rMB: Your Mac needs to cool down before you can use it.

[hachre]

Update: I solved the problem, see here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-before-you-can-use-it.1889285/#post-21402717
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-before-you-can-use-it.1889285/#post-21402792

Original Post:
I cannot understand why no reviewer mentioned this and apparently nobody else on the internet has ever run into this.

I have a MacBook Retina 12" with the 1.3 GHz CPU. It arrived here 8 hours ago and so far it has turned off about 35 times on me already.

I am literally not able to enable iCloud Photo Library without it shutting down like 5 minutes later due to overheating. Does this only happen to the 1.3 GHz version??? What the hell were they thinking with this... Why doesn't it clock down enough to not be capable of overheating...

I'm in a 22C room and not in a hot climate. Open iTunes and enable iTunes Match? Having Time Machine back up at the same time? Better expect a shutdown!

At this point I am kinda apalled and am most likely gonna return this laptop.

It shut down on me while writing this post once...

 

[placidity44]

Was thinking of selling my mid 2012-rMBP 15" 2.6GHz quad-core i7 8gb ram 512gb flash storage for a 12" MacBook but I was worried as my rMBP is my only machine it wouldn't be a great idea. I really really want to get one but i'm having second thoughts after seeing your post even though I haven't come across anyone with this issue. This isn't a widespread problem but I would definitely exchange this one or if you're concerned return it for a refund for a different machine. These MacBooks are fanless.

 

[jimboutilier]

Its possible there is a problem with your particular rMB. I've driven my rMB hard at normal room temperatures (20C) with no shutdowns. Under light load it sits at around 42C. Driven heavily it spikes to 94C then throttles so temps don't rise further - it doesn't shut down but does slow down.

 

[hachre]

Thanks I would really like to know if this is "normal" on the 1.3 or not...

@jimboutilier Could you try stressing it out on all cores and see if it would shut down eventually? It brings up that image I attached and goes into stand by. A few minutes later you can turn it on again and it will resume but it is extremely annoying.

 

[headcase]

I cannot understand why no reviewer mentioned this and apparently nobody else on the internet has ever run into this.

I have a MacBook Retina 12" with the 1.3 GHz CPU. It arrived here 8 hours ago and so far it has turned off about 35 times on me already.

I am literally not able to enable iCloud Photo Library without it shutting down like 5 minutes later due to overheating. Does this only happen to the 1.3 GHz version??? What the hell were they thinking with this... Why doesn't it clock down enough to not be capable of overheating...

I'm in a 22C room and not in a hot climate. Open iTunes and enable iTunes Match? Having Time Machine back up at the same time? Better expect a shutdown!

At this point I am kinda apalled and am most likely gonna return this laptop.

It shut down on me while writing this post once...

View attachment 558253

View attachment 558251

I have owned 3 retina MacBooks, including now a 1.3 BTO. None of them have exhibited overheating. I recommend you return the defective unit for a replacement.

 

[jimboutilier]

Thanks I would really like to know if this is "normal" on the 1.3 or not...

@jimboutilier Could you try stressing it out on all cores and see if it would shut down eventually? It brings up that image I attached and goes into stand by. A few minutes later you can turn it on again and it will resume but it is extremely annoying.

My heavy use pegs both cores at 100% for 30 to 60 minutes. No shutdowns - just throttling to keep CPU temps below 95C. Then returns to normal temps when load lightens. I've seen shutdown behavior on other fanless devices (e.g. iPads at 30C ambient under heavy load) but no issues at normal ambient room temperatures.

As I only have one rMB and you only have one, I can't say which one is "normal". But I have not read about widespread resets (although there are a reasonable number of complaints about slow downs due to throttling) so I would hope mine is the more normal experience.

What temp does your CPU max out at when you get the message?

 

[hachre]

My heavy use pegs both cores at 100% for 30 to 60 minutes. No shutdowns - just throttling to keep CPU temps below 95C. Then returns to normal temps when load lightens. I've seen shutdown behavior on other fanless devices (e.g. iPads at 30C ambient under heavy load) but no issues at normal ambient room temperatures.

