MBP Unibody heat issue

I've had my MBP unibody 17 for almost a year now... it's been heating up for the past couple months (or longer?). I really haven't thought to talk about it until now.

Basically, my fans start to kick it quite often after just regular web browsing. It happens quite often if I start streaming a video or watching youtube. I don't have many apps open either. My laptop is in a cool place on hard surface that doesn't absorb heat easy either. I almost want to by a fan to put under it.

I installed SMC fan control and "fan control" since the beginning. I currently have fan control only.

Is there anything specific I can check that causes the laptop to heat up or if I messed with any "internal" settings by accident to cause it to heat up?

I almost want to think I to think it's something I downloaded or something I screwed up. My brother has the exact same computer and it runs around or under 50 all the time while running more programs than I do at times.

I'm just browsing right now with adium and and chrome running and it's running at 62 degrees.

I almost want to reformat...

 

why not give Apple a call or make an appointment at the local store?

they'd probably be the best help to you. and yes, 62 is on the hot side (not warm...hot) if that's the CPU and it's only browsing the web.

 

Yeah it is the CPU and browsing the web.

I uninstalled fan control and it still runs the fans at 3000+ RPM at over 55+ degrees.

When I installed fan control or smcfancontrol, did it do anything to some internal settings to always keep the fans running high?

I just did a computer restart and Google Chrome is the only thing open and the cpu is fluctuating from 55 - 60+ with the fans consistently over 3000.

 

You should try opening the bottom and clean the fans with some compressed air.

 

I had the same issue running ff on yahoo games with adblock + installed. What I found was that FF would work it's way up to 150% cpu. I looked closer and adblock tab's were no longer present. So I uninstalled adbock close and reopen FF then added Adblock back in. Now my tabs are back and cpu usage is back down to 20-30%.

I used iStat Pro to find out what was sucking all of the cpu and heating my MBP up.

 

I would think that you have to set it yourself.

 

From my experience low 60's is really nothing to worry about... get worried when you hit 80's. My machine has gotten up to high 90's, I just turned up the fans with SMC Fan Control and that cooled it down, I'm not worried about it. Honestly if you want your temps lower just up the fans a bit, especially if your computer is still under warranty because then if anything wears out you get to have it replaced .

 

honestly this isnt the first time ive heard of someones fans being screwed up because of a fan control program. constantly running comes up alot. I wish i knew a fix but i dont. it certainly made me even more leery of fan controls

 

Not really, I've done it too on my Inspiron 9300... ik8fangui something to control the fan and made it spin to the max RPM. The app failed and stopped both of my fans and it was critical xD...

 

I think my fan settings are messed up too ever since I installed smcfancontrol.

I have a MBP 13 inch, and it's hit 102C before when I forgot to change the fan setting from 2000rpm. When it was at 102C, the fan was running at 2300rpm, so it did change a bit, but not as drastically has I would've hoped.

The only time the fan changes speed is when I manually changed it. As much as I like smcfancontrol, I'd rather the computer dynamically change fan speeds itself.

 

perhaps you're missing the purpose of a fan control program

 

No, I understand the purpose.

When I recently reinstalled SL, I didn't have smcfancontrol installed right away and the fans weren't adjusting.

I don't mind manually adjusting the fans though, so it's not that huge of a deal.

 

Wait, you have smcfancontrol and you have to constantly control the fans yourself? The way smcfancontrol works for me is I set it at what I want it at (say 3000rpm cause I am watching a movie and want to prevent my lap from getting hot or something). The fan will go to 3000rpm and stay there unless the computer sees it heating up and then it will take the fan higher for me. Does this not happen for you or am I confused about your earlier post?

 

That's what happens for me.

Anyways, 60c is normal. When It get's into the high 80's and 90's when you are just browsing the internet then you have a problem.

 

I second the notion of opening the bottom and cleaning the fans with some compressed air. Also, fan control always worked for me, just make sure you're using it right. Set the base fan speed higher and adjust the high speed kick-in temperature to something lower.

 

If I set it at 3000 rpm, it stays at 3000rpm no matter what temperature the computer is. The thing is, I never had this problem before I installed smcfancontrol.

