One of the most annoying “features” of the Macbook Pro is how hot the notebook gets after prolonged use. Depending on what you are doing, temperatures can get far too hot for the notebook to sit on your lap. No matter what Apple says, I can’t imagine how temperatures that hot could be good for the system. Like a lot of Macbook Pro users I decided to see what I could do to minimize the amount of heat generated in an attempt to make using the system on my lap somewhat bearable.
In my quest to reduce the heat from my Macbook Pro I discovered several tricks and some products that have finally helped me to reduce the problem to the point where I can regularly use the notebook on my lap without fear that I might burn myself.
1. Cooling Pads – By far the most obvious solution is the use of a simple, yet effective cooling pad. I have purchased several types trying to find one that was both effective and comfortable enough to use for several hours at a time. For those who use the notebook on a desk try the NC-500 Notebook Cooler from Bytecc, Inc. It’s not quiet but it really gets the job done and keeps the notebook nice and cool even while running games like World Of Warcraft. Since it uses two regular sized cooling fans this cooler really can push air over the bottom of the Macbook like there is no tomorrow. I highly recommend this cooler if you intend to use the Macbook Pro as a desktop replacement.
For those who need something a little less noisy you may want to try the LPC-401 LapCool 3 Notebook Cooler which still has two fans but they run a low RPMs for less noise. This cooler also works on your lap which is something I can’t say for the Bytecc cooler.
The best cooler I have found so far that does not use fans is the Rain Design iLap. This cooler is a padded metal cooler which elevates the notebook over your lap so heat does not become a problem. The only downside to this approach is the angle that this puts the notebook, which does not seem optimal for typing with the Macbook Pro.
2. Screen Brightness – Something simple I discovered was the relationship between the screen brightness and how much heat was produced. You can significantly reduce the amount of heat produced by the Macbook Pro during normal use by reducing the brightness of the screen to the minimum. Of course this also reduces the amount of power being used so your battery life will be longer if you are running on batteries. However, doing this while plugged in also reduces the power draw and thus heat output. Another interesting fact is the use of an external monitor may also significantly reduce the heat produced if you only use the external display and not external plus the internal LCD.
3. Control The Macbook Pro’s Fans – Another awesome way to reduce the heat output from the Macbook is to use SMCfancontrol to increase the RPM of the Macbook’s internal fans. It is nothing short of amazing how much this can reduce the heat output. Even upping the RPMs to 3500 is barely audible but seems to cut the heat by at least half. I recommend using this program when a external cooler is not available or practical.
Through a combination of the above strategies I have managed to significantly reduce, and in some cases completely eliminate my Macbook Pro’s heat problems.
hmm…interesting and maybe usefull. I’ll try the smc-fancontrol but the point is really that you spend thousands on a laptop that is way more expensive than the non-apple makes and then it heats up so strongly that you can’t have it on your lap.
Dimming the screen might change the heat but is hardly the point here. I want to use a laptop with my prefered screen brightness, without having to keep a look out for the temperature of the computer. I have measured temperatures of up to 89 celsius !!! that is way too much. I’ve got my macbook pro on a glasstable top which should really give it a bit of extra coolage…but this isn’t the case.
No one can tell me that a computer that is confronted with a regular temperature of approx. 67 celsius isn’t going to have problems with the electronics in the future. Keeping the one year warranty in mind, you’ll only know when it’s too late and I doubt that apple will be of any help after that. Also I personally know someone whose keyboard went out of shape from the heat!!! I want to be able to use my computer without worrying about whether its going to burn up!
I am also unhappy about the frequent crashing of programms. My last computer was a pc and I had far less crashes. So much for the applemyth of being more stabile.
I am going to take my macbook pro back. I have heard that the new MBP don’t have as much heat problems. I hope there will be a possibility for a 1:1 swap but I doubt it.
for the guy complaining, if you are not happy with macbook, then please go back and get a pc, if you are getting more crashes than on windows, then you are obviously doing something wrong. To tell you the truth, we need less ignorant people in the Mac world…so bye bye
if you want to see an instantanious heat drop, even with heavy processor usage, try removing the battery, if you are plugged into the charger.
