I was told by the Apple store "the first batch of MBA had heating issues"

[Scott6666]

Lucky you

So today I tried running video on battery:

I have a ~7.5 minute .flv video of some crazy Canadian traction-kite skiers, playing in VLC maximized (cmd-3). Installed the Hardware Monitor app someone linked on page 3 here, set up the history that way. Played the video, and just hit the play and then cmd-3 after it finishes each time. After 15-20 minutes, the 'CPU A' sensor had gone from ~36C to ~53C, and it's been hovering between 50C-53C since. The fan is making no appreciable noise. If I hold the MBA up with my ear near the rear vents, I can hear an electric motor noise, not sure if that's the HD or the fan... This software wants me to buy it before it'll do fan monitoring. If it's the fan, it is running pretty slow. I can't feel a breeze coming out the back, and I have been able to when I've had the fan come on in the past (mostly editing/exporting video in iMovie).

Doing this for about 40 mins, battery went from 55% to 35%, with wireless/bluetooth off, screen at 2/3 full bright, headphones in and volume settings fairly low.

It does seem to be taking it awhile to cool off. Probably because it's not spinning the fan up. I found a tool called Fan Control, maybe I'll play with that a bit later. After about 10 minutes, CPU's down to ~44C. A little on the warm side, but considering this thing is dead quiet, not surprising.

I've had nothing but good things from my MB Air. From the sounds of it there are definately some build-quality issues with the product still, but if you get a good one, it's a great machine.

--
Alkiera

If I could have kept mine at 53C I would have kept mine. Mine would have been at 70C+ with the fans at 6200 solid. Gives me hope that if I wait a few weeks for Apple to hone down the mfg process I can give it another try.

 

[teek]

An iPod touch can't play flash. Coincidence?

So what do you call YouTube then ? All Flash.

 

[Scott6666]

Nice one

How can the apple store say this is an "Administrative" computer, but yet the keynote and apple website market it for movies. Example below from apple.com

"Wireless movie rentals.
With iTunes, you can now rent, download, and watch the latest blockbuster hits as well as classic movies on MacBook Air. So you can have one of the
world’s thinnest, lightest cinemas with you wherever you go."

Good catch!

 

[aristobrat]

So what do you call YouTube then ? All Flash.

No, YouTube is all h.264 on iPhones, touches and AppleTV. Remember how they had to reencode everything for Apple?

 

[teek]

No, YouTube is all h.264 on iPhones, touches and AppleTV. Remember how they had to reencode everything for Apple?

Oh ok. I did not know that, but what about other movies.. Like if i take a DVD and convert it to something that plays on the iPod.

 

[aristobrat]

Oh ok. I did not know that, but what about other movies.. Like if i take a DVD and convert it to something that plays on the iPod.

It's hit and miss. I haven't kept tally, but some people are reporting no problems watching encoded videos (like ripped DVDs), and other people report some problems. Maybe someone should do a poll.

 

[clayj]

It's hit and miss. I haven't kept tally, but some people are reporting no problems watching encoded videos (like ripped DVDs), and other people report some problems. Maybe someone should do a poll.

A movie ripped from DVD (using Handbrake, for example) is not going to be Flash, either.

It seems likely at this point that the problem on many MBAs has to do with the Flash engine (or possibly just certain versions of the Flash engine) being inefficient when playing some Flash-encoded movies.

I have a Handbrake-ripped, full-res MPEG of Blade Runner on DVD which I am going to copy onto my MBA tonight and then play back using QuickTime Player. If I can play 720 x 480 video for 2 hours without the fans going hyper, then that will be enough to convince me that QuickTime/h.264 is OK and that the source of the issue is Flash being a CPU hog.

 

[jjahshik32]

Im returning mine.. the fan is going at full speed almost all the time, doesn´t really matter what programs i have running.

Cleaning it up and putting it back in the box for return

That happened to me as well but it wasnt too long ago model! I just think the mba is just wayyy too underpowered, even just with only safari up and 1 youtube video revs up the fan to 6000+ rpm and takes forever for it to die back down after you close whatever app that made it do that!

I remember it even made the mba's fan rev up to 6000+ rpm just from looking at a webpage that was demanding such as espn.com or nba.com

I really really tried to love the mba I loved everything else about the mba such as the size (definitely), build quality was excellent, screen was gorgeous, trackpad was awesome (but thought the clicker made a weird nasty click noise), and absolutely loved the keyboard but its heat/fan was a big problem (especially the exhaust part is at the bottom of the machine!! Very bad place compared to the mb and mbp's top back (much better place to put it)).