 

Same here the fan speed will stay at what i set it to unless it gets really hot then it will go maybe ~500 rpms up more.

 

if your fans are not changing up on their own... something is wrong with your SMC. SMCfancontrol only changes the SMCs minimum fan speed setting, it doesn't mess with how the fan decides to change speeds, or prevent it from spinning faster.

Now also note that on some models of Apple laptops, it assumes you aren't going to push it hard for an extended time, and leaves the fans slower for longer, and some under normal usage (which Apple says is normal) will get close to 100º before starting to spin the fans up.... its stupid, but they think its ok that way, cuz they don't care if the machine runs problem free for only 3 years instead of 15 years...

If you fans seem messed up, you need to find the Apple knowledge base article on how to reset your SMC.... try resetting the SMC and seeing how things go. If the fans do not spin up on their own, with or without SMCfancontrol installed, then you have a hardware problem that needs to be fixed, hopefully under warranty.

 

I agree, uninstall SMCfancontrol and reset your SMC. When SMC took control something could of gone wrong. It happens.

 

Yea, I was just reading somewhere else that people were experiencing the same thing.

So, I stressed out my CPU for a bit, and it got up to 104C before the fans kicked in and cooled it down to 80C. Honestly, the fans should kick in way before that, IMO.

I did reset the SMC, but I don't think it made any difference, partially because I guess that's the default thermal management scheme on the unibodies. I'll stick with smcfancontrol though, because 80C+ CPU temperatures just don't feel right to me.

 

I suspect it is the Nforce Motherboard issue.
I have a laptop with a Nforce board (Very rare nowadays since Nvidia seldom release mobile mobo nowadays on a PC Platform) 9100MG same thing happens.
Same thing happens with Dell Studio XPS that comes with a 9400M G Nvidia Mobo.

 

That wouldn't be the issue. I'd suspect it has something to do with the way Apple has written its EFI to handle the fans. It could also have something to do with the thermal paste in these machines. When a machine is consistently getting up to 100-105c, then it has an impact on the effectiveness of the paste. It makes it dry out. Think about a normal notebook, take for instance the one in my sig. My Sony idles at 27-28c which is MUCH different than 100c, and the internals are NOT that much different than most MacBooks. The thermal protection feature on Intel CPU's are supposed to kick in and shut the notebook down instantly if it comes up to 105c. Anywhere in the 90c+ is NOT good for internal components. IMO, if your Apple is out of warranty, I would have someone you know that is good at fixing computers or a professional replace the thermal paste and clean the internal cooling systems. I have a 2.4GHz Unibody MBP, and I try to keep temps under 60c, which is normally attainable because, I, most of the time use the 9400m, but when I use the 9600m I'm gaming so I ramp up the fan to about 3-3500 RPM and if it needs more, then it does it by itself.

 

It is the way Nvidia has written firmware for the motherboard.
Believe it or not no OEM writes firmware for the motherboard it is written mainly by the chipset designer that is why I said it was an Nvidia Issue.

 

Dust accumulated in my white Macbook during a year or so, causing temps to spike easily and the fan to ramp up. Apple cleaned it out under warranty, but the same thing has happened again a year later. I would expect better dust control in the Pro series, as found in many business-grade laptops. For example, my Thinkpad has continued to run cool and quiet during the past year under the same conditions.

 

My Macbook cpu idles around 50, and the 9600 around 70 in OS X. In windows the cpu idle temp jumps around, but when playing videos can ramp up to 90-100. The 9600 also gets really hot. I'm not really sure why, but it doesn't do this when running windows in a VM, cpu will cap around 90 in OS X, which really isn't that bad, I don't care about temps that much, sure it will shorten the lifetime of the cpu, but I'll buy a new notebook before it matters.

 

Hmm the genius bar will clean out your macbook for you if you are under warranty?

 

I'd say it's at least worth a try?

@weinter... I'm pretty sure Apple writes the EFI for their boards. If they don't write it, then it's like my Sony and is contracted work from Insyde or some other company, and then it's made to what Apple specifies.