My laptop had been working pretty hard for about 15 hours straight, sitting at around 70+ degrees celcius. I pulled out the battery and within a minute it was down to mid-high 50′s.
I too have the “frying pan Mac” and have had the same problems. however, most people seem to be having their heat issues around the connection between the MagSafe plug and the computer, whereas my problem is above the function keys (f1, f2, etc.) I noted the person saying that they (or maybe it was their friend) had a warped keyboard from the heat. I had a similar problem, however, it was my battery which came probably very close to exploding. to remedy this, I heard that a marble slab would very much cool the laptop down.
Well, I’m rather annoyed at Apple too. It is true that when you spent thousands on a laptop you should not have to do additional tweakings of any sorts. It should simply work, and work well.
Not only am I disappointed with the heating problem, there is also the latch to open it which is difficult to reach, and then the worst of all, are the crashes and little rainbow. I told so highly of Apple computers to my friends over the last years, but the MBP is not reaching my expectations. I owned an Ibook G4 and I’m wondering if it not be better to get rid of the MBP and get a Powerbook or an IBook…. after all, do I really care if MBP run windows?
I’ve heard all these stories about the hot Macs, but was so frustrated with all the P.C. nonsense that I bought a Macbook anyway. All I can say is that it runs way cooler than the P.C. The top of the unit around the keyboard area is almost room temp! The P.C. was definately scorching in these areas. So far this laptop is killer. Fast, quiet, and dependable. And a big plus is I don’t have to “warm it up” like the P.C. before I can really start using it. No wonder Bill Gates left Microsoft!
to the pc guy up top, no one said the mac was a fix for everything, it still exists in this plane of reality, and last time i checked, physics and heat exchange sitll apply here.
and now im starting to think that maybe the pc wasn’t so bad, its just that the smart people bought the macs, and the dumb people stuck with pcs don’t know how to work a computer so that it doesn’t crash.
that’s my rave, thank you.
I use both macs and PCs daily.
Both platforms have their problems and as stated above both are slaves to physics.
My PC is hands down way faster than the Mac even though the Mac is newer.
Some functions of the Mac are just nicer and a little nicer looking.
Mac users are definitely in denial about most of the issues with Macs where as a PC user will never hesitate to ball out microsoft or any of its counter parts.
I can not figure out why Apple would even sell a Mac with less than 1gb of RAM.
I thought the Mac would be much more stable since the same manufacturer engineers the hardware, OS and some of the software. If microsoft controlled all the hardware that its OS would be supporting it might actually run slightly better.
Definitely no Clear winner in this never ending battle.
I’ve been using smcFanControl on my MacBook for months now and it seems to do the trick quite nicely: A cheap solution for a potentially expensive problem.
Erick : don’t be such a prick, its people like you who give us mac users a bad name.
For the first guy: there have been several cases of missaplied thermal paste in mbps, you may have this as while mine gets very hot it never crashes. Get it looked at before you get hardware damage.
I too have had this issue, and too be honest the best solution is simply to turn it off for ten minutes. Its not ideal sure, but it works. I’ve been using smcfancontrol too, it really is fantastic!
I’ll definitely try the screen brightness change, I don’t think I need it quite that high anyway:)
Pulling the battery out will clock your processor down to 1GHz, this is necessary due to the wildely changing loads of the intel speed step technology, the power adapter can’t react quickly enough, so it needs a battery present to keep the system stable, without it it clocks to a fixed minimum speed.
For the record to everyone the reason that the casing itself gets warm is because the system uses the aluminum casing to cool the system… So just put something under your MacBook that will not disrupt the air flow and you should be fine, if you would like it to cool down and dont mind a little hum just use the smcFanControl works like a charm, I placed a cool down speed at the max so that if it gets to warm just throw it on for a minute or two and it will cool down, but the best piece of advice i can give is just make sure to allow airflow to the casing itself since it is vital in the transfer of access heat. Keep in mind MacBook Pro’s are using hardware that would in any other laptop case produce large amounts of heat but most other laptops are much bulkier.
BRING YOUR TEMP BELOW 50° C.
