New to Mac...lots of questions. Any experienced users that can help?

Hi,

MBPro just arrived this week. My first mac and trying to make the change from windows. Issues, questions....

My machine gets hot, which I had already heard. I just feel some concern because I don't hear the fan coming on when it is hot. If I actually pick it up and listen and put my hand near the bottom back of the monitor, it feels like maybe a little air is coming out, but really...I could be imagining it, is is so quiet. I am thinking of taking it in to the Apple Store to see if the fan is working. My DD just got a MacBook in December and I can hear her fan when it comes on and feel a good breeze coming out when it does. Anyone have any experience with this? I called Apple today and the tech seemed to be non committal and said I could bring it in if I wanted but that it might be a 'perception' problem. LOL He said the fans are set up to come on when it reaches a certain temperature, but really I had this machine on my lap all day yesterday and it was getting really hot and no fan that I can detect. It cools down fast when I shut it off, but I don't want to be constantly having to be aware of how hot it is and turning it off to cool down.

Second concern is that I want to secure my computer and I see there is a firewall, but I am hesitant to turn it on after hearing people have problems with constant windows prompting for ok when using some applications after turning it on. Any links to something that might discuss this issue?

Well...that's a start..[g]

Thanks...very much...
adam

 

For the heating thing, it's made of a material that absorbs heat very easily, so getting a cooling pad would be a brilliant idea to cool that sucker down. As for the fan part, not hearing it turn on is odd. A trip to the Mac store would help too.

 

Yeah, Macs are very quiet. My suggestion is to get the iStat Pro widget or SMCFanControl, which can monitor fan speeds in Rotations Per Minute, so you can make sure the fans are working.

Firewall should be fine. You can choose to activate it or not, pretty much its not as big of a deal as it is on Windows. I turn it on, it never bothers me.

 

Thanks for all those suggestions. I did make an appointment for tomorrow to take it in to the Apple Store to see if they can figure out if the fans are working. I wrote down the name of the fan regulating software too. I am wondering will adding these to the machine effect the warranty at all?

As for the cooling pad...they are giving me a song and a dance about the MBP not made to use on your lap??!! What? It is a laptop...no she tells me, it is a more professional computer that was meant to be used on a flat surface like a desktop. WHAT? Mind you, no mention of that was made when they were selling me the computer and so far I have not seen anything on their website that says so either. I am not in a position to use it on a flat surface all the time. I have seen the cooling accessories in the Apple Store. Very large and unweildy looking, and if you place the laptop on them, then your hands and arms are in a much higher position and uncomfortable, I suspect. What is really setting off bells in my head is the attitude of the techs in trying to reflect responsibility away from Apple and trying to give this 'not a laptop' response to the problem of overheating. If putting it on my lap is making it hotter, than the fans should be stronger and coming on more frequently so why aren't they?

On the Firewall, it has two optional settings...one is... 'allow only essential services' and the other is..'set access for specific services and applications with a window to add names of those services and applications. Right now I have it set for the first one. Is that good?

 

Adding the software to track fan speed, such as iStat Pro and SMCFanControl? Absolutely not, it doesn't effect the warranty at all .

Well, the Macs are designed for passive cooling or the loud fans, so that both fans and the casing helps dissipate the heat. As for laptop...that's one reason why manufacturers call them notebooks now . I'd say its okay to use it on the lap, but yeah, it does get hot, so wearing shorts might not be the best idea.

 

Hi...Sam...I was looking at Apple widgets and saw that iStat Pro that you were talking about. I downloaded it and looking at the fan, according to this the left fan is 1997rpm, and the right fan is 1994rpm. But the temperatures seem really high to me. They had it set to Celsius..and at first I thought it was cool..reading 50-59...but when I saw that setting and changed it to Farenheit, the CPU Diode is 135 degrees..all the temps are in the 3 digits.

Isn't that too hot?

 

I run iStat Pro on my MBP as well. When idle, both fans run at just under 2k rpms, and about 50-55 degrees C. Sounds fine to me.

 

So you are supposed to keep the temp reading in Celsius? That would be great! Thanks!

 

Well, that's pretty normal. Don't worry about the seemingly ridiculous heat, the notebooks can handle it, around 50-65 C is pretty average. If you want to cool down the notebook, you can use SMCFanControl to control the fan speeds.

And yeah, the fans are running fine then. That's just how quiet the MacBook and MacBook Pros are .

 

hello folks (after a long time)!
well.. just to point out adam, 135 F is indeed 57.2 C ... (which falls into the 50-59 C that u were reading when istatpro was kept in celcius mode)

if you want to manually be able to tinker around with the fan controls, i suggest you go and grab "smc fan control" ... (freeware) ----> it allows you to set fan speeds according to what you feel is appropriate, so for instance, you could keep a customized profile called "lap" that would allow you to have the fan speeds set at 4K rpm (or however fast you require it to be to get you feeling comfy) when having the mbp on ur lap.

 

Back from the Apple store. I took it in to make sure the fans are working and they looked at the iStat Pro and felt everything is as it should be. I was there for an hour at least and no problem. He thought everything on the machine was running fine.

I am thinking about getting one of those computer stands to use. I saw one at IKEA that was pretty neat. Might work out for what I need it for and that might be better than on my lap.

I had a couple of small glitches. I have to transfer a lot of spreadsheet files from my old Dell and they were created in MS Works. I had bought a family version of iWorks to put on my machine and my daughters. Found out last night, after installing it, that the iWorks won't open my files. When I told the tech, he said they were discontinuing the Works..nice to know, too bad the sales person didn't tell me that. Also, there was a trial version of OFFICE on my machine when it came and I could have turned all my works files into xls extensions and then it would have worked in iWorks. But when you install the iWorks, it deletes the Office program. *sigh* I still have a ton of files to move. I spent a half hour moving my files to their machine and translating them into Office docs and moving them back to mine. I think I am going to call them and complain that they deleted my OFFICE trial w/o telling me the iWork wouldn't read the MS Works, let alone that they were discontinuing it.

I also couldn't get the screensaver to work and it was a box I hadn't checked.

One last issue...moving all my files from one machine to the other. I did a virus scan in preparation for moving and it turned up a trojan called, TR/Ncase.A.3 and it recommended quarantine which I did. I am about to move my files today and wondering if I should just leave that file in Quarantine or delete it first?

I have a wireless network and an ethernet cable....any recommendations for how I should move my files?

Thanks very much...

 

Adam your post title is a bit misleading, I was under the impression that you were a new Mac user looking for help on how to use the computer but after reading your posts you have problems that you want addressed. At any rate you mentioned earlier about the MBP being a "lappy", it's not it's a "notebook" and Apple has never referred to their notebooks as laptops and probably for good reason because they have always used passive cooling rather than a duct that blows out the hot air as in traditional laptops, hope that helps.

 

Thanks hidan for letting me know how my title hit you...I might post a new thread with specific problems as they come up. Right now, I am having a great time and things are humming along. I found an Apple document from the MacSwitcher's file here on the forum and so far it is helping a lot! Already have some music and photos transferred.

Thanks
adam

 

So your saying that Apple told you they are discontinuing iworks? Hmm that makes no sense but what do I know.