MacBook Air Mid 2012 Running Really Hot.

[TheBMT]

When using it as a normal laptop, such as browsing the web, listening to music it is perfect, no problems. However, when I load up any graphical task such as Minecraft or Photoshop the left hand of the keyboard is almost to hot to touch - it goes to upwards of 100dC

Is there much I can do, this is my first ever MacBook, and so far i like the experience, but the heat is just making it unusable for certain tasks

 

[verpeiler]

That shouldn't happen.... Maybe you've got some dust inside. Ever tried to blow some air through the ventilation behind the hinge? Notebooks tend to run really hot if too much dust in in the ventilator.

 

[TheBMT]

That shouldn't happen.... Maybe you've got some dust inside. Ever tried to blow some air through the ventilation behind the hinge? Notebooks tend to run really hot if too much dust in in the ventilator.

I have, im new to these laptops, so i have no idea when turbo boost is used it burns my hand

 

[ignatius345]

This doesn't sound right to me. I use a Macbook Air a lot, and even with Photoshop or something processor-intensive, it never gets truly hot. I'd open up Activity Monitor and see if something is overtaxing the processor or graphics.

 

[cerberusss]

I had the same with a 2009 17" MacBook Pro. I brought it to a repair shop where they cleaned the fans and applied new thermal paste. Fixed the issue.

 

[TheBMT]

I had the same with a 2009 17" MacBook Pro. I brought it to a repair shop where they cleaned the fans and applied new thermal paste. Fixed the issue.

I bought it only today, so should i take it back to the place and get them to clean the fans and add more thermal paste?

 

[cerberusss]

I bought it only today, so should i take it back to the place and get them to clean the fans and add more thermal paste?

Do they have a money back procedure? Then I'd just give it back. If not, trade it for perhaps a newer model, like the 2013 one. It has a newer chipset which heat wise can make a pretty decent difference.

 

[TheBMT]

Do they have a money back procedure? Then I'd just give it back. If not, trade it for perhaps a newer model, like the 2013 one. It has a newer chipset which heat wise can make a pretty decent difference.

I got it really on a budget as I need it purely for college, they have a 2013 11" but i dont think that will be big enough

 

[cerberusss]

You can work with this problem, but personally I hate hot machines. If it was a real good deal, I'd call around and see if any repairshops offer this kind of procedure (cleaning + new thermal paste). Here in The Netherlands, I know a guy who does it for $65.

 

[TheBMT]

You can work with this problem, but personally I hate hot machines. If it was a real good deal, I'd call around and see if any repairshops offer this kind of procedure (cleaning + new thermal paste). Here in The Netherlands, I know a guy who does it for $65.

The guy that i bought it off will do it for free, its just annoying, because its my only laptop and i need it for coursework

 

[MarvinHC]

I think the issue is Minecraft. My son's cMBP (13" 2012) gets crazy hot when running Minecraft (under Windows 7). Despite the pixely graphics, it seems to be quite demanding.

 

[TheBMT]

I think the issue is Minecraft. My son's cMBP (13" 2012) gets crazy hot when running Minecraft (under Windows 7). Despite the pixely graphics, it seems to be quite demanding.

I installed League of Legends, and Garrys Mod and they both seemed to have the same problem.

 

[cerberusss]

The guy that i bought it off will do it for free, its just annoying, because its my only laptop and i need it for coursework

In that case, let him do the procedure right away. It'd be a no-brainer for me. I've seen my repair guy do it in 20 minutes.

 

[TheBMT]

In that case, let him do the procedure right away. It'd be a no-brainer for me. I've seen my repair guy do it in 20 minutes.

Does it work perfectly now, no thermal throttling

 

[cerberusss]

Does it work perfectly now, no thermal throttling

I had the spring cleaning done on a 2009 17" MBP. It would regularly run up to 100 degrees C, idle around 68-69. Apparently this is normal for machines of that ages.

Anyway, the guy removed two large globs of dust that were stuck in the fans, and cleaned then applied new thermal paste. Now it runs about 10 degrees cooler.

 

[SmOgER]

If it's hot to touch, I doubt you need to replace the thermal paste - it's most def fine (its job is to transfer the heat from CPU to cooler/case), so it's best you don't screw around with the heatspreader. Just remove all the dust that's blocking the fan (remove the fan and clean everything around it and in it).

 

[strukt]

Macbook Pros from that generation tend to run hot, but no worries. If it overheats it will just clock it self down but you will have a slower computer.

I would try to replace the thermal paste though, it may help.

 

[SmOgER]

Technically all MacBook Airs run hot as you will reach 95C-100C with all of them when CPU is trully at 100C load. But the way they work is you actually have a turbo boost until it gets to I think precisely 99C, then it drops to base clock (still no throttling technically) and if this doesn't help (meaning temps don't drop under 99C)only then it starts throttling below the base clock.

With fans it's pretty much the same story, they are very slow to ramp up and down (possibly syned with case temp sensor rather than CPU) - which I personally think is a very good thing as you don't get that constant annoying turning on and off the way most of the windows machines are set up.

 

[TheBMT]

Technically all MacBook Airs run hot as you will reach 95C-100C with all of them when CPU is trully at 100C load. But the way they work is you actually have a turbo boost until it gets to I think precisely 99C, then it drops to base clock (still no throttling technically) and if this doesn't help (meaning temps don't drop under 99C)only then it starts throttling below the base clock.

With fans it's pretty much the same story, they are very slow to ramp up and down (possibly syned with case temp sensor rather than CPU) - which I personally think is a very good thing as you don't get that constant annoying turning on and off the way most of the windows machines are set up.

