MacBook Pro 2016 Heating Issue When Lid Closed During Travel

[kevinlu]

Dear MacBook Pro Experts,

Recently, my wife has noticed that her 13-inch MacBook Pro (2016) heats up when she closes the lid and carries it in her bag. It seems like the laptop wakes from sleep when it detects motion.

I plan to clean the laptop’s fans tonight. Apart from the possibility of the fans being clogged with dust, what could be causing the laptop to heat up when the lid is closed during travel?

Below are the specifications of my wife’s MacBook Pro (2016):

• CPU: Intel i7
• RAM: 16 GB
• Storage: 512 GB

 

[yycguy]

We have the same problem with an older, 2019'ish macbook pro. So our problem is the macbook gets hot when not using it and drains the battery faster than it should (when closed and not used). After digging and digging it looks like there is some issue with Kernel_Task in the activity monitor. The threads are in the 10's of thousands and "Idle Wake Ups" are in the thousands.

I think it may have something to do with one of the programs she is using for work that is constantly waking up.

I have not figured it out yet but this may give you something to look into.

 

[blufrog]

Sounds like something mis-behaving to me. Look at the tasks that are running.