Also I believe I had a perfect mba and it performed as it should and I had no lag in videos and even played 1080p trailers just fine. But I'd wait for rev. a and also to mention is that the mba's speed is even a bit slower than the first mbp core duo models

 

[jjahshik32]

I was used to have these problems too but I discovered the culprit.
It's a leopard issue with SyslogD. If you unload it you are going to solve almost all problems. I was not able to find why this daemon was keeping my cpu stick to 100% so I disabled it. Just try to have a look at your activity manager, maybe you have the same issue.

I checked my activity monitor and it never even reached 50% and was around 20-40 at most and still the fan revved up, I honestly think its just the chipset isnt right for it yet. Expect 45nm and especially 32nm be MUCH better for these thin ass machines, which would be sometime next year.

I always say, that with apple notebooks usually first rev's are ALWAYS the beta and the first owners are the testers. I wouldnt be surprised at all if he next revision mba has more options or more usb ports and even a firewire 400 built into it. But most critical thing is the 45nm and 32nm processors, 65nm is just way too big for something the size of the mba, I honestly thought the mba should have used ULV core 2 duo just like other ultraportables on the market.

 

[AreanFSL]

Best info I've heard is a while. Not sure I would have the guts to do the job but maybe. Keep us informed.

Yes I would like to hear more about the the additional thermal paste.

 

[Terwal]

Dashboard client not responding ? 6200 rpm

Hi,

This is strange. Reading this thread, I have started paying a lot more attention to my fan and CPU.

I have just noticed that most of the time, CPU is at 5% to 20% and fan at 2500 rpm (when using Safari, Dashboard and Finder - no video).

And then, sometimes for no obvious reason, CPU goes to 55 to 60% and fan maxes out at 6200 rpm !

Until just now when I realized, looking at the Monitor Activity, that I have a "Dashboard Client (Not Responding)" process that takes 90% of the CPU with an RSIZE (?) of 944MB. That doesn't sound right.

Now... if I force quitting such process: CPU goes down to 4% to 8% and after 30 seconds or so, the fan starts reducing down very slowly from 6200.

What is the pb with the Dashboard Client ?

What do I need to do to fix it ?

Thanks,

W.

 

[pgharavi]

Yes I would like to hear more about the the additional thermal paste.

++

 

[bjdraw]

I just played some video to try to get it to do it.

The odd thing is that for a little while the MBA hums around at about 72C, but after the second core starts to shut down, it is closer to 65C. The other thing I notice is that the "windowsServer" process seems to jump up about the same time as the core shuts down.

What temperature should the second core be shutting down at?

 

[Jeweller]

I just think the mba is just wayyy too underpowered, even just with only safari up and 1 youtube video revs up the fan to 6000+ rpm and takes forever for it to die back down after you close whatever app that made it do that!

I remember it even made the mba's fan rev up to 6000+ rpm just from looking at a webpage that was demanding such as espn.com or nba.com

I really really tried to love the mba I loved everything else about the mba such as the size (definitely), build quality was excellent, screen was gorgeous, trackpad was awesome (but thought the clicker made a weird nasty click noise), and absolutely loved the keyboard but its heat/fan was a big problem (especially the exhaust part is at the bottom of the machine!! Very bad place compared to the mb and mbp's top back (much better place to put it)).

Aside from your assertion that the Air is underpowered and has a clicker that makes a "weird nasty click noise," I couldn't agree more. I, too, really tried to love this machine (both the first defective one I had and the one I ended up exchanging today), but for such a premium price I guess I expected it to do basic computing (word processing, internet, music, video playback, etc.) with ease. And because Apple tech support could not confirm whether the fan revving and core shutdown issues would eventually be resolved through firm/software updates, I decided it wasn't worth my time to cross fingers and wait it out. While I highly doubt these problems will result in recalls, I need a computer that works as advertised right now, not days, weeks, or months from now. Oddly, I'm not at all bitter about this experience (dealing with tech support and the in-store exchanges couldn't have been smoother--with the exception of them ushering me as far away from the Air display table as possible to do the exchange), and will definitely consider future, more solid and proven revisions of the Air. For now, I'll be content with my BlackBook, which I just un-boxed and am already in love with. And I'm not going to lie, after all was said and done, it was nice getting this proven computer and $400 charged back to my credit card.

 

[bjdraw]

I don't think it's CPU temperature that is causing the problem. Using the steps from this post a few pages back. I'm able to drive my CPU up to 87C and it happily ran there for over 10 minutes without ever once dropping off a core. I'm going to keep trying, but I'd be interested to know if anyone else is seeing this.

