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MB Air gets loud when skyping

D

deuk1219

macrumors regular
Original poster
So I skype a lot with my friends and stuff (video chat).
My MBA 13" with 4gb ram gets really loud...
Any other programs out there that will make the MBA run quietly?
Thanks!
 
It's getting louder because Skype is a CPU-intensive program, which causes your processor to heat up. The noise you hear are the cooling fans. Any video chat program will do the same thing.
 
The same thing happens when I run Skype on my 13" MBA. When I use Facetime, the heat and loud fans aren't really an issue. The only other time the fans crank up for me like that is when I'm doing intensive photo or video editing. So it seems to me that Skype really is just a CPU hog. I'm not sure if there's really anything you can do about that.
 
Skype is CPU intensive, this causes the MBA to work harder and the fans to spin to keep things cool. Why every week do we have threads on this? The computer hardware is doing what it is supposed to do. Its like saying "I pushed the "high" button on my blender and now the blender is going faster and getting louder".

I don't mean to sound mean or snippy here its not my intent its just that we have multiple threads like this every day.
 
its just how it works. the video card gets hot and the fans will turn on this happens with all laptops. just use your laptop. you don't need any programs to 'fix' it because it's not broken.
 
Newsflash

CPU intensive programs will make your computer work, get hot, and activate the fan, therefore---loud

Are you using Skype ALL the time? If not, shut it down when you are not using it.

This is normal
 
i actually use iXoft from TT, it actually pretty much cools down my MBP so far, i could tell that it at least lowers the temp by 2 - 3 degree

you can try using this, it's a good product
 
Last edited:
miles01110 said:
It's getting louder because Skype is a CPU-intensive program, which causes your processor to heat up. The noise you hear are the cooling fans. Any video chat program will do the same thing.
Click to expand...

I never use video in Skype, and to be honest, Skype can pound on the processor even when it's supposedly doing nothing but monitoring what contacts are online and waiting for any incoming communications.

Because it makes my fans scream frequently when idling, I think it's a really poorly written program. Other VOIP programs aren't so CPU intensive.
 
Skype caused my 13-UMBA CPU temp to rise to 80C, installed Coolbook and now runs about 70-73C. Normal CPU temp at idle is 43C, and 38C with Coolbook (at .92v settings). Interestingly, when I run Skype on my Dell Latitude with an i5-540M processor/4MBram, the CPU only heats up from 50C to 55C. So the Skype temp effect is much greater on the MBA, probably because of the C2D is working harder.
 
Not a problem for me, I skype here!
 

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