As I only have one rMB and you only have one, I can't say which one is "normal". But I have not read about widespread resets (although there are a reasonable number of complaints about slow downs due to throttling) so I would hope mine is the more normal experience.

What temp does your CPU max out at when you get the message?

It seems to behave like yours... It spikes to 96C pretty much instantly on load and I get the message that says Performance has been reduced. Then like 10 seconds later I get the message your MacBook might have to sleep to cool off. And another 2 minutes later (max) it goes into standby.

I have owned 3 retina MacBooks, including now a 1.3 BTO. None of them have exhibited overheating. I recommend you return the defective unit for a replacement.

Thanks. I will call Apple tomorrow. This is very disappointing because I have waited for this laptop for 5 or 6 weeks...

 

[Queen6]

We live in the sub tropics, ambient temp is around 26C - 28C under the AC, having just loaded 300Gb+ of application & data, my 1.2 MacBook has literally not come close to getting warm. I have run instances of yes > /dev/null & to load the CPU with no other effect than throttling, no warnings or shut downs.

You need to speak with Apple and return your MB as it definitely has hardware issue...

Q-6

 

[jimboutilier]

It seems to behave like yours... It spikes to 96C pretty much instantly on load and I get the message that says Performance has been reduced. Then like 10 seconds later I get the message your MacBook might have to sleep to cool off. And another 2 minutes later (max) it goes into standby.



Thanks. I will call Apple tomorrow. This is very disappointing because I have waited for this laptop for 5 or 6 weeks...

Wierd. I wouldn't think the couple degrees in ambient and CPU temps between our two systems would lead to such a different experience. Hopefully it will turn out to be an issue Apple can address for you. Let us know.

 

[Gav2k]

You've defiantly got an issue with your machine it's not exhibiting normal behaviour.

 

[bcaslis]

I've not seen this at all on the 1.3GHz. Either you are doing something extraordinary (which seems unlikely) or you have a defective MacBook. Depending on where you got this from I would return or exchange it.

 

[cmjars]

I cannot understand why no reviewer mentioned this and apparently nobody else on the internet has ever run into this.

I have a MacBook Retina 12" with the 1.3 GHz CPU. It arrived here 8 hours ago and so far it has turned off about 35 times on me already.

I am literally not able to enable iCloud Photo Library without it shutting down like 5 minutes later due to overheating. Does this only happen to the 1.3 GHz version??? What the hell were they thinking with this... Why doesn't it clock down enough to not be capable of overheating...

I'm in a 22C room and not in a hot climate. Open iTunes and enable iTunes Match? Having Time Machine back up at the same time? Better expect a shutdown!

At this point I am kinda apalled and am most likely gonna return this laptop.

It shut down on me while writing this post once...

View attachment 558253

View attachment 558251

I have a 1.3 and mine get toasty but it has not overheated like you describe and show... take it back there is something wrong with it.

 

[whitestar27]

I have the 1.2 and in a similar temp room to the OP and I have absolutely been hammering my machine and not even a sign of a slowdown - I have had Photos importing thousands of photos while at the same time Handbrake has been cranking and the machine does start to feel warm to the touch but not alarmingly so and no sign of a slowdown in it's operations, certainly no dire temp warnings. I was afraid I would cook it when I started loading the CPU up but it's been an absolute little trooper.

 

[headcase]

It seems to behave like yours... It spikes to 96C pretty much instantly on load and I get the message that says Performance has been reduced. Then like 10 seconds later I get the message your MacBook might have to sleep to cool off. And another 2 minutes later (max) it goes into standby.



Thanks. I will call Apple tomorrow. This is very disappointing because I have waited for this laptop for 5 or 6 weeks...

Apple usually keeps a supply on-hand for quick swap outs of any defective units.

