Windows 10 Boot Camp on MacBook Pro, HOT

[daudi81]

I just finished installing Windows 10 on my 2013-14 Macbook Pro 15" (bootcamp of course). This is a fresh install, with no other programs or apps installed other than Chrome and the new bootcamp drivers.

So far so good, other than 3 things:

1) The laptop gets really hot, even while idling / doing nothing.

2) The fan kicks on (as a result of it being hot), runs full blast. Even while idling / doing nothing.

3) Battery life is HORRIBLE. I get maybe 2-3 hours MAX. If that.

I haven't had the laptop run this hot and seen my battery deplete so quickly since I ran some of those Wii / PS2 emulators (and even then I don't know if it depleted that quickly).

I've looked in task manager , processes, etc. And there's really nothing that's going on or eating the CPU.

I know this is a Windows 10 issue because it does not do this in OSX Yosemite. I get 6-10 hours of battery life, and it rarely, if every gets warm (let alone HOT) to the touch.

I'd like to get this figured out - I actually REALLY like Windows 10 (a complete opposite reaction I had to Windows 8.1).

 

[Beavix]

Take a look again in Task Manager. If you see System and System Interrupts constantly eating 10-15% CPU, then put the computer to sleep once, wake it up again and check the CPU usage. If it's down to 0-3% then your MBP have a known issue caused by the Iris Pro graphics firmware and the sleep thing is the only way to temporary fix the heat and the battery life.

 

[daudi81]

Take a look again in Task Manager. If you see System and System Interrupts constantly eating 10-15% CPU, then put the computer to sleep once, wake it up again and check the CPU usage. If it's down to 0-3% then your MBP have a known issue caused by the Iris Pro graphics firmware and the sleep thing is the only way to temporary fix the heat and the battery life.

I will check that out. My macbook pro is the higher end one with the discrete graphics (750m I believe). I know it still has the Iris Pro, but I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

If that is the cause - is there really no fix. Is this something that Apple needs to release as new bootcamp drivers, or....?

 

[daudi81]

I went into task manager, and System & System Interrupts keep going to the top, but they are at like 0.1-1% - never really above that. However, the laptop is really warm, and battery has gone down almost 10% in the last 10 minutes of sitting here watching the task manager. Putting the laptop to sleep and waking it up does nothing to fix it. Darn.

 

[scrmtrey]

It is because it uses discrete gpu only all the time.

 

[Beavix]

My rMBP (late 2013) only has Iris Pro graphics, but notice below the estimated battery life before and after sleep.

Before sleep:

After sleep:

 

[scrmtrey]

For normal use , use Balanced power plan. It helps with CPU frequency (it can lower to 0.8ghz if idle).


I personally use MACFAN on windows to manual control the fan. Set base temperature like 45 degrees celsius, and the high threshold 80 degrees celsius. It works super great. Normally fan hovering around 3000rpm - 3500 rpm. Fan sound is barely noticeable.

http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

 

[daudi81]

It is because it uses discrete gpu only all the time.

Ohhh - I guess that makes sense. So using the discrete graphics (even in idle) will reduce battery life by almost 50%? I thought it would only draw a lot of power if I'm using graphic intensive stuff, which is where I'd want the extra power anyway. But using simple web browsers / word processors is going to drain it quickly?

Is there any way to disable it from using the discrete graphics when I don't want it to?

Maybe my next MBP will have integrated graphics only. I've heard Skylake integrated GPU is pretty awesome anyway.

FYI - that little sleep trick didn't do anything to help.

EDIT: Actually - you know what? I remember getting a good 6+ hours out of Windows 8.1 before I upgraded to W10. Does that mean Windows 8.1 was turning off my discrete graphics?

 

[scrmtrey]

Nope. Bootcamp only use discrete gpu. You cannot force it to switch gpu like in OSX. It is by design by stupid apple.

It is really bad decision. Too bad that it cannot switch gpu depends on whats going on the screen. Integrated gpu have enough power for daily use, like browsing, mail, youtube etc...

