest, if not less.
Click to expand...

Battery life depends on your usage. If there is nothing wrong with the rMBP you currently have, replacing it with a 2014 model isn't going to change anything.

The screen issue can probably be fixed pretty quickly by Apple.
 
Brian Y said:
The spotlight effect is the LCD failing. The LEDs which light the display are at the bottom, and when you see the spotlight effect, half of them aren't working.

As for the CPU usage, that sounds like a software issue to be honest. Did you restore from a time machine backup?
Click to expand...

The poorly designed ventilation system caused that effect on the unibody models when the lcd was working fine. It's backlight bleed caused by some amount of minor warping when the fans are on high. Failing panels (in my experience) show different signs.
 
thekev said:
The poorly designed ventilation system caused that effect on the unibody models when the lcd was working fine. It's backlight bleed caused by some amount of minor warping when the fans are on high. Failing panels (in my experience) show different signs.
Click to expand...

If you are seeing a dark "spotlight" effects like this - https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/WevT53pGebNEIKbJ.standard - then it is the LCD panel dying. The LCD itself might be good still, but the LED backlights are failing (there are 2 LED circuits, and in this case, one of them stops working, sometimes intermittently).
 
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