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safe to use your MBP while laying in bed or will it overheat?

2

212rikanmofo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 31, 2003
1,907
730
I like to use my mbp while laying in bed. But this raises an area of concern about heat issues. Since I am not placing the laptop on a perfectly flat surface. I have a blanket over me and i have the laptop on top of the blanket, or I'll just lay sideways and have my laptop set on top of the mattress with the sheets on. Will this harm my laptop overtime? I don't want to find out that my internals are slowly frying up by using my mbp in bed.

Does anyone have more info on this?
 
no probs, its a laptop basically thats what its meant to do (either use on your lap, on your bead, on a shaky car, or on a turbulent plane, if you had a perfectly flat surface to use your computer all the time you would have bought a iMac wouldnt you??) the HDD is protected with sudden motion sensors and are pretty rugged (dont drop the laptop to test it please...) and even if they do fail over a prolonged period of abuse... then you just change it, HDDs are very cheap (however is unlikely this would to happen as the computer has a sudden motion sensor that works fairly well and laptop HDDs actually are pretty good with G forces... However about the heat.... well I have no a definitive answer since MBPs are designed to run well at high temperatures, my guess is that as long as the fans are lower than 6K rpm then the system is running at a "safe" temperature (though safe temperature could mean that if you are using the laptop on your lap you are taking the risk of killing your future children :eek:) but I doubt you could possibly do something intensive enough while in bed, to heat the computer to such extent (you'd probbably be browsing internet or watching a video... i dont think someone could actually use photoshop or play a game or video edition while on the bed but you know, there is always weird people.)
 
The problem with setting your MBP on a soft surface like a blanket, bed, pillow, etc, is that it's really easy to cover the vents on the back, and it will heat up considerably. Maybe not instantly, but it's not a good idea if you want your machine to stay healthy.

Get a flat surface, like a lap tray, or something similar made for laptops to slightly provide an airflow below the laptop, and especially the rear vents. Even a simple flat dinner tray can work. Trust me on this...
 
xoggyux said:
no probs, its a laptop basically thats what its meant to do (either use on your lap, on your bead, on a shaky car, or on a turbulent plane, if you had a perfectly flat surface to use your computer all the time you would have bought a iMac wouldnt you??) the HDD is protected with sudden motion sensors and are pretty rugged (dont drop the laptop to test it please...) and even if they do fail over a prolonged period of abuse... then you just change it, HDDs are very cheap (however is unlikely this would to happen as the computer has a sudden motion sensor that works fairly well and laptop HDDs actually are pretty good with G forces... However about the heat.... well I have no a definitive answer since MBPs are designed to run well at high temperatures, my guess is that as long as the fans are lower than 6K rpm then the system is running at a "safe" temperature (though safe temperature could mean that if you are using the laptop on your lap you are taking the risk of killing your future children :eek:) but I doubt you could possibly do something intensive enough while in bed, to heat the computer to such extent (you'd probbably be browsing internet or watching a video... i dont think someone could actually use photoshop or play a game or video edition while on the bed but you know, there is always weird people.)
Click to expand...

A) what if your a girl?

B) So your saying sunbathing kills babies?
 
While it's not ideal to use any laptop on a soft surface where it may suffocate, it is acceptable because I used to use my first generation MBP while in bed all the time. Just don't do anything extremely intensive. With my new UBMP, I use it in my bed all the freakin time. I luv it.
 
It's better for bed use than some designs which vent downwards or rely on a bottom-mounted air intake, but the insulation effect won't help matters. Get a stand if you intend to do it often.
 
kastenbrust said:
A) what if your a girl?

B) So your saying sunbathing kills babies?
Click to expand...

what if you are a reptile? or a bird? or a turtle? or an amoeba? or a plant? Geez.. you are a girl then you only have to worry about not hurting your legs... ignore the comment (I assumed that if you are smart enough to read then you would also be smart enough to ignore it :cool:)

B) The reason of why testicles are "outside" (again, I am sorry to be obvious here, but this time I don't want to assume about people's intelligences, I know testicles are covered by skin therefore they are technically inside... I meant outside of the abdominal cavity as women ovaries are or male whale testicles.....) of the body is because the ~97ºF (or ~37ºC) of the body is too hot for them... so yeah sunbathing (if your testes get "hotter" than ~37ºC) could make a male sterile (not likely since air helps lower the temp, in the laptop case is not likely since there is no air (well there is.. but too little, again sorry for the explanation) to "fresh them out. :cool:"
 
xoggyux said:
B) The reason of why testicles are "outside" (again, I am sorry to be obvious here, but this time I don't want to assume about people's intelligences, I know testicles are covered by skin therefore they are technically inside... I meant outside of the abdominal cavity as women ovaries are or male whale testicles.....) of the body is because the ~97ºF (or ~37ºC) of the body is too hot for them... so yeah sunbathing (if your testes get "hotter" than ~37ºC) could make a male sterile (not likely since air helps lower the temp, in the laptop case is not likely since there is no air (well there is.. but too little, again sorry for the explanation) to "fresh them out. :cool:"
Click to expand...

But Humans evolved in the Upper rift Valley in sub Saharan Africa, where temperatures often reach 50C + so that theories obviously bol**cks, haha no pun intended.
 
kastenbrust said:
But Humans evolved in the Upper rift Valley in sub Saharan Africa, where temperatures often reach 50C + so that theories obviously bol**cks, haha no pun intended.
Click to expand...