1. Take battery out. 2. Download and install smcFanControl- set exhaust fan to 6200 rpm for 5 minutes. 3. Buy a cheap cooling pad(cost about $35-$45)
The 5 minutes of 6200 rpm allowed the heat to dissipate. (If fan(s) rpm are too high for an extended amount of time, then you’ll have another problem down the line.)
I had my Macbook on my lap while I wrote this, and my °C floated around 45°-49° C.
With battery out, clock speed wasn’t greatly affected. I ran both Maya and Photoshop and was able to be productive.
Let me know if this works for you. Interested in hearing your constructive criticism @ jwaterman@tec-con-vt.net . Anybody own the MacPro? pros and cons?
(Side Point for those that bicker about “PC or Mac”)
I own both PC and Mac, and use both on a daily basis. I’ve had an even amount of crashes but nothing that stops productivity significantly. A lot of these crashes are caused by crap that finds its way into your computer from the internet. Keeping tabs on downloaded content and having virus/adware/malware protection both PC and Mac will reduce the amount, and severity, of crashes. Plus proper maintenance, like blowing out dust buildup from inside computer, helps greatly.
wish smc fan worked for my HP. i bought a cheap little cooling pad off ebay for 20 bucks and my laptop idles at 38 degrees. i got these temps without the cooling pad but i liked the lights. just make sure your laptop has heaps of clearance off the desk, i used to use 2 stacks of coins to hold the screen side abit higher, so the intake at the bottom got better airflow. works a charm 10 degree cut in no time. and just incase your wondering, all my comps are PC’s but i wouldnt mind a mac if i had the money.
My MBP gets extremely hot while playing World of Warcraft (as opposed to running any non-graphic intensive applications such as Excel, Word, Mail, Safari, etc.). It gets so hot that I have to put a newspaper, book, or pillow between the notebook and my lap to insulate myself from the heat. This in spite of the fact that I am running SMCFanControl at 6K RPM.
It occurs to me that the problem is not as much a CPU heat dissipation issue as it is a graphics chipset heat dissipation issue.
That said, I still have to live with the MBP in its current configuration until Apple’s engineers and their chipset vendors get their act together.
The problem with using non-conductive insulation between lap and laptop is that the heat dissipation problems remains. Pillows, newspapers, books, etc. do not dissipate heat, and all that is being accomplished is that the notebook retains much of the heat that it builds as long as the bottom of the laptop is in direct contact with the insulating media.
Other than re-engineering my hardware, it would be nice to have something that I could rest on my lap, that would suspend the MBP in the air about an inch by its corners to allow heat trying to dissipate from the base of the unit to radiate effectively yet be comfortable enough to allow use on my lap. Whether or not the device would include a fan to circulate air, or simply provide passive dissipation or both can be subject to further debate.
But so far, non of the products that I have seen to date appear to measure up to my needs without being bulky, noisy, or ineffective.
FWIW
I just got a MacBook Pro 2 weeks ago, and I have to say, it does get ridiculously hot. I use SMCFancontrol, and prop it up as soon as I get a chance. It runs on an average of 60°C, and I’ve seen it up to 90° when using big applications that require alot of CPU ressources.
But let me tell you, it was made to actually bear these temperatures. I’m not going to buy any extra gadget to keep it cool, it was expensive enough.
I love every bit of it so far (it’s so much better my old Dell which honestly was a piece of shit) but if anything happens to it, it’s going straight back to the freakin store and that’s all there is to it.
I paid for the portability and I want to be able to carry it around as much as I want, and buying one those cooling pad thingies would definitely defeat the point of that.
To be honest, it stays quiet and I can actually watch movies and hear the sound… my old laptop was as noisy as a lawn-mower and would get about as hot as the Mac cuz the venting system was absolute CRAP … so I dont regret spending that money. I am now a MACUSER and i freaking love it!
jgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834996154
here’s a stand for your lap that elevates the macbook pro and allows heat to dissapate.
I have no problem with my MacBook Pro heating up when set on a granite table. But, when it gets too hot for my lap, I’ll use a plastic object to set the MacBook Pro on and it does fine.
