How warm is your MacBook Pro?

T

tlyall

Registered
Just how warm does this sucker get.

On mine the small strip between the keyboard and the hinge for the screen gets almost too hot to touch.

Would just like to know if this is the same for everyone.

Also, any temp monitor programs out there that work? The only one I've found can only read the Smartdisk sensor.

Lovely machine though :-D

/Trev
 
Mine gets really hot too, both the strip near the screen above the function keys and also on the bottom, towards the back of the machine (i guess thats where the cpu and gpu are :))

Nothing seems to have melted yet though :)
 
It's impractical if you need to move your machine around a lot but for years I've kept a tiny fan behind my laptops. The one I'm using now cost $6. I also cut up an old mouspad and added little feet (using double sided tape) so as to lift the machine about 1/4 inch. It improves airflow under the machine.

I credit it with making my old Wallstreet last for years and years. The fan brought its CPU temp down by about 10 degrees C.
 
Would you mind sharing pictures of your setup? Sound most interesting! Even more so since I intend to get one of them new Intel beasts (despite their name which I still didn't get over not liking ;) ).
 
It's hardly worth a picture. It's just a little fan I bought at Walgreens, a little Lakewood one, wire cage, wire tilt base. Painted black. Six bucks.

The feet I cut were 1/2 inch squares of the rubbery kind of mouse pad. I stuck them on so the fabric side is down and the Powebook slides around on my desktop really nicely almost like it's on a swivel.

I can always tell if the fan's not turned on, the Powerbook's top around the keyboard becomes noticeably warmer.
 
We've just bought 3 MacBook Pros here for my office, and I've noticed that they do run very warm. I like the mousepad feet & $6 fan idea, tho. Almost MacGyver.
 
Im using my MacBook alongside my Powerbook and on the same activities the Powerbook is so much cooler. Even the handrest and over the keyboard on the MacBook feels warm. Couple this with the processor whine on my MacBook, and I don't feel like moving to the new book that much :/
 
this thing get very hot when i have been using it for a while.
Just between where the LCD meets the keyboard it gets almost too hot to touch. The underneath at the back is also quite hot...

glad it not only me that is experiencing this.
All in all the MBP is sweet.
 
PowerBooks (and the MBP) have been too hot ever since the Pismos (black PowerBook G3). While the iBooks have been very good (since, well, the first iBook ever), the PowerBooks just have been too hot for "laptop" use, and I think it's a pity. I mean: Do we _really_ have to buy bed-notebook-tables just to use notebooks the way they were intended to be used, i.e. while in bed?
 
ummm yer probably...
I mean I havnt been doing any intensive stuff tonight on my MBP but it bloody hot. Like if i were to rest it on my legs then i would probably burn myself on the casing!
Crazeee!
 
Temp monitoring widget (and a whole lot more! I love it)
http://www.shockwidgets.com/ – MiniStat2

I have an iBook G4 1.4 GHz, which is admittedly not comparable to a MacBook, but at peak usage, say, when compiling a big package in Fink for more than 5 minutes, it has gone up to 72°C sustained.

With GarageBand 3 pumping it hovers around 65°. Normal operating temperature is usually around 45° at 50 % sustained CPU usage. If I leave it alone (awake but idle) it goes down to around 23°.

As for the location of the heat...at least on an iBook, tilt the screen back as far as it will SAFELY go and look: you might just see a grille ;)
 
I bought one of these notebook coolers.

I had a couple reasons for getting it. I'm in kind of dusty environment and the fan spreads a lot of dust over my work surface. But the major reason was that it lifts the machine (15" AluBook) just enough that I can slide my tablet very close to the machine on the right hand side (a little under it in fact). Before this the ethernet cable kept the tablet about 4 inches further to the right and I found it annoying to reach that far to the side to use it.

The machine runs at about 48° to 50° C (processor bottom) with it and a few degrees cooler if I turn the fan on.

BTW: I noticed that Walgreens has a new supply of the little $6.00 fans in stock, this time in more colors.
 
I have the revD MacPro 1.83 and I have no issues with heat. Metal is warm to touch but no even close to hot, had it in my lap 90 to 120 minutes with no issues
 
hawki18 said:
I have the revD MacPro 1.83 and I have no issues with heat. Metal is warm to touch but no even close to hot, had it in my lap 90 to 120 minutes with no issues
Click to expand...
but were you running anything that was actually needing to use the processors and memory....

i mean mine got quite hot, when i was running iMovie and importing video / audio streams from miniDV camcorder (via Firewire), it ended up being a 20GB file.... i was also running some fairly intensive C/C++ programs that were doing a lot of computation for an AI assignment, as well as probably a few browsers, terminals, xcode windows and probably some iTunes in there as well. This was sustained for at least 3-4 hours (probably more).
 
We have a MacBook Pro at work, and it does get hot too. Sounds like it is quite a common problem!

As for monitoring the temperature, I use iPulse. Seems to do the job! :)
 
BlackFlag said:
We have a MacBook Pro at work, and it does get hot too. Sounds like it is quite a common problem!

As for monitoring the temperature, I use iPulse. Seems to do the job! :)
Click to expand...
Anyone try and contact Apple support about this, and will they do a logic board upgrade to rev D which seems to have fixed this known problem?

-J
 
Here's a possible heat related issue. I reported a problem earlier that my MacBook Pro shuts off unexpectedly after it's been on a while. When I sent it in to AppleCare they said they could not reproduce the problem. What I think is happening is that it only occurs when I am plugged into my Cinema HD Display. Could it be that driving that high res external display causes the graphics chip to overheat? Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?
 
rdarken said:
Here's a possible heat related issue. I reported a problem earlier that my MacBook Pro shuts off unexpectedly after it's been on a while. When I sent it in to AppleCare they said they could not reproduce the problem. What I think is happening is that it only occurs when I am plugged into my Cinema HD Display. Could it be that driving that high res external display causes the graphics chip to overheat? Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?
Click to expand...
When I called Apple about my heat issues, the first question they asked is whether I had my computer plugged in to an external monitor as that I guess is a known issue with heat that is likley acceptable to apple since if you were going to use your macbookpro with a monitor, you are not going to be succeptable to burns since you would almost certainly have the computer on a desk. Just a theory.

-J
 
i've heard that they are recommending that if you are runnig a number of programs etc and you computer is starting to get warm then once your battery reaches full charge then to disconnect the power supply (so that you are running off batteries) and continue using for a while. (??,i didn't se how that would help, but i suppose its worth a try...)
 
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