 

[TNM]

1.6 vs. 1.8

Does people see if there are more overheating reports on the 1.8 vs. 1.6?

I suspect the c2d does not really have that much difference in heat generation between these two models, but it could be interesting to know.

 

[Cybergypsy]

Does people see if there are more overheating reports on the 1.8 vs. 1.6?

I suspect the c2d does not really have that much difference in heat generation between these two models, but it could be interesting to know.

I had both and the SSD was hotter then then the HHD

 

[mashoutposse]

The second core shutdown issue may be solved with an upcoming firmware update. The current heat management settings are apparently way too aggressive.

 

[pgharavi]

Had a core shut down on me yesterday while converting a WMV file to h.264 mp4.

 

[n0de]

While I have not had as severe of problems as some of the posters, I have noticed a trend.

The really big culprit does seem to be any multimedia codec that isn't Apple. So flash, avi, etc always really stretch the processor. I never have any problems with Quicktime codecs.

Considering my work laptop (windows) has the exact same specs as my MBA and does not have any of these problems I can only assume it is the OS, not the hardware.

Two interesting items which I expected problems but didn't were Google Earth and Hulu. I spent about 8 straight hours in Earth last Friday, with MSWord'08, iTunes running in the background (Earth was fully loaded with national level US census data too) and had very few slowdowns. It got hot, but never lost a core. I also had a 24" DVI monitor attached at the time. Hulu has a HD section which clearly states it's HW requirements are above the MBA, but I had no problems with it at all.

What I did do last night was install smcFanControl and set the minimum fan speed to 4000rpm. My theory is that by preventing the CPU from getting too hot to begin with it seems to prevent it from ever getting to an over heating condition.

The one really consistent thing when I think about when it gets hot vs not is being plugged into power. It never gets too hot on battery alone. It always eventually gets too hot on AC. Just an observation.

 

[Mactagonist]

Since Flash seems to be the biggest culprit and OSX has Flash issues (RE: http://www.9to5mac.com/adobe-flash-breaky-no-fixy-3546436 ) has anyone tried downgrading to the older Flash package?

From the comments of the article:

Submitted by Return to Sanity (not verified) on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 18:52.
Best approach is to downgrade to 9.0.47. Flash archive files available at:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&slice...

In the Archive package one version is for PPC machines, the other Intel:
For Flash 90.47 open the "9r47 Folder". There, either select Flashplayer9r47_mac.dmg if you are using a PPC machine, or flashplayer9r47_ub_mac.dmg.zip if your machine is Intel based.

Important to "repair permissions" via Disk Utility after the Flash reinstall.

reply

 

[teek]

Hi,

This is strange. Reading this thread, I have started paying a lot more attention to my fan and CPU.

I have just noticed that most of the time, CPU is at 5% to 20% and fan at 2500 rpm (when using Safari, Dashboard and Finder - no video).

And then, sometimes for no obvious reason, CPU goes to 55 to 60% and fan maxes out at 6200 rpm !

Until just now when I realized, looking at the Monitor Activity, that I have a "Dashboard Client (Not Responding)" process that takes 90% of the CPU with an RSIZE (?) of 944MB. That doesn't sound right.

Yeah this exact same thing happened to me but eventually solved itself somehow. I had Dashboard client not responding, killed it, it came back up again on it´s own.. killed it, then after a while it all calmed down. The fan was going absolutely crazy when this happened. CPU usage was normal (10-20%), however.

 

[mcvaughan]

Hi,

This is strange. Reading this thread, I have started paying a lot more attention to my fan and CPU.

I have just noticed that most of the time, CPU is at 5% to 20% and fan at 2500 rpm (when using Safari, Dashboard and Finder - no video).

And then, sometimes for no obvious reason, CPU goes to 55 to 60% and fan maxes out at 6200 rpm !

Until just now when I realized, looking at the Monitor Activity, that I have a "Dashboard Client (Not Responding)" process that takes 90% of the CPU with an RSIZE (?) of 944MB. That doesn't sound right.

Now... if I force quitting such process: CPU goes down to 4% to 8% and after 30 seconds or so, the fan starts reducing down very slowly from 6200.

What is the pb with the Dashboard Client ?

What do I need to do to fix it ?

Thanks,

W.

It's a misbehaving Dashboard widget. Have you added any new ones?

 

[teek]

It's a misbehaving Dashboard widget. Have you added any new ones?

Only one I did add was iStat Pro. Should be a well tested widget

 

[mcvaughan]

Only one I did add was iStat Pro. Should be a well tested widget

All apps, at one point or another, can have problems. Remove it for the time being and see how it goes.