MacBook Issues

[BeyondCloister]

My new heating system arrived today, sorry I mean MacBook.

I have had it sitting on a flat stable surface as Apple tell you to.
The hinge is hot to touch which is fair enough.
However the left hand side where all the sockets are is also hot to touch.
It feels like warm air coming up between the keys on the keyboard.

Sitting typing this at my iMac I can feel the heat on my arm from the MacBook just as if I was sitting beside a fire.

I think it would not be possible to use it for a whole day in the same way as all my other computers.

I tried turning the Energy Saver settings down from performance as they suggest but it makes no real difference.

Before anyone asks, yes I did check the vent for the plastic.

Is this the same kind of experience others are having with the MacBook?

Mine is the entry level one.

I'm going to give it a full test of sitting on my desk powered up all day tomorrow and then see about sending it back :(

[ravuya]

Are you running on A/C or battery power?

Is your battery hot?

[BeyondCloister]

Running on A/C power. The battery is possibly the coolest part of the laptop.

[socksy]

Is this the same kind of experience others are having with the MacBook?

Unfortunately, according to multiple sources on the internet the macbooks are plagued with some of the same problems of heat as the macbook pro had. It still has too much thermal paste applied, for example.

A quick google brings up a load of links...
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/05/20060525153551.shtml
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/19/warning-from-apple-dont-put-our-laptops-on-your-lap/
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/5/24/4100
http://gertstahl.blogspot.com/2006/05/macbooks-vent-blocked.html
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/05/20060503235133.shtml

[ravuya]

Running on A/C power. The battery is possibly the coolest part of the laptop.

The CPU is located in the centre top of the machine, I think. Is that where it's hottest on the bottom?

[BeyondCloister]

I'm not really bothered about the heat underneath, it is the heat of the keyboard I'm worried with.

The temperature has calmed down a bit in the last 30 mins or so. I'm now going to turn the power back to normal instead of energy saving.

[Duane]

spend all day on a macbook? why?!?!!

Get outside and get some fresh air!

on another not, my dad also had the same problem.

[BeyondCloister]

spend all day on a macbook? why?!?!!
It is called a job.

Get outside and get some fresh air!
I'm the one who goes out for a break and not the MacBook. It will stay on while I go out.

[AnotherJake]

My brother-in-law's MacBook is HOT. It's as hot, if not hotter than his 12" PowerBook, which was real hot -- too hot to comfortably keep on the lap for long, and definitely not at all without pants. My Intel Mac Mini is HOT underneath. I mean really hot. If it were any hotter it would cause a burn. No joke. If this is your first time experiencing that, then all I can say is probably not to worry about it.

[BeyondCloister]

I've had iBooks in the past that have got hot when sitting with them on my lap so I know what hot computers are like.

It has actually cooled down a lot since my original post. Maybe it was just because it was the first time it had been used it got all hot.

[PowerMacX]

Is this the 1.83GHz model, everything standard (RAM/hard disk)? I'm planning to buy one as soon as they arrive here so I'd be very interested to know how the heat issue evolves after using it for a few days. TIA. :)

Edit: BTW, winter is half a month away here, so "warm" would be fine :p

[Achithyn]

Ah, you know it was just excited to get out of that cardboard box! It was also probably a bit nervous to meet its first owner - you shouldn't blame it, just try to get along now. :) Friends forever eh? :p

I plan to get the next MacBook when they release them, as well as a new iMac. It's likely I will make my purchases when the next OS comes out. Here's to the future! :D

~Achi

[ravuya]

I've had iBooks in the past that have got hot when sitting with them on my lap so I know what hot computers are like.

It has actually cooled down a lot since my original post. Maybe it was just because it was the first time it had been used it got all hot.

I know it usually takes a couple dozen on-hours to fully "set" thermal paste on a lot of machines; I have a new Dell Core Duo laptop in the office that was exhibiting a similar situation but has now cooled down substantially. Maybe the fan controller is "intelligent" and needs to do some calibration before it can run smoothest.

Could be a lot of heat from doing all the Spotlight indexing; my Powerbook gets exceptionally hot when the hard drive and CPU are both at redline.

In any event, I'd leave it on overnight running one of the 3D screensavers; if it's just thermal paste needing to be "broken in" that should do the trick. If not, then it might be time to bug Apple about it.

[Skorche]

I've been really pleased with mine. Mine's never been particularly hot. Even with both cores cranking away it doesn't get uncomfortable on my lap. The fan kicks in and keeps it pretty cool.

The exception is when you are charging the battery. Just charging the battery makes the machine pretty warm, particulary on the left side where the ports are, about as much as running the machine at full tilt, but does not trigger the fan. If you are charging the machine while using it heavily then it can get uncomfortable. I had to take the machine off my lap when compiling Gtk+ and charging the battery, but it definetly never got so hot that I couldn't touch it.