I have the 15.4″ MBP Penryn 2.4. Whenever I’m running processor intensive programs on it. It gets very hot. I downloaded iStat and use it to monitor the heat levels. When my laptop is set on a regular wooden table, the temperature of the laptop’s base has risen to upwards of 41 C and the GPU diode to 66 C. It’s hot enough to cause discomfort during typing. This is only when I use processor intensive programs. Otherwise, using powerpoint and word in class – the temperature averages around 32 and 54 C. I also have a laptop cooling pad by Belkin. It has one fan, quiet but not silent and does its job well. The heat gets dissipated almost as quickly as it’s produced. My laptop is only 1 or 2 degrees higher than room-temp while on the cooling pad.
i have macbook core duo 1.83 Ghz. the heating problem has greatly affected my laptop usage. i have even sent it to apple workshops every time they say that problem is fixed but in a couple of days it occurs again. they always take huge fee for their so called “fix”.they say that they clean something on thermostat or something and fan starts working again.it gets extremely hot, hangs and even shutdowns on running heavy applications like parallels, ms office and yes specially while using youtube! i tried smcfancontrol and it shows fan speed around 2700rpm temp 85c with youtube on.i tried to increase fan speed but it dosent change.
please help.
I’ve just been using an art book that’s about 1″ thick and the same dimensions as the casing. Any reason this isn’t okay?
Thanks!
Das, you want to make sure that the rear of the laptop where the vents are is free of any obstruction. If you’ve got a macbook pro, something with a heat conductive surface (metals, stone, etc.) will provide much better heat dissipation then a book… The rear being clear to breath is key though..
I’ve got a 17″ Core Duo first gen, and the thing’s a boiler. Running Max/MSP or other graphics intensive things can seriously push the thing to frightening temperatures. Uncomfortable as all hell, but I’ve never had a shutdown or slowdown, the thing chugs along which is what I need it to do. I just try to avoid wearing shorts
i don’t think the issue is that MBPs run hotter than PCs.. i just think that with the slender case design and aluminum construction, you can really feel the heat (as opposed to with a bulkier, plastic case). badly exacerbating this is the fact that the firmware that controls the fans in MBPs is garbage. the fans, quite simply, do not run fast -or- often enough to keep the machine appropriately cool. i’d like to think this is the consequence of whiny mac users complaining about necessary fan noise.. but who really knows. anyway, there’s an easy fix. smcFanControl allows you to control them yourself. it’s a tiny little program that integrates beautifully into OS X; and as a bonus, its icon in the taskbar displays the machine’s internal temperature at the diode on the CPU, so you can adjust fan speeds accordingly. if you’re worried about burning your fans out, fear not – you can run them at full blast for *years* without so much as a hiccup.. and when they do finally croak, it’s a cheap fix. excessive exposure to heat can be of -serious- detriment to your computer.. much better to burn out a fan than to melt the vital guts inside your expensive toy. and quit QQing about fan noise already! fans are loud! buy a pair of headphones.. crank some music.. whatever! just get over it! no, seriously.. go load up a graphically intensive game on a windows-based PC with the same hardware as yours, crank the settings, and listen to the fans roar. now, load up the same game on your MBP (use WoW for the sake of an example.. convenient, being that it’s cross-platform).. listen for the fans.. hm.. nothing.. it’s counter-intuitive to think that two machines running nearly identical hardware and software should function differently in any significant way. something is off. one of them isn’t functioning properly. is it the one emitting the barely noticeable, “fan-esque” noise, or the one that just gave you third degree burns on your thighs? that was a rhetorical question. i don’t hear the fans rev up until the temperature at the CPU diode hits 150-160°F (ridiculous), and even then, they don’t crank up -nearly- high enough! annoying! let ‘em rip! it’s totally nonsensical the way the fans in MBPs are programmed, and the only answer is that the people at apple got tired of *you* people bitching about fan noise.. so they opted to give you third degree burns on your thighs instead.
which brings us to the fact that i also use an Xpad [xpad4laptop.com], which shaves another 5-10°F off the internal temperature and provides a (non-slip i might add) buffer between the (still rather warm) bottom of the laptop and my legs. (just as effective as those laptop pads with USB-powered fans, liquid nitrogen cooling grids, frost magic, and all that other jazz. do your homework before you spend your money).
sincerely,
i feel better now
Just an FYI, other high performance laptops like the Dell XPS run just as hot if not hotter than Macbook/MacbookPro. My friend who has an alienware laptop can’t even use it for gaming because it constantly shuts down/crashes.