 

[burgman]

Thanks I would really like to know if this is "normal" on the 1.3 or not...

@jimboutilier Could you try stressing it out on all cores and see if it would shut down eventually? It brings up that image I attached and goes into stand by. A few minutes later you can turn it on again and it will resume but it is extremely annoying.

If only the manufacturer had support in a nice store or by phone. No I'll ask on the internet.

 

[hachre]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I spoke to Apple and reinstalled OS X from the Recovery System and the issue seems to have gone away. I will do more testing to confirm but so far the CPU has stopped heating up at 94C (not 96C like it did before) and I have not even had a shutdown warning. I will post in case it starts happening again but so far it looks like it was somehow a problem with the pre installed system. (I ordered directly from Apple via their Web Store btw)

 

[torana355]

I would start with an OS re-install then go from there.

EDIT: It seems the OP has already done so and it has fixed the issue

 

[sangalang]

+1 in agreeing that this is not a normal behaviour at all.
Nevertheless, glad to hear it's better since OS re-install.

If it happens again though I would definitely consider returning / exchanging it. I would worry that persistent overheating will endanger your chip and considerably shorten its lifespan.

If you haven't done so already download the Intel Power Gadget that will keep an eye on the temperature more closely: https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget-20

 

[hachre]

I have tried out the same "workload" as before now after the reinstall. Photos is doing its iCloud thing and I'm doing all kinds of things at the same time - playing videos and doing a Time Machine backup and I am only at 60-70C now... So if anyone ever has this problem: Reinstall OS X! I will also edit my initial post and refer to this solution here.

Thanks everyone!!!

P.S. I had used the Intel tool before the reinstall and noticed that the CPU was never clocking down below 2.0GHz, even in idle... So that explains why it was too hot from rather low load...

P.P.S. @placidity44 You can buy it too !!! I am very happy with it so far now that this problem has been solved

 

[sunapple]

I even saw someone playing GTA V on it (impressive btw), so I can't imagine it being unable to handle Photos...

It's still weird having a laptop without a fan. My 2014 MBP 15" doesn't use its fans too often, but when it does, you can definitely tell it needs them when doing something like a SolidWorks render. Seems like the retina MacBook would just shut down at some point, can't be healthy.

 

[whitestar27]

I even saw someone playing GTA V on it (impressive btw), so I can't imagine it being unable to handle Photos...

It's still weird having a laptop without a fan. My 2014 MBP 15" doesn't use its fans too often, but when it does, you can definitely tell it needs them when doing something like a SolidWorks render. Seems like the retina MacBook would just shut down at some point, can't be healthy.

I agree it's weird having no fan. Very strange to see Handbrake cranking an impressive fps figure for 30 mins without slowing down and yet not having any fan sound is spooky

Cheers,

Chris

 

[2015]

It's still weird having a laptop without a fan. My 2014 MBP 15" doesn't use its fans too often, but when it does, you can definitely tell it needs them when doing something like a SolidWorks render. Seems like the retina MacBook would just shut down at some point, can't be healthy.

I agree it's weird having no fan. Very strange to see Handbrake cranking an impressive fps figure for 30 mins without slowing down and yet not having any fan sound is spooky

Cheers,

Chris

One of the greatest features of the new MacBook is that it doesn't have a fan!

RIP fan

RIP MagSafe

RIP cheesy white plastic glowing logo

RIP backlit keyboards with extreme light bleed between the keys

 

[Kiwi 99]

That Power Gadget from Intel is awesome, and I'd totally recommend it to anyone who who likes to keep an eye on how the system is running. Thrashing my 1.2 model got the ghz up to about about 2.4, the power up to 14w, and then the temp got up to about 88 before it throttled back (which it seems to do very intelligently).

 

[Macalway]

Yikes. Now it's going to be putty jobs. Arctic Silver....away!

 

[theSeb]

Seems like the retina MacBook would just shut down at some point, can't be healthy.

That's exactly the point of shutting down. For "health" reasons.