The reality is that all of the 45 watts of power from the power supply is turning into either heat, light, or stored in the battery. The best you can do is to direct the heat out in a controlled fashion.

I'd also like to add that my machine seems to be running cooler than it did the first day that I got it. Maybe I'm just not quite pushing it as hard, or I'm remembering a time when it was charging, or it's showing the behavior that ravuya said.

As for the thermal paste issue, while it may be well known that putting less on keeps the machine cooler, does putting too much on increase the temperature that much? Putting it on "correctly" looks tedious, time consuming, and probably non-automatable. Would it affect the price more than the benefit? Having worked in a repair shop for a while, I saw lots of computers (Apple's included) that had a lot of paste applied. This doesn't seem new to me.

[BeyondCloister]

The good news is that it did settle down and was no warmer than my iBook.

It was charging at the time of the 'great heat'. There had also been a lot of disk activity going on - downloading updates, installing Windows XP on to Parallels. I'll see how it gets on over the next couple of days.

It is the basic entry level version with no extras.

While I'm here, a quick comment on Parallels. At first I thought the performance was unworkable and I was unable to get a decent screen resolution at full screen. Again I think this was just the usual settling in of Windows. I have since used it at it runs the apps I require okay.

[ERaZer]

Mine (basic entry level version with no upgrades) was also very hot in the beginning, but it has settled down now. It doesn't feel any hotter than my old iBook.

[ravuya]

That's really great to hear; I'm getting my MBP now in... less than three weeks! :D

[ravuya]

Just a paranoid followup; is it still running cool when you're compiling, etc?

[Skorche]

Depends on what you think "cool" is. It will always be warm, the question is how warm. If you are compiling something long enough for the fans to kick in, it certainly won't be "cool". Like other people have said though, it doesn't seem particularly warmer than an iBook. That should give you a good comparison if you have ever used one of those.

[ravuya]

That's good, at least. I'm actually getting an MBP so I don't know why I'm worrying about the temperature on MBs; hopefully the MBP is the same as my 12" Powerbook or slightly cooler.

[ThemsAllTook]

ravuya: My MacBook Pro seems to run slightly hotter in general than my previous PowerBook, which was the 1.67GHz Aluminum model. I haven't actually used it on my lap, but it would be a bit uncomfortable if I tried. When I do something that uses a lot of CPU and/or GPU time, it gets right to the threshold of being hot enough to burn... But my burn threshold seems to be lower than the general population's, so your mileage may vary.

The temperature is not a problem at all for using it on a desk or table. The hottest part is at the back, near the display. The front left portion gets a bit warm when I run World of Warcraft (probably where the GPU is situated?), but not enough to be too bothersome.

[ravuya]

That sounds more or less like my Powerbook's behaviour, including the leg hair searing bit. ;)

Yours is a 12"?

[ThemsAllTook]

It's a 15". I haven't used a 12", so I don't know exactly how they compare heatwise...

[ravuya]

My 12" 1.33 is much hotter (by about 10-20'C at idle) than my friend's 15" 1.67. So I think I should be okay, thanks TAT. :) Its little GPU is quite warm particularly when using dual monitors.

Anyway, sorry for derailing the thread, I'm just excited and at the same time worried about getting a brand new machine on a brand new (well, as brand new as the i386 can get) architecture. Less than a month to go until our illustrious prime minister lowers the GST. :)

[BeyondCloister]

Just a quick update, it is still running cooler than the first day. Yesterday I was using it for a full working day running on AC power.

The really good news is that I was able to do my development work that I previously used my Vaio for. The only problem was I that I had to keep Remote Desktoping into a Windows box to update files from Subversion because it is not possible to update from Subversion on a samba share.

[MattDiamond]

FWIW Apple posted a message recently reminding folks to make sure they look for and take any transparent covers off the vent in the back of the laptop when you unpack it. Apparently some of the many complaints they've been getting about hot laptops were due to that.

(The cover was intended to prevent dust from entering the machine in the factory; it possibly should have been removed by Apple before shipment, I'm not quite sure.)

[BeyondCloister]

I had checked for that plastic before I even turned it on the first time. While playing the Waiting Game you get to read far too many horror stories!

[bobtharasta]

I have gone through 3 MacBooks (2.0Ghz Black) the first was not finished being put together(the trim that goes around the screen was missing) and the airport did not work, the second had a bad ribon cable going to the screen causing it to go crazy all the time, and the third had a bad superdrive! all of which have had heat issues for about the first 10 hours of running. A USB powered chill pad to set the MacBook on works beautifuly on a desktop or in your lap! Now that I have a good MacBook I hope that Apple works out the bugs in Boot Camp