So for a couple weeks I've been wondering why sometimes, when I'm on my 11" 2011 MB Air, it gets so hot if I'm just web browsing/listening to music. I finally figured it out today. The cause, is a process called "mdworker" which just means MetaData worker. I was looking at Activity Monitor since my CPU temp got to 85 celsius while web browsing/listening to music and found that mdworker was using 99% of my CPU!!!!! (See attached image)
After a little bit of research I found that what mdworker does, is index your entire filesystem in order to update the Spotlight feature of OS X. The easiest way to prevent the CPU spike is to just disable Spotlight if you don't use it and then you won't have heating issues. However, if you think Spotlight is handy, then just wait around 15 minutes and the process will gradually fade out and the CPU temp will start dropping.
Sorry if this post isn't useful to you, I just know that other people have had the same problem with spontaneous overheating. I just figured it'd be nice to have a post to explain why, just so people know. Knowledge is invaluable
After a little bit of research I found that what mdworker does, is index your entire filesystem in order to update the Spotlight feature of OS X. The easiest way to prevent the CPU spike is to just disable Spotlight if you don't use it and then you won't have heating issues. However, if you think Spotlight is handy, then just wait around 15 minutes and the process will gradually fade out and the CPU temp will start dropping.
Sorry if this post isn't useful to you, I just know that other people have had the same problem with spontaneous overheating. I just figured it'd be nice to have a post to explain why, just so people know. Knowledge is invaluable