 

[macenied]

You can try if "MSI Afterburner" version 4.1.1 works with your GPU and throttle down the GPU speed for office use. IMO worth a try. Software is free and works with Windows 10. I would not use it for overclocking the GPU in a MBP.

 

[macenied]

You can try if "MSI Afterburner" version 4.1.1 works with your GPU and throttle down the GPU speed for office use. IMO worth a try. Software is free and works with Windows 10. I would not use it for overclocking the GPU in a MBP.

Addendum: If you don´t want to throttle the GPU you can adjust the fan(s) of your MBP. Free software:

http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

No more ideas here but I think you can find one or more solutions now .

 

[macenied]

For normal use , use Balanced power plan. It helps with CPU frequency (it can lower to 0.8ghz if idle).


I personally use MACFAN on windows to manual control the fan. Set base temperature like 45 degrees celsius, and the high threshold 80 degrees celsius. It works super great. Normally fan hovering around 3000rpm - 3500 rpm. Fan sound is barely noticeable.

http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

Sorry for my double posting. Did see your posting right now.

 

[austintg]

This doesn't make sense. I'm having the same issue and the reason can't be that it is running the better card all of the time. I have the better card locked into working most of the time in OS X and it does just fine. Also, if you get a rMBP with Iris Pro only graphics, it still runs hot as hell under Bootcamp with Windows 8.1 pro and 10 pro. Also if you get an HP and turn it on, it will run extremely hot as well. Why does Windows do this???? I'm so frustrated.

 

[ceparker27]

I don't understand why everyone is having issues with 3-4 hour battery life unless you're constantly using high-powered processes that demand a lot out of the system. I usually get 6-6.5 hours on my rMBP 15/AMD in Windows 10 Pro. One recommendation I might make is to make sure all the telemetry stuff is disabled. It may be causing a lot more activity than it should be on your computer.

 

[austintg]

Think it could be an issue with the Nvidia card instead of AMD? I doubt it, but who knows. Also how do I disable the telemetry stuff? Anything else I can disable other than startup apps and processes?

 

[ceparker27]

If you search reddit for "windows 10 disable telemetry" you should find it quickly. That's what I used and I haven't had any issues with my battery life, besides obviously being about 3-4 hours shorter than OS X. I would disable anything you don't really use as far as the tiles go. I'm personally not a big fan of the tiles anyway. As far as the graphics card, I don't think that'd be a major factor but you never know, it could be. In general, I try to limit what I do in Windows to maximize battery life and heat levels. I use windows 10 for any engineering apps I can't use on OS X (VisualAnalysis, Autocad Civil 3D and MEP, Vissim) and that's about it. I have chrome for back up browsing (edge is atrocious, don't use it) and RCT3 and Guitar Pro for fun. That's it. Everything else is on OS X. That will help you a ton as well.

 

[nick101]

so is it a bad thing when the temp is at 100 celsius when using bootcamp on a 2019 MacBook Air

 

[konorok]

Having the same issue on the MBP 16", macOS works fine, but overheating wildly on BootCamp Windows even if idle. Best solution so far is to put fans on full blast then temps stay around 50 degrees.

 

[IowaLynn]

Since 2007 and running Windows on Mac, people used smcfan control - Bootcamp should have but laxs the ability. No idea if it has changed in years since

 

[benshive]

Having the same issue on the MBP 16", macOS works fine, but overheating wildly on BootCamp Windows even if idle. Best solution so far is to put fans on full blast then temps stay around 50 degrees.

I had this issue a few years ago when I was using bootcamp. I opened up CoreTemp and saw that my CPU was just constantly running as fast as it could boost (even when just sitting on the desktop with nothing open). CPU was rated at 2.5GHz and could boost to 3.7GHz and was just sitting all cores at 3.7GHz indefinitely. I had to go into power settings and set the maximum CPU performance to 99% which essentially disabled the boosting and it sat slightly under 2.5GHz. It kept temps under control but of course also left some performance on the table.