Dumb questions concerning my MBP...

Well it's been about 3 months since I got my MacBook Pro, had a few questions.

1. Where does the air blow out when the fans work? The speakers?

2. Do those speakers get dirty inside? Do I need to clean them? And how?

3. My laptop gets hot when doing CPU and graphic intensive things on both OS X and Windows, should I be worried? Should I get a fan?

Thanks

 

3) When you go through extreme physical activity, dont you get hot? If youre that worried, suggest you get utilities to monitor your temps, like your gpu, hdd, and cpu.

Idk about the other two, though i dont clean my speakers, i do blow out my fan every once in a while with a can of compressed air.

 

1) The vent is actually just in front of the hinge, on the back of the computer. If your computer is open, and you tilt it forward, you can look in front of the hinge and see it.

2) It would require taking out a lot of screws to clean off the speakers - I don't think they need to be cleaned. I've never cleaned mine...

3) Depends on exactly how hot it's getting. MBPs are notorious for running hot, but it can get to dangerous levels too if not checked. You might want to use iStat Pro (free widget download) to measure the temperature of the various components. If you're worried about heat, a fan or just a passive cooling system (I use the Griffin Elevator) will help.

 

Regarding #3, you can get a cooling pad/stand thing for when your laptop is on a desk. These usually contain fans which help bring the temps down.

 

Ah ok. And how do you blow out the fan? You just blow into the vent? And where can I get a can of compressed air? And yah, I think I will geta cooling pad

 

You can find compressed air at tons of online stores, or probably places like Best Buy as well. It's pretty common.

 

is your one 15" or 17"? coreduo, core2duo?

the vent outlet is behind the hinge. old unit CoreDuo has a small vertical vents which cause heats problem, the newer units has big horizontal vents.

the speaker grill are about 95% covered inside so that there is only a tiny bit of holes opened, probably to aid cooling as another vent, or for extra inlet.

it is normal, the older one gets a bit excessively hot, the newer one, i dont think you should worry.. unless the room is hot, in which case you should turn on you air con. the macbook pro is thinner than most notebooks (in its class) and features an alumunium case, which acts as a big heatsinks, of course you're going to feel the heat, mostly on the bottom of the notebook. i personally dislike the so-called notebook cooler.

edit: oh, and it is not a dumb question. this been asked many times. i cant blame you, the macbook pro is a gorgeous object

 

Be careful with the can of compressed air as I think that it can create moisture depending on the distance and how long you spray the area..