Hi…i used to own a dell and have just recently bought a mac pro 15. My main purpose for a mac is for portability and a strong..well good enough gaming machine….
I did not observe the heat in the first few weeks..until i begun playing the sims 3 on my lap….MAN…it burned a hole through my jeans…the temperature record was actually very different…it was like the first ten minutes..when you play on it…it goes up til at least 100 – 110 degrees….but after a few minutes…like 15 and so…it begins to come to a 75 to 85 degree range with the fans running in a full speed of over 6100rpm….checked it with i stat pro…and constantly stays around there until i shut the game off…
i told this problem to the apple icare…they said to give it to a repairshop which is like 3 hrs away from my home…uhmm…miss the dell home support….oh well…i went all the way…gave the laptop and came back…and then i called after 5 days to check up on the status…they said that they did not find any problem….I WAS SHOCKED…how could they..how did you not find a problem…when the temperature of the mac is acually equilvent to the temperature of a maximum boiling over water….he just said that he conducted a test which pushed the mac to the limit and checks the temperature…and it did not show any problems with it….
then later..i went straight to the office..after another 3 hour trip….and showed them the problem…and they were just shocked and they cannot do anything about it….i was like..what?? they said they could not identify that as a problem….even thougth the fricking temperature shot up to 110 degrees celcius!!!!! i was really pissed off…i wasted like almost a day of my life in traveling for nothing…I AM NOT BEING BIASED…but i feel that dell offers more security and garentee that i no need to fear for it….the maximum my dell has reached is 77degrees….and that is that…the mac is cool i loved everything about it….but i don’t think it is good for a long term use and espacially if the apple office is like hell far from your home…..
Great tips I’m going to do them everyday now so my MacBook Pro doesn’t catch on fire!!!
I use a slab of marble to cool down my laptop. Put it outside, preferable in the snow for a few minutes, and then when the laptop gets hot slide the marble underneath. Instant cool down.. and the marble stays cold for a very long time
I realize the obvious benefit of a Laptop is it’s portability but put the damn thing on a table while you work. Funny as it is, the last place you should rest a laptop is on your lap. Apple has included a warning in the computer’s manual (which also appears in the manual for the MBP), advising customers not to use their laptops on their laps:
“Do not leave the bottom of your MacBook Pro in contact with your lap or any surface of your body for extended periods. Prolonged contact with your body could cause discomfort and potentially a burn”
Apple’s solution to this is to recommend that customers put the computer on a desk or other flat surface. And, not surprisingly, the word “laptop” does not appear once in the MacBook’s manual. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to chew on an iPod shuffle for a bit.
Not to mention the heat and electronics snuggled right up against your deal = BAD NEWS in the future boys.
Use your brains
Well my macbook pro 15′ …. does get really hot sometimes and it HA[ started to crash and such .. And give me the gray screen that keeps saying I must restart my cpu…so cut the crap with this “if ur mac crashes ur dumb and don’t know how to use it” bs…just cuz everyones not a cpu geek like u don’t throw around cheap insults…I payed $2000 for this thing…the last thing I should have to do is reboot it…wtf.. Don’t get me wrong, I like macs and I’d probably buy another one….but come on now, don’t act like they’re God when it’s very clear they have their own set of issues!!!!
Hi I have an MBP 13″ with SD and 8 GB of RAM and most of the time I use Parallels in combination with MAC as I am a developer. I can really say that using all of your techniques, I drastically reduced the hot problem, also when I am charging the battery. I keep my fan to 4000 rpm and I don’t hear it at all, plus I keep Always the MBP on my iLap and it works really great.