The fact that "ambient" temperature can reach up to 50ºC doesnt mean the body will reach that temperature, in fact if your body (again assuming you are human) goes a bit over the 41ºC not only you wont have to worry about your future generations but you'd be convulsion[ing] and just a bit over and you would die due to protein denaturation (and other things I wont bother to explain)...... Again this doesn't happen (though the temperatures can be that high indeed) because of something called "sweat" that surprisingly happened to be more pronounced near the testis..... Look if you don't believe me, (and you are a guy...) put your testis on boiling water and try having kids next... if you are a girl.. then do it to your boyfriend/husband/ or future boyfriend or husband.....


That was not off-topic or it was?
 
xoggyux said:
The fact that "ambient" temperature can reach up to 50ºC doesnt mean the body will reach that temperature, in fact if your body (again assuming you are human) goes a bit over the 41ºC not only you wont have to worry about your future generations but you'd be convulsion[ing] and just a bit over and you would die due to protein denaturation (and other things I wont bother to explain)...... Again this doesn't happen (though the temperatures can be that high indeed) because of something called "sweat" that surprisingly happened to be more pronounced near the testis..... Look if you don't believe me, (and you are a guy...) put your testis on boiling water and try having kids next... if you are a girl.. then do it to your boyfriend/husband/ or future boyfriend or husband.....


That was not off-topic or it was?
Click to expand...

Yes very, newegg needs to start selling Ritalin, that way there can finally be a thread where everyone doesnt go out on a tangent
 
Yeah... it's off-topic, but...just wondering - who lays their laptop directly on top of... well, you know...? Trying to fry some eggs...? ;)

Back on-topic: 212rikanmofo, just use common sense. Just monitor your MBP's internal temps when you take it to bed with you :D and if it doesn't get too hot, then don't worry about it. I think you'll see the temps get up there, but that's just my experience. But, if the vents get blocked, fans won't help.
 
I lay the MBP on my chest and hope to notice if it's melting to my skin before I smell the burning.

It very rarely gets to hot to use for me to use -- but I don't use gpu intensive programs while lying flat on my back.
 
FYI, I have a MacBook Pro 15" late 2008 unibody, and I use mine on the bed everyday, and have yet to ever hear the fans. I sometimes monitor the temps out of curiosity - and have never seen them go up much nor has the MacBook felt warm or hot to the touch.

However, it's always freezing in my bedroom in terms of ambient temperature - so that could explain some things.

Essentially in my view, your safe to go.
 
I use my MBP all the time in bed. however after about a month I noticed the heat and bought a cooling pad (this one to be exact) and now the highest I ever see my temps go even when rendering video is 87°C
 
I have a unibody macbook pro, and use it all the time on my bed, with blanket, pillow, or just lying on my mattress. I would also sometimes put a fedex box under my mbp to cool it. It beats spending $20 on a cooling pad. I also have an unassembled homemade usb fan from instructables. Fedex box was to cool my old thinkpad which overheats and shutdown, but I've found it to work well with my mbp.

Only complaint is the loose lid on my mbp, which doesn't stay in the position I would like it to.
 
Mmm, I tend to game sometimes while sitting on my bed and putting my MBP on my legs. They are fine, thank you, although the skin sometimes becomes a bit red due to the heat. :p

The main problem is that it looks a bit obscene sometimes if someone walks by my room cause I have to spread my legs out in order not to get burnt. :eek:

But yea, it's fine on a bed as long as nothing blocks the vents. The reason why you can't do it with other laptops is because their vents are at the bottom, so if you place it on the bed you're likely to block up the vents and cause it to overheat. Macbooks (all of them) on the other hand have their vents at the back, so it's not a problem there. :)
 
I use mine in bed all the time. If the fans start working overtime I'll roll up a magazine and prop it under the rear of the MBP. Not ideal but it works.
 
srexy said:
I use mine in bed all the time. If the fans start working overtime I'll roll up a magazine and prop it under the rear of the MBP. Not ideal but it works.
Click to expand...
I just used this trick( except I used a blackberry 8310) and my temps have dropped 10+*C Amazing...
 
Well, sorry to disappoint the thread by not talking about testicles, but I would have to recommend using smc Fan Control and keeping it in your menu bar. You can see your computer's temperature so you can tell whether or not it is getting too hot, and you can change the fan speed on the fly to help cool it down.

That said, I would get a flat surface to rest it on, because the vents will definitely be blocked by the blankets or sheets.
 
Hermolicious84 said:
Well, sorry to disappoint the thread by not talking about testicles, but I would have to recommend using smc Fan Control and keeping it in your menu bar. You can see your computer's temperature so you can tell whether or not it is getting too hot, and you can change the fan speed on the fly to help cool it down.

That said, I would get a flat surface to rest it on, because the vents will definitely be blocked by the blankets or sheets.
Click to expand...

Never ever ever use SMC Fan Control

use Fan Control 1.2 instead

SMC Fan Control sucks for 3 reasons:

1) Its set to one speed
2) If you want it to work in Windows you have to log into OS X first, then restart
3) It doesnt variate the fans automatically set on CPU and GPU heat, with Fan Control 1.2 you can set a max heat, min heat and base speed and the app will automatically modify things for you. Plus it works in Windows too, its so much better.
fan_control-134729-1.jpeg

Base speed should always be set to 2000 of course
I set my Lower Threshold to 60C
I set my Upper Threshold to 81C

Enjoy :)
 
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