Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MBP running really HOT, pre & post Lion upgrade.

KidZgOtMac

KidZgOtMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 20, 2010
164
0
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Recently purchased 15" MBP second configuration. 80% of the time running I can't put it on my lap hot. Even if I'm only web browsing. Any programs, apps or other solutions to help with that? I was thinking of buying a cooling pad but I want to know of all solutions possible before doing so. Battery life is also another issue. I can hardly even get like 3 to 4 hours of it while doing the simplest of things.
 
Scenario 1
Finder is indexing the hard drive. In that case the problem should go away after a while.
If you've just upgraded to Lion, it'll take a short while for the system to "settle down" as finder will re-index the hard drive and the system will finalize its settings and updates.

Scenario 2
You are running Adobe Flash intensive content in the browser (i.e. certain internet video or game)

Scenario 3
Something else is hogging the CPU and/or GPU. It could be a rogue process or maybe even a task that you regularly run, that itself is CPU/GPU intensive.

Try to pinpoint the culprit by opening Activity Monitor and filtering by % CPU.
 
Opened Activity Manager, nothing is really hogging my CPU/GPU. Only been on this website and Facebook since this morning and the laptop has been hot. I installed Lion first thing yesterday.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2011-07-22 at 2.17.23 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2011-07-22 at 2.17.23 PM.png
    420.1 KB · Views: 152
Well, two things are pretty standard for problems like this:

First, install istat pro, from here. It's free. That has very good temperature monitoring.

But, in honesty, it's probably from your discrete GPU. Even idle, the GPU will be hot, and OSX is notoriously bad at switching back to integrated. Install gfxCardStatus v2.1 and simply set your computer to integrated only. Most things that OSX thinks it needs a discrete gpu for can actually be done on integrated. Flash/Chrome are fine, even Portal 2 can be played adequately on Sandy Bridge or the Geforce 320m.

Your MBP will be markedly cooler, and your battery life will soar.
 
MAC WILL RUN HOT FOR THE FIRST 20 MINUTES - 60 MINUTES POST INSTALL.

The Mac's mds worker (Spotlight) is indexing your entire hard drive again.

Also other things like Mail will be re-organizing themselves.

After mds worker finishes, the high temps and heat will go away.

All is normal. Keep calm and carry on.
 
KidZgOtMac said:
Opened Activity Manager, nothing is really hogging my CPU/GPU. Only been on this website and Facebook since this morning and the laptop has been hot. I installed Lion first thing yesterday.
Click to expand...

Next time you use Activity Monitor, make sure you select "All Processes" from the drop down.
 
My MBA is running hot as well since installing Lion (its been 2 days). Activity monitor shows that nothing is running (the highest CPU usage was for activity monitor itself). iStat shows all temps in the 95-122F range, whereas before, I believe it was running in the 80s.

Will that gfxCardStatus program work for my system? I've got the 2010 11" MBA...
Thanks
 
gfxCardStatus works fine on my early 2010 MBP, which is the same age as your MBA.

Also, it's fairly normal for a computer to idle in the 40ºC range (about 104ºF) in this day and age, and my MBP idles at around 35-40ºC in the summer. Since the Air has even less airflow than the MBP, I'd imagine that they'd idle at the same temperatures.
 
ritmomundo said:
My MBA is running hot as well since installing Lion (its been 2 days). Activity monitor shows that nothing is running (the highest CPU usage was for activity monitor itself). iStat shows all temps in the 95-122F range, whereas before, I believe it was running in the 80s.

Will that gfxCardStatus program work for my system? I've got the 2010 11" MBA...
Thanks
Click to expand...

It would be useless for you seeing as you only have the integrated 3000HD to being with.
 
JacaByte said:
gfxCardStatus works fine on my early 2010 MBP, which is the same age as your MBA.

Also, it's fairly normal for a computer to idle in the 40ºC range (about 104ºF) in this day and age, and my MBP idles at around 35-40ºC in the summer. Since the Air has even less airflow than the MBP, I'd imagine that they'd idle at the same temperatures.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a shot and see if it makes a difference.

I'm just confused because my MBA normally ran very cool (well below that of the average computer, I would say). I've seen other posters here say that their laptops are running hotter. But then again, I've seen just as many posters say their computers are running cooler after Lion.

Edit:

snaky69 said:
It would be useless for you seeing as you only have the integrated 3000HD to being with.
Click to expand...

I've got the NVIDIA GeForce 320M. I believe this is integrated too, so it still wouldn't work then?
 
My macbook pro 2010 i7 15" has been running a lot cooler since Lion -- idling at 49 celsius rather than 62 on SL.


gfxcardstatus will only work if you have a 15"+ Mac Book PRO made after the 2009 revision.

i.e. no MBA, 13" MBP, or MB

Simple reason being, you have no powerful heat emitting GFX to switch to in the cheaper machines.
 
adrian1480 said:
MAC WILL RUN HOT FOR THE FIRST 20 MINUTES - 60 MINUTES POST INSTALL.

The Mac's mds worker (Spotlight) is indexing your entire hard drive again.

Also other things like Mail will be re-organizing themselves.

After mds worker finishes, the high temps and heat will go away.

All is normal. Keep calm and carry on.
Click to expand...

Yea and no. I'm still getting temperatures around 170° F when watching regular youtube videos (360p). I have too keep my fan running at 4650 rpm to keep my computer manageable. (15" MBP 2011)
 
KidZgOtMac said:
Opened Activity Manager, nothing is really hogging my CPU/GPU. Only been on this website and Facebook since this morning and the laptop has been hot. I installed Lion first thing yesterday.
Click to expand...

Chrome is a resource hog on the Mac contrary to what Google will lead you to believe. Plus its not even 64 bit. Same too with Firefox which is not optimized for Lion yet I believe.

My advice, switch to Safari. I used to use FF and Chrome cus I thought they were awesome and when I used them, I got temps of 60C on my MBP easily doing nothing. However, when I switched to Safari, I got an immediate 5-7C drop in temps. Give this a try and see if this works for you :)
 
If it's any consolation, my beige Power Mac 9500/200 with a G3 upgrade idles at room temperature. :)
 
ritmomundo said:
Thanks, I'll give it a shot and see if it makes a difference.

I'm just confused because my MBA normally ran very cool (well below that of the average computer, I would say). I've seen other posters here say that their laptops are running hotter. But then again, I've seen just as many posters say their computers are running cooler after Lion.

Edit:



I've got the NVIDIA GeForce 320M. I believe this is integrated too, so it still wouldn't work then?
Click to expand...

No. You don't seem to understand what GfxCardStatus does.

It allows the user to force the use of the integrated card, or the discrete card, on apple laptops with 2 GPU's. Since you only have the integrated 320M, the program has nothing to switch to, therefore, is completely useless for you.
 
Had both installed on the same MBP on different partitions


Lion dev copy a few months ago

photo1-16.jpg



SL at the same time

photo-28.jpg
 
Why isn't your fan spinning faster?
On SL as soon as the CPU temp started to rise the fans would start spinning faster so the temp would stay around 55ºC. (3000rpm and 55ºC).
Now if I watch flash videos or do things that use CPU, the CPU temp will rise to 70ºC and the fans still spin at 2000rpm.
I tried resetting SMC and V-RAM and it stills happening to me.
Any solution besides using smcfancontrol??
 
I've seen an improvement in temps with Lion

Browsing safari, without blocking Flash, my computer stays in the 53-56C
Browsing safari, using iTunes, and Tweetdeck, my computer hover at 63-66C
Watching a HD video in youtube in fullscreen takes my computer to 69-70C

With my room thermostat at 24C

So at least for my case 2011 13" MBP, Lion is an improvement when compared with SL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back