I want to let you know that I live in bermuda, a very humid and hot place and at the beginning my MBP was going to 70 C easily …
What I still don’t like about the MBP is the AC adapter, it gets crazy hot during the charging phase but it seems to be a ‘normal’ behavior for Apple.
By the way thanks for the useful tips, especially the one about the brightness, I didn’t think about that at all!
I got my mac over 3 years ago and have been keeping it propped up whenever i use it for the past few months. I had the heat paste or whatever underneath the logic board reapplied in april. I have SMC fan control. It has been doing well. I have the fans up all the time since if i turn them down it immediately jumps over 75 degrees. It’s been running consistently at about 50-60 degrees. Now today, for no clear reason, since i have it propped up and the fans running 6K, it’ running at 85deg celsius. I’m not running Final Cut or Photoshop, which always make the temp jump up over 60. Any ideas as to what ELSE i can do to get the heat to go back down other than going back and having the heating stuff reapplied again?
As dumb as it may sound, if apple were to tell everyone in their advertisements that their laptop’s were miniature nuclear processing plants i would bet a buck their sales would fall dramatically. The simple fact is mac’s run hot and apart from the tips that have already been mentioned here, you really have to ” like it or lump it “. I have no doubt that as technology advances, apple will indeed produce models that run significantly cooler but until then we all must get used to the warmth produced by these magnificent machines. In fairness, comparing what we have now to what we had ten years ago, one cannot fail to see how amazing these laptops are, the problem is humans are never satisfied with what they have at the time because they always want more. I have some good memories of a particularly cold winter in bed with my mac book pro keeping my legs nice and warm. There is good and bad in most things in life, but i feel the positive outweighs the negative as far as the mac book is concerned.
P.S. when using SMCfan control i set the color to purple… it looks really cool at the top of the screen
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Installed the fan application…woah what a difference!
My macbook instantly cooled down.
I’m not sure having it at 6000rpm is a great idea for a long time though. It was fun while it lasted!
Thank you for the advice.
Tom
i put a slightly damp small towel under my macbook .. ive only been doing this for 2 days so i dont know if there will be a negative effect
The reason MacBooks heat up so much is because extensive market research informed apple that consumers prefered longer battery life than a laptop that runs cooler. (Or it’s natural selection. Excess heat on your twig n’ berries decreases male fertility, so apple users won’t be able to breed. That’s the only way I can see the PC market recover.) Besides, with SMC fan control macbooks blow any pc notebook out of the water when it comes to heat dissipation. So what you complained about is actually an advantage.
One obvious thing left out is CPU/Memory-hogging applications. While I was writing this (with my mbp on my lap) the cpu was running at 87 deg and the enclosure base was 82 deg. My mac was frying my legs! I used a program called iStat that launches when you push the dashboard button. It gives you all of the vitals of your mac and allows you to launch apple’s activity monitor. When I check the temp and saw that it was that high- I launched the activity monitor (you can also launch it from applications- utilities-…) and saw that an Abobe program was running in the background and consistently pushing my CPU to 87-94 percent. So I shut it down and within minutes the cpu dropped to 43 deg and the enclosure temp dropped to 35 deg….by simply closing one program!! moral of the story…check the activity monitor often and make sure there aren’t any runaway programs causing your CPU to bake!
If y’all are wondering the MacBooks now seem to have no heating problems whatsoever. Fans work great, I can work comfortably on my lap, and when I play a high graphics game it will only be warmer then usual but not damaging hot or unpleasant. High five Mac. Lol.
[...] whenever you want because the software keeps the balance normal. You can also follow the Daily Techno website’s instructions in order to keep your MacBook running cool. At this website you will find three [...]
Here’s the easiest way to cool down your macbook pro:
1. Download smcFanControl and adjust the fan
RPM.
2. Buy a cooling pad (preferably the ones that have a USB cable to get power from the computer itself, I
picked mine up at Best Buy… but it broke so I’m getting another one).
3. Done! No hassle at all!
NOTE: This guide was originally intended for the 13 inch Macbook pro 2010.
KK –
step 1: get hose
step 2: Turn water on and spray mac with lots of water, dont forget to get inside the keyboard.
step 3: Pee on it!
GG.