I have another option, as i can return this macbook, and get a 2011 pro with 16gb and a i7 2ghz 4core

 

[SmOgER]

I have another option, as i can return this macbook, and get a 2011 pro with 16gb and a i7 2ghz 4core

Well it has more powerful CPU but less powerful graphics and no SSD.
Generally with stuff like photoshop it will be faster, but for booting up, launching apps, browsing etc. it will feel slower.

 

[TheBMT]

Well it has more powerful CPU but less powerful graphics and no SSD.
Generally with stuff like photoshop it will be faster, but for booting up, launching apps, browsing etc. it will feel slower.

what about adding a ssd after market?
[doublepost=1458168766][/doublepost]

Well it has more powerful CPU but less powerful graphics and no SSD.
Generally with stuff like photoshop it will be faster, but for booting up, launching apps, browsing etc. it will feel slower.

plus doesnt it have intel iris?

 

[SmOgER]

Of course you can add an SSD, but it's just an extra inconvenience (reinstalling OS X etc) and extra cost. And as far as I know not all SSD models are supported by OS X for native TRIM mode so it's yet another thing to take into the equation.

MBP 2011 doesn't have Iris, it comes with HD3000, exactly the same like 2011 MBA (2012 one comes with more powerful HD4000).

So all in all,

Performance in favor of 2011 i7 MBP:

• More RAM
• Faster CPU

Performance in favor of 2012 standard MBA:

• Faster storage (SSD)
• More powerful graphics

I guess we could try comparing apples with oranges, and roughly say that overall they have equal performance, but it will very much depend on what you'll do with it.

EDIT: HD4000 is faster by ~40% than HD3000, so the difference is quite substantial in graphics department.

EDIT2: Edited as per my following post.

 

[TheBMT]

Of course you can add an SSD, but it's just an extra inconvenience (reinstalling OS X etc) and extra cost. And as far as I know not all SSD models are supported by OS X for native TRIM mode so it's yet another thing to take into the equation.

MBP 2011 doesn't have Iris, it comes with HD3000, exactly the same like 2011 MBA (2012 one comes with more powerful HD4000).

So all in all,

Performance in favor of 2011 i7 MBP:

• More RAM
• Faster CPU

Performance in favor of 2012 standard MBA:

• Faster storage (SSD)
• More powerful graphics

I guess we could try comparing apples with oranges, and roughly say that overall they have equal performance, but it will very much depend on what you'll do with it.

EDIT: HD4000 is faster by ~40%, so the difference is quite substantial in graphics department.

which would be better for light video editing and graphical work

 

[SmOgER]

Ok I just checked some benchmarks of CPU on that MBP (i7 2720QM) and to be frank and it's straight forward it's actually pretty damn powerful.

It's actually as good as the desktop i5-2400 CPU with even some slight advantages over it. Single threaded and multi threaded performance both rocking sky high for a laptop. Damn, how the heck Intel pulled this off with half the TDP of i5-2400 on the same year both of these CPUs were released I have no idea. No wonder those MBPs equipped with i7s were so expensive back in the day.

If this is gonna be your main and only computer/powerhorse, definitely get MBP, otherwise..

What kind of graphical work are we talking about?

See, if you already have a powerful Desktop of some sort, getting MBA would make more sense due to battery life, SSD (very fast for browsing, turning on and off, writing, casual programming or launching non-cached into RAM apps), weight etc...

But if you are NOT gonna use it as your secondary portable computer yet instead will heavily rely on it to do every single task, get MBP and upgrade its HDD with SSD in the near future. You should probably expect to replace the battery in a couple of months or so too if it hasn't been replaced yet.

I kinda got curious so please do update us on your decision. 😉

PS. You didn't mention it, but you do know that 2011 MBP equipped with i7 only comes with bigger 15inch screen, right? So naturally it's much bigger laptop than 13" MBA.


EDIT: In previous posts I didn't realize it's a 15inch model we are talking about so I was in fact wrong about the graphics.
Unlike 13" model, 15" MBP comes with Radeon HD 6490M, so graphics performance is not bad.

Which leaves MBA superior only in storage department (which can be upgraded on MBP) as far as performance goes.

 

[TheBMT]

Ok I just checked some benchmarks of CPU on that MBP (i7 2720QM) and to be frank and it's straight forward it's actually pretty damn powerful.

It's actually as good as the desktop i5-2400 CPU with even some slight advantages over it. Single threaded and multi threaded performance both rocking sky high for a laptop. Damn, how the heck Intel pulled this off with half the TDP of i5-2400 on the same year both of these CPUs were released I have no idea. No wonder those MBPs equipped with i7s were so expensive back in the day.

If this is gonna be your main and only computer/powerhorse, definitely get MBP, otherwise..

What kind of graphical work are we talking about?

See, if you already have a powerful Desktop of some sort, getting MBA would make more sense due to battery life, SSD (very fast for browsing, turning on and off, writing, casual programming or launching non-cached into RAM apps), weight etc...

But if you are NOT gonna use it as your secondary portable computer yet instead will heavily rely on it to do every single task, get MBP and upgrade its HDD with SSD in the near future. You should probably expect to replace the battery in a couple of months or so too if it hasn't been replaced yet.

I kinda got curious so please do update us on your decision. 😉

PS. You didn't mention it, but you do know that 2011 MBP equipped with i7 only comes with bigger 15inch screen, right? So naturally it's much bigger laptop than 13" MBA.


EDIT: In previous posts I didn't realize it's a 15inch model we are talking about so I was in fact wrong about the graphics.
Unlike 13" model, 15" MBP comes with Radeon HD 6490M, so graphics performance is not bad.

Which leaves MBA superior only in storage department (which can be upgraded on MBP) as far as performance goes.

I ended up going with the 128gb Retina Macbook Pro. I just have one question, is 45dC idle normal?