I've got one of the older white macbooks, and recently my cpu temperature has been spiking up to about 90 degrees celsius when I do things such as run online games or stream video from online. I don't think it ever used to do this before. Could this be a problem of stuff getting clogged in the fans? Or is it something else? Or, is it normal?
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Macbook Temperature Keeps Spiking- Help!
- Thread starter lookafteryou
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yeah, i'd suggest striping the case and cleaning all the dust and crud out, it'll prolly help ya fans breathe a bit easier 
yeah, i'd suggest striping the case and cleaning all the dust and crud out, it'll prolly help ya fans breathe a bit easier
Wouldn't it void the warranty if you open the case beyond the hard drive and RAM though?
macbook warranty is only 1 year, unless the OP purchased applecare, seeing as he stated it's an older one, i'm assuming that the warranty has expired
I've got this problem myself.. I always supposed that this was normal.
When i have the macbook on my lap while playing games IT BURNS WAAAH
no seriously, sometimes when i wear shorts with that white monster on my lap It gives red marks and itches.
You will notice that nowhere on the MacBook/MacBookPro product pages does Apple refer to them as "laptops". The same is true for the larger machines from most other manufacturers as well. They're always "notebooks."
Reason being, they get too hot to actually use as a laptop. You can actually experience a kind of burn from prolonged exposure to hot (but sub-burning) temperatures; your body essentially can't get heat away from the skin fast enough, so eventually cell damage starts to occur even though the temperatures aren't physically painful.
The best kludgey solution to this is to install SMCFanControl or a similar app that lets you set the temperature response curve on your MB/MBP's fans, then crank them up high enough at minimum to keep the underside cool enough to use on your lap. This is my solution, though of course the tradeoff